New to collecting/dealing, any advice?
 

I've always liked comics, toys, and pop culture and have expanded my collecting to all 3. I plan on trying to become a collector/dealer and can get a booth at one of the flea markets in my area. But my knowledge on toys is pretty limited. I know the basic rules, but are there any tricks of the trade I should know? Or an good price guides, like overstreet price guide for comics? I dont really have any specific focus, I've always liked pop culture, everything from star wars, transformers, to pokemon, lunch boxes, and movie memorabilia. I came here for help, because toys are where I'm just about at a loss. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

If your going to be dealing at a flea market, be prepared to be negotiated for a price lower than your sticker price. Nobody is going to buy at face value. just my two cents from experience friend.

Generally, the completed listings on Ebay is a good guide for what the stuff you'll have is worth. However, as previously noted, nobody will want to pay full price at a flea market so be prepared to accept that you won't make the "market value".
As for tricks of the trade? Just know your products

and when you display, if they are loose, place in ziplock baggys with a little dot sticker with the inflated price on the bag (so you can get haggled down to an acceptable price)


if i see a table with crap thrown all over, i assume its just a bunch of crap...if time has been taken to tidy it up a bit, im more likely to look,,,,,,unless im hunting custom fodder, then i go in like a madman

The ziplocks are a good idea, most people don't bother with that sort of care because they no longer want the items personally. Boxes of crap are the staple of British car boot sales unfortunately

I know at flea markets people will try and beat me down for a better price considering I've been on that side of it lol but I never thought about putting loose toys in ziploc bags, thats a great idea, thanks!

my pleasure, pluss it will keep evertyhing together and make it more difficult to steal a shiny crinkly bag rather than slip a figure or gun into ones pocket and walk away. i hope ya keep us posted on the progress of your market experience :)

Just wanted to add to this point. There are several online sites that you can go to for getting product information, including pics and accessory lists. Our sister site TFW2005.com has an excellent Transformers Resource Database (that I helped build ;)) and it covers Hasbro, Takara-Tomy and 3rd Party toys. There's also TFU.info and it covers a lot of the same stuff, but the pics are different and that site also covers Go-Bots.

It shouldn't take you long to find a whole slew of sites dedicated to documenting what I like to call the "Greatest [Toy] Generation" - i.e. the 80's.

There are also a lot of books out there that have picture and/or price guides. While they're really good for images, the price guides are best used to give you a general idea instead of using it for minimum price listings. Ebay and Amazon are probably your best bet, as far as getting the most accurate value of a given toy. But even then, it's never a 100% guarantee.