If you landed here you’re probably looking to learn who buys toys for cash. We’re here to help you do just that. We’ve been buying G.I. Joe, He-Man, M.A.S.K., Star Wars, Thundercats, Transformers, and many other action figure brands for over 20 years. Here we are going to walk you through how to figure out the value of your vintage toys and show you just who buys toys for cash!
Who owned the toys?
If you were the original owner this is a lot easier. The bigger the collection the harder it will be. Larger collections are almost impossible if you were not the original owner especially if the collection includes multiple toy lines. If that is the case you should stop reading and email us we will give you more specific guidance.
Identify and organize your collection
You will not know what’s valuable so be cautious. Start with what you know and organize the collection into branded groupings. Some toy brands are obvious to tell apart, so do what you can to get them sorted by brand. If you are the original owner this is generally pretty easy.
Evaluate what your vintage toys are worth
Assuming you have names for your toys, how do you price them? The best way to do this is by finding a comparable item that was sold recently. The easiest way to find a comparable price is on eBay. However, never use the active listings on eBay, as anyone can ask anything they want and never get it. The key is looking at the sold prices.
Once you see the sold prices don’t just scroll up to the highest sold price. There are reasons the same toy might have sold for only $10 or $20, but also sells for $50 and even $100, yet look mostly identical. Like anything, people pay more for nicer items. Is the item heavily played with? Is the item complete with parts? Does the item have the box? Is it sealed in the box? Is it clean? These factors as well as others all make a difference and in many cases a substantial one. A figure’s condition will be hard for you to gauge, but you can still get a general idea of what your items are worth at least.
How clean is your collection?
Some collections, unfortunately, get mugged so to speak. Be it mice, bugs, or pets, collections that are affected by those variables are items most people don’t want. Other factors affecting how clean they are: Have they been sitting in an open box? If for 30 years, they will likely be covered in dust. Are they from a smoking home? If so all the toys will be discolored and that’s a big negative. Did they get any sunlight while in storage? Sunlight breaks down the plastic and also discolors it similar to cigarette smoke. If you’re a collector and would like to fix yellowing or fading check out our how-to guide. How about high heat? High heat can change the properties of plastic making them sticky or brittle. Even low humidity can cause problems.
Who buys old, vintage, and used toys?
Well, a lot of people that’s who! Rather than worry about the classification of old, vintage, new, used, and collectible, we’ll just cover the alternatives for you. There are several ways to go ways to find out who buys collectible toys. The best way to sell your toys is whatever works best for you. The two biggest factors by far are how long do you want to spend working on this (a day, a week, a month, or a year) and how much time do you want to spend to complete the sale of each item in the collection.
Who will buy toys For cash
Here are the most options with corresponding pros and cons:
Wheeljack’s Lab / Online Toy Dealer
- Pros: minimize the time you spend, fast turnaround time (we take less than a week to complete purchases), you can background check with the Better Business Bureau, no fees (we even pay your shipping).
- Cons: Can’t get full value.
Local Toy Dealer
- Pros: minimize the time you spend, fast turnaround time, can background check with the Better Business Bureau, no fees and it’s local. A lot of pros, but has one big negative.
- Cons: Can’t get full value, generally because they have you as a captive audience they generally don’t offer a high percentage and again like a pawn shop they offer a very low percentage. If you show up with 10 boxes of toys you are not going to get anywhere near what you should because they know you will not box them back up.
Local Auction Service
- Pros: easy and it’s local.
- Cons: very slow turnaround time, high fees, unknown sales price (depends on who shows up that day), generally poor results unless you have a very large collection and you’re working with a specialist (which there are only a couple of in the whole country).
Online Auctions eBay
- Pros: large client base, good prices
- Cons: slow, very time consuming, very high fees, unknown how the bidding will go, fraud concerns, hard to use, must accept returns, running to post office daily
Online Swap Pages, Facebook, and Craigslist
- Pros: large client base, decent prices, no fees, ease of use
- Cons: slow, very time consuming, serious fraud concerns, no customer support, rural limited success, privacy concerns, and a lot of communication with what I call tire-kickers (people looking but have no intention of purchasing)
Wheeljack’s Lab buys toys for cash
If you haven’t done this process before, it will be time-consuming, to say the least. Cleaning, staging, lighting, naming and then matching everything up. If you have a collection or an old box of toys that you are looking to sell give us a call at 888-946-2895 or send a message and we will take care of everything for you.
We are a known vintage toy buyer. Wheeljack’s Lab has been buying and selling vintage toys for over 20 years. We aren’t disappearing anytime soon. My family has been in this area for 3 generations. We offer immediate communications, immediate payment, and prepaid shipping. If the collection warrants, we will even pick up your collection! Toy quotes are given the same day. We will be certain to give your old toys new homes with people who greatly appreciate them as you did!
Do you have old and used toys?
If you have a collection of old and used toys, you can turn those toys into cash. There is no reason to let those old toys collect dust. Contact us today to sell your toy collection.
Our professional, friendly, and expert staff have decades of experience as collectible toy buyers. If you are ready to sell your collection today, fill out the form below or call us at 888-946-2895.
Author: Chris Ingledue
Contact: email
Bio: I’m the founder and owner of Wheeljack’s Lab. My vision has always been to reunite customers with their favorite childhood toys, triggering fond memories, and reigniting their imaginations. Every day I work in the “lab” where it’s Christmas 365 days a year; scouring the internet – like we did the Sears Catalog of yesteryear – for the next great treasure, awaiting the arrival of the postman as if he was Santa Claus himself and helping collectors worldwide with their own versions of Christmas. Every day is an absolute joy!
Who will buy collectible toys
Below are some of the collections people are looking for.
