What to do with your collection, Part 1

[grwebster]

What to Do With Your Vintage Aircraft Toy and Model Collection? When and If
By GR Webster

As some of you know I have been collecting aircraft toy and models since the 1970s and amassed a large collection. It featured many complete series of aircraft from the 150s die cast toy makers, a very large collection of military ID models, and models made by cottage industry enthusiasts in 1/200 scale. I also tried to get a manufacturer's model of all the aircraft I flew during my 50 years as a pilot, both in the military and later in civilian life. So when I started considering what would happen to this collection which I greatly enjoyed if I passed one, I thought I would keep a journal to help others, should they go through a similar process. Its is in 4 parts, so far and I will publish them here.

Part 1
“So many collectors are shocked these days when they find they cannot even come close to recouping what they spent on their collections. They don't want to believe that times have changed, younger people don't want the sorts of things that appealed to our generation. The thing is, a collection should be built to enjoy, not to view as an investment.” Catherine Saunders-Watson, toy magazine editor and writer, former dealer and public relations consultant.

If you are reading this you have probably already thought about what will happen to your prized collection if you are no longer around or something happens and you are no longer able to care for it.

But, first, to make it easy on your self, if you have a shelf in a bookcase with 20-30 small die cast planes, like Dynaflites, ERTL Force Ones, or a few 1950s tin toys, or Dinky Toys, Aero Minis, or the recent, superb, non-vintage Corgi Aviation Archive models and their like. Enjoy them and do not bother going forward with this article. Your collection is a manageable one, doesn’t take a lot of space, and you probably never counted on it to help you in your retirement. My advice? Just enjoy it. {But, as you will read often later in this series of articles, make sure you set up a record keeping system of each item and collecting contacts.}

If for some reason you want to sell out and stop collecting, put them in the For Sale forum with photos on the MAC website, tell your trading friends you want to sell, try and sell to a toy dealer, or use the final option, eBay.

But if your collections represent a more important investment for you, read on.

I recently downsized my own collection in a major way and hope that what I learned can help others. These are just my personal opinions and experiences based mainly on the many aircraft toys from my collection, your experiences could be different.

Start Keeping a Record of Your Collection: begin by rating Value and Condition

A Comment on Values
My collection consisted of items such as cast iron {many were large ‘investment grade’ pieces costing thousands} and die cast toys from all makers {1940-1980}, plastic built toys like Renwal and Palitoy, ‘real’ manufacturer’s models such as Topping {not the modern Philippines wood versions}, a very large WW2 and later US and foreign made military identification and recognition models, some metal travel agency models, and a few ‘one-of’s’.

Things like post war black and blue 1/72nd scale ID models appear to have a much longer market life and have gained in value considerably {probably because back then most collectors did not realize that in some cases only 100 examples or less were made between WW2 and Korea and they are usually stable}. The wartime issues and many of the postwar grey models appear to have maintained their values. These all should be considered as separate from aircraft toys.

You should try to set a value on every item in the collection, if only so everyone will know which ones are the most valuable, but be realistic. Most collectors focus on what they paid or the highest price going way back that they may have seen on eBay, disregarding current prices and market down turns.

When you assign a value to an item, use a conservative figure, even if its below what you paid, suck it up. I often see people posting or sending lists of items for sale asking ridiculous prices.
Get real. Set a conservative value on the items in your collection. That Dinky Toy Vulcan you paid $1,200 for 15 years ago may only get about $700-800 today so why would you value it at say, $1,800? Dream on. Since I mention this toy, unless your family is going to be left destitute, I would think that would be this is one item in an aircraft toy collection that you should never sell. Its iconic. There is possibly/probably no more than around 600 of them around, and it will always be scarce and relatively valuable. It doesn’t eat anything, doesn’t take any space, doesn’t cost anything further, and it displays well. Enjoy and know you have one piece that any collector of toys will admire, and covet. As far as the price you originally paid? Its not relevant. Let it fade away with other bad memories.

Don’t bother too much looking up values in price guides. There are a lot of them around, and in my opinion basically worthless. Most don’t keep current, disregard eBay, and are ignorant of the rare variants. They will list only one Dinky Toys pre war Spitfire or Hurricane when there are several. They seem to pick the highest prices seen and use them as the standard. Best way to value an item is to do you own research is searching current and past auctions on eBay.com or as recorded by Liveauctioneers.com {better for more scarce items, less interesting for die cast toys}

Remember those ERTL Force One planes from the 1980s? They were the first new airplane toys to come out in many years at that time and many of us bought at least one each at retail and hoarded them {…..er ‘put them away’}. Some of us thought, ‘Hey in 30 years these will be worth a whole more than I paid’. I did. Well, guess what? Today those toys, even still pristine and mint in the package, are worth much less than you paid if you can even find a buyer. It is foolish to think you will ever see a profit in these items. Today, in fact, I give them to my children and neighbors to play with.

Sorry to say, but the same is also true, in fact, for most of the items in your collection. At least it was with mine.

Again, do the research on the internet and compare the recent prices to what you paid, and then what you thought the value is, You will be shocked. Yes, even those prewar Dinky Toys that 20 years ago were almost impossible to find have had dramatic price reductions, and oddly are much more available today.

While some mint, boxed, vintage, examples may have a much longer, more valuable market ‘life’, the loose un-packaged examples or those with condition issues are just too common to hold their values. A very difficult sale anywhere.

There are several reasons I believe for this.
One is the lack of new collectors of vintage aircraft toy and model collectors {for purposes of this discussion vintage means, let’s just say any toy made before 1980, that is over 30 years ago}.

Secondly many collectors are now getting on in years and want to cash out, so more and more items that have been in collections since the 1950s and 1960s are appearing for sale now. What was hard to find in the 1980s, say a prewar Dinky Toys Atalanta, is today rather more available and much less expensive.

Thirdly, it is an easy entry to sell at auction on eBay. Many people are doing it.

A comment on Condition
I enjoyed my collection for many years, but it underscored the well known collector's guideline about the 3 most important considerations when buying an item: condition, condition, and finally condition!

While I never knowingly bought any repainted or restored items, and never 'fixed' any that I acquired, I must say that when I went over the many items in my collection that were not in 8 or 9 condition out of 10, and I had many of those, I began to wonder if they will sell at any price.

Sure, I didn't pay much for them so it was not a big deal in the end. And I enjoyed having them. But these ended up being sold in lots at a lesser auction firms for well less than I paid for them.

I figured some money is better than no money.

On eBay one can get away with condition issues easier. You could sell almost anything in any condition and find a buyer.
But eBay buyers of collectible toys are not stupid either {well, for the most part, that is}.

Where are the new Collectors?
A major problem today is that there are very few new collectors of older prewar and postwar vintage aircraft toys. Most new collectors start collecting toys that they played with as children. Its called a ‘nostalgia window’- interest in items from our childhood when we were 10-16 years old before girls and cars entered our lives.

Do the math - a 45 year old starting collector today with some spare money, kids gone from the nest, and wanting to start a hobby will look for toys when he was, say, 10+ years old. That puts his focus squarely on the mid 1970s and even later and into things such as period Batman toys {from the first TV series and later the films} then moving on to Star Wars toys, etc. Dinky Toys went out of business in 1979 so he probably never even heard about them, Even Aero Mini was gone by then, too

Likewise the 65 year old new collector is probably more focused on the mid-late1950s. But there are few of these around in my experience.

Many collections have a way of creeping into earlier periods so most post war toys still have a market today but for how much longer? As time goes by, perhaps those 1950s toys will, when collectors want to sell them, be appealing to a dwindling audience.