To be honest I was a collector of military antiques and I thought that investing money in a toy was NOT an investiment at all....as a general rule. I have since sold my antiques and made alot of money. I started buying toy soldiers because I found it affordable BUT what I'm starting to see is that the real antique items are becoming cheaper than a toy......
I collect these toys because I enjoy them but I really DON'T expect to make any sort of return on them at all, I will most likely leave them to my kids.
If you want a REAL rush..try searching and searching in antique shops for REAL military antiques, talking to veterans who give you pieces whether it be from there own uniforms or captured from the enemy as well as getting an education from it in the process....each piece is rare and each has a story....the value of the piece 99% of the time went up they all were real investments, although I never collected them with that in mind. I only wanted to be sure I could get my money back.....it was inevitable that the pieces would increase in value they were real artifacts not toys. They Were NOT bought off a shelf and kept by thousands of collectors in mint condition because someone told them they were limited etc. People gave there lives for these military items some of which were with them when they died and were sent home to their families.....they all have a story to tell and I could tell you how much I paid for each item and where I found the piece and in many case the history behind it because each piece was a true treasure found.
I had over 60 complete uniforms from head to toe..each piece of each uniform came with hard hard work looking for it money was a second consideration the real task at hand was getting your hands on it. You want to talk about rare... picture this "you have been looking for 10 years for one piece that will complete a uniform...you have almost given up...you have looked everywhere, other collectors and dealers have told you they have never seen one not even in a museum only in pictures... you find it finally in a little antique shop miles out of some little town.... it is $2000.00 dollars, the store owner tells you the piece belonged to a local war vet who was well known that had died several years ago...you think that it is alot of money so you think I'll wait and look for another....NOT....you would buy it because you may NEVER see it again...it is RARE. Just think about the time and effort you lose by looking another 10 years..like you would ever find another anyway, it wouldn't matter if you had a milion dollars like the expression use to go in military collecting " GO FIND ONE"...you would be an idiot for not buying it and you would forever be sorry.
I guess you are wondering what this has todo with collecting toy soldiers.... what I'm really trying to say is this collecting these toy soldiers is NOT an investment in most cases...perhaps the only investment in toys or any collectible for that matter are the ones that were made years ago when NO ONE cared about them they were abused and thrown out. In fact, probably viewed in their end days as JUNK!!!!
IF YOU WANT TO SEE AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT HERES ONE THAT HUMBLES ME EVERY TIME I OPEN UP HIS WEB PAGE....I don't know if you have heard of Don Trioni but he paints military pictures and sells the originals and sells LIMITED prints from the originals for huge money. I have boughten several of these because I like them..they are alot of money. If you look at the bottom of his web page he states he is looking for MILITARY ANTIQUES and is willing to buy them or trade them for his original pieces of art.....hmmmmmm he even puts more value into military antiques then his own works of art which are LIMITED.
Check it out:
http://www.historicalartprints.com/
WELLINGTON
REMEMBER MILITARY ANTIQUES WERE NOT CONSIDERED VALUABLE OR COLLECTORS ITEMS AT ONE TIME THEY WERE CONSIDERED SURPLUS CHEAP GARBAGE..THIS IS WHY THEY ARE RARE TODAY AND IN GENERAL TERMS VALUABLE OR PRICELESS!!!!
