ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – New Mexicans are hauling their coolest vintage toys off the shelves and out of storage this week. A famous antique toy collector is in town spending major money.
Collector’s items, long collecting dust are making their way to “America’s Toy Scout” this week. Bill Giese is one of a few hundred people across Albuquerque looking to see if his old toys are worth more than they were in the 60s. “I used to collect miniature toy guns when I was still a teenager. See? Twenty-nine cents,” Giese told News 13. “They were gifts, birthday presents and Christmas, things like that, and so after carting them around for 50 years, I guess I got some kind of payback for them.”
Some people already struck gold. “We actually had two Disney collections come in and they’re worth $5,000 between the two of them,” says Joel Mage, owner of “America’s Toy Scout.” These toys are almost 100 years old and aged well thanks to New Mexico’s dry weather.
“You have a nice, dry environment here and it really does protect the toys. So we see a much higher quality of toys in these desert-type areas,” says Magee.
Right now, Magee says they’re really after toys from the 80s. “When people reach about the age of 40, they want their toys back – hence the 80s – but I guarantee, harry Potter is coming up real soon,” he says.
But even so, toys from decades before that, like Giese’s toy guns, are still going for a pretty penny. America’s Toy Scout will be set up again Wednesday morning at the Courtyard Marriott off Paseo del Norte and I-25, then will head to Santa Fe for another two-day show.
