Is the toy collecting boom over

[Nightsurfer]

Greetings my fellow collectors

So do you think the boom is over?

I would have to say yes... Mostly due to the economy and to the fact that there is no longer such thing as a rare toy (Thanks to eBay).

As I walk the toy isles I have begun to notice that some of the big boys have pulled completely out of the collectible toy game and have gone back to making toys for the kids. Now that's not a bad thing but it does kill the fun for us collectors.

A good example is Hasbro, recently they began making 1980's GI Joe Reissues and Cartoon play sets like "The weather Dominator w/DVD full episode and the M.A.S.S device w/DVD Full episode" but have scrapped any others that they have had planned because of declining sales.

Hasbro has even scrapped the relaunch of most of it original 80's toy line like "Transformers, GI Joe, and even M.A.S.K (Mobile Armored Strike Command) due to declining sales and have gone back to their kid toy formulas.

Even most comic and specialty shops have stopped ordering the toys and have gone back to busts, Statues and one shots.

it seems like everybody is jumping off the toy wagon and are moving on to something else.

I have noticed that there is a ton of the big name collectibles such as Spawn, Star Wars, M.A.S.K, Transformers and even GI Joe are flooding the pages of eBay and other sites, and they are no longer fetching the premium prices like they were 6 years ago. Now you practically have to give them away.

So do you think this influenced the big toy companies to scrap their plans and go back to making toys for kids?

 

[Turbo]

I think right now its the economy and environment issues. People are afraid to spend for collectibles and should they not find buyers than its more garbage.

sad state of time for collectors.

 

[SuiGeneris]

I'd have to say that the economy has a crap ton to do with it, but I honestly think you're seeing the results of a digital age. Even ten years ago kids were growing up with a combination of video games and toys. As it's evolved gaming systems/computers/ipods have all become stables in children's lives. So yeah, you still have the older collector's, but you are losing a lot of the younger, and newer collector's. When you lose potential collectors you're obviously going to lose a little bit of the collectors market, and so the big companies check out. It definatly is a shame.

 

[Eilt_Druin]

Agreed, the economy and advent of digital stuff is largely responsible. Plus, there's also the matter of overproduction for a lot of things. Toys made today are produced in greater numbers and more widely available than they were in the 1980s. That's one reason the modern toys flood eBay so much.

The lack of successful 30 minute commercials to promote most of the new stuff to the younger crowd doesn't help much. If you can't draw in new buyers, you'll never be able to grow the market. It's hard to do that while pleasing older buyers who have already seen a lot of the stuff being rehashed, too.

 

[SubZero]

collectibles will always be around but the economy has definitely put a crimp in the industry in general.