I talked to my good friend John the other night on going to a toy show on Saturday. (It now looks iffy due of possible rain and snow.) We also talked about on going to Wheeling, West Virginia this June for the Marx Meet. John mentioned that they are talking on gasoline going up between $4.50 and $5.00 a gallon this summer. We both wonder how if would effect the show and how many would go because of the gas prices.
If this $4.50 to $5.00 a gallon comes about how will it effect local flea markets. The flea markets this past year were rough in finding items as the number of dealers was done. If gas goes to $4.50 and above what effect will it have on the number of dealers. Your thoughts
Yes, rising gas prices do affect my travel decisions, even local ones. Namely, I try to take fewer trips…. again, this includes local trips as well. Rising gas prices also lead to increased motel prices and increased food prices when I travel to out of town toy shows. Ultimately, this forces dealers to raise the prices on their toy soldiers, in order to cover their travel costs to the shows. Ultimately, I’ve learned like everyone else: I can reduce my gas costs by just not getting in the car and driving somewhere.
It’s unfortunate our hobby has to contend with this, which just adds to the issue of the aging of our Marx collector base from the 1950s and 1960s. Ultimately, so many of us toy soldier collectors will reach the age where we are selling our collections, rather than adding to them. At some point, presumably, I would think this would mean that the prices of Marx toy soldiers would drop, rather than continually rise.
but as of right now, the plastic toy soldier hobby still seems relatively strong, with great producers as TSSD, CTS, Barzso, and, until recently, Conte (who seems to have sworn off plastic soldiers for the more expensive metal ones). Even Britains doesn’t seem interested in adding to it’s plastic Detail line.
But back to your main point, Paul. The bottom line of increased travel costs is that in previous years I would travel each year from Michigan to OTSN in September and Indiana Toy Soldier Show in March. I would also periodically travel to the Pennsylvania show and the old Annapolis show. But I now limit my out of state toy soldier shows to just one each year. Either OTSN or Indiana, but not both in the same year.
Hi Don
I totally agree with you that rising gas prices can only harm the hobby of collecting. I have also found very few treasures lately at either toy soldier venues or through internet dealers.
You made a very good point about senior collectors not adding to thier collections & perhaps selling them in the future. Perhaps that is when the unique figures may be available.
Until that time i still enjoy the “hunt” of the figures i am looking for & the fun it gives me in the search.
For me personally, I have just lost interest in going to shows. It has nothing to do with gas prices and more to do with the realization that shows are no longer places to pick up missing pieces for my collection. The days of finding something that I need at a show have long since passed. The Internet has killed any hope of bargain hunting at a toy show. In the early day of plastic collecting, a big show would draw hundreds of dealers, many of whom looked down on plastic and great buys were plentiful. No more.
Even the most hard core metal dealer knows that plastic is worth money and that Ebay will fetch a better return than dumping stuff at a show.
I used to go to a dozen or more shows a year. Now I go to just one and that’s because I could walk there if I had to. I can buy any new product that I want over the ‘net so I don’t have to wait until there is a show in my area.
One of the main draws of shows was the chance to meet fellow collectors that you only spoke to over the telephone. Now with the advent of youtube, facebook and other social media outlets there is plenty of so called “face time.”
So I guess my opinion is that gas prices have nothing to do with it. If a collector really wants to go to a show, they will go no matter what gas costs. It may cut down on the guy who has to drive 6oo miles to get to a show but the average collector probably only drives less than 100 miles. I base that on the Hackensack show which draws people from all over the East Coast. Several dealers may drive hundreds of miles, but gas is a part of doing business for them. Regular attendees generally live within a hundred mile radius or so. Even if gas went up two dollars a gallon what would it really cost. If your car averaged 25 mpg, that’s only 8 dollars one way. 16 bucks round trip if you lived 100 miles away. I know that it would not stop me from going. You??
Bill
Sorry to hear of your loss of interest in shows. I have cut some shows out due to where they are located and quality of material. Yes in the old days it was great watching the metal dealers put up their noses on plastic. I loved their stupidity, but I knew it would not last.
Yes gas is a business deduction for most dealers, the thing is if you go to a show and no one shows up. You find that you wasted time and money when you could done another way of selling such as the internet. Laurie and I did the Langhorne show last year. The show was over the minute we walked in. There were very few people and only one dealer was having any action. some of the flea markets were the same way. The crowds were less due to the economy. We will have to see what happens this year.
We have a local Toy Soldier Collectors Club and some of us have taken to carpooling to some of the shows such as Valley Forge, York and Hackensack. So the gas prices are not stopping us but we are modifying our means of getting there.
Mark
great idea if you can car pool it helps on the cost. We have done that two over the years.
I still believe you can find worthwhile items at shows, had I not gone to the last Kane County Show I would not have been able to pick up those two Marx Miniature Guerilla Warfare sets, nor met a local dealer who lives near me. We have since visited his shop and picked up a bounty of figures at a decent price that we made a nice profit on selling on e-bay. It was also at this show that I picked up a number of Mikel figures and horses, I had never seen them anywhere at any shows before. ( I did buy one from Stad however previously)
One of the highlights on my year is going to the Indy show, while it is not a show where I make a ton of money, it is rather slow and laid back and I can spend hours talking to John Stengel, Rick Eber, Rick Kellar, Steve Conolly and Beau Cunnygham. Occasionally I do find items to add to my collection at reasonable prices.
I don’t know to me going to the shows is half business , half socializing. I have met many great people at the shows and developed some lasting friendships.
Ed, It is true that you get to meet with people that you would not otherwise get to spend time with at shows. That’s one of the attractions. It is fun to get together with like minded people.
As for finding bargains, I guess that’s all relative to your collecting tastes or needs. When I think of finding plastic treasure, I am really thinking back to the days when shopping bags full of Marx (and others) went for a few bucks from the various metal toy soldier and train show guys. Back in the days when the East Coast show was at Schultzen Park the plastic collectors descended on their various sources that they saw once a year at that show. Most (and Stad will confirm this) of us drove home with a car loaded with plastic and tin litho for under 100 bucks. Each of us had a couple of sources that we waited six months or so to see. There was more business done in the parking lot than inside at the show. That’s what I’m talking about and those days are long gone. If you’ve come into plastic collecting later than maybe 1980-1983 or so, it’s hard to imagine what went on in those days.
It’s funny to see how times have changed. No one I know would have dreamed of spending 400 bucks on a Guerrilla Warfare set back then. You would have been lucky to get fifty. I have 2 miniature Civil War sets in the box that I paid ten dollars each for at an early East Coast show. And I remember leaving the show wondering if I paid too much.
Times have certainly changed.
Bill
The parking lot days were great fun. I remember the one time my late mother was sitting in the car and started to hear the truck go up and was wondering was going on.
I don’t think I filled the trunk for under $100.00. Memories are getting hazing any more. No one figured the prices would go up like this, if we had I would gotten $10,000.00 and invest in mint sealed playsets to hold for 2o years. I did not figure on Apple Stock being worth $425.00 a share.
Yes, Bill, going to a toy soldier show is definitely fun, fun, fun. As I’m driving up to the show, finding a parking spot, and getting out to either get into the show or get into my hotel room to start hitting the other rooms, I can almost feel my heart racing. Seeing all the thousands of toy soldiers and the dealers and fellow-collectors I’ve become friends and acquaintances with over the years really becomes a pleasurable exilhirating experience. But hardly anything with 1950 -60s plastic is cheap anymore.
Incidently, I used to think my Marx plastic figures, unlike the metal figures, were eternal. That is, they didn’t rust, chip, flake, or get old looking. They just stayed the same and lasted forever. But just a month ago, I happened to pick up the Marx Fort Apache kneeling firing frontiersman (one of my favorite Marx figures, also used in the Alamo) — this one in the desirable light blue color. I picked it up by the barrel, which apparently had become brittle with time, and the rifle barrel just snapped off about a half inch from the tip. It taught me that I’ve got to handle my old Marx figures with a little bit of gentleness these days. I really didn’t expect them to become brittle like that. Most of my others still seem to have their original plastic suppleness. Has anyone else experienced brittleness like this?
Hey Don, There are several theories why some figures become stiff and break. One well documented reason is the changeover in plastics when the lead laws came into being. Some ex Marx employees recall experimenting with different formulas and some did not stay pliable. BoonesBoro figures in original plastic seem to be hardest hit by this. Some will blame it on chalk being mixed into the plastic or the use of sprues
as regrinds by the factory.
Personally, I have my own theory which I have found to be almost foolproof. Plastics are oil based products. I have found that figures stored in places (attics, garages, etc)
where there are vast temperature changes almost always result in broken figures. My guess is that the oil in the figures “leaks” when exposed to high temps (90+) and then becomes brittle when the temps dip into the teens.
I have absolutely no scientific basis for this theory, but after 40 plus years of collecting, I just know this to be true. I can’t tell you how many hundreds of figures I have had to chuck because of this. I once had an entire Giant Blue and Gray sets figures crumble into dust with the exception of the charcoal gray Centennials and the riders (both blue and gray). Different plastic mixes? Maybe. But I know that the guy I bought the set from lived in an area that was hot in the summer and freezing in the winter and that the set was stored in his attic for 20 years. The ambulance wagon top was also a casualty, but not the wagon body.
I can also tell you that old Airfix Medieval figures are especially prone to this.
Anyone else have a better theory?