Going back to my childhood, on a Saturday morning I would go to the toy shop and with my pocket money I would buy a Dinky toy. The first thing I did was take it out of its box and throw the box on the fire. I then proceeded to crash the car into the other battered cars in my collection and run them into the skirting boards until hardly any paint remained. These old dinky toys are now worth about £2 in battered condition. If I had kept them in their boxes in mint condition they are now highly collected and can achieve really competitive prices. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but kids will be kids!
I have a really large collection of boxed toys in the shop, sadly very few old ones but nowadays people realise to keep toys boxed and they do hold their value. Most of my stock came from one enormous collection. The collector was a wagon driver, and I have every conceivable make of wagon. There are lots of collectors of modern models of Star Wars and film model memorabilia etc.
People used to collect stamps and cigarette cards but the market for these is really gone, except for really old or rare examples. On the other hand, the collector’s market is very strong for old post cards, coins, medal, watches, items of silver and most valuable of all is any gold jewellery.
Gold price is at a 20-year high and even bits of broken chains, odd earrings, and rings with stones missing are still very valuable.
If you have anything like this, please bring it into the shop or I will call to you without obligation. I will make an offer which you certainly don’t have to accept. I am looking for new stock and will be pleased to look at anything old or interesting. The hardest part of running an antiques shop is finding novel items of interest!
Please see advert below for contact details and opening times.
