Toy story: Vintage-toy collectors descend on the valley in search of gems

Monday, Feb. 25, 2002 | 8:17 a.m.

While searching for rare toys among flea-market trinkets, vintage-toy collector George McCurly found that competition for what he wanted was much too fierce.

"It seemed like I'd have to get out there in the middle of the night with my flashlight, trying to get there before my buddies," McCurly, of Jacksonville, Ill., said with a laugh. But even then, the pickings were slim.

So in 1995 McCurly and other toy collectors and experts formed the International Toy Collectors Association.

The group consists of 5,400 insatiable collectors who will pay hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars for toys.

While the collectors might not have time to trek across the country in search of potential gems saved from yesteryear, association representatives do.

From Tuesday through Friday representatives of the International Toy Collector's Association will be at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Henderson to examine the toys of Southern Nevadans. Locals are encouraged to bring their Matchbox cars, German-made windup toys, erector sets, old Barbie dolls, and iron-cast or pressed-steel toys made prior to 1970. Chances are, someone will want to purchase them.

According to the association, collectors have paid as much as $20,000 for a collection of Hot Wheels cars, $10,000 for a single Barbie doll and $225,000 for a rare mechanical bank.

"It's not uncommon for someone to leave an event with anything from $30 to $10,000," McCurly said, referring to the money that toy owners can make from selling toys.

Or as Frank Ross, the association's spokesman, explained, "It could be a nice dinner out or a down payment on a house."

The Toy Roadshow stops in nearly 150 cities a year. Unlike the wildly popular "Antiques Roadshow," which airs on PBS, vintage toys that are brought to the Toy Roadshow are not appraised.

Instead, representatives look at the toys, then scan through a database of more than 200,000 vintage toys listed to see if any of the association's members has bid on any particular toy.

If the toy is listed in the database, a phone call is made to a collector. A transaction usually follows.

"We're buying from a shopping list, what collectors tell us to buy," McCurly said.

"People come to this event with a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of excitement for what for what they might have," he added. "It's like the lottery."

Varied value

Toy owners need not fret over what items might be of value. Even broken toys are in demand among collectors who are looking for parts and accessories, Ross said, from the International Toy Collector's Association headquarters in Athens, Ill.

At a recent event in Hammond, Ind., a small plastic telephone that was an accessory for a vintage G.I. Joe doll sold for $2,100. The telephone had been mixed in with a box of G.I. Joe dolls and accessories.

"It was a little plastic telephone that you wouldn't pay a quarter for," Ross said.

But in this case, the telephone was a color that was in demand among G.I. Joe doll collectors.

"They were fighting over it," Ross said. "They had to have that one."

Such is the madness behind the Toy Roadshow. Just because an item might be considered an antique doesn't mean an owner is going to cash in.

The toy's value is based solely on its rarity, desirability and what a collector is willing to pay.

"It could be 90 years old and it could be worthless," McCurly said. "It could be 20 years old and it could be priceless."

McCurly recently paid $5,000 for a toy cap-gun set.

"I wanted it," he said. "I wanted to make sure I got it. So I paid it."

Its actual worth, McCurly said, might be only $1,200.

Paying so much money for something that may not be appraised at a high price might sound odd, but many collectors are niche collectors who want their collections to be complete, McCurly said.

Some base their collections on their professions. A banker might collect toy banks and a fireman might collect toy fire trucks.

Other collectors purchase items as financial investments.

Toy toters

McCurly said that those who bring toys to the events are usually Baby Boomers toting toys that they played with as children, or toys with which their children once played.

Others are pack rats and savers, Dumpster-divers or those who found a toy in their attic or bought it at a garage sale.

Some toys brought to the shows date back to the 1800s, McCurly said. But the majority of the items brought in were made between 1960 and 1980.

"We're starting to see vintage nostalgia pop-culture things, like Pez dispensers," he added. "There's something new coming in all the time. I get surprised every day. It's amazing.

"We hear lots of great stories. We talk to a lot of the original owners who might have a toy that's 40 to 50 years old."

Ross said that a woman who paid 50 cents at a garage sale for a toy Mickey Mouse wearing a cowboy hat and riding Pluto sold the toy at the Toy Roadshow in Fargo, N.D., for $12,000.

"It may have very well been the last Mickey Mouse and Pluto," Ross said. "It got into a bidding war between two toy collectors."

A toy mechanical bank that sold for $225,000 had been tucked away in someone's attic. The owner thought the bank was worth $4,000-$5,000, McCurly said.

The savers or pack rats will usually keep the toy's original box, McCurly said. This can significantly increase the value of a toy.

"We do buy things that aren't perfect, every day," he added. "If something needs to be restored, that's a great hobby, too."

McCurly said he doesn't worry about online auction websites such as Ebay posing as competition.

"It's cool," he said of the Internet site where vintage toys and collectibles are often bought and sold. "But it's complicated. It's like starting a business. Most people don't want to start an auction house."

Besides, he said, "I'm 99.9 percent sure that I can give them more money than anyone else."

The price that a collector is willing to pay for a toy, however, can fluctuate.

"Today I may get someone who's willing to pay $2,000," McCurly said. "Tomorrow I'll get a person that's willing to pay $600."