NOSTALGIA no longer reigns as the primary motivator of toy collectors. A new breed of speculative purchasers who view toys as investments has emerged in recent years. Speculators periodically clear retail shelves, buying thousands of in-vogue products such as Beanie Babies to resell later to collectors.
The speculators and growing numbers of children who acquire toys for collections-rather than for play-are the biggest trends in the secondary (or collector’s) toy market, says Sharon Korbeck, editor of Toy Shop magazine.
Toy Shop subscribers attend five to six secondary market shows annually on average.
“We’ve seen a lot of activity in the secondary market over the last 20 years,” Korbeck says.
What surprises Korbeck most are the children she’s seen during the last five years at trade shows targeting collectors.
“Kids are starting to collect toys like adults,” she claims.
The largest market segments are die-cast miniature vehicles, action figures like Spider-Man, dolls and so-called plush toys like Beanie Babies. Korbeck says the only toys not presently sought after by collectors are preschool toys.
Ultimately, every segment of the collectibles market can trace its heritage back to toys, says collectibles expert Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing Inc., a market research firm in Stevens, PA.
The evolution of collectibles might be best illustrated by this example: Decorative plates and miniature tea sets-products once made exclusively for children as toys-now also are marketed to adults as collectibles, according to Danziger.
Toy manufacturers have come to view young children who play with toys and adult toy collectors who are young at heart as two distinct markets.
* U.S. toy sales total $5.5 billion annually, including $1.38 billion in exports. Worldwide, about 36% of toy industry revenues are derived from U.S. sales. Mail orders account for approximately 4.6% of domestic toy sales.
* Sales of teddy bears and other stuffed animals to collectors amounts to some $441 million annually within the larger $2.4 billion market for collectible plush toys.
* An estimated 10 million households collect action figures that originate in movies, television and comic books, spending $2.1 billion per year on their hobby.
* Sales of collectible dolls are projected to reach $2.3 billion by 2000, comprising about one-third of all doll sales. Among the 8.8 million doll collectors in the United States, about 15% are men.
* Since Barbie was “born” in 1959, more than 1 billion Barbie dolls have been sold in more than 140 nations. Presently about two Barbies are sold every second. More than 105 million yards of fabric have been used to make clothing for her, making Mattel Corp. one of the largest apparel manufacturers in the world.
* About 6 million adults-mostly men-spend $1.7 billion annually to collect miniature die-cast cars, trucks and farm machinery. They spend an average of $30 per replica.
* Mr. Potato Head was the first toy ever advertised on television in 1952, when two-thirds of U.S. households with TVs had children under age 12.
* The inspiration for Lincoln Logs came from Frank Lloyd Wright. Construction techniques developed by Wright for building the earthquake-resistant foundation of Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel inspired his son John Lloyd Wright to later invent this classic toy.
Sources: Toy Manufacturers of America Inc., New York; Unity Marketing Inc., Stevens, PA
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