What gems has Oz uncovered this month on his travels?
Our monthly gaze into the weird but wonderful world of collector/dealer Obsolete Oz. Buying and selling since the 1970s, Oz has developed a great knack for unearthing some amazing finds from flea markets, antique fairs, car boot sales, rubbish skips and even the local tip.
Hi folks! It’s a one off this month. The first, and hopefully also the last, month that I will only be reporting sales, with buying being a complete wipe out as far as acquiring new stock is concerned.
Lockdown has at least allowed me some time to take stock of what I have tucked away and, somewhat unfortunately, thinning down areas of my own collection has become necessary in order to make ends meet with bills still having to be paid!
Taking this ‘forced’ hard look at my entire collection has certainly been an interesting experience. As I am rapidly approaching retirement age I decided to evaluate everything and try to work out how much stuff I really need to keep? I have so many different collections and now seems the right time to decide what I’ll concentrate on moving forward and what will have to be sold. Clear outs of the attic and garage have revealed a mountain of long lost goodies, much of which will go into stock boxes to give me a bit of a boost when the trade kick-starts.
Not being an online dealer I have relied on old contacts and known collectors to move on a few bits and bobs recently and the much welcomed help of a few friends who do trade online has been a big boost. Some of the latter have operated “click and collect” services so it has not been a total shut down for them.
A nice unusual toy related item to be sold was a Torchy the Battery Boy badge made of a combination of felt and celluloid. It is so delicate it’s a wonder it has survived the past sixty or so years intact. A mate of mine who specialises in Gerry Anderson toys and memorabilia had long admired this item and it was hard to resist his offer of thirty five quid. It was a nice unusual thing and let’s face it early Gerry Anderson related stuff is hard to come by.
Talking about nice unusual items, a tinplate advertising spinner promoting the News of the World newspaper found a new home with a couple who have a small collection of these table top novelties often used in pubs to decide who buys a round. They gave me thirty quid for it which would just about buy a round at today’s prices.
I’ve been thinning out the Matchbox 1-75 collection quite a bit and an early 6a Euclid Dump Truck in splendid condition sold for a creditable £68. I kept the yellow version with grey plastic wheels which has always been my favourite of the Euclid’s.
A cute Sharp’s Super-Kreem Toffee miniature bird cage tin did well bringing home £55 and showing the market for nice miniature tins is still as strong as ever. It was in great condition which gave it added value.
I have also been thinning out my Dinkies a bit and a postwar civilian Leyland lorry in rust brown with a grey tilt did extremely well making £75. The tilt was correct for the toy as the guy I bought it from had had it from new not long after the war.
Old cereal packet toys are not easy to find these days which is why I got fifteen pounds for a plastic yellow diving submarine which was still in its original cellophane wrapper having never been opened. I only have a small collection of cereal giveaways and I’ll probably end up selling the lot now this one has gone.
Still on the subject of plastic, anyone who appreciates the music of the 1980s will remember 1982 as the year that Wham duo George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley burst into the charts with their first big hit “young guns (go for it)” which reached number 3 in the charts. 1980s pop memorabilia is now coming of age and attracting the attention of those forty-somethings keen to revive youthful memories. Little wonder then that a George Michael plastic guitar brooch, still on its original backing card, was soon snapped up by a lady collector for a tenner.
Yet more plastic brought in a further fifteen quid when a trio of Blue-Box Lesney lookalikes were shipped off to a mega Matchbox collector in Belgium. They were all short of original boxes and to be honest I’d given up hope of finding original empty boxes for them.
A Britains parrot stand with a pair of beautifully painted parrots attracted a keen young buyer who didn’t mind handing over forty quid to add them to his ever mushrooming collection. Its amazing how the birds are weighted so they balance on the stand, but then again Britains did some amazing things with toys through the years. I’m not a big hollowcast collector really so I’ll most likely sell a few more pieces over the coming months. It’s unlikely that they will include my treasured full set of Cococubs however!
Last, but not least, a Castrol oil can in absolutely splendid condition was sold to a motoring memorabilia collector up in Yorkshire for thirty pounds. I’d bought it from a boot sale in the autumn before everything ground to another halt.
Well that’s about it for yet another month of Lockdown folks. The middle of April should see the welcome re-opening of antique centres and collectors’ fairs, hopefully for good this time? May I wish you all a happy return to buying and selling and a welcome end to what has been an extremely difficult twelve months.