Lynn’s eBay ezine Volume III, issue number 43

(We will be presenting the second half of Linda Richard’s American Pottery article next week.)

OK, I have to start this article by apologizing to Maureen (Mo). I have been giving her a lot of grief lately for my Pfaltzgraff mis-haps. But this weekend, a little tidbit of wisdom that she shared with me over a year ago, is really going to pay off!

When Mo went out and started selling on her own on eBay, one of the first things she listed was a toy that her son Kelly had never opened or played with. It was a Playmobil set and it brought in over $40. She mentioned it to me in passing over a year ago but I never gave it a second thought. What is Playmobil anyway? I had never heard of it and just filed it back in the recesses of my mind. By the way, there is a lot filed back there!

So, this weekend when I was at a church sale, I saw four boxes (completely beat up and taped with brown packing tape) that said Playmobil on them. “Ding, Ding, Ding!” an alarm went off in my mind. Finally, maybe some retribution for the Pfaltzgraff. I asked the nice man running the sale how much and he said, “How about 50 cents each?” Sounded like a good gamble to me.

Here is a photo of those four beat up boxes. Would you have bought them? I wouldn’t have without Mo’s tip from last year! I didn’t even bother to open them to see what was inside. Why waste precious garage saling time when they were only $2.00 for the bunch?

Here are some of the statistics that I was working on. In 2005, eBay predicted that this category would account for $1.7 billion in sales. Now that is huge. I am currently trying to find actual numbers for 2005 and 2006–so if anyone knows where I can go to find that data, I would seriously appreciate the help. But here is one of my charts that I did this week. It is based on the number of listings on eBay in the past two weeks by sub-category. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily translate to dollar volume, but it sure is interesting. I found that Playmobil had it’s own category under the sub-category Pretend Play, Preschool. At 74,544 listings in the past two weeks and 3.87% of the total–not a bad place to be!

So, as soon as I got the Playmobil sets home, I started doing some research. Yikes! In perfect condition, the cowboy and Indian set would sell for about $67.00. Mine was far from perfect, but was only missing a few items on the inside.

Check it out here to see more about it.

I also got a construction set and a doctor’s and nurse set. They were all from about 1976, so I decided to do a little digging and find out more about the company.

Playmobil, sometimes just called “Playmo,” is a line of toys made by the Brandstatter Group out of Zirndorf, Germany.

The company originated in 1876 by a locksmith named Andreas Brandstatter who specialized in lock and metal fittings. In 1908, his son George took over and by the 1930s the company was making telephones, cash registers and various items for toy shops using metal and they changed the name to Geobra short for George Brandstatter.

In 1958, when the hula hoop craze hit, Horst Brandstatter (a technician and moldmaker) invented a machine that could mold soft plastic hoses into hoops. The company made a fortune fulfilling demand for the hula hoop. Horst’s new technique allowed him to produce any shape (not just hula hoops) and a prototype for the first playmobil was invented. It was a closed racing car manufactured in a single step.

It wasn’t until the 1970s when the oil crisis hit that Geobra realized that drastic measures were required to keep the company afloat. With the raw material used to create their products being scarce, they needed to develop products that could be made with smaller amounts of plastic. Horst had been working with Hans Beck (the head of Geobra’s research department) for three years on small moveable figures with accessories at an affordable price. The toys were to be called Playmobil.

Hans Beck is considered “The Father of Playmobil.” His toys were not too complex and yet flexible. The toy’s hands could grip and hold objects and could be easily held by a child. The Playmobil faces were also based on children’s drawings (large head, big smile and no nose). The first Playmobil sets were rolled out in 1974 but did not begin to be sold worldwide until 1975. Amazing, but I think my charity sale finds were some of the earlier sets because they had 1976 on the boxes!

The first construction worker set included workers’ accessories as well as three crates of the German national drink: beer. This set’s packaging caused a bit of an uproar as it showed two of the figures discussing their beer drinking. “That’s my fifth bottle today,” said one of the figures. “Don’t worry, we’ve got enough beer.” You can imagine this would upset quite a few parents since it was printed on toys for small children. Unfortunately, that is NOT the construction set I got–because I bet that one wasn’t on the shelf long and is worth a small fortune!

Here is the construction set I did get.

When looking for Playmobil, you need to be aware that counterfeits have been made. Hungary and China are two of the main sources for the Playmobil lookalikes. These are made from inferior materials, but the designs are exact duplicates of the originals.

Playmobil has been a success for more than 25 years and a direct competitor to Lego. Can’t wait to see how these sets sell! Thanks, Mo!!

So, remember Toys are a huge category on eBay. Do some digging around in your attic, your garage and in thrift stores and at garage sales. Anything that reminds you of your childhood and you say “Wow, remember these?” Buy it!! Good luck to you and…