Collector's Blog

The chattering gremlin of 1998 has matured into a real collecting niche, with sealed originals and rare colorways commanding impressive prices.

Postwar Japanese tin robots like Robby and Machine Man sit at the very top of toy collecting. Here's a field guide to the market's most storied category.

The 1990s Beanie Baby mania minted and vaporized fortunes. Its collapse is the best free education in speculative collecting ever offered.

Before Hot Wheels, Matchbox ruled the toy box. The Lesney-era 1-75 series offers endless variation hunting — and gray wheels can mean serious money.

For 85 years, View-Master put stereo photography in everyone's hands. The reels — especially early scenics and TV tie-ins — are a rich, affordable collecting field.

Before Kenner ruled with Star Wars, Mego owned the galaxy. Their cloth-costumed Star Trek crew — and its infamous aliens assortment — is a cornerstone of 1970s figure…

Parents once brawled in store aisles for these soft-sculpted dolls. Forty years on, the Cabbage Patch market tells a fascinating story about hype, scarcity, and what actually holds…

Nintendo's 1989 Game Boy outlasted flashier rivals and now anchors a thriving handheld collecting scene. Here's what separates a $40 unit from a $400 one.

The palm-sized Bluebird compacts of 1989–1998 are one of the hottest vintage toy markets going. Completeness is everything — and the figures are the hard part.

Built from real steel and made to be buried in sandboxes, vintage Tonka trucks are one of the most satisfying — and affordable — corners of toy collecting.