The yard sale gods finally shined down on me this weekend. It’s been tough to find anything really great so far this year, but today the tides turned and I found a great assortment of fun stuff. I went to two large church sales and one yard sale. The church sales are great if you get there when the doors open, but if you’re ten minutes late, they are picked clean of anything worthwhile.
The highlight of my day happened within the first 20 seconds, when I found this Micronaut Giant Acroyear in a pile of board games! You don’t find 35 year old toys in their box very often at yard sales. The blue painter’s tape came off without damaging the box, so for me, this was a mega-score for 50 cents.
After opening the box, unfortunately the Giant Acroyear wasn’t complete, but it had most of the pieces to form the large robot. A bonus inside the box were two figures that weren’t supposed to be in there. The figures alone are worth about $10-15 each. Score!
Paid: $0.50
Value: $35.00
All these Star Wars action figures were in a ziploc bag and cost 75 cents. The big score was the Marvel Legends Collossus figure, which sells for $20 on eBay. Not a bad return on my 25 cent investment.
Paid: $1.25
Value: $25.00
More Star Wars toys! These Galactic Heroes vehicles and figures are a lot of fun — not too valuable by themselves, but I’ll sell them in a lot and can probably make a tidy profit.
Paid: $3.00
Value: $20.00
This was a fun find that will stay in my collection. I never bought into the World of Simpsons figure line, but if I did, this would have been the figure I would have wanted the most. Playmates released so many figures, they pretty much saturated the market, and as a result, most of the figures aren’t worth very much, which is too bad, because they really are pretty great. This figure was in a box filled with unopened Spawn figures and a really tempting McFarlane Snake Plissken, but they were priced at $10 each, so I left them behind.
Paid: $1.00
Value: $7.00
Somebody help me out! I have no idea what this big transformer-looking toy is, and I can’t find any markings on it. I thought it might be a Star Wars Death Star but now I don’t think so. I figured it was worth at least a buck.
Paid: $1.00
Value: ???
The irony of finding that devilish Ben Cooper jiggler at a church sale is not lost on me. That guy is awesome and will stay with me unless someone wants to trade me a Batman or Planet of the Apes jiggler for it! The Go-Bots Warpath helicopter is in pretty good shape, and look, a He-Man Laser Bolt vehicle! For some reason, I keep buying Sony radios and Walkmen. One of these days I will put up a huge lot of them on eBay.
Paid: $1.50
Value: $40.00
Certainly not pop culture, but this antique stenography machine just called to me. After talking with the seller, I learned that it was used by his father when he was a military court reporter in the 40’s. This thing is in great shape, and old mechanical items always get my interest. There are two of these up on eBay now with asking prices of $100 and $150, so it’s probably worth half of that.
Paid: $3.00
Value: $50.00
I found some great vintage toys but my favorite find of the day is this antique toolbox. It’s painted metal and has a copper handle and latch. This thing has seen some action and is going to look great in the cave.
Paid: $3.00
Value: ???
So, it was a fun day of treasure hunting for me. Anyone else have any luck? What did you find?
The big blue transformer is Cybertron Primus. He is a 2006 Transformer that turns into a planet. What is the little green monster head guy?
I am jealous of your luck.
This weekend I got a Lego Batman Ultimate Collector Batmobile, the Lego Batman tumbler, and a bunch of lego star wars stuff, all for 80 bucks.
I was just ten minutes late to score three big bins of lego for 12 bucks each, darn it.
Thanks for the info. It looks like that Cybertron primus is missing a piece, but should sell for at least $20! Drinks are on me!
That bendy figure is a cheap Frankenstein figure that’s probably new. I actually got a half dozen bendy figures that are mummies and witches too, but the Frankie was the best looking one.
You made some major scores if those Batman sets are complete with their boxes and minifigs. I sold my Tumbler a couple of years ago for $280! Waaaay more than what I was expecting.
I’m curious as to whether you have any strategy for hitting the yard sales. Do you look at the newspaper to see if anything is specifically mentioned, or do you just drive around and stop whenever you see a sign on the road?
I check Craigslist on Friday evening and find the sales that are nearby. I will hit any church sales or neighborhood sales first. Rarely do I just hop in the car and drive around looking for signs, but if i see one that looks promising, I will definitely stop.
Nice score! What you have there is a Supreme Class Transformers Cybertron Primus.
Thanks Will! (I sent you a DM the other day. Check your Twitter.)
That Galactic Heroes Falcon might be the first version that was released based on the Han, Chewie and 3P0 you picked up. Not sure if there’s any difference in market price for an “original” one w/o box. It may have a Playskool copyright on it instead of Hasbro since the line started out as there before it became Galactic Heroes.
Looks like you scored a Fisher-Price jet there too. Awesome!
Cool, I’ll check out the Falcon, but from what I didn’t see too much value in any of those by themselves. My kids might claim those for a while 😉
Yeah, that FP jet was quarter, so it had to come home with me. I’ll add it to the next mega lot of FP Little People that I have been gathering. 😉
Wow! What awesome scores Brian and i so want those Micronauts. You just don’t find those in the wild like that and it goes to show check everything and everywhere because you just don’t know what you will find. Good job on these finds.
Thanks Jboy. I think this is the first Micronaut toy I’ve owned since the ones I had as a kid. Surprisingly, they really aren’t all that valuable. There were rumors of a Micronauts movie not too long ago, so maybe if that happens, these old toys will get their due.
Wow….I never have that kinda luck, you have some nice finds! Thanks for the tip, I usually check the newspaper but now I’ll be checking Craigslist! I cant believe I didnt think of that.. DUH!!
Thanks Mike. I don’t know about other parts of the country, but here in Virginia, the newspapers classified sections are severely lacking these days. Craigslist seems to be the best place to find the hot sales. Good luck!
I never have such luck. I hit a couple of thrift stores and found nothing.
I am extremely jelous (ain’t I always?) of your Star Wars finds. Been looking to expand my Luke Skywalker collection on the cheap and I see your doing a bang up job of it :p
And I just got outbid on a vintage Spidey Head Bust Bank on ebay.
My weekend ended on a fantastic note, lol.
Great stuff. What’s that crazy armored Batman figure?
Who knows! They must have produced dozens of those Batman figures with crazy outfits and accessories. I find them all over the place.
I don’t have any of my Micronauts any longer. One of Mego’s greats. What a score! I really need to check out some yard sales.
are the micronauts (Force Commander & Baron Karza) worth the asking/sale price? just saw a used force commander and horse, oberon, in torn boxes with wording in german for $112.50. bought a bunch for my son in the 70s and would like to add some as my son’s children like to play with them.
hi there.
i think i purchased your toolbox yesterday at the Alameda Antiques Fair. Were you ever able to figure out what it was used for? i have quite a few unusual toolboxes, but this one is really great. i think it’s the exact same one you had. see pics here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eastbaywilds/13687481975/
Very cool! Not my toolbox though, because mine is still sitting here beside me. 😉 Nice find!