I’ve been there before, but I realized that I should take pictures and share the awe I feel when I go by.
Found at Shady Lane Antique Mall just south of Terre Haute, Indiana
For those of you that find a store like this, see the sale prices of items you owned as a kid, and remember how little you paid for those items in comparison, don’t think you made a mistake by NOT keeping your old toys. I did, and it was the wrong choice.
I moved boxes of old 80s action figures and vehicles around from house to house, apartment to apartment, years in a paid storage space, only to later finally sell nearly everything at the “high sale prices”. The amount of bother over the decades, amount of time needed to prep things for sale, find buyers, etc was a small fraction of a payoff compared to what I could have done with my time and money over the years.
If you made it to adulthood without all your old toys, you made the right choice.
Even worse- don’t leave it for your kids to deal with.
My dad was sort of a hoarder, but for stuff that isn’t totally worthless like just piling up garbage, but he bought stuff all the time because he thought it might be worth something someday. Like he bought three Big Mouth Billy Bass fish. He also collected LPs, CDs and DVDs. Mostly movie soundtracks, classical music and popular music for the 1920s and 1930s. All of that has value to the right person, but finding the right person is very difficult. I ended up selling off what I could of that, giving away what I could (most people didn’t even want the CDs) and the rest ended up going to Goodwill.
He also collected stamps- first day covers. Hundreds and hundreds of them. I got about $400 for those. And stacks of sheet music, which he bought because he liked the covers (he couldn’t play any instruments), which I couldn’t sell.
I don’t want to sound like it was all worthless. Some of the coins and jewelry did pretty well at auction. But dealing with it all was exhausting. I even tried the antique mall booth route for a little while and it didn’t help much.
All too often the things you own, end up owning you.
because you know as they say,
One person’s treasure is another person’s trash 🫤
I sold all my toys (unboxed and thoroughly played with) to a father and son who collected for fun and restored old toys. $50 for 30 lbs of toys.
I sold the G.I.Joe 7’ long aircraft carrier USS FLAGG /w box (quite played with!) I bought for $72 as an adolescent for thirty years later $1100.
You did better than I did.
It depends, really. I had an old comic book collection, kept in storage at my parents while i was overseas then my family hauled it around until we sold most of it downsizing to move overseas again (for the final time). Sold both copies of SW #1, but have #2 through 30 something. At this point they were unboxed and put on display becaus they are neat and should be enjoyed. Also found a bunch of old posters that are now framed properly and in our flat- everyone seems to really enjoy the nostalgia.
To be fair, the person you’re replying to is saying it wasn’t worth the hassle of hauling it around. You’re saying someone else was hauling it around on your behalf.
I wasn’t clear, it was at my parents for about 2 years the rest of the time we hauled it around.
This feels like the sort of store that started with the idea “I should sell my old toys since they’re taking up so much space” which snowballs into even more toys and even more space.
That’s a great one! I always love the eye candy when I find booths like this, but I can never bring myself to buy anything. Some things are better just as observational nostalgia.
I’m the same. Anyway, if I bought one thing, I’d never stop buying.
I never buy anything at antique malls anyway, I just go with my daughter because she collects Raggedy Ann dolls.
They’re a good place to get useful things though, like cups/bowls, decor, instruments, etc. Plus I like to get my white elephant gift at them!
I might go and buy something there if I was looking for something specific like that, but I usually find better deals from eBay sellers, to be honest. You don’t get the fun of browsing around a store and discovering something cool on eBay though, so I still enjoy just going to antique malls. This one’s nuts. It has antique animal traps in one booth. One guy has a municipal streetlight someone must have stolen at some point. I saw a box of Operation Desert Storm trading cards. Sometimes I wonder who even wants this stuff.
Its sad all the old malls, video game and movie stores here all died years ago. The younger generations arent going to be able to enjoy just roaming around a mall without being bothered by your parents every 2 milliseconds about where you are. You just roam around with your friends in the mall and around town mostly left alone to your own devices
I’m sad that you had to do it in malls and not in nature lol.
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I’m jaded. I just see direct marketing to kids. Feels like I lost something having corporations decide what I did with my young imagination.
I mean yeah, that’s what it was in the 80s, but those corporations aren’t making any money from what is being sold in that booth today. And I can’t speak for anyone else here, but this is more about seeing the stuff I wished I could have played with as a kid than the stuff I actually had.
That’s just part of the problem, isn’t it? All those Saturday morning cartoons were just half-hour ads for the toys, manufacturing demand in your mind.
Is it really a problem for me in 2024? It’s not like I’m still going out and buying He-Man figures.
It already happened. It’s already helped shape you as a person.
In what way?
You’re literally talking about wanting to look at things you wished you’d had as a kid.
And? If my friend had a dog that I really liked and I wished I had a dog as a kid and someone showed me a picture of that dog, I’d really like seeing it. Have I been brainwashed by Big Dog?
I wanted to be an actor as a kid only because I assumed that the kids in toy commercials would get to keep the toys after the shoot.
What is this magical place? And do they have the crash test dummies car with the little airbag that pops out and all the little pieces that a 4 year old me would lose on day 1?
Shady Lane Antique Mall just south of Terre Haute, Indiana. And not that I saw.
Holy shit, memories
As someone who has been playing in the stock market since the 90s, I feel these folks may be over invested in GI Joe and might want to diversify to reduce risk.
You know what they say: “Go Joe …”
If you ever travel to Tokyo, go to Akihabara (the “electric district”) and you’ll find stores like this everywhere. They’re a hobbyist’s dream. I wish we had more of these in the US.
I’ve heard Akihabara is a bit of an overpriced tech/gamer tourist trap, and that if you want to actually shop there are neighboring cities that are far cheaper.
Very true. Or you can find a local who can walk you through Akihabara and lead you to the actual good deals. A lot of the storefronts on the main strip will be overpriced, but there are good deals to be found if you wander off the main streets.
I still want to go some day. Even if it is overly expensive, Akiba seems like such a cool town to experience.
Where are the pictures?
I don’t see them either.
I have even less money for these now at 40 then I did as a child
My god, I can smell the BO from here.
Oh, wait. That’s me.
Edit: maybe I’ll go take pics of my local drive in theater this summer…
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