Toys to Retirement Weekly Wrap-Up #19
Hello friends,
Anyone having a sales hangover from Valentine’s Day? I am, unfortunately. I was really hoping the momentum would carry past the holiday but things have definitely slowed down. I guess it also doesn’t help that I’m running low on some of my strongest inventory on Amazon, and two of my hottest listings have been taken down on Walmart due to a bogus complaint from a blackhat Chinese seller.
It is what it is, but man I am already ready for another Q4!
Let’s dive into the happenings from this week:
A small peek inside my toy portfolio…
Earlier this week I dropped an article where I analyze various items in my toy portfolio with the intention to give some insight into my decision making for hold times. Some short holds, long holds, and everything in between. Take a look here:
Tariffs and toys…
It was only a matter of time before the rumblings would start to become reality. I am hearing increasing rumors of about a 10% increase in price from most manufacturers in the toy space. Right now it’s just rumors and companies trying to be prepared, but there is a world where this starts to impact all toy companies who are importing to the states. On Hasbro’s earnings call yesterday morning, they stated they are even planning to shift at least 10% of their manufacturing away from China in anticipation of the tariffs. Anything we can do about it? Not really. But as we all know, the future with the current administration isn’t exactly clear and things are changing fast. If you really want to do your best to avoid any possible price increases, you can start ordering stuff that is already scheduled to hit US shores in the next few months that likely wouldn’t be impacted.
Speaking of Hasbro’s earnings call, it’s an interesting read if you’re into that sort of thing. Lots of talk of shifting more of the business towards their licensing and gaming, along with increasing their GIRL collectible offerings. Love to hear it. You can read the full transcript of the call here:
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2025/02/20/hasbro-has-q4-2024-earnings-call-transcript/
New Marvel Legends reveals
The Marvel Legends team revealed some exciting new figures yesterday. Highly recommend if you want to take your toy investing to the next level, that you watch every Hasbro Pulse livestream that you can, or at the very least read summaries. It’s a great way to familiarize yourself with toy verbiage, characters, the toy lines themselves, and of course gauge fan reactions by reading the chat. Remember that article I posted about utilizing social media strategically as a toy investor? Yeah, this is a big part of it.
Check out the stream below and let me know which figures you think are the hits and which are the misses.
Pokemon Center Gift With Purchases…
For those in the Pokemon investing game, you will receive a pack of three promo cards from the 2024 Illustration Contest with every order from Pokemoncenter.com while supplies last (unless they limit 1 per account, not sure). These aren’t going to perform like Special Delivery Bidoof or anything, but if you land a good condition one and get it graded, it could shave a nice chunk off your order. Some of the previous Illustration promos go for $30-$40 ungraded. There’s only a couple more items on the site I’m still stacking so I’ll make sure to get at least one more order in during this promo.
You have to use code: draw2024us at checkout.
Tip of the Week #16
How many of you have a Returnuary death pile still lingering in your home? I’ve been misbehaving and not listing as much as I should. I have a real hard time sitting down and doing the tedious photo taking, uploading, and listing creation. I really despise it.
One tip that saved my life is listing your similar branded items in a bundle.
For example, I have five different Marvel Legends figures behind me, all with damaged packaging. Instead of listing them one by one, I actually have great success listing them as a bundle.
Saves time, saves money on shipping, and stuff sells relatively fast either way — just depends on your pricing.
What I really like doing is placing the most un-wanted figures with the most wanted ones. Great way to get them out of the way and keep cash flowing.
Try it out and see how much faster you move through your death pile, and thanks Steve for putting me onto this.
Alright friends, gonna wrap it up here. Hope everyone has a pleasant weekend and I’ll catch you next week!
