Have a box of old toys that you don’t know what do with? Toy scout Joel Magee might take them off your hands.
Magee has spent the past 25 years traveling the country, buying and selling vintage toys. This weekend, he’s in the South Bay, where he expects more than 500 people to show up at the Courtyard Marriott in Torrance with old toys they no longer want.
Magee spends tens of thousands of dollars each year. He said the South Bay is one of the best places to buy old toys because of Mattel, which is headquartered in El Segundo. Mattel’s factory store was a popular destination in the days before big-box stores like Walmart and Target came on the scene. He hopes a lot of those toys are still in people’s garages and closets, just waiting for a new home.
Magee loves finding toys that are still in their original packaging, but he also buys worn out toys in need of TLC. He repaints surfaces, finds replacement parts, repairs broken electronics and even fixes damaged packaging. He resells the toys online and through his vast network of vintage toy collectors.
“My job is to reunite people with their childhood,” Magee said.
Magee’s passion for old toys began when he was browsing through a flea market and discovered an old G.I. Joe lunchbox set he had owned as a child.
“As soon as I picked it up, a flood of memories came back to me and I was transported back to my childhood,” he said.
Magee is not alone. A lot of his buyers are in their 30s and 40s, with kids of their own. They see their kids playing with toys, and it reminds them of their own childhood toys, Magee said. Sometimes the kids are as excited about the vintage toys as their parents.
“It gives parents an opportunity to take their kids down memory lane, without their kids being bored,” he said.
Other times, adults will buy toys that they never had — but always wanted — as kids.
When Magee was a youngster, his mother always took photos of him with his new birthday and Christmas toys. He’s trying to collect all 78 of the toys that he remembers (or has photographic evidence of) from his childhood. So far, he has 68 of them.
Magee lives in Florida, which he considers one of the worst places to find old toys. The humidity and insects damage toys over time. There also aren’t very many toys to be had, since most retirees sell off old toys before they move to the Sunshine State.
Pasadena-resident Richard Thompson met Magee on Friday with a cardboard box of toys that belonged to his father, who passed away last year at age 87.
His father, who grew up on a Sioux Indian reservation in South Dakota, left behind a sizable collection of cowboy-themed toys.
“He was a big Western guy,” Thompson said, adding that Hopalong Cassidy was his father’s favorite character.
The most valuable item Thompson brought was a Hopalong Cassidy watch that still ticked and had its original packaging. Magee said the watch alone was worth $50, but he offered Thompson $150.
“There’s always a premium having the boxes,” Magee said.
Thompson — whose friends call him “Richie Rich” because of his love for the comic book series — got $600 for the box of more than a dozen items. He planned to return over the weekend with another four boxes.
Thompson said he was sad to part with his father’s collection, but he planned to keep one item: a Hopalong Cassidy cowboy boot broach made of pewter.
“I’m not a collector,” Thompson said. “I’d rather have it go to someone that is really into this stuff.”
Magee will be at the Courtyard Marriott, at 1925 W. 190th St. in Torrance, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday through Monday. For more information, call 561-628-1990
