Rare and Hard To Find Toys

This 'toy-hunting' for scarce and hard to find toys is not a new dilemma; it's been with us for years.

I can remember when I was a kid, (and you have to have a good memory to remember that far back! ) the must-have toy was the Dinky toy James Bond Aston Martin DB5 complete with rockets and ejector seat. A definite must-have, if you could find one. I eventually did find one and I must admit, played it to death - the death of the car that is.

A wiser move (in hindsight, the great investors tool!) would have been to buy two, play one to death and keep the other locked away for a few years. I saw one of these 'unplayed with' go at auction for £1000, an amazing return on investment.

Ever since, I have been fascinated with toys and collectables in general, but have never took an abiding interest until recently with the birth of my grandson. The amount of kid targeting and peer pressure that goes on is unbeleivable, and while some toys are instant successes and become much sought after immediately, there are some sleepers that all of sudden become 'hot'.

Take the Wii for example, big launch, low takeup. Stocks were languishing a bit then something happened in the run up to Christmas that no-one can really explain. Maybe it was the constant drip, drip of advertising, maybe it's the fact that the Wii is fun and families can play together without the jet pilot skill and reactions needed to operate some of the PlayStation and Xbox games.

Suddenly in the UK people are queuing up for the Wii, they are selling out in minutes when a store gets them in.

They are so hot they are on fire and you can't get them from regular suppliers. Last night I found a guy that had twenty for sale, but this was from my team of hunters out there, who scour the oddest places, not just on the net, but in mom and pop shops, supermarkets and of course the good old internet.

Some gems are waiting to be discovered, like the Shaman King range, cheap when you can find them, but set for a price leap soon.

Remember Pokemon?

At a time when US and UK kids were clamouring for them, the Japanese had become bored with them, instead demanding Magic the Gathering; items that had dropped in popularity in the US.

Consumer trends are confusing enough but when you add the kids demand-led element to the equation, you really need a crystal ball to second guess the market.

So what we try to do is analyse trends from other countries and see if we can detect a potential demand pattern the seek out the right products.

We put all of this info in a newsletter that you can subscribe to at http://www.raretoyfinder.com/ and also for the Europeans at http://www.raretoyfinder.co.uk/.

We also hope to have the subscription forms on this site very soon.

The newsletters have their own slant as different markets follow slightly different trends, but they do have a whole load of information such as the rarity, current prices, hot items, and where to find them.

We are also developing a 'How To' course showing you just how to become a whiz at hunting the collectables, so subscribing to the newsletter would keep you up to speed with latest developments on the learning front.

Keep Posted and call back soon.

Happy Hunting


Jimbob

Hunter-in-Chief