This week’s episode had Jordan in Los Angeles. The show has a format now of three places where Jordan goes buys and then one or two places he sells items he bought on the show. The show started with Jordan visiting an old friend of 20 years Mark. What was not mentioned was Mark is a dealer or may have been a dealer. (I have an email out to friend to get Mark’s current status. I can confirm that at one point Mark was a dealer from a very reliable source me. Mark visited my old locations twice. The second time was when he was in this area for a friend’s wedding. 18 years ago.) At Mark’s place, Jordan was shown and given for consigment a prototype Mego Greatest American Hero doll. These dolls never came out. They are very rare only a few have turn up. Checking up the internet I found that two had been found in a dollar box. Mark wanted $10,000.00 for it so Jordan took it on consignment. There was given no justification for this high price or warning that fakes exist of this doll.
The next place Jordan played fast and loose again under pricing something. This time it was the Ideal Star Team for $25.00 for a set of four. Jordan priced their selling price at $50.00. Checking Ebay the prices are starting at $50.00 and up each.
When Jordan went to sell the Mego Greatest American Hero doll He sold it to the person who bought the rare Boba Fett in the pilot. This brings up the question was the person a first time buyer at NY Comic Con or one of his customers.
Just another disappointing show, which is not giving a true picture of the life of a toy dealer. Most dealers do not normal travel more than several hundred miles looking for items. They are hitting the flea markets and hoping to come up with singles with a once and a while big score. It is hard out there, the dealers are not find the items like they used to due to the internet and competition. Jordan would not be going to these various locations shown on the show if not for the show because of the overhead versus his profit. The show tries to give the impression that Jordan is an elite dealer. In my book, he is not. The elite dealers are dealing in thousands of dollars and buying rare items for their famous customers you never hear about. Most of the items that Jordan buys the elite dealers would pass on. Jordan is a regular dealer, which I am.
thanks for posting this, i think it’s all staged.
i didn’t even know that rocket firings were selling for that much anymore.
also that was the most common version of them all, not even the J slot.
i can’t believe mark even had that, but then i do since he only had junk at his booth, if you wanted to get something good you had to play his
stupid game and wait for him, he had his lackeys running the booth and he was always late to open his booth.
if you did want something rare like that you had to call him and hope he could find it
and bring it to the show.
he was also the main reason for getting the blue harvest star wars stuff out there.
thanks mark
Ryan
Thank you for answering my question on Mark. I had a feeling he was still dealer. I am sure Mark has stuff he does not know he has. When the reality shows like Pawn Stars and American Pickers started they were real. Once they got successful it, all changed. They had to add the wow factor. Toy Hunters from the start has been disappointing. It does not show what a dealer has to go through. When we go out we are hunting at flea markets in all kinds of weather and hoping our competition does not find it first. Going to a person’s house can be profitable or a waste of time. It is a hard life, but I prefer after being stuck in corporate world.
One question does Mark have his booth down a warehouse building outside of Los Angeles? A friend took us there 15 years ago. I can not remember the nameof the place but it at as loaded with collectible dealers. It was there that I realize the market for new items had changed as they were using the internet to import items from China months before they showed on the shelves.