Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Pay-triot games
‘America’s Toy Scout’ on the hunt in South Florida.
DANIA BEACH — It’s impossible to put a pricetag on childhood memories, but Joel Magee does it for a living.
The West Palm Beach man, 55, also known as “America’s Toy Scout,” makes his livelihood by going coast to coast in search of old toys and comic books sought after by collectors. He’ll set up shop in a hotel, like he’s doing this week with his Fort Lauderdale Toy Scout Vintage Buying Show, and through advertising will invite the public to dig out any vintage toys they might have and bring them to him.
If he likes what he sees, he’ll offer a price. If the toy isn’t in great shape but has potential, he might buy it and fix it up, then sell it for a higher price, like the 1950s Lionel and 1960s American Flyer train cars he bought Wednesday morning from a local man who said he’d had them since he was a kid. Some of the trains were in OK condition, but the black steam engine was pretty banged up.
“Needs a lot of work, but we can get these all back up to snuff,” Magee said. He offered $120.
“I want more money for it,” the seller said. After a brief haggle, Magee upped the bid to $150. Sold.
Magee had some of his own collectibles on display on a table, including some old space-age toys from the 1950s, some Star Wars stuff, and a half dozen or so hermetically sealed comic books including either the first appearance, or the first full comic book, of iconic superheroes including Superman, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Thor, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Justice League of America, and the Fantastic Four. He said everything on the table, taken together, is worth about a quarter million dollars.
His Superman No. 1, the first full comic book devoted to Superman, from 1939, is worth about $100,000, Magee said. That’s different from the first appearance of Superman, in Action Comics No. 1, also from 1939, which is worth about $1 million, Magee said.
Another seller, Andrew Koziol, 28, of Fort Lauderdale, unloaded a few G.I. Joe action figures from the ’70s for $100.
“A hundred dollars for my old G.I. Joes? I was satisfied,” Koziol said. “Really, they were just taking up space.”
Carolyn Rowland, 59, of Sunrise, parted with some mementos from her family’s cross-country trip to Disneyland in California back in 1968. She sold a large illustrated map of Disneyland from the trip, as well as other items.
“We drove all the way from Hialeah to California,” Rowland said. She also brought some Disney figurines that weren’t old enough for Magee, so he passed on buying them. Asked if it was difficult to part with such treasured souvenirs, Rowland said it wasn’t.
“I always thought it would be, but it seems as I get older personally, I want to declutter,” she said, adding that her family still has the memories of the trip, as well as pictures and video footage.
For Magee, his foray into the vintage toy business began in Sioux City, Iowa, where he grew up, almost three decades ago. He was at a local flea market when he caught sight of the same G.I. Joe lunchbox he had in elementary school. It was an “amazing a-ha moment,” he said.
“I ran over to the table and picked it up and a flood of childhood memories came back,” Magee said. “I literally was transported in my mind back to Crescent Park elementary school, in the gymnasium no less, and eating my ham and cheese sandwich with mayonnaise, no pickles. It was just incredible.”
He bought the lunchbox for $35, and was hooked. Now, he runs an online toyselling business called FX Toys! and mounts about two roadshows a month. He said the business, including the roadshows, does sales of about $2 million a year, and keeps nine people employed.
As well, he often garners media coverage in the cities he visits, and a few years back, in Denver, one reporter remarked that he was “America’s toy scout.” The nickname stuck.
Magee says the Midwest is probably the best of the so-called “honey holes,” a slang term for a place boasting a lot of good finds. In the states that have cold winters, Magee said, more kids play indoors, which usually means they have more toys.
Magee, who has a daughter and a grandson, said his house is filled with thousands of toys. “She loved it,” he said of his daughter. “The selection was so huge, she often couldn’t figure out what to play with.”
He estimates that he’s spent millions of dollars on toys over the years, and that he works with investors and toy-lovers who help with the purchasing.
Even though Florida doesn’t get much of a winter, there are still gems to be had here, and he’s on the hunt this week. From 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. through Friday, he’ll be at the SpringHill Suites Fort Lauderdale Airport hotel, at 151 SW 18th Court, in Dania Beach. He invites anybody to bring any old toys from the 1980s and earlier.
“It brings you to a happy time in your life when you didn’t have a care in the world,” Magee said.