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Cool and Collected

Collecting pop culture toys, comics, and collectibles collections

May 4, 2015 By Brian 16 Comments

Yard sale season has begun!

You smell that? The scent of grass clippings, cherry blossoms, and people’s musty old junk hauled out of storage — thats right, yard sale season is here!

I had pretty good luck at a big community yard sale this past Saturday. Yard sales are where I get my stock for the year — items that I can resell online to make money to fund my own collection, so if you see anything in this post that you want, send me a message. So, what did I find? I’m glad you asked…

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A few highlights: Furby Gremlin, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cake pan, Back tot he Future II DeLorean still in it’s packaging, Williams & Sonoma Star Wars and Marvel cookie cutters, and a sealed Toy Biz X-Men set of action figures.

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I seem to find a lot of Godzilla toys around here, which makes me happy for the youth of this country. These guys are awesome!

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Oh noooo! More Godzilla! I would never have dreamed of finding a repair manual for a Bally Twilight Zone pinball machine, but that is the beauty of hitting up the yard sales.

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I don’t know a thing about Power Rangers, but I always find them in droves, so somebody probably wants them. Surprisingly, I almost never find Harry Potter figures though.

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I cleaned out a teenager’s collection of action figures. I think he was sad to see these Star Wars figures go. He had them all neatly arranged with their weapons and accessories and when I bought the whole box, I just dumped them into a bag. These were for my kids, and I knew what they would do them anyway, so keeping everything separate was not going to happen. Side note: These figures are perfect example of why today’s action figures are AWFUL toys, and why I rarely buy new action figures for my kids. My sons spent about eight seconds with these figures before a pile of legs, heads, and hands formed at the bottom of the box. If you can’t smack a couple of figures together without them breaking into pieces, they are simply not fun. Poor General Grievous.

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Now here’s a group of Star Wars toys that I’ll probably hold onto for a while, at least until I can see which duplicates I have. These were purchased from a collector, and they are perfect. You know if they are being sold in a mylar baggie, they aren’t going to cost a quarter. I paid fair prices for these, even though I’m not an active Star Wars collector, mainly because this is something you just can’t pass up when you find them at a yard sale. This seller had a whole box full of POTF carded figures, but I’ve been burned on those before, so I didn’t even bother looking through them. Anyone want to tell me what those two plastic pieces came from? One looks like a battery cover, and the other looks like a hatch door.

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A day of yard saying isn’t complete until I buy an item that just makes my wife shake her head. This week’s item was this blazing orange cold water immersion survival suit. We live a hundred miles from the ocean, so finding this in someone’s yard around here is a mystery. After a bit of Google searching, I learned that this is from a retired US Navy ship that once ferried Saturn missiles around — how could I pass that up?!? I also picked up a used long board that might make a great shelf, and a giant monkey, because, well, monkey.

So, that’s a wrap for the first weekend of yard sale hunting this season. Did you find anything cool this weekend? Do tell!

Filed Under: Toys Tagged With: Godzilla, Star Wars, Yard Sales

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Will West says

    May 4, 2015 at 12:42 pm

    Nice finds! Sales on this side of the river are starting to pick up, but I’ve yet to find anything stellar yet. I remember that X-Men Mutant Hall of Fame set. The thing that grinds my gears about it is that the figures don’t come off the stands. You think you’re getting a readymade figure collection, when they’re basically just trophies.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      May 4, 2015 at 1:20 pm

      Yeah, but these figures won’t fall down like dominoes every time your cat bumps the shelf. 😉

      Reply
  2. Mike says

    May 4, 2015 at 12:58 pm

    No yard sales but I went thrifting and to a flea market. Here are my finds:

    12:” S TAR WARS REBELS Stormtrooper figure loose $1
    barely used pair of MMA shin guards $4
    10 VHS tapes (SUPER MARIO BROTHERS, CONAN and CONAN:THE DESTROYER, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER 3, OUT FOR BLOOD, CODE OF SILENCE, GUN SHY, COYOTE UGLY, THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN, etc)
    2 Monster High dolls for the kids $4
    LEGEND OF ZORRO dvd $1
    12 pack of Prismacolor art markers $3

    Reply
    • Brian says

      May 4, 2015 at 1:24 pm

      Nice! Surprisingly, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a Monster High doll yet. You’d think those would be fairly common.

      i think If I saw those VHS tapes in the wild, I probably would have bought them too — and I don’t even have a VCR anymore!

      Reply
  3. Mike Gutierrez says

    May 4, 2015 at 1:13 pm

    Great finds. I haven’t done the yard sales yet, but I am always thrifting. I haven’t found anything of note.

    If you have any Luke Skywalker figures I would be interested.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      May 4, 2015 at 1:24 pm

      I’ll keep an eye out for you Mike!

      Reply
  4. LasVegasYankee says

    May 4, 2015 at 3:30 pm

    Nice finds. The grey hatch I’m pretty sure belongs to an AT-AT. I’ll double check when I get home. And when you decide to sell some of the vintage Star Wars stuff, hit me up.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      May 4, 2015 at 3:38 pm

      Will do Jathniel, thanks!

      Reply
      • LasVegasYankee says

        May 5, 2015 at 10:15 am

        The grey cover is the battery cover from the inside of the AT-AT which, is crazy or ironic, now seems to be missing from my AT-AT. I know it’s in my mancave somewhere. However, let me know if you decide to sell it (just in case I haven’t found mine be then).

        Reply
  5. john gaither says

    May 4, 2015 at 5:00 pm

    Some awesome finds!

    Reply
  6. Stunt Zombie says

    May 5, 2015 at 7:21 am

    Those are some amazing scores, especially the vintage figures. I definitely need to go yard sales in your neck of the woods. No one is ever selling stuff like that around here. You’re set if you want nick-nacks or baby clothes, but other than that, it’s literally just junk.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      May 5, 2015 at 8:29 am

      Yeah, the suburbs around here are blessed with a ton of teenagers outgrowing their toys and young parents unloading their childhood toys to make way for baby. Of course, we get our fair share of baby toys, and pure junk too, but you have to sift through it all and hope to get lucky!

      Reply
  7. jSarie says

    May 5, 2015 at 11:41 am

    Those are some seriously solid finds! Love that full Toy Biz set – and in the box too!

    I’ve been holding off on hitting any yard sales until I’ve moved at the end of them month, but luckily (or unluckily, maybe?) even the ones I’ve come across accidentally haven’t offered much…

    Reply
  8. PopRewind (@PopRewindOnline) says

    May 5, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    Awesome finds! I have that Turtles cake pan somewhere. I remember baking a cake with it in my 20s and then when it came to decorating it I was like, “Nah, too much work,” and just smothered it in a can of Funfetti icing.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      May 5, 2015 at 12:07 pm

      Ha! Those cake pans are pretty collectible. I found another one last year and sold it for over $30 — I hope to do the same with this one. I guess they never remade this pan and the new generation of fans want their cakes to eat too! 😉

      Reply
  9. Lyric says

    May 5, 2015 at 2:43 pm

    If you ever come across any marvel legends, I’d be interested in them for a fair price.

    Reply

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