You might be surprised how many people are in the market to spend thousands of dollars on a two-inch figurine. In this case, it’s a Jawa from Star Wars. To a layman, it might look like any other old toy, but collector Brett Livingston’s no layman.
“I've been buying and selling and collecting for two decades,” he says, recalling getting into the toy collecting hobby around 2004. “I was just buying modern stuff at the time, but then I kind of realized the real money was in the vintage stuff.”
The Jawa he’s holding is no exception.
Released in 1987 as part of the Kenner Star Wars toy line, the little figurine depicts the iconic alien cloaked in a vinyl cape. This specific iteration was discontinued shortly after its release and replaced with a near-identical one wearing a cape made of cloth rather than the original material.
With such a short run in stores, those original vinyl cape Jawas are near-impossible to find today, Livingston explains.
When they were first released in Canada over 40 years ago, they went for $2.99. Today, he’s got it listed for $2,700.
That Jawa is just one of the thousands of items he’s got in his collection. Whether it’s Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Ghostbusters, Transformers or WWE, you name a pop culture franchise, he’s got it.
“I started buying that vintage stuff, and I started realizing just how much money I was spending on it, so I realized I had to find a way to make the money to pay for it all.”
He had the knowledge and experience to make a pretty penny in the collecting business, not to mention more than enough valuable collectibles.
WhoaDay Toys is born
With that in mind, the Livingston family business was born: WhoaDay Toys. It’s an operation run by the entire household, with the family’s three sons following in their father’s footsteps as avid collectors and dealers themselves.
“We used to do all the toy shows and comic cons and stuff like that,” says Livingston. “And then we got hit with COVID… I’d just bought a G.I. Joe collection for like 1,500 bucks just before COVID hit.”
Like many other small business owners, the pandemic left the Livingston family with a sense of panic. With their business model built around in-person events, what were they to do in a global shutdown?
It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
“I thought I was screwed, but then all of a sudden, my eBay started going ding, ding, ding, ding,” Livingston says.
“All of a sudden, all these things are selling like crazy,” he continues. “We started noticing that we can charge more and more and more. Figures that we couldn't sell for 25 bucks locally, we were all of a sudden selling for $50 on eBay.
“You can almost time it down to when people got their CERB and stimulus cheques, because within hours of people getting it, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! And we’d do four or five thousand dollars in the course of a few days.”
Today, WhoaDay Toys has over 750 collectibles listed for sale on eBay, with 2,100 sales made since 2007.
“On eBay alone, we did almost $100,000 in sales the first year, 2020,” he reminisces with a smile, surrounded by collectibles.
“It still blows a lot of people away how I can say COVID was really awesome. It was amazing.”
Different market
When things started calming down in the world, business slowed down a bit for Livingston.
“It's almost like the economy has gone to a standstill because no one's buying,” he says, reflecting on the last couple years. It’s a vastly different market now than it was a few short years ago.
Toy collecting can be plenty of fun if you’re a huge fan of something, but “it's not a stable income source,” Livingston says.
“I wouldn't recommend dealing toys, not unless you got a hell of a bank account to get behind it,” he shares.
While the business has worked out nicely for Livingston over the years, with the decades and countless dollars he’s invested into it paying off for him in most cases, he says the market isn’t what it once was. Many collectors are shifting their focus to cards rather than toys.
“I've tried to diversify into cards a bit, but I don't know the Pokémon cards and Magic: The Gathering cards as well as I probably should. I do buy them, don't get me wrong, but it's so hard to know all this stuff.”
The toy collecting business is a rough one, he explains.
“This industry is super cutthroat… you have to be the first one there,” says Livingston. “I'm on my phone all day long because I'm searching for that one person that's selling something of interest.”
Vintage toys and collectibles can be a good investment, provided that you’ve got the right ones.
“A lot of people are moving their stuff away from regular old stocks and bonds and gold,” he says. “There's a lot of people nowadays that are buying the big super premium Lego sets and stuff like that. They'll pop it away for a year or two and then pop it out when the next movie or show pops in.”
There’s a direct link between something’s popularity and the value of its collectibles. A big part of the monetary value of toys is their depiction in media. When there’s “huge popularity, people will spend massive money on these,” Livingston explains. For example, when The Mandalorian became a massive hit, so did the titular character’s starship the Razor Crest.
Livingston decided to hop on the gravy train. When toy manufacturer Hasbro released a Razor Crest replica, he bought five.
“They're amazing toys, great, huge bloody things,” he says, holding one up. “There's lots of detail, lots of scaling, lots of articulation.”
Livingston anticipated that the more bounty hunting adventures Din Djarin and Grogu went on with the ship, the higher the toy’s value would become.
The Mandalorian screenwriters had different plans, deciding to (spoiler alert) have the ship abruptly destroyed during the show’s second season.
“The Razor Crest we were really hoping was going to do well for us, but when Disney in their almighty knowledge decided to kill the bloody thing… people that bought those cried out.
“All of a sudden this amazing vehicle is gone, and if it had another season or two, people would adore it the way they do with the Millennium Falcon.”
It’s a tough trade, but between bringing in big bucks and serving as a bonding opportunity for Livingston and his sons, the business pays off.
“Collectors, when we get into our thing, it's a different world,” he says. “Different world entirely, because it's what we love, right?”
