Story in Playset Magazine #63 (1 Viewer)

[Warrior]

The latest Playset Magazine arrived here earlier this week, a story in it caught my eye.

Seems a gentleman's father passed away and he was cleaning out the basement when he stumbled across several old Marx Playsets, his friend suggested selling them on Ebay.

The guy had no clue as to their worth; they were extremely rare, so he got bombarded by the sharks on Ebay with calls, PM's, emails, etc, etc to end the auction early, he claims it got really nasty, so he shut down the auction.

Then he was contacted by someone who drove over 400 miles to make him an offer on the items, which he accepted and then naturally, the buyer started selling the items on ebay; ONE of the sets went for close to 10 grand.

Sorry; it is just me or is this wrong on a number of levels; wrong to assault the guy with emails and PM's to end the auction early, then he does due to being so stressed out and in the end, one of the sets goes to someone else for 10 grand and this guy doesn't end up being the seller.

I felt bad for the poor guy; all over some toys.

Lesson learned to collectors; you all really need to catalog your collections so that when your number is up, YOUR FAMILY, not some stranger, profits from the hard earned money and time you spend building your collection.

I may be wrong on this, but to me it's pitiful on a number of levels.................

 

[marco55]

I agree 100% with you George.People are so greedy.Even with a natural tragedy such as 9/11 the sharks were out to take advantage of other people's grief.Sick b.....ds.
Mark

 

[lancer]

A sad story. Pretty typical, though, of the PoS's that prey on someone else's bad fortune or ignorance. Too bad. -- Al

 

[NY Collector]

Who does the Mag state the dealer was that ended up with this hoard ?

 

[Warrior]

Who does the Mag state the dealer was that ended up with this hoard ?

It wasn't a dealer, it was a collector who got the late mans collection.

Not only that but the guy threw out 55 trash bags of other old Marx items prior to listing a few of the remaining items on Ebay..................next thing you know there will be a story about some collector finding 55 trash bags full of old Marx items at the dump.............

 

[Ragnar]

What i cant get my head around is WHO or WHY would someone spend a lazy 10 grand on a playset :rolleyes2:

 

[Warrior]

What i cant get my head around is WHO or WHY would someone spend a lazy 10 grand on a playset :rolleyes2:

I guess that is the beauty of collecting, to each his own as they say; perhaps a plastics collector would wonder why a metal collector would spend 1,000.00 on a set of rare figures.........

 

[larso]

The name of the set escapes me but I read about one set going for almost $10,000 but it was purchased by the actor who had played the title role. It was 30 - 40 years after the TV show it was based on and he was in his late 70s or something. He'd been waiting for a mint set to appear and when it did he didn't mind the cost.

As for the fellow described below, I think he's a bit foolish. Obviously he wasn't to know the value of such obscure things but he really let himself get pushed around.

 

[wayne556517]

The sad bit i find is that someone who knew about the sets and saw the eBay auctions didn't contact him and say "Matey these are worth a pretty penny"and help him out.Just like we saw on here not to long ago,at least someone on here contacted the seller and told them.
Agree George wrong on so many levels they would of been sad for the loss and the last thing you need is this,its hard enough clearing out a loved ones stuff without this BS happening.

 

[Napoleon1er]

Totally agree George. On the other hand, there is a third option- leave your collection to another collector. When I go, I will leave mine to a young guy who shares my interests, whether that be my kid or not.

 

[maddadicus]

Totally agree George. On the other hand, there is a third option- leave your collection to another collector. When I go, I will leave mine to a young guy who shares my interests, whether that be my kid or not.

Lets see how many forum members will contact you now to see about being your adopted son..^&grin Michael

 

[NEVINSRIP]

I don't think the original seller did too badly and got paid quite a bit. At least that's how I read the story. You would have to figure that if a guy was willing to drive 400 miles to buy something that it had to be valuable. And he was the guy from the Marx Museum. Not to mention that he was bombarded by Ebay offers.
Common sense? The seller knew that he had expensive collectables. He got paid.

The items were 3 (2 unopened) Custer Playsets mint ,never played with condition

So really, the Marx Musem guy was buying an investment for his Museum and he sold one set to cover some of the cost. Perhaps only partially, no one knows how much he paid for the sets.

Anyway, it wasn't as if this seller got taken. Could he have sold them on Ebay.?Sure, but he tried that and didn't want to be bothered. So he sold cheaper and had less hassle.

Finally, I know the publishers of the magazine and they are strictly upright people. They would NEVER publish a story about someone being taken advantage of.
It's just not their way.

 

[larso]

It is a cautionary tale. I plan to leave mine to my son but as he's only 2, it's not possible at this point to tell him the potential value (which of course can shift markedly depending on the times and interest level), so I have a plan to catergorise it all. I haven't started though! It might also be useful to let my wife know where to start if it comes down to her decision. I'm reluctant though to let her know just how much I've spent, in case she starts keeping a closer eye on the growth of my collection!

It sounds like the fellow here didn't do too badly. I'm certainly pleased that some of the stuff went to the museum.

 

[NEVINSRIP]

OK here is the REAL story, direct from Kathy Kern the publisher of the magazine and author of the story. I emailed Kathy after seeing this thread and got this in reply. She requested that I post it here. Read on......



"I spoke with all parties before writing the story. The sellers were cleaning out the basement of the father and came across three mint and very rare Custer's Last Stand playsets from 1963. The father, a history buff and teacher, was not a collector. They had already thrown out a ton of stuff. "I don't even want to think about what we threw away," the seller told us. But when they found the sets, they decided to put them on eBay.

The real commotion came not just from the original, mint 1963 Marx Custer's Last Stand playset; it was that the seller casually added "and we have two more of these and other mint sets to sell, and lots of vintage bagged figures and other items" or words to that effect. You put up that kind of notice and it is bound to have exactly the same effect as what occurred.

So they got "deluged with emails with outside offers." People wanting the "spare " sets. Several guys did write to tell them the actual worth, but in most minds they felt it was $4-5000. And they did get high offers too from collectors not so much interested in a steal as wanting a shot at a legitimately desirable collectible.

So the original sellers were told it was worth a fortune. According to the original lister, that's when fighting between the participants, the family and their friends who had actually put the sets up for sale, began. The Playset Magazine offices got an email from one such fellow who stated what he had offered -- it was in the high 3's. But the sellers were alarmed. They didn't want to ship anything so expensive and together decided it wasn't worth the hassle and pulled the listing from eBay. All of that only took, at most, a day or two and they said they'd never do anything like it again.

Apparently the last email they received was from the Marx Museum. The curator said he could drive out and make them an offer on the spot. And that's what happened. Far from getting ripped off, we heard the amount was substantial and easily topped all other offers. All 4 mint sets were purchased. To offset his expense the curator, who had called the magazine to tell us what had transpired, put one set on ebay. That is the one that went for nearly $10,000. It beat the prior recorded record of a Johnny Ringo playset that sold for $100 or so less. ".....KATHY KERN


I trust that this will clear up any misconceptions. It is amazing how two people can read the same printed words and come away with such different points of view.....Bill

 

[larso]

Thanks Bill for going to the trouble of finding everything out. It sounds like it worked out well for everyone. For a minor hobby, there are some amazing stories about.

 

[Warrior]

OK here is the REAL story.........

I trust that this will clear up any misconceptions.

It is amazing how two people can read the same printed words and come away with such different points of view.....Bill

That's great Bill, but you left out this part from the story;

The resulting commotion completely unnerved him, so he simply shut down the auction.

The gentlemans son said "I wish we never found these items" he told PM magazine. "The dissention, aggravation, emails and phone calls from selling them were more than I wanted to put up with. I must have had 15 people wanting me to end the auction early-offers from New York to California. I got nasty emails from people who didn't even bid on the set."

You missed my point entirely, I said nothing about the guy getting taken advantage of or him getting taken and my point had nothing to do with that; what I said was thanks to the sharks on Ebay who hounded the poor guy, he shut down the auction and ended up selling the items for far less than he could have gotten on Ebay if the sharks didn't hound the guy, roughly half of what he could have gotten on Ebay.

Anyway; use this story collectors and do your family a favor and come up with a value on your collection so that when you pass away, they won't have to go through what this poor guy did.

 

[Napoleon1er]

Lets see how many forum members will contact you now to see about being your adopted son..^&grin Michael

Well, now that you mention it, I AM about that age.....:rolleyes2:{sm4}^&grin

 

[NEVINSRIP]

You missed my point entirely, I said nothing about the guy getting taken advantage of or him getting taken and my point had nothing to do with that; what I said was thanks to the sharks on Ebay who hounded the poor guy, he shut down the auction and ended up selling the items for far less than he could have gotten on Ebay if the sharks didn't hound the guy, roughly half of what he could have gotten on Ebay.


George I guess I don't get it. One one hand, you're saying that the seller didn't get taken advantage or get taken, And in the very next sentence you're blaming the "sharks" for the guy ending his auction and selling cheaper than he could have gotten on Ebay. Sorry, if I missed the point.

In any case, the seller could have just ignored the emails and calls and continued with the auction. That was his choice to make. He took less money to avoid aggrevation. I think I mentioned that in my previous post.

I can tell you this for sure. If you guys read my obit online, get over to my house ASAP and go through the garbage. Because my wife is throwing everything out. She could care less what it is worth. To her it's all junk.

 

[Warrior]

George I guess I don't get it. One one hand, you're saying that the seller didn't get taken advantage or get taken, And in the very next sentence you're blaming the "sharks" for the guy ending his auction and selling cheaper than he could have gotten on Ebay. Sorry, if I missed the point.

Sorry for the confusion on my part Bill; what I meant was the Marx Museum guy who ended up with what was left of the collection (the guys son has previously thrown out 55 trash bags filled with other toys) did not take advantage of the guy, it was the sharks who freaked the guy out, causing him to end the auction and end up selling the stuff for far less than he could have had he simply left the items up on Ebay.

Hope this makes sense.

And tell your wife it's not junk, it's fine collectibles that any kid in the 50's and 60's would have fainted over if it were given to him......................

 

[Fubar]

I can tell you this for sure. If you guys read my obit online, get over to my house ASAP and go through the garbage. Because my wife is throwing everything out. She could care less what it is worth. To her it's all junk.[/QUOTE]

I have one of those too. Told me when I die, she'll sell all my junk at a garage sale for 5 cents.
My art form is useless garbage to her. Very sad.