SMALL FORTUNES: TOYS AS TREASURE
‘Toy Scout’ will value, or buy, your trinkets this weekend
A 1940 Batman comic book. Retail: $100,000.
A Tabitha baby doll from the popular TV show “Bewitched.” Retail: $5,000.
A Star Trek metal lunchbox. An easy $1,000.
These are the childhood treasures and mementos pulled from attics and toy chests across the country that have landed in Joel Magee’s sprawling estate west of West Palm Beach.
Now Magee, who calls himself “America’s Toy Scout,” is hosting events in Boca Raton and Dania Beach — on the hunt for rare toys that would make collectors’ hearts flutter. Starting today, you’ll be able to sell your valuable toys.
Toy-scouting events have surged in popularity through the years, says Terry Kovel, the owner of Cleveland-based Kovels.com, a website
about the values of antiques, including toys. “Toys are so hot, you can’t believe it,” she said. “Toys have always been good sellers. And if it moves and makes noise, it’s better.”
“You remember what you loved as a kid,” she said. “It’s fun to find it.”
Toy owners with a piece they think has value may get it appraised by Magee, or sell it to him. More cash goes to those with toys already in good condition, or rare. Magee has his computer ready to double check an item he isn’t sure about.
Magee’s South Florida Vintage Toy Buying Show will be 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today and Friday at the Fairfield Inn & Suites, 3400 Airport Road, in Boca Raton. It will continue 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott, 2081 Griffin Road, in Dania Beach.
Magee, 56, has dealt with Pez dispensers, Star Wars and Beatles memorabilia, superhero figurines, baseball cards, comic books from the 1940s to 1960s, and Hot Wheels. There are board games from iconic TV shows, such as “The Brady Bunch.” Metal lunchboxes are ready for sale from “Underdog,” “Bonanza,” “The Flintstones” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
He said toys make people happy — and he has turned that into a thriving business.
“Those were the happy times,” he said. “The worst thing we had to do is make our beds and get mom off our back. Our job was to go out and play. It’s nice to go back and visit our childhood if only for a moment.”
Each year he treks nationwide at least 30 times a year to buy toys and then restores them to mint condition and sells them to buyers through Amazon or eBay.
Some of the best goods came from events in snowy states, where moms tend to overbuy to keep their cooped-up kids busy, he said. He has hosted his event four times in South Florida, and it has led him to find some of the rarest comic books, among other great finds.
He said he sells about $500,000 worth of merchandise a year and his business, Toy Scout, has grown to include a staff of seven who package products for shipping and restore toys (Tips: The way to get gum out of Barbie’s hair is with a drop of peanut butter, then rinse. To get the frizz out of her hair, steam it). There’s a specialist for dolls, and another for battery-operated toys.
Toys make up almost half of his 9,800-square-foot home. The toys are stored there, and also fixed and shipped from there.
Magee, an entrepreneur who said he made money in both the stock market and buying condos in Singer Island, rehabbing them and then flipping them to a developer, said he accidentally got into the toy business in 1986 while at a flea market in Iowa. He saw a G.I. Joe lunchbox, the same type he used to take his ham and cheese sandwich to school in 1967.
“I was transported ever so shortly back to my childhood,” he said.
He bought it for $30, even though it was probably $3 when it was new. “Since then I’ve been on a mission to complete my childhood and bring it back to me.”
Now he deals with the sellers: The people who had a premonition to buy and save, the ones needing quick cash, or there are no owners left and the toys come from estate sales. There also are parents who find toys while cleaning their adult children’s bedroom.
“A lot of times people are downsizing,” he said. “They want to see them go to a good home.”
And then there are buyers, those who perhaps want to start or complete a collection.
“Collectors are passionate,” he said. “They turn their houses into museums.”