Ed Borris put this as a reply to my Just when you seen. I felt it should get a separate comment as it is a honest review of the show.
I was rather disappointed in OTSN this year, not the new items and dealers, but in the Shoppers. First off, someone actually stole some figures from me and secondly it seemed to me that the buyers were very reluctant to part with any money. On Sunday the fastest selling item seemed to be the $2.00 & $3.00 Britains Detail knights being sold by Sierra Toy Soldiers. My total sales for Sunday was $65.00. Overall I thought the room trading traffic was slow, I guess the economy is killing everything.
I have heard there were a number thefts this year at the show. This is a very distrubing trend that people feel it is alright to take from a seller. This has been a rough year for sellers and any theft cuts into their profit. Buyers are very tight with their money. One thing Laurie and I do at a show is see how many packages people are carrying. The trend is less people with packages.
It seems to me that the show has become the playground for the very rich. By that I mean the collectors who don’t mind dropping a few thousand dollars on a playset or group of figures. All you seem to see in reports from the show is that this set sold for 3 thousand and that set sold for 5 thousand and Johnny Ringo sold for 15 hundred.
Is this the state of the hobby, today?
Do you have to rival Bill Gates to be a serious collector, anymore?
Or is it that the big sales get all of the coverage? I have nothing against Rick Eber personally, but I am sick of seeing his room full of “mint” playsets and 5 hundred dollar wagons in every report out of Chicago year after year.
What happened to the fun of collecting plastic soldiers? Now, it is serious big business
that is apparently attracting thieves to the shows. Way back when, I used to take a table at a few of the East Coast shows, in order to sell off excess plastic. It was not uncommon to leave the table unattended and walk around the show for a good twenty or thirty minutes. In all my years, only one time did I find something missing. And I had a pretty good idea who took it. More than a few times I would return to find and item sold and the money on the table or with a neighboring vendor. Now people are stealing stuff right out from under the sellers nose. Is this what it’s come too?
Ed’s poor sales seem to reflect the mood of the general public. People are not spending money on anything but essentials. However, there seems to be a cadre of collectors for whom price is no object. Sad to see, but it is always the little guy who gets squeezed out. It’s a sad state of affairs to see what playset collecting has become.
I will say that the new items sold well, I had mainly vintage Marx for sale with some Conte Alamo buildings, a couple Gibbs Custer sets and some painted Plastic Underground. What was stolen was a powder blue set of Rin Tin Tin character figures. I’ve been to a lot of shows and never had anything stolen before and as Bill mentioned I often left my room unattended for 10 or 15 minutes and never gave it a second thought. I mean we’re all adults, there were no young kids in my room until Saturday, the items were stolen on Thursday. I had no visitors or lookers under the age of 40. I always felt that the shows were like a temporary escape from the realities of the cruel world we live in, now for me the shows will be forever tainted and I will look suspiciously at everyone I don’t know coming in to shop in my room. The end of the innocence.
The high price playsets have been part of our hobby for 30 or more years. Peter Fritz sold playsets for thousands of dollars back in the 80’s and 90’s. The difference was we did not have the internet back then so now someone who has no knowledge of the hobby can put up his playset on the internet and reap hundreds to thousands of dollars. If you want to be a serious collector of Marx playsets it is going to require big bucks. If you do not have the big bucks for the playsets, there are other ways to enjoy the hobby. You can buy reissues or concentrate on new items. If you want high price character figures you can get copies. I keep saying build the playset the way you want it. If you want to do a Civil War theme playset look at how much you can get for a few hundred dollars. There are items I would like to get for my collection one is the Marx PX Building. Right now there is one on Ebay for an opening bid of $375.00. It might sell for only that amount or go higher. I am not going to bid as that is too much money. I can use it for more practical things like bills. If I would spend $375.00 I would spread it between 50 items or more.
All hobbies have a group of items that are high prices. In comics it is the golden Age comics like Action No 1. These items get high visibility and coverage.
Photo taking at show can be tricky. You are fighting so many factors when you are taking photos: lighting, subject matter and crowds. Some pictures I cannot take due to the person not wanting their picture or the material photograph. Even if you have everything covered something can go wrong with your camera.
The next question what do you photographed? Some people end up because of their displays or their stands. George Guerrio gets photographed for his displays he sets up to sell his figures. Rick Eber gets photographed because he has unique Marx items. Having done pictures for over 20 years at shows I like to get various dealers with their wares. I hope that people see the pictures they will go to a show or contact the dealer. At the last two Hackensack shows I have photographed Don Ducotte of Heritage Toys to spotlight his figure line. Don is an old friend and I want to promote his line of figures. I do the dealers to show the people behind the names. I also make sure I get over all shots of the show itself so people can see what show is like. I am annoyed people who do the photos of the London show at the royal National Hotel as they take tons of the new metal but hardly any pictures of the show. That show has two rooms with many interesting stands, but you never see it.
That said next Hackensack will be interesting besides doing still photo I am going to try video. I did video back in my college days and have wanted to get back to video for a long time. So we will see if I can finally pull that.
Sad state of affairs when thieves get into the mix. My major concern is that things like this will escalate and, coupled with the sorry state of the economy, end things like OTS before I ever get a chance to make the pilgrimage.
Further updates on thefts, Ron Barzo and Minutement Toy Soldiers were also victimized. Those are the only ones I know of, but I’d bet others were also pilfered.
Hi Wayne
What this rash of thefts will do is make people less trusting. More items will be under glass and more eyes will be watching each person at the table or room.
I have attended the show for well over a decade and definitely see a decline in show traffic. It used to fill up floors 3, 4, and 5 at the hotel and this year it seemed that just 4 and 5 were partially filled. Where is the younger generation? Without new blood collecting toy soldiers, the hobby is slowly fading away. Not everyone wants a mint in the box playset nor can they afford it. Most people are looking for bargains, no matter what the economy is like. I opened my room to sell soldiers to support my hobby of buying new products like TSSD, CTS and Barzso. I want to give high praise to these vendors for producing new products that many people want to collect and enjoy.
Hi Mike
The shows are changing and not for the good. There are many reasons for the decline of shows. The economy, cost of travel, lack of interest and internet are some of reasons. We are not getting any younger collectors because they grew up with action figures so plastic toy soldiers have no interest. Yet on the internet I see more new faces interested in plastic figures
I’m sick to hear about the thefts. Ironically, on Thursday, Mrs. Barzso asked “If I can’t trust you guys, who can I trust?” when I asked her if she needed to see my driver’s license while paying with a credit card. Re: the age issue, a friend who went with me made this observation: “We’re the youngest guys here, and we’re 46.” And he was right, sadly, on both counts.
Hi David
Yes there is a lot trust in this hobby, it takes only a few to ruin. As to age it is sad when the youngest is 46. I saw this happen in radio premium collecting where the people were not getting very little or no young blood. One thing I have enjoyed in my European travels is seeing parents having their children with them. We see very little of that here.
I had little to sell, so little to steal, and was not victimized (as far as I know!).
I must make two points.
1. The trend toward “big shots” or big buyer types goes hand-in-glove with many similar socio-economic trends in our nation at large. Bigger SUVs, mini-mansions, and economic domination are all in vogue. At the same time, we have those younger people who feel they are “entitled” since they grew up spoiled by the above types. There is a vicious battle going on in this country between the “haves” vs. the “have nots”. Many are driven by false pride to claim to be a “have” when they are not. To vocally support the “haves” is one way these types try to get respect as being one. The trend of the wealthy to dominate and subjugate the lessers is not new but the current push in this nation is about as old as most of us, and got a gigantic boost in the previous administration. I heard a lot of people at OTSN running down the current administration, which is trying to reverse the economic plunge, and I have no desire to be among those people.
2. It is not by accident that HTF is producing the Robin Hood Fighting Peasants at this time. It is a blatant political statement of what we need in the larger sense.
Most of the people buying stuff at OTSN (that I saw) seemed to be buying it for resale. There is always SOME of that. But when it gets to be the whole ballgame and money is the big focus instead of aesthetic enjoyment, there’s something wrong. I saw some inexpensive stuff and some sellers trying to make “the big score”. It’s all good and self-adjusting. A balance is necessary. I bought a lot of small stuff, and a few medium things, as did my wife. They were not for resale. We contributed to the “economy” as we could.
We need less who must dominate and bully. We need more who care about their fellow citizen and the big picture. We have a lot of Sheriffs of Nottingham and we have a King Richard. We need a Robin Hood (Warren Buffet?) Which way will these toy shows, and America’s peasants, go?
Hi Don
When I go to a show I buying for myself and resale. I used the resale items to help pay bills and able to buy items for myself at another show. So I do not hold it against others to do the same. Many of them having fun doing this buying and selling.
As to politics I will not discuss it here I will save that for my comedy routine(I am getting ready to start the videos for Youtube in the very near future.) or in private email.
I have seen picture of your merryman and have order eight figures. I am sure I will be adding more to enhance my Merryman army.
I’m disheartened to see that the presence of a different political persuasion at the OTSN made you uncomfortable. I have two rules when I’m in a bar: NEVER talk politics or religion. I will henceforth apply that rule to toy soldier shows, as well. (The reality is, I don’t talk politics with anyone, anywhere; it just leads to too much tension and acrimony.) I’ve looked at your web site, and really like your Robin Hood figures. Your sculpting is getting much better, and the colors are wonderful. Just think of all the product you could sell to Democrats and Republicans alike!
I could not disagree more with Mr. Ducote. The current administration is nothing more than the old time Chicago style political machine wrapped up in an MTV cover.
The take from the rich and give to the poor mantra alwaydepend on which side of the “rich” you are. Looking at the stats for the so called “poverty level” in this country we find the that over 70 % of the “poor” own more than one car, have cell phones, live in their own home with air conditioning and have a flat screen TV.
“Poor”….really?
To me “poor” means not having food and shelter. Not missing out on the latest Ipad.
The spirit of this country has always been about the drive to succeed own your own merits. Not to have the government hand you something that you are too lazy to work for on your own. I wonder if anyone has handed you, Mr. Ducote, any government money to start and run you business. I doubt it, yet you seem to be doing fine due to you own hard work and talent. Should Mr. Obama be able to take half of your soldiers and give them to someone who does not have any? I wonder how you would like that?
Secondly, while I find your figures attractive, I won’t be buying any. And that’s my blatant political statement. I also think that they are way overpriced.
However, I do wish you and you company well, since it is people like you who are willing to work to succeed on your own without government aid, that make this country the great place to live that it is.