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Hi All, have been speaking to a few major dealers in toys they all seem to say that the early matchbox are very hard to sell now some stuff is only fetching half of what it did 10 years ago. They all reported very poor sales & no new collectors coming into the game. I spoke to one auctioneer yesterday he said the same, superfast seems to be doing well but only the rare ones. I didn't see much being sold at Sandown, loads of empty tables & good traders missing. What do you all think? Pete

Hi Pete.
Diecast collecting is certainly a seasonal thing, My site gets far more page views in the winter compared to the summer and has done since it went onine some 15 years ago. Also the drift towards superfasts is to be expected as the older RW collectors pass on and new collectors come onto the scene and want toys they played with as a child,
Plus the recovery from the recession is probably not as good as we are told, Most of us have far less disposable income to spend on diecasts than we had 10 years ago.

Hi Nick I think you are right on every point, I was talking to the chap from Vectis on Saturday they have loads of die cast collections coming up before Christmas & a lot for the new year. I think we are still in deep recession it has been our worst year ever with our penny arcade, we are finding people are just not spending ( lets hope they are not spending on Tuesday) Pete

Hello Pete, you have got to get new collectors of regular wheel models, most dealers useally have just the normal run of models which the old collectors already have.

While over in the UK I got to some good fairs but could not find any thing I needed I went to a well known fair and all I bought was a cup of tea and a donut much to my disappointment.

At least you can get to a lot of toy fairs, but in Australia I only have the Auction sites to look at, and looking on the UK ebay most of the models are in such bad condition I am amazed that people put them on for sale.

I have the means to buy but cannot find any nice variations but I still keep looking for that elusive variation regular wheel.

George T.

The supply of models is always increasing as more and more childhood collections get offered on the collectors market yet the number of collectors is declining as more die than join the hobby or simply cannot afford to keep collecting as Government austerity policies are decimating the middle classes of the western world. Its realistic to conclude that its only dealers holding excessive stocks this past 10 years that has kept prices as high as they have been this past 10 years. This past couple of years I have been able to find all sorts of lightly playworn loose vintage diecast for a fraction of the prices asked 5-10 years ago locally which make me happy
There are indeed too many of all common variations available for sale these days so no surprises those with deep pockets scrap over the small numbers of desirable rare variations that do come on the market and faking of these desirable variations has exploded simply as a way to take advantage of the only significant demand left!

Hi George & All I think the hay day of collecting is sadly going, as you all know I only try & collect the best I can get. I still look forward to the NEC & Sandown even though the M25 is a nightmare. I look at it as a day out, a lot of stuff has been on the tables for years its either too dear or in poor condition. This has been one of the worst years I have know, I have only brought a few things this year. Some of the more common E3 & E4 boxes I still struggle to find. At Sandown yesterday there would have been a dozen or so models & boxes I would have brought if they had been in good condition Its always nice when I can buy one to cross off the list Pete

Most usually complain about Matchbox MOYs and the prices they fetch but you have to realise most stuff dealers carry is common run of the mill garbage that was vastly over produced. Consequently no one wants them as we all have them already so you get bad sales. That plus the fact older collectors are giving up / dying off or whatever and it gets worse - the rare items still sell well but these are few and far between and still not easily found. I would probably buy more just to complete variations I don't have but with one crappy photo on Ebay there is not much chance of finding them and a couple of swaps a year here with the same old tired stuff dragged to every swap leaves nothing desirable to buy.
You surprise me with the regular wheels as I thought they were going well at this stage.

Although I love Sandown Toy Fair I feel some of the dealers up their prices to reflect the table charges. I went there with a pocket full of money and come home with a pocket full of money as the things I liked were simply too expensive for me to buy. I did however buy some nice non Matchbox items but only to resell. Bottom line is, Dealers have to realize that prices are down but most don't reflect this and think it's still 2006.

Some of us are in the doldrums and not rare diecast.
numi

As a dealer I certainly couldn't survive on just diecast sales, although I will always have them in stock. I've have to expand into related areas & most of my sales comes from stocking not necessarily rare or expensive items, but the more unusual ones. The hard part is tracking the right pieces down, although it helps when you have regular clients and you know what they want.
In the past there wasn't that many private buyers at auction, but now (thanks to various tv shows), I'm regularly bidding against them, and more often than not watch items go way beyond the scope of making any profits.

But, people will always collect & its usually starts with what they had as a kid. The trick is to keep them coming back once they have all there old toys, and for many collectors (as we all know), its hard to give up once you start.