Buying Antique Toys Online

If you are new to buying antique or vintage toys online its a good idea to spend some time deciding on your budget and the area of interest that appeals to you, and then to spend some time watching online auctions without bidding, mainly to get an idea of the closing prices for the antique or vintage toys you like best. Demand for certain categories of antique or vintage toys fluctuates and like any vintage or antique item, it is the market that determines the value. Rarity and condition are major factors also. The wise collector will go for the best quality item that fits their budget.
Right now there is a good selection of well priced discount offers to be found when you are purchasing Antique and Vintage Toys as usual we display for you the best offers on the market. Please browse the the antique and vintage items down the page and click any listing to learn more, pictures and specifics. If you cannot find what you really are browsing to get within this webpage, make use of the query service above. eBay typically provides the best and most economical Antique Toys finds and it is the number one as well as definitely one of the very most well-known on-line shopping web-sites. We aim to enable you to get the very best prices for items to help you supplement your collection, get started in shopping for vintage collectibles or simply get the most for your money.

What people are watching on eBay

ONE Wind Up Toy Android Robot,Kids,Party Favours,WUT149

eBay Watchers: 122
Price: $2.2

10 - Windup Toy Keys "For Windup Toys" - L@@K!!

eBay Watchers: 121
Price: $16.49

VINTAGE MARX WALKING POPEYE WITH PARROT CAGES, EXCELLENT IN ORIGINAL BOX, NICE!!

eBay Watchers: 78
Price: $586.99

1900s FERDINAND MARTIN PIANIST PIANO P[LAYER TIN TOY VERY RARE LEHMANN BING

eBay Watchers: 72
Price: $1715.0

GUNTHERMANN GERMAN WIND UP MRS KATZENJAMMER WIND UP WALKING TOY W UMBRELLA,WORKS

eBay Watchers: 71
Price: $294.0

Marx Toys

	60-70's MARX TOYS GERONIMO FIGURE & OUTFIT & HORSE BEST OF THE WEST $128.04 (0 Bids) Time Left: 1h 10m
	Marx fort apache litho boy scout? cabin tin litho rare 1950's? LOOK chimney $30.00 (0 Bids) Time Left: 1h 20m
	marx fort apache vintage 19 blue calvery & Frontiersmen with 3 horses $32.00 (14 Bids) Time Left: 1h 37m
	marx fort apache vintage yellow indians teepee and horse $9.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 1h 43m
	marx fort apache vintage stockade fence & entrance gate 83 1 4 inches $19.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 1h 48m
	marx fort apache vintage stockade look out towers $12.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 1h 51m
	marx fort apache vintage accessories $6.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 1h 54m
	Marx Dick Tracy Riot Squad Car Wind-Up Tin Litho 1940s $59.95 $85.00 Time Left: 1h 54m
	marx fort apache vintage flag and stand tin litho 20 star $12.00 (3 Bids) Time Left: 1h 56m
	Vintage Marx DeLuxe Mot-O-Run Model 1000 4 Lane Hi-Way in Original Box $59.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 2h 15m
	VINTAGE Marx Tin Toy Junior Typewriter $17.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 2h 17m
	Vintage Marx Sears Service Center in Original Box $39.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 2h 20m
	Marx Jungle Shooting Range with original box and complete $39.00 (0 Bids) Time Left: 2h 40m
	Marx Excellent tin Ft . Apache building with log ends complete $55.00 $65.00 Time Left: 3h 2m
	Marx Excellent Silver firing canno no spring some shells 2 small ladders $12.99 $40.00 Time Left: 3h 3m
	Marx Excellent lot of out door and early indian acc. Ft Apache $9.99 $35.00 Time Left: 3h 4m
	Marx Large lot of different Mfg. some good a lot damaged $3.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 5m
	Marx Toy Soldiers Civil War Playset Large Mortar w Ammo $11.98 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 8m
	Marx 54mm Toy Soldiers Playset Land Form Diorama Piece $8.98 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 8m
	Toy Soldiers Marx Blue & Gray Civil War Playset 24 Accessories 54mm Plastic 1 32 $18.98 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 8m
	Vintage MARX TALES OF WELLS FARGO Furniture Lanterns Corral Hitching Post $10.00 (4 Bids) Time Left: 3h 24m
	VINTAGE MARX, TIN LITHO DOLL HOUSE. 33" LONG, SINGLE STORY $39.99 (2 Bids) Time Left: 3h 26m
	Vintage Roy Rogers on Trigger Nodder by Marx - 1950's - FABULOUS FIND! $58.36 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 29m
	Marx shootin shell toy 6 plastic bullets $29.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 30m
	RARE .................MARX TOY......FUZZY DOG $30.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 42m
	Two Marx Toy Guns $19.99 $45.00 Time Left: 3h 43m
	marx vintage dollhouse lot 1 $150.00 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 48m
	marx vintage dollhouse lot 2 $100.00 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 48m
	Vintage 1930's Marx Junior Dial Typewriter In Good Working Order $19.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 3h 51m
	Vintage Marx Tin Toy Pink Refrigerator $15.00 (0 Bids) Time Left: 4h 2m
	marx fighting knights playset $35.00 (0 Bids) Time Left: 4h 6m
	Marx Garloo Robot 1950s Ex Cond $39.33 (8 Bids) Time Left: 4h 7m
	VINTAGE MARX COKE TRUCK SPRITE BOY DECAL SET $18.00 (0 Bids) Time Left: 4h 14m
	Vintage Marx 1950's Pet Shop Girl - free shipping $5.99 (0 Bids) Time Left: 4h 15m
	Vintage Marx 1950's Pet Shop Doxie or Dachshund - free shipping $14.99 (2 Bids) Time Left: 4h 15m
	Vintage Marx 1950's Pet Shop bird cage and stands - free shipping $19.99 (1 Bids) Time Left: 4h 15m

Louis Marx and Company

Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer from 1919 to 1978. Its boxes were imprinted with the slogan, "One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them?"

The Marx logo was the letters "MAR" in a circle with a large X through it, resembling a railroad crossing sign. Because of this, Marx toys are sometimes misidentified as "Mar" toys.

Marx's toys included tinplate buildings, tin toys, toy soldiers, playsets, toy dinosaurs, mechanical toys, toy guns, action figures, dolls, dollhouses, toy cars, and HO scale and O scale toy trains. Marx's less-expensive toys were extremely common in dime stores, and its larger, costlier toys were staples for catalog retailers such as Sears and Montgomery Ward, especially around Christmas. Although the company is now largely forgotten except by toy collectors, several of its toys remain well known. Rock'em Sock'em Robots, introduced in the 1960s, remained popular for years and has been reintroduced by several different companies. Its last hurrah was the Big Wheel ride-on pedal toy, which was introduced in 1969 and became one of the most popular toys of the 1970s.

Founded in 1919 in New York City by Louis Marx and his brother David Marx, the company's basic policies were "Give the customer more toy for less money," and "Quality is not negotiable," which made the company highly successful. Initially the company had no product designs and no manufacturing capacity, so Marx raised money by positioning itself as a middle man, studying available products, finding ways to make them cheaper, and then closing a sale. Funds raised from these effort proved sufficient to purchase tooling for two obsolete tin toys—called the Alabama Minstrel Dancer and Zippo the Climbing Monkey—from toymaker Ferdinand Strauss, one of Louis Marx's former employers. With subtle changes, Marx was able to turn these toys into hits, selling more than 8 million of each within two years. Marx then bought the company it had subcontracted to manufacture the toys.

By 1922, both Louis and David Marx were millionaires. Initially Marx produced few original toys, but was able to predict what toys would be hits and manufacture them less expensively than the competition. The yo-yo is an example: Although Marx is sometimes wrongly credited with inventing the toy, Marx was quick to market its own version, and during the 1920s sold an estimated 100 million of them.

In the 1960s Marx capitalized on the space toy and robot craze. It produced the Big Loo "Your friend from the Moon" in 1964 and originated the popular Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.

In 1963, they began making a series of plastic figurines called the Nutty Mads which included some almost psychedelic creations such as Donald the Demon: a half duck half madman, driving a miniature car.

The Company slowly lost its preeminence from the 1950s on, perhaps due to not aggressively advertising on television as its rivals did. In 1955, with sales of US$50 million, Marx only spent $312.00 on advertising for the entire year. By contrast, Mattel Toys in the same year had sales of $6 Million but spent $500,000 for advertising, sponsoring shows like The Mickey Mouse Club.

In 1972, Marx sold his company to the Quaker Oats Company for $54 million ($246 Mil. in 2005 dollars) and retired at the age of 76. Quaker owned the Fisher-Price brand, but struggled with Marx. Quaker had hoped Marx and Fisher-Price would have synergy, but the companies' sales patterns were too different. Marx has also been faulted for largely ignoring the trend towards electronic toys in the early 1970s. In late 1975, Quaker closed the plants in Erie and Girard, and in early 1976, Quaker sold its struggling Marx division to the British conglomerate Dunbee-Combex-Marx, who had bought the former Marx UK subsidiary in 1967.

A downturn in the British economy in conjunction with high interest rates caused Dunbee-Combex-Marx to struggle, and these unfavorable market conditions caused a number of British toy manufacturers, including Dunbee-Combex-Marx, to collapse. By 1978 the Marx brand disappeared, and Dunbee-Combex-Marx filed for bankruptcy and was liquidated in 1980. The Marx assets were then liquidated, with many of the patents and molds going to Mego Corporation, another famous maker of dime store toys, and a large number of them going to Canadian toy maker Aurora.

The rights to some of Marx's toys are now owned by other companies, and some of its former products are still in production. Marx Toys, Inc., was sold and transformed into 'Marx Toys & Entertainment, Inc.' Marx Trains, Inc. produces lithographed tin trains, both of original design and based on former Louis Marx designs. K-Line produced plastic O scale train cars and scenery using former Marx molds, which are now marketed under the 'K-Line by Lionel' brand name. Model Power produces HO scale trains from old Marx molds. Rights to the original Marx Big Wheel, an all plastic three wheeled tricycle for kids, are owned by KidsWheels, Inc. and still sold in the U.S., and Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots is claimed by Mattel. Marx's toy soldiers and other plastic figures are in production today in China for the North American market and are mostly targeted at collectors, although they sometimes appear on the general consumer market, particularly at dollar stores.

The Marx name itself has changed hands several times as well. Despite the similar names, neither of the Marx-branded companies of today have any connection to the original Louis Marx and Company.

The original Marx toys are highly regarded by collectors.

Ref: p.220 Clark, Eric The Real Toy Story Transworld 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Marx_and_Company