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The Rise and Fall of Matchbox's Toy-Car Empire

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182 points NaOH | 1 comments | 15 Oct 24 20:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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neilv ◴[17 Oct 24 13:49 UTC] No.41869658[source]▶
Years ago, with the help of eBay, I built a "dream" small collection of Matchbox cars that I would've liked in childhood, and that would've practically been impossible to find amongst brick&mortar stores then.

Sorry, I'll admit I unboxed the ones still boxed, since I think toys are meant to be out and played with, not pumped collectible investments.

(I no longer have them, though. I was selling my Concept 2 erg, in preparation for moving house, and the buyer noticed my Matchbox dream collection in a tray on the table, and remarked that her nephew/grandson would love those. She'd just given me several hundred dollars for the rowing machine, and I was moving, so I threw in the Matchbox cars.)

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yial ◴[17 Oct 24 15:21 UTC] No.41870502[source]▶
Love that you threw them in. I’ve found this funny as an adult in my life— you may spend time collecting xyz, but suddenly letting it go can be easy in certain situations.
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ghaff ◴[17 Oct 24 15:43 UTC] No.41870726[source]▶
I have various things that I don’t really want but I’d hate to just toss in the trash. Would love to find someone who would value them for at least a while. I’m going to give moving a couple of them a shot in November.
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1. neilv ◴[17 Oct 24 18:38 UTC] No.41872427[source]▶
If they're practically ship-able, eBay excels at this.

Or, some niche items can be sold on Web forums (e.g., for particular retrocomputing platforms).

I also give away stuff locally, on CraigsList and a nearby university list, and on the curb.

(But I never put an item in the "free stuff" category of CraigsList. Always list in the topical category, and don't label it as free in the metadata, even if it is. Too many aggressive flippers and mentally ill people monitoring specifically for anything free, and IME it'll tend to be a big time-waste and a questionable new home.)