Hi all! I am excited to be among such devoted Playmobil fans. I recently began the daunting task of sorting through the chaos of Playmobil left behind by my hurricane daughter Isabel. Her first piece was a fire engine, I believe, and that would have been around 1995. Amazingly, it appears as if I have all the klickys, orange cones, hats, masks, and tools that came in that first set. Needless to say, I am an obsessively compulsive Playmobil pack-rat. To further illustrate my tendencies, I can, with all honesty, say that we have EVERY piece to every advent calendar issued from 1997 (I) up until 2005 (VIII). I think I was unusual because I actually packed the calendars back up each year. By 2005 my daughter was complaining she had "too many to open each day" and "did we really have to put them all out?"
From 2000 to 2005 I owned a specialty toy store which, you guessed it, stocked Playmobil. I can boast that I had the highest sales volume/square footage ratio in the United States. My store only had about 800 sq. ft. of retail space and I sold between $50-60K wholesale each year. I had a lot of other toys and collectibles in the store as well. Brands such as Steiff, Ravensburger, Lego, Britains and Madame Alexander were also fully stocked. On top of all that, I sold hobby suppplies and models. Of course no proper toy store is complete without trains - Marklin and Lionel were my best sellers. But, alas, all things being the way they are, I could not compete with the Black Hole called Wal-Mart.
Prior to closing the doors on the shop, I began putting Playmobil sets aside. I have a nice collection of Victorian pieces and a number of my original display pieces "in stock." Three rooms of my house are now littered with pieces and parts in boxes and cups, tubs and Ziploc. Tables and trays are covered with cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, families and orphans, knights and pirates, flora and fowl, walls and furniture, hats and cuffs, tools and weapons. Klickys are around every corner watching and waiting to see if they too, will end up on the auction block.
Yes, it is time to downsize. However, as I embarked on this mission, I had no idea how much fun I would have and how very difficult it is to part with some of the older sets.
There were a couple of postings in the "looking for" thread which caught my eye and I am happy to share pieces parts. I think that through sharing and trading, not just selling, I am coming to terms with lightening my load. That being said, I am glad to be here and look forward to sharing with the group. You can find me in the Playmoboard group as well under the moniker "giwedorann."
P.S. I am on a mac so pictures will be posted to Photobucket as needed.
