Marx and Lumar: More Mystery

Having a husband that has collected a multitude of toy brands over the years, many of the brand names are things I'm familiar with ... at least I thought so.  Up until the last couple of years I basically looked at the toys and said "oh, that's cool", or "gee, that's kinda cute" and stuck them back on the shelf.

In the last few years though ... that's changed, quite a bit in fact. Now I study the shape, such as the cab styles, the box styles, the doors on the trailers, the underside, the tires/wheels, lights and grills ... and who knew all of this mattered?  I suppose an aficionado would, but that's not me. Not really.

Marx Contractors truck with tires marked Lumar

The Clean-up Begins!

After years of collecting toys, the Toyman has finally (after years of urging) come to the conclusion that he has to clean away some of the collection.  At least half (maybe even two-thirds) of what he's acquired over the years has been stored in totes, tucked away in the garage, shed, or basement storage rooms.  I've tried to point out that collections are meant to be viewed, shared, and enjoyed ... and that can't happen as long as they're in storage.

But at this point, I'm not sure which is worse. The "clean out" is bringing to light things that even he didn't realized he owned. There's far too much to ever display, and he's honest enough to admit that he's lost interest in some of the stuff he collected.  That should make it simple to dispose of, shouldn't it?

Yeah ... well it's not really that simple. Where do you sell a massive load of collectible banks and cars all at once?  Some years back, he did send a bunch off to auction but he was pretty disappointed with the results. Oh sure, they sold most of them but the prices they sold for were ridiculously low, not even coming close to the price he originally paid for them, and nearly all were in pristine condition, having never been removed from their original boxes.  He found it pretty hard to swallow - an item costing him $30 to $40 (NIB) might sell for $5 at the auction, so I'm pretty sure he isn't going to want to do that again.

Because a lot of these things aren't as popular as they once were they aren't going to sell for the original purchase price, and probably not even close but $5 is a tad low, and that's one of the reasons we still have so many boxes full of stuff.

But this time around, regardless of the price he has to find a way to give them up. He knows that. There are things in life he wants - things he wants more than stored toys. And we don't have tons of time to get rid of them. The other thing that's not so easy is the "how".  He wants to sell them on ebay.  I don't.

And I don't because I know what will happen. All of these things have to be photographed (so guess who gets to do that?); all of them have to be listed with all the photographs (guess who gets to do that?); a payment account has to be set up; items have to be packed and shipped, and shipping prices have to be configured (again ... guess who?)  I'm pretty sure the only thing he'd do on ebay is watch the auctions, and take the items to post office to ship.

I'm not doing it. He amassed that mess of toys, and the Toyman can deal with it.