Collecting more fun and games for enthusiasts
BY ANGELA MOORE
NEW YORK, Reuters
Richard Whalen was a policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan, wrote a best-selling biography of Ambassador Joseph Kennedy and confers with economist Paul Volcker about the U.N. Oil-for-Food program. But his true passion is for antique metal toys. As the holiday season heats up, manufacturers are vying to come up with the perfect toy at the perfect price. But, in an industry endlessly infatuated with what's next, a growing number of toy buyers are combing auction, yard sales and antique shops in search of their next perfect thing: Collectibles that trade on childhood memories. "It's th greatest hobby, because you can share it easily. Everyone who sees our collection reacts to it based on their own experience," Whalen said. "You're tapping into yesterday and trying to imagine what the world was like and how people saw it, particularly kids." One of Whalen's favorite pieces is an Arctic sled commemorating the conquest of the South Pole in the early 1900s. Though he paid about US$300 for it 20 years ago, he believes it is now worth about US$5,000. "It has a couple of dejected-looking Eskimos, a dog pulling the sled and it likely sold for the equivalent of a quarter," he said. "This is something a kid got as a gift a long time ago commemorating something that was very important." About 6 percent to 7 percent of the toy industry is collecting, according to NPD Group, a market research firm. The niche rang up about US$1.1 billion in sales in 2004. While those figures represented a drop of 21 percent from the prior year, NPD analyst Anita Frazier expects 2005 collectible sales to be boosted by the release of the latest "Star Wars" movie. "'Star Wars' is a huge collector propert, and Barbie is No. 1 perpetually," Frazier said. "The vast majority of the toy business is still toys for kids, but toy manufacturers, especially the large ones, are going to think of the collectible aspects in their product design and development." While toy companies are eager to sell crates of their hot new toys, dolls or video games, they are also well aware that a portion of their target audience is made up of collectors. And they have a lot of available cash. Mattel and Hasbro have both built Web sites dedicated to their collectors. They get collectors to register and keep them involved with e-mails, mailings and clubs. "Savvy marketers are continually nurturing the collector business," Frazier said. Collecting, however, is something most people do as a passion, not in order to get rich, experts say. "Toy collecting is an investment in pleasure," said Eric Alberta, curator for the FAO Schwarz's antique toy collection in New York City. "It's not a liquid commodity. It's like owning a fine painting or a Tiffany lamp." Bruce Fox, a Fisher-Price sales director, has more than 500 early Fisher-Price toys that he has been collecting since 1978, showcased at his home in Bentonville, Arkansas. His favorite item, from 1931, is a wooden rabbit dressed as a farmer on a scooter and is called Bunny Scoot. He paid US$3,000 for it. "I'd never sell it, not unless I sold my entire collection," Fox said. "You're either a collector or you're not. Once you find something, you have to have it. And then you want to go out there and find other things to fill out your collection." One of Whalen's fellow collectors, Jack Herbert, has transformed his tiny West Vilage duplex apartment into a veritable transportation toy museum. His collection, dating back to the 1800s, consists of antique cars, trains, ships, carriages and planes.

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