Making Money from Toys

Toys are a part of everyones childhood. Any object can become a toy if a person especially a child combines imagination while playing with it. A child can imagine a small box as a car and glide the box along a surface imagining it as a car rolling along the road. Another example would be a child imagining a piece of stick as a sword and poking it in the air against imagined enemies.

In short a toy is any object that can be played by a child safely. With this definition there would be nearly an infinite variety of toys that can be created with any materials as long as it is safe for children. This is the reason for example why there are toy robots that are made out of metal and there are sticky gelatinous toys that cling to surfaces when children throw them.

This is the reason why there are many big shops entirely devoted to toys. Most probably every child once had owned at least one commercially produced toy or have seen one. Toys can be very cheap like those that come with candies and priced at less than a dollar or the giveaways at fast food restaurants that come with the food. They can also be very expensive like those action figures especially marketed for adult collectors.

These are the 4 reasons why toys are very popular as collectables. Nearly infinite in variety and price, made to awaken one’s imagination and they bring back memories of our happy childhood when we are innocent and have no care in the world. Many people even remember their loved ones by the toys these people gave to them when they were still young.

This is why there is good business collecting toys. Since toys come at any price one can enter the toy collecting business at any price range even for a bargain price or even for free. One just needs to be on the lookout for toys being discarded by parents when their children no longer wants their toy because it is not the “must have toy” of the season as usually dictated now by the movies.

With even an ever growing number of adults collecting toys you have now a much bigger potential client base. What is the difference between an adult toy collector with money and a child toy collector with parents with money fighting over your collectible toy? The answer is “Nothing”. It is just a matter of who can pay a higher price for your toy.

This is why it is important to teach children to take care of their toys even the most simple and cheap ones because who knows someday they can pass it off to their own children to play with or as some sort of inheritance.

They should also save the packaging of their toys and as much as possible leave them in their pristine condition. Old toys with original packaging usually fetch a much higher value than toys sold without their original packaging. Even small creases in the packaging can significantly lower the value of a toy being sold.

I bought for example a couple of similar plastic cartoon character figures from the Simpsons TV Show for about $1.75 about 10 years ago. It is now priced at $15.00 when I last checked at an online auction site. I was lucky that I guessed correctly that this particular toy figures will appreciate in value and that my gamble turned out to be all right. Toys patterned after famous cartoons usually fetch a higher value both new and old.

Take note that not all toys appreciate in value. Just like any investment you can lose your capital or in this case be stuck with your merchandise which is your toy. It is advisable to collect toys that you like and would not mind keeping. This way you would not feel bad about losing your money should it depreciate in value.

You could also read about the 8 year old boy who made $22 Million playing with his toys on his YouTube channel. His name is Ryan Kaji and he is one of the highest earners in YouTube. To read his full story: The world top-earning YouTube star is an 8-year-old boy who made $22 million in a single year reviewing toys. This shows that even without going to school yet a child or rather the child’s family can become millionaires.

Maybe you could start by producing videos of your children while they play with their favourite toys. Maybe you could review your child’s toy yourself. Earning in YouTube producing videos may just be your great moneymaker and making videos nowadays can be started on small budgets. You also get to keep and collect the toys you used which may become collectible.

Conclusion

There are still many toys being manufactured despite the advent of digital toys which are video games and education apps that are increasingly being favoured by the young children of today. Many toy makers are suffering declines in sales and many of their sales are coming from tie-up merchandising with entertainment companies whose characters have become cultural icons.

If you cannot afford to be a speculator in toys like buying the latest most in demand toys because of financial constraints you can play the long game and invest on cheap toys that hopefully will increase in value as they become rarer with time. This is what many investors due not just with toys but with other types of collectables as well.