toy collectors prior to 1990

[jwyblejr]

I started in '91. I started out with vintage Star Wars. Back then you could most of the commons for 5 bucks. I remember one time trying to call one of the ads in Toy Shop trying to get some stuff someone had for sale. They told me all of their Megos were sold out. Never did find out what happened to the Star Wars stuff they had.

[Hotfoot]

I've been collecting stuff since 1969 +/-. Have all my car magazines from 69 on. Most of my childhood toys that didn't get destroyed or sold. Got out of collecting in the late 70's through early 80's except for the odd toy here and there and Albums and CD's. Got too much stuff and only a small space to display things. Sold alot off over ebay the last few years. Never really had anything Rare or super expensive! All my older stuff was played with back before the Collector Craze of the 90's!

At one point I had over 1000 different telephone insulators. After years of lugging heavy boxes full I finally sold off most of them to another collector!

Its just stuff and I get started on one thing for a while than move on to something else. Keeps life interesting.

[Brue]

I started collecting in the 90s. I remember passing on a mint Great White shark for $400 early on. Ya never know waht seems like a lot -isn't.

[palitoy]

Started in '85, a lot of this stuff I collected was still in old variety and junk stores. Mego wasn't considered much back then, Star Trek aliens were popular but Planet of the Apes were considered junk.

some WGSH was pricey but I could get most of them for $10 MIB, nobody made much bones about card variants, save for Kresges.

The big thing in 87-90 was Captain Action, Baby Boomers were in their twenties and had a lot of disposable income. I watched the prices on that stuff explode. I still occasionally talk to some of the big names in Captain Action.

Most of the toy shows were antiques, diecast cars and teddy bears. Under the tables you could find vintage mego and G.I. Joes everywhere. It was junk! Soon, the Mego would be on the tables and underneath were 80's Joe and Transformers, it's a cycle.

[RG]

I started collecting in 1991 but I met a couple people who had been collecting for years. I got to see pictures of one guy's collection and he had just about every action figure from Star Wars MOC and MIB items. He had some nice super powers stuff also but only from the 1st maybe some from the 2nd wave of toys. And they bought them at retail. I don't remember any 8" megos in his pictures (may have had some??) but he did have lots of the misc. movie 3 3/4" mego action figures Dukes, Trek, etc.

One older guy must have been in his mid 60's at the time was selling his collection at a flea market I was at ... tons of tin toys cast iron banks ... jaw dropping awesome stuff. I wish I would have bought some of his stuff ... I found out later that his wife had passed away and he was given less than 12 months to live. He was selling his collection mostly to give his items a good home since he had no one to leave them to. From what I was told one person bought some stuff with values of $100+ each and he only charged them $10 for the lot.

[toys2cool]

well i started collecting really young,at about 8-11 in 88-91 i met a collector/Dealer in the local shows named John.He always gave me a free loose 3" Joe or a weapon for a Vintage 12" Joe with every purchase every show.Great Guy,I wonder how he's doing.You don't see sellers doing that type of thing anymore.He use to love to show me and talk about all the items he had.

My first purchase from him was? My first mego WGSH a complete Batman all original $25

[goldenryan]

i have always been fascinated by the collectors of the early days but maybe it's because i hate most of the toys made now i had a family member who collected mostly star trek and superman items and this was in the late 80's or early 90's but he did have some nice mego things those aliens were real rare back then. so please share some memories u have from the good old days of collecting.