Vintage Toys Coming Back!
In the 1996 family comedy Jingle All the Way, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad duke it out to obtain the last Turbo-Man toy in order to make their respective son’s Christmas dreams come true. Arnold has a new job now (it was his last comedy), and I haven’t seen Sinbad in anything since, and the movie has a 16% at Rotten Tomatoes. But if there were to be a sequel rooted in truth, the Turbo-Man toy would end up in a box in the attic with the othermust-haves of yesteryear.
In spite of all that anticipation, toy crazes are remarkably short-lived. I recall fist-fights at the mall over Tickle-me-Elmo, shrieking Furbies, and kids mourning the death of their egg-shaped virtual pet keychains. But it wasn’t long before these toys were forgotten. Retailers make or break their yearly sales based on avoiding Turbo-Man-like shortages and an article in the North Jersey Register suggests that it’s now, not even at the mid-year point, when retailers really develop their strategy for craze-creation.
One such strategy is bringing back old toys. The article reminds us of ”Mighty Beanz” from 2003, which admittedly I must have missed. Harold Chizick of Spin Master explains his plan to reach “a whole new group of kids”: “These things have a natural life cycle,” adding that reintroducing old toys can revitalize demand after about six or seven years after the buying frenzy cools down.
The Mighty Beanz have “triggered a bidding war on eBay,” which makes me scratch my head and wonder what other toys will make a comeback. In some cases, the resale value of old toys can greatly exceed their original value; in Furby’s case, it brings up aging anxiety over the use of the term “vintage” to describe something ubiquitous in 1998.
Your empty nest may be a maturing investment. You may even be able to use disregarded previous presents to finance this year’s holidays. If you think that you may have the next-previous-big-thing, head on over to any one of easysale’s five locations and turn that trash into cash!
Remember that the item must be appraised for at least fifty dollars. But if you don’t know how much an item is worth, that’s what our trained staff is for. For more information on what sells, please view our guidelines.
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