Toy story of big investors
BUY Star Wars figures low, sell Barbies high and add some Smurfs to your portfolio.
Forget commodities, the energy markets and the banks, the recession has left heavyweight investors with a new plaything - toys.
A Teesside toy auction house - the biggest of its kind in the world - has seen a surge in the number of disillusioned banking and stock market investors pumping their money into toys. Vectis says investors are increasingly attracted by the long-term gains in collectables such as Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox.
The company was acquired by North-east entrepreneur Bryan Goodall 12 years ago from an Isle of Wight firm, to fuel his passion for toy collecting. It has since grown from a £5,000-a-year firm with no stock into a £7m enterprise with £750,000 worth of toys.
The firm, which holds around 60 auctions around the world every year, said it was gearing up for growth this year on the back of the surge of investment from former financial players.
Cataloguer and auctioneer David Nathan said: “A lot of investors are fed up with the banks for a number of reasons, not the least of which is interest rates, which mean earnings are very low. They would rather take that money and put some of it into other things, particularly quality items. In the long term toys have proved to be a very good investment, a five to 15 year investment.
“We’ve seen pretty steady growth over the last three years. All our catalogues are up on the net and receive 40,000 new leads a month.”
Vectis recently sold a 3ft long tin plate ocean liner, made in the 1920s by a German firm, for £8,500; while it is not uncommon for sets of mint condition Matchbox vehicles to fetch between £3,000 and £5,000. The popular Dinky brand of cars can be valued in excess of £1,000.
The current trend has been for toys which were popular in the 1980s, including He-Man figures.
“No one predicted that Star Wars would be so big. It may be computer games in ten years’ time,” said Mr Nathan.
“As years go by, toys are moving towards the 1970s and ’80s. There’s a 25 to 30-year gap. If someone’s 15 when they receive a toy, when they hit 40 to 45, with a disposable income, nostalgia kicks in.”
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