The yard sales have really been kicking my tail this year. I have yet to make “the find” — most of what I’ve found so far are smaller items that I will probably have to sell in large lots. The past two weekends have been no exception. Here are the “highlights”…
This is the meager haul from two weeks ago. I don’t know how many variations of the Batman action figures were released in the last decade, but I seem to find different ones every weekend–there have to be dozens of those guys! The Hex Bugs were a fun find for $2. If you are under 5-years old, those bugs are the funniest thing ever!
Total Paid: $4
Value: $15
This weekend’s finds were a little better. By some strange coincidence, I found two Star Wars Star Destroyers–one wooden kit, and a battery operated plastic vehicle. That plastic one set me back just a dollar but is actually fairly valuable–I could probably sell it for $25 without its missing stand. My favorite find of the day was the anniversary DVD for the Monster Squad. I’ve been looking for that movie for ages, and now I can finally catch up with some old friends.
(Two Star Destroyers) Paid: $3
Value: $30
This G.I. Joe Sigma 6 Snake Eyes is unopened but for some reason is missing the top and bottom caps which served as a weapons case.
Paid: $1
Value: $10
I had no idea what these gold Pokemon “cards” were, but I knew my son would be thrilled to have them, so I popped for the 50 cents. A quick Google search showed that these were Burger King toys that are fairly collectible. That King Kong (Donkey Kong?) figure was just icing on the cake!
Paid: $0.50
Value: $20.00
Anyone else have any luck at the yard sales this weekend? Any diamonds in the rough?
I see some cool stuff Brian. That Homer Simpson figure is sweet. Love the Star Wars, Batman and Spidey stuff too.
Yeah, I really like those Simpsons figures, they’re from a Burger King kids’ meals, and I’ve been finding a lot of them lately. That alien is pretty great.
I found the uncommon Lego whole chicken element, with detachable drumsticks. It was in a bin of Mcdonalds crap. Very cool little bit of plastic food.
The lady gave it to me for free.
Also found a deluxe size Bandai vinyl Godzilla for a buck, as well as a diecast Power Ranger zord ship for free.
Further proof that it pays off to dig through all those Happy Meal toys!
Godzilla for a buck is always a steal. 😉
We bought a huge lot of toys from a friend that we’re flipping to a toy dealer for almost 3x what we paid. There was literally nothing in the lot I wanted to keep, but it was a nice mix of Star Wars Unleashed, 200x MOTU, MOTU Stactions, and anime/video game toys.
Sounds like a good score to me! One of my favorite tecniques for buying is to purchase a large lot of items, pull out the one good piece, and then resell the rest for more than I spent. Circle of life 😉
If I’m not mistaken, I believe the Pokemon cards are(very thinly) gold plated. The each came in a shiny Pokeball, and had to be seperate purchase from your meal. The promotion at the time was a huge selection of different Pokemon that each had an action feature(i.e – tops, water squirters, talking etc.). I still have the Blastoise water squirter from when the promotion was active. You can’t tell me that a giant tortoise that walks on 2 feet, and has cannons on his shell isn’t cool.
And do I see a Jenine figure from The Real Ghostbusters line? 🙂
Thanks for the info Jason! Those Pokemon cards are 23k gold plated. They’re pretty heavy.
Yeah, that’s a screaming Janine figure. I have found quite a few Real Ghostbusters figures at yard sales. Last year I also found the fire station, so I’ll have a pretty good lot to put up in the store before long.
nice finds!
I’ll tell you my yard sale horror story this weekend. After I hit up my usual flea market where I found nothing for the first time this season, I saw signs for “BIG TOY YARDSALE” — so of course I rushed over there. These people had all minty 70s/80s/90s toys that they were selling for quarters a piece. I wasn’t hallucinating this. My wife thought I was making it up when I told her. The horrible part is the seller told me some guy had just taken all the Ninja Turtles, MOTU and Transformers stuff before I got there. I felt sick to my stomach and could barely enjoy hunting through the rest of it. I did end up scrapping a TMNT vehicle, a He-Man and Skeletor bendy, and some vintage Star Wars candy head dispensers (1983) for a quarter each. I saw the dispensers go for $8 a piece on eBay, so I did alright there.
Ugh. there’s no worse feeling than seeing someone hauling away awesome stuff while you walk up the driveway. 😉 At least it wasn’t a total loss, those bendys sound cool, and candy containers are starting to be hot collectibles!
I believe that King Kong figure is actually from the Rainforest Cafe! They have a whole range of plastic toys modeled after the restaraunt’s animal logo. I had this one and an alligator when I was little!
Thanks for the info Alex! You saved me a bunch of time trying to track it down. 😉
& to think I paid full price for my Destroyers… DAMMIT! (unfortunately, there is no sarcasm featured in this comment. I really did pay full price for them. In 2001.)