Tips For Finding and Selecting Vintage Children's Toys
Vintage toys and games take people back to an era when toys were made by hand and had their own unique character. Vintage toys make very special gifts for a grown up who will always be a child at heart. When you are trying to select vintage toys to add to your collection, try keep in mind their historical and playtime value.
Where can you find vintage toys?
There are quite a few places you can seek out these wonderful treasures. Whether you are looking for vintage wooden toys, tin or metal toys, wind-up toys or pull type toys, there are places all over the internet, not to mention in your home town, to find them.
Some of the most popular places to search online are auction sites like eBay or online antique malls like Ruby Lane or TIAS. There are a number of strategies you can use, depending on your level of expertise in your area and the time you have available to spend searching. It also depends on what price category you want to be in.
Someone who enjoys "bottom-fishing" and finding unidentified or incorrectly identified items will approach it differently than someone who knows that they want and is prepared to pay a fair retail price. For the latter approach, the key to finding your item is to enter what you are looking for directly into the search box. But if you want to find mis-priced treasures, you'll need to patiently comb through many listings and look at lots of photos to spot those finds. You also need to be savvy in using search engines to get them to cough up those potential bargains.
Another good source to find vintage toys are thrift stores. Many people will clean out their attics or garages and simply donate these items. Others will donate whatever is left after an estate sale simply to get rid of the items. Thrift stores can be like a grown up candy store for anyone looking to add old wooden or metal toys to their collections. You can usually find these stores in the phone book or you can do a search online for second hand stores for the area you are in. In recent years, though, national thrift stores like Goodwill and St. Vincent De Paul have become much more savvy in evaluating donated items, and collectors have noticed that prices have increased. Sometimes your best bet is a local thrift shop or second hand store.
Some dealers and collectors hit estate sales, where there are likely to be vintage and antique toys hidden away in attics and basements. Here the trick is to arrive early enough to be one of the first in the door so you can have first choice on the items. Estate and garage sales are mostly "you snooze, you lose" situations. If you spot an item that looks interesting, grab it. Odds are you will not have another chance later because someone else will have picked it up.
Storage unit sales and auctions can yield some nice treasures, but you need to know what you're looking at. I attended an auction and as I was picking up the items I'd won, a lady next to me was beside herself because she'd won two rather insignificant-looking old teddy bears for $25. It turned out that these were unmarked early Steiff bears which a value of $1000 or more - each. She was a teddy bear expert and knew what she'd found, while no one else did. Storage units CAN have some nice finds, but this option is only for people who can dispose of all the stuff they'll get that they DON'T want. And a lot of times you are buying the contents "blind," without knowing what's in the unit. Avoid those sales.
When choosing vintage wooden toys, look for ones that are hand crafted as they are the most valuable. It may be hard to tell that some are older if they have been stained and not painted. Ones that have been stained can appear to look like new even though they have been handed down for a few generations.
Of course there are really no rules when collecting wooden toys. Simply choose ones that you like or are special to you and you will never go wrong.
When selecting vintage metal toys made out of tin or steel, try to choose ones that are complete with all working parts. These are more rare, but are more valuable. Especially wind-up metal toys. Of course, if the piece appeals to you, then by all means add it to your collection.