Vintage Spirograph

Spirograph’s history is unique and unexpected. It was invented by a British electronic engineer, Denys Fisher, in 1962. His company, King Fisher Engineering, did work for NATO and he was a bomb detonator designer. Spirograph grew out of one of his inventions that he was trying to apply to industrial matters. His family noticed the patterns that his invention created and suggested marketing it as a game. While Mr. Fisher passed away in 2002, his game will always be remembered.

Spirograph was originally an educational game and came on the market in 1965. The Nuremberg International Toy Fair helped it gain popularity. Everyone loved the patterns, shapes, various effects, and designs. Spirograph was unique because it used only plastic gears and colored pens. It was thought to be the best educational game from 1966 until 1969.

Spirograph was originally produced and marketed by Kenner Toys. Kenner Toys was founded by the Steiners in 1947 in Ohio. The company name comes from the street where they were located, Kenner Street. Kenner Toys changed hands several times - they were bought by General Mills in 1967, then Tonka in 1987, and finally Hasbro, Inc. bought Tonka in 1991. In 1999 they got rid of the Kenner Toys name and became known only as Hasbro.

Spirograph remains popular today. All ages love the game and it is even used in schools to help students with math. Because it is such a unique toy, it can be appreciated by everyone and won’t become dated. My older sister and I both got one of these sets back in the late 1960's. She got the "big girl" version, Spirograph, I got the toddler version, Spirotot. My Dad tells the story of me announcing to everyone that year when asked what I got for Christmas, "I got Spirotot!!" (Sorry, family joke.)

A complete set sells for about $40 on eBay as you can see from these completed listings:



So check for this item at thrift stores, garage sales, and estate sales. And confess, how many of you had one of these growing up?

Vintage View Master

View Master is considered a toy today, but in 1939 it was created as a home entertainment device for adults. William Gruber put together a prototype and after his debut at the 1940 World’s Fair in New York sold over 100,000 the following year. The device which looks similar to binoculars allowed viewing of 3-D images on a paper disk. There were seven stereo views (the illusion of depth in an image) on each reel in color with Kodachrome film by Kodak.

What started out as disks/reels of colorful and picturesque tourist attractions branched out in almost every genre and 1.5 billion disks/reels were produced for 25 different models of viewers. There has been a Bakelite viewer, talking viewers, bright colors, even a red white and blue model to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976 and many others.

Reels were sold individually from 1939-1950 but eventually there was a significant catalog of titles to group existing single reels into packets of three reels with a common subject.

View Master which was first manufactured by Sawyers has been produced by many companies over the years such as Ideal, Tyco, Mattel, and currently, Fisher-Price. The reels are still available for purchase today in stores like Walmart and Target featuring many favorites such as SpongeBob, Barbie, and Beauty and the Beast.

The scenic reels which were the beginning for View Master were briefly discontinued in 2008 before an agreement with Fisher Price was reached by Alpha Cine in 2009 to produce them again. Earlier versions of scenic reels are increasingly difficult to find.

Here are a few recently completed listings for View Master and reels:

Vintage View Master - sold for $117.50


Lighted View Master - sold for $99

For a free comprehensive list of other vintage items to sell on eBay, click here.

Selling Collectible Toys on eBay - Insider Secrets

Today's post is contributed by Hillary DePiano, an expert in the collectible toys niche.

Here's the top things I've learned from going on 14 years of watching, buying and selling collectible toys.

1.Value can be volatile. On the day after Steve Irwin died, his action figures were selling for thousands on eBay. Even one week later, you were hard pressed to sell one for over $10. Don't assume value will keep going up, sometimes you need to cash out while the getting is good. It's a gamble but you can't rely on the value always staying the same.

2. Little pieces get lost, easy to break parts break. This may seem like a very simple idea but most of the collectible toys that sell for the highest value do because A) they have hard to find little accessories or B) they're easy to break feature isn't broken. In many cases, the little accessories may be worth more than the item itself so consider selling separately (if possible) and highlighting little pieces in the listing as they always increase value. Most collectors are adults looking for that toy they trashed as a kid with all the little details they remember and they will pay extra for those details.

3. Failure to do the research means making less money. You're too lazy to research the names of all those My Little Pony toys so you just dump them in a lot. I buy your lot because I know that three of the ponies are worth more than what you were charging for the entire lot. As you watch me resell the ponies I just bought from you for hundred of dollars more, aren't you glad you saved yourself the time of looking them up first? I sure am! Knowing the lingo of the collectors of your item, finding out what makes your exact item worth more or less than similar items, or simply finding out the history of your item so that you can best list it all adds up to more bids and less pricing mistakes.

Hillary DePiano has been selling collectibles on eBay since 1997. She's the author of several books, fiction and non-fiction, and a collector of several toys including My Little Pony and She-Ra. She regularly blogs about e-commerce, buying and selling online (especially selling on eBay) on TheWhineSeller.com You can also follow Hillary on Twitter here.