Here’s a common scenario that many can identify with. You’ve got bins and bins of old toys, either from your childhood or from your children’s.
You want to clear space in a closet, bedroom, basement, or storage unit — or you just want to unclutter your living space.
Basically, these bins need to go.
What do you do? Are your toys worth the hassle of selling? Will the local vintage toy store even want to buy them? Should you go to Goodwill and just drop them off free of charge and hassle? Or is eBay and other equivalents the way to go?
Let’s tackle these common questions and help you decide with a step-by-step thought process and exploration of every option you have to get rid of those bins of old toys.
Do You Really Want to Part Ways with Your Vintage Toys?
This is the key question. At The Toys of Our Lives, the most common thing we hear as people wander through our vintage toy store (part store, part museum) in nostalgic awe is, “I used to have all of these and now they’re worth this?”
Either that or they mention how they threw their old toys away years ago because they didn’t know they were worth any sentimental or monetary value.
So many people regret having their vintage toys thrown away.
The first step in the difficult process of trying to make space in your home and clear away the clutter is to ascertain whether or not you truly want to part ways with them.
Here’s where you can start:
Research
There are plenty of ways to research the monetary value of these toys. Perhaps the best way is to use eBay or Google image searches.
Go to the eBay website or app and use the picture search option (if you don’t know the full title of the toy).
Click on the camera icon next to the “search for anything” bar.
Take a picture of the item with your camera.
Review the findings and match your item to those being sold on eBay.
Now, here’s the next step most people forget to take. Just because someone is selling the same vintage toy for X amount of dollars doesn’t mean that’s the value in the collector’s market. Anyone can list an item and ask for hundreds of dollars for them — that doesn’t mean they are going to get it.
So, after you have your search results and see matching listings, now CLICK ON FILTER.
Then select SHOW MORE.
Now scroll to and select SOLD ITEMS and ask to search.
You will now see what the items have sold for on eBay. Scroll through those sold items and find the highest price that matching vintage toy has sold for on the site.
You now have a general monetary value for your vintage toy.
For the most part, at least. This shows you what people have been willing to pay for your vintage toy in similar condition.
But you also need to make sure you match the condition the vintage toy is in — whether or not it is still in a package or loose, and whether or not it is complete and working.
Now, sometimes eBay’s image search isn’t always the best. It really depends on the picture you take as well. A better matching tool is the Google search engine image search option. Google’s image search seems to hone in on the correct image more often than not. Once you get your search results, find the links to eBay sales items and now you not only have a match, but you likely have a detailed item name and description you can use for deeper searches on eBay not reliant on the picture (good or bad) you took.
Once you know the monetary value, you’ll be able to make a more educated decision on whether or not you want to get rid of these toys. And, more important, how you want to get rid of them.
Pick and Choose the Toys You’d Want to Keep
You don’t have to get rid of them all. If you have sentimental value attached, pick the best of the lot that you want to retain as nostalgic keepsakes.
Sure, sentimental value may never go away — even for the whole lot. But you need to make room in your home, right? You can’t keep everything (unless you’re driven to do so).
The old writing saying is, “Kill your darlings.” Sometimes you need to make sacrifices for the greater good of the story. Maybe your story calls for you to make more room for another family member, a guest room, more storage space, etc. Or maybe you’re relocating or downsizing and just need this stuff out. This is when you can pick and choose toys you’d want to keep.
Find out what represents your childhood toy memories best.
Save the most valuable ones (monetary-wise), either to sell them (see below) or keep them in your own collection.
Hard choices need to be made in life. It doesn’t hurt to have keepsakes. Nostalgia is a very powerful and pleasing part of life.
Read More: The Nostalgia Behind Toy Collecting
See If Someone Else in Your Family or Friend Circle Want Them
Hey, if you’ve still got your kids’ toys and they’re taking up room, maybe pass the storage burden down to them by saying, "We need to make room, so if you want these, come and get them — otherwise they are being either tossed or given away.”
If you’re on Facebook, show them to your Facebook friends and see if there are any other takers out there.
It’s always nice to know that your beloved items are going someplace close — and to someone close who will enjoy them.
Are Your Vintage Toys Worth the Hassle of Selling?
Just because they were worth something in the past, or are worth something to you (sentimentally) now, doesn’t mean others are going to want them.
However, after you do some research (see above), you will quickly see that pretty much everything can be sold on eBay.
The Steps of Selling on eBay
Selling multiple vintage toys online on eBay or any online variation is no easy process.
You need to open an eBay seller’s account.
You need to take pictures of each item you plan on selling.
You need to write titles and descriptions of them as well.
You need to mark the items as Buy Now (meaning buyers pay the amount you designate) or set them up for Bidding (where people will bid on the items and you agree to accept the winning bid).
You need to ship the items.
You need to deal with people who don’t pay or aren’t happy with what you’ve sent them.
As you can see, to many, this process is a hassle. It’s a lot of work — and whether or not it is worth it will depend on the vintage toys you have and how much you make off of them.
Facebook Marketplace
Another online option is utilizing Facebook Marketplace. The process is fairly simple.
You need a Facebook account.
You can then go to Facebook Marketplace and list the items you want to place within the marketplace.
For each, you’ll need to list the toy names, descriptions, and conditions. Or you can list them as a bulk collection (i.e. “Bin of Vintage Toys”).
You need to then wait until somebody bites, shows interest, and makes an offer.
You’ll then need to detail payment, delivery, and/or pick-up options.
Placing your vintage toys on Facebook Marketplace allows you the ability to be able to gauge interest in the items you have. But, much like with eBay (and other online variations), there’s a price to pay when it comes to how much work you need to put into it.
Selling to Vintage Toy Stores Like The Toys of Our Lives
We live and breathe vintage toys. The secondary toy market itself needs constant circulation and acquisition of vintage toys — preferably key items that have value within the collector’s market.
Selling your vintage toys to a vintage toy store can help you earn some quick money. You don’t need to go through all of the hoops of selling your items online. Instead, you can sell them to someone who will take on the task of selling them themselves — after they’ve handed over cash, store credit, or trade value.
Cash
Here’s a key thing most people don’t understand about selling vintage toys to a vintage toy store — the store has to make money too.
Sure, your eBay research may have shown that X vintage toy is worth at least $50. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to get that through selling it to a vintage toy store. If the going value for that item is $50, you’re only going to get a fraction of that in a cash buy-out because the store is going to need to sell it at its highest value (or whatever value they choose to price it at).
If that doesn’t sound fair to you, step back and think about it for a moment.
When you sell items to a vintage toy store, you don’t have to worry about going through any of the hassles found within the selling processes on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, etc. You get fast and easy cash.
Store Credit
Some vintage stores will give you a little more than what they would give you in cash if you choose to take store credit. Why? Because at least you’re keeping the value within the store walls.
Trade-In Value
Trade-in value is a variation of store credit, but more focused on an item-for-an-item trade. The store may have a desirable item you want, and they may be willing to take something desirable to the store in trade.
Consignment
If you come in with a great collection of items worth greater value than others, another option is to have the store sign a consignment deal with you. Consignment deals stipulate that the store will put your items on display for sale, and when they are sold, a profit share will go into effect.
Sometimes it’s 60/40 in favor of the owner of the item. Other times it will depend on the value of the item or collection, as far as what profit share percentage is negotiated.
But Remember, Vintage Toy Stores Aren’t Goodwill
Vintage toy stores aren’t going to take anything and everything you want to get rid of.
They need to be able to have the room to store any backstock collections.
They need to be able to move the inventory by having desirable items.
Thus, they can’t and won’t be able to take bins full of random toys. They are in the business of acquiring vintage toys they can display and sell to their customers.
If you’re looking to drop off a bunch of old, incomplete, loose, and worn toys to get rid of them, Goodwill is the place to go. You can drop them off there hassle-free.
Only try to sell your items at vintage toy stores if you have worthwhile pieces and collections (again, do your research).
What Most Vintage Toy Stores Want
Vintage toys in their original packaging are gold in the eyes of vintage toy stores.
If the toys are loose (not in original packaging), items that are in mint condition and complete are the next best thing.
Rarity is key. If you have items that were popular and are now difficult to find, those are hidden treasures that every store wants in their inventory.
Popular toy lines of the past. Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Barbie, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, M.A.S.K., and so many more.
Some are more collectible than others. But these are the general guidelines you want to follow as far as discovering what vintage toy stores will want to buy the most.
If you’re looking for a list of what most vintage toy stores do NOT want:
NO toy train sets or farm toys
NO baby or toddler toys
NO no-name toys from dime stores, dollar stores, etc.
NO loose old dolls
NO Beanie Babies (they are hard to resell)
NO Raw Pokemon Card Collections (too many cards, too little time to go through them all)
These are just a few of the undesirables.
The best train of thought is to put yourself in the place of the vintage toy store. Do you really think they’ll find value in what you have? Or are you just hoping to get rid of stuff (again, Goodwill, please)?
Organize Your Bins for Ease of Sale
There’s nothing worse (or better, depending upon what’s inside) for a vintage toy store than receiving bins full of random loose toys, figures, vehicles, playsets, etc.
It takes time to go through these bins to figure out if there’s any value to the store. If you really want to sell items, presentation is everything.
Do your best to organize what you’re trying to sell.
Organize them by toy line, toy type (figures, vehicles, playsets), and size.
Keep packaged toys separate from loose ones.
Doing this will help the vintage toy store be able to quickly figure out whether or not they’re interested in your items.
So, having read all of this, do you think those bins and bins of vintage toys are worth selling?