anyone else having trouble finding a good deal since Toy Hunter first aired?

[megoat]

Hmmm, are we talking just toys? I'm out picking every week and gotta say, if you're diversified with a breadth of knowledge across MANY collectible fields there's still TONS of stuff out there for good deals....

[mego73]

I thinknit's a general trend since I am sure Toy Hunters does not have that much reach.

[toys2cool]

with me mostly toys cause that's what I deal with..but my brother's having a hard time with cd's, dvd's and almost anything with a UPC barcode

Not just toy hunter, but American pickers, Pawn stars, American restoration, Hardcore pawn and storage wars

[Den82]

I went to the Flea Market yesterday. Used to be good. Now you see Lite Brites in beat up boxes for $50. It really is a depressing sight. Miserable flea market sellers with overpriced junk. It's a junk sale with high end, collector show prices.

But it's been like this before Toy Hunter. Do people actually watch it anyway?

The day before Sandy I went to an Estate Sale and got an boxed but incomplete Castle Grayskull and a bunch of figures for $50. The box is pretty nice! It was great. I was number 16 on the line and they let 15 in at a time. I'm surprised nobody grabbed it before I did.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

It's the Crazy Gran'ma Price Guide!

http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics43.html

Don C.

[Splitty]

Hmmmm..., It's the Crazy Gran'ma Price Guide!
http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/st...dcomics43.html

---^ that's funny. That also reminds me how annoying it is when every seller is suspicious squinty eyed that you're going to ebay it, even AS they're already selling it at ebay prices.

...But it's been like this before Toy Hunter. Do people actually watch it anyway? ..

Yeah, I think ebay's the hugest culprit (and older auction antique hunter shows). Don't think Toy Hunter's had time to sink in as much, except to the people with interest in it. It really alarms me how high they're quoting toys though (that I KNOW go for much cheaper on ebay), that only spells trouble in the future.

What really bugs the living beegeegees out of me though is when I'm out locally and somebody has a high price, they always frickin' say 'I checked ebay and that's what it's going for'. They're not informed enough (or trying to hoodwink us) to realize that the inflated high buy-it-nows for like $80-$200 is NOT what it's going for. You check COMPLETELD listings, and you'll usually see a bunch of auctions ending for like $12 for that same item. Just because somebody posts something for a ridiculously high price on ebay, that is not what it's selling for. It's like they grab the highest buy-it-now and quote it like scripture.

NONE of these local sellers seem to check completed actually 'bid on' listings. And honestly, even if they did, if I wanted it for the ebay price I would have already bought it online. Local sales are for deals, not online prices. I mean crimeny, we're spending enough on gas hunting them down, way more than shipping even. ergh.

sorry, I ranted.

[spacecaps]

Its sometimes not the guy selling the item but the competition thats out there has increased so much because everyone watches these shows and becomes an "expert" in what to look for. In the Summer, I go to 3 or 4 Flea Markets every week and very rarely do I come home empty handed. One of my biggest scores this year was boxed and carded Thundercats, A Ray-O-Vac Space Patrol Flashlite in pristine condition from the 50's (it's like a $500 toy) and lots of other toys that had just been sitting out on tables for anyone to grab. Last year I found a Mego Thor for $5 and a Astronautalist for fifty-cents. Chances are you were never gonna find that Action Comics #1 or carded Vintage Star Wars collection for a buck a figure but t's hard for someone to look up an unmarked purple bendy octopus/alien looking guy if they don't know what they're looking at in the first place. Those deals are few and far between but they are out there. The hard part though is to be the first one to get there. The biggest factors seems to be timing and luck. It's just the ridiculous levels of competition that seems to be making it so hard to find those deals as often as before.

Now on the flip side, I've gone to this one flea market every Saturday since the Spring (it's in the Giant Stadium parking lot in the Meadowlands) and theres this woman selling her junk every week who has about 20 or so He-man figures and she refuses to budge off of her $300 price and she will not consider selling any one figure from the lot separately so there is the "What I got is gold no matter what you say mentality." I've also asked for the price on something and gotten the "On ebay this is going for this much" speech which is annoying in itself but I've also asked for a price on something and had the seller take out his Iphone right there on the spot to look up what it was going for on ebay so he could give me a price. If that's what it's selling for on ebay then put it on ebay but this is a flea market and people here are looking to pay flea market prices. There are even certain sellers at flea markets I avoid all together regardless of what they have because I know from experience they've priced themselves out of my business because they look at these markets as a live action ebay when in reality what they're doing is jacking up the price on something they've tried selling on ebay but can't because there's too many of them listed or they're asking too much online as well in the hopes that some unsuspecting novice comes along and buys something they think they're getting a deal on.

I really don't like to watch those shows in the first place because all those guys are idiots in the first place and they all come off as money grubbing d-bags and I always seem to know more than they do. Last week I caught an episode of Storage Wars and the young couple came across some old news papers from the day of the JFK assassination and thought they had a goldmine. I already knew they were worthless but what killed me was in the same storage unit, they had a grandfather clock that they figured they could get "a couple hundred for" but showed little interest in. The clock they were referring to was a Herman Miller and those can sell for thousands yet they barely gave it a second look.

That brings me to another point in that if you just look for toys, your gonna have a lot harder time finding things than if you were into other things too. For me, I look for anything Mid-Century modern (like grandma had in her hues) because if you know what your looking for, that stuff can outsell any toy your gonna find 10 times over but it helps that I'm into that stuff for myself and not just as a reseller. In fact the most enjoyable experiences I have come from are the items I get a deal on and keep for myself.

[toys2cool]

Yes it's good to know a little about everything...I usually start off with what I know and then work my way around to see if anything catches my eye..i use to go to tons of antique shows when I was a kid so Picked up a lot...

But these idiots just looking for things with barcodes cracks me up

[Den82]

Those "going for __ on eBay" people annoy me to no end. 9 times out of 10 "going for" really means sitting there with a high BIN price. A look at the completed listings always tell a different story, one they never want to hear.

Best way to deal with them is to walk away. These shows really don't matter in the end. When people don't price their stuff right, they end up eating. Unless some moron sucker comes along, they will learn their lesson.

Of course it's always the buyers fault among the flea market people and uneducated. It's always that they are cheap, hagglers, low-ballers, etc. NO. It's YOU. All those people on eBay are selling that item for a high price, but for some reason poor you always just get cheap people.

These slobs don't want to put any more effort into selling their stuff than just dragging it out side, yet want more than what it's worth.