Last weekend, Susan and I spent the day selling retro and vintage toys at local toy show that took place at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds. We even made some money… depending on your math.
As most of you know, last year Susan and I opened a booth at a local toy mall. In fact, as of this month, we’ve had our booth for exactly a year. We love having a booth and all the things that go along with it, but the reality is, we rarely turn a profit. Most months, we fail to sell enough things to cover our rent. It’s a fun hobby but, at least for us, not a great business venture.
One of our issues is that we like shopping for things for the booth, but we buy things faster than we sell them which means… our garage is getting full. We have tubs, and shelves, and piles of toys. Susan has been selling things on eBay and I’ve tried selling a few things on Facebook Marketplace with limited success. Last summer/fall, a couple of local toy vendors began organizing retro toy fairs, and we decided to try our hand at it.
The show we attended last weekend was our third show, and we’ve learned something each time. At the first show Susan only brought Thunderbirds collectibles, and we learned that if you only bring items from a single niche… be prepared to carry it all back home with you. Our second show went much better but we learned even more about moving things and displaying things. Ten minutes after getting home from that show, I bought a flat moving cart.
I suffer from imposter syndrome in almost everything I do, and selling toys at a toy show is no exception. At the show we were surrounded by vendors who, for lack of a better term, seemed to know what they were doing. Some sellers had tablecloths, some had banners, some had shelves. Fifteen minutes before the show began, Susan and I were frantically scribbling prices onto Post-it notes and sticking them to everything. Preparation is not our strong suit.
Once the doors open, all the stomach butterflies fly away. This time we happened to be located near the front door and we soon became unofficial door greeters. I feel like I personally spoke with every person who came through the door. I asked people what they were looking for and if we didn’t have it for sale (which was almost every time), I pointed them to other sellers who I knew were selling those things.
In just a few hours I got to talk to so many people and hear so many interesting stories. Lots of people come looking for Star Wars and He-Man and G.I. Joe toys, but every few minutes someone will throw you a curveball (I’d never heard of “Major Matt Mason” before, but loved hearing about him!). Spread out on our table were approximately 50 old Nintendo (NES) games. People loved picking them up, talking about them, and sharing their old gaming memories with me. Nobody bought any, but that’s okay. One customer told me that his dad had owned two Radio Shack stores years ago and I had a great time swapping stories with him. I like the stories more than I like selling stuff.
Attending a toy show is exhausting, both physically and mentally. It’s tiring to be “on” for eight hours in a row. Every person who walks up is meeting you for the first time, and the stream of people rarely stops. Susan and I bought nachos at the show and it took us 2 hours to eat them, sneaking a chip in beween each visitor. But it’s also physically tiring. I stand to talk to every person who walks up. Eight hours of repeatedly sitting down and standing up on a concrete floor takes a toll on you. Halfway through the day we’d taken our second handful of Tylenol. By the end of the day our feet hurt, our legs hurt, our backs hurt, our heads hurt.
And, we had a blast.
By the end of the show, we had made more money in eight hours than we make each month at the toy booth. The show had more than 500 people come through the front door, so it’s like cranking a month’s worth of customers past your booth in eight hours.
But the thing is, especially when it comes to selling things from my own personal collection, is that I rarely count the cost of those things as an expense. I was excited when someone paid me $10 for an old Karate Kid action figure. I don’t know how long I’ve had that figure or, more importantly, what I originally paid for it. $5? $10? $20? Who knows.
A professional seller would know those things. For the newer things we’ve acquired we know what we paid, know what they’re worth, and know what we’re willing to sell them for. For the older stuff, it almost seems like free inventory… which of course it isn’t.
I couldn’t tell you if we made a profit, but I can tell you that we didn’t do it for the money. Not only did we have a good time, but we came home with one less 30-gallon tub full of toys and for us, that is the real win.
The next show is in two weeks, in Del City. Come see us!
