Collecting before internet

[toys2cool]

Today we take for granted instant communication, ebay feedback gives an indication of a buyers/sellers integrity and reputation is king. If I want a mego, our global network makes it easier to find. You can still get taken by a scammer though, but hopefully as a community we can look after each other a little. So what must it have been like to buy Megos before internet. How did you get to see the items condition for example, pic by snail mail, fax? And surely it was way easier to get ripped off then.For example I lost $1500 that I sent to someone selling FF 1 in a cbg ad, sent the check and no reply, it was that easy to get ripped off before internet. Please share your good and bad stories. Clem

man i remember working my *** off in Checkers(the burger place) when I was 17 to send some jackhole $550 for an LJN WWF collection and I got jipped

[MegoMonk]

The original Megos I had from childhood sat in a few boxes. They were a complete set of POTA and Monsters and about 8 to 10 WGSH. One of my freinds moved from Brooklyn to Edison NJ aroud 91. When I visited him we would go to Seaside Heights. There was a dealer selling old toys, including Mego, but he only had figures I already had. Shortly after, my freind took me to the Route 1 Flea Market. A toy dealer there was from a Comics/toy shop in central Jersey. He had had some figures I never had as a kid, like Mr. Fantastic. I started buying random figures from him. A few years later I found Toyshop at a newstand in Brooklyn. I had been subscribing to CBG for a few years. So, I started bidding on Megos in Toyshop. I got a few good deals. Sometimes the dealers would throw in extra figures in bad shape. I never got ripped off by a Toyshop dealer. The only time I got ripped off was when CBG started giving subscribers a free ad in each issue. I placed ocasional ads looking for Megos. Some guy from down south sent me a cryptic looking note, saying he had some Happy Days and other figures. He asked for a $35 MO, which I sent him. I never heard from him again. In late 98 I started on EBAY and my Mego collection grew in leaps and bounds.

[B-Lister]

before the internet, I had a book I routinely checked out from the library.

it was Greenberg's guide to Super Hero Toys.

it introduced me to Mego, as well as Captain Action, both are toys that were way before my time (I was born in 1980, so Mego existed, but not for long).

I love both lines, now that I'm an adult, and am thankful that both have been reissued in one form or another.

Recently, I went into the library to find that book had been borrowed and never returned, so I tracked down a copy on Amazon, for a penny.

useless nowadays as a price guide (it was published in the 80s, had it been released just a few years later, it would've been able to cover the early Toy Biz superhero Boom), it still has great photos, and decent writing (a lot of things were unknown at the time), and covered a LOT of lines from the 60s-80s, even obscure ones like Defenders of the Earth, and Mighty Crusaders!

[nvmbrsdoom5]

Toy Shop and local toy shows was pretty much the main source of collecting for me in the early days. One of the first people I ordered from was Huckabone as I recall I enjoy having the convenience of the internet for collecting but I miss the excitement of getting the newest issue of Toy Shop and spending a day or two scouring the pages for good deals. And now the toy shows I attend rarely have any Mego or other vintage toys, it's all 1990s lines and on.

[Brue]

After they dissappeared from the shelves I packed mine away until 1995.
When I got them out again in 1995, there was a vintage toy shop nearby. I bought some there. I also ordered 1 from an ad in a magazine. I also drove up to a toy shop near Akron for a couple but I didn't like the guy who ran the shop (Len knows who I'm talkin about)

I started using eBay by early 99.

[cjefferys]

For me, when I started seriously collecting back in 1988-89, it was finding stuff at a vintage toy store in Buffalo, run by an old guy who had tons of Megos, and I also started hitting the clearance aisles at toy stores and department store toy sections, where I could still find stuff like Kenner Star Wars and the occasional Mego for really cheap. Then I started hitting flea markets and toyshows in Buffalo. A year later I discovered Toy Shop magazine and that really opened my eyes to what kind of toy collecting market existed at that point. In 1991 I moved to Florida for awhile and found a big comic/toy store and traded a bunch of stuff I had for most of the Megos they had in stock. Sometimes I miss those simpler days, everything was so new and exciting, there was always tons of new discoveries and great deals to be found.

[vulcan2074]

My mailman knows be by heart because all the **** I buy!!!

Ha Ha Ha, same here.
Sammy

[TEXASFETT]

For me it was my neighbor that had all 4 walls covered with marvel heroes,star wars,and starting lineups.From there would hunt all flea markets,toy shows,and some local collectable shops.I think that was very fun at times then got on line and became a different animal. My mailman knows be by heart because all the **** I buy!!!

[Mikey]

I bought my first items through ads in Starlog (Intergalactic Trading Company) !

I used to love Intergalactic back in the day.

It wasn't until the mid 80's until I found out how badly everything of there's was overpriced.

[Gorn Captain]

I bought my first items through ads in Starlog (Intergalactic Trading Company) and Toyshop.
Can you imagine?
Sending letters, faxing. It took weeks sometimes.
Then I bought the item (sending an international payment), and waited for three months for the stuff to get here by boat.
That was back in the 80s!
Sometimes it was a true miracle that the item was still available when my letter arrived in the US, but it happened.
When you got something like that, after all that trouble, and something that wasn't available in my country, man, the excitement!
A SW Stormtrooper helmet, a Dewback, and my Shuttle Tyderium!

[starsky]

i remember staying up late and putting in bids by phone for those toy shop auctions!

[Marvelmania]

The Toyshop paper mag was it for me. I'd wait to get that in the mail and rush to the ads. Toy shows around here were few and far between.

[captact]

A Newspaper/magazine named Collectors United!!,.Back in the 90's it was a great sorce for finding boxed and carded megos at a fraction of the price,..in 1999 i bought there a MOC Wondergirl for 20.00, a Kenner boxed ALIEN for 55.00, a boxed Ideal Bewitched for only 25.00, loose Super Queens ranging from 20.00 - 75.00, etc....

[Lynn TXP 0369]

I started collecting in 1990 when I discovered issue # 2 of Tomarts Action Figure digest.
I also discovered Toy Shop at the time as well.

I used the phone to make the deals for most of my purchases.

I got most of my Mego stuff and vintage Star Wars figures through Mark Huckabone. I used to drool over his ads in the magazines. I made many phone calls to him over three years or so collect the SW figures. I also did some trading from a guy in CA for a Boxed Mego Robin.
I also made many phone calls to Germany for the last of my SW POTA figures, I got some good deals from that guy even with shipping included.
The good days, it is a lot different then the instant gratification we are used to now.
Lynn

[VintageMike]

I would buy from a local Comic Shop and an occasional Toy Show. I was in my early twenties though so there would always be a reason to sell. The only pre-internet purchase (excluding childhood) I still have is a loose Fonzie purchased at an eary 90's Toy Show. Some things stick out. I bought a carded Batman once only to sell him a short time later to fund a hotel party with friends. Going to sell my carded Superman to another shop only to have the jerk toy buyer INSIST Superman came with gloves and the gloves not being in there drove the price down. I drooled over Toy Shop frequently but never bought anything from it at the time.