Turning Old Toys Into Brand New Skylanders!

Okay, maybe my title was a little bit misleading there and I do apologise for that, however, we have been getting rid of old toys and bringing in new Skylander figures thank's to Spud's young entrepreneur head! As most of you are aware by now, I only have one son, who is called Spud (his blog nickname) and he's eight (letting any new visitors and readers know!).

Spud isn't a spoilt child, but where he is a only child he does get most thing's that he wants, if I had more then one child, say two or three, I couldn't afford it, so it is only because he's a only child. Instead of spending £10 a week on three children, I could spend £30 a week on one child. That's maybe a slight over exaggeration too as I could not afford to give Spud £30 every week, although if you add up the items he does get on a weekly basis, it most probably comes to more then that.

Spud's getting older now, and his list to spend his money on each weekend seem's to be getting bigger and bigger, it seem's a torn out page is not big enough, but instead Spud need's the whole book. I wan't Spud to learn and know the value of money though, although some money is paper, and paper is made from tree's, money doesn't grow on tree's but is instead earned. 

So, we've had a huge clear out, and when I say huge, I really do mean it! We started off first of all in Spud's bedroom, his bedroom is ridiculously small and for a child with lot's of toy's, it literally looked like a over filling box, ready to burst! We then moved onto the playroom and finally sorted out the toy corner in the front room. Spud cleared out over 50% of his toys, we sorted a pile for charity, a pile for the bin and the ones that were still in good condition we decided to sell!

I've been selling them on his behalf on local Facebook buy and sell sites, that way, he doesn't get any silly eBay and PayPal charges, and we also don't have to fork out on packing and trips to the post office! Buyers on these sites collect directly from us, and we've met a few at our nearest bus shop, the nearest shop and even outside the hospital for ones who don't drive!

Just some of the Mickey Mouse items Spud had for sale, most of these item's are now sold, with over 40 Mickey Mouse items still left to be sold!

So far Spud has made an impressive £72 and has another £102.50 of products being collected by buyers within the next week! That's not including the items he still has left to sale! We've been selling lot's of his Mickey Mouse toys (not his teddies and dancing Mickey's, or DVD's) and he's still got £194 worth of items left to sell (asking price of items), add that to the total he's made so far, and total of item's due to be collected that's £368 (Mickey Mouse and other Disney items only)!.

Two Wreck it Ralph scented plushes exclusive from the Disney Store, we sold these at £5 each.

We've had lot's of people knocking us down a few quid, which we've accepted but I'm still extremely pleased with how well his items are doing! I'm extremely lucky that Spud is a very careful and gentle child, he loves and cherishes his toys and does take good care of them, we've had excellent comments from buyers who have commented on how good the condition of the toys are!

Spud went through a huge stage of loving the popular Littlest Pet Shop collection, during his 14 month's of crazed happiness with this set, he collected just over 300 figures. Spud has not played or even touched any of his Littlest Pet Shop figures for at least four months, and surprisingly told me he wanted to sell those too, however I've decided to try and sell these on eBay and was shocked to discover Spud has a few rare ones in his collection that are drumming up quite large numbers of interest! One figure alone is at £4.80 at the moment with five days left of bidding to go!

This rare LPS figure has 21 watchers and currently the highest bid is at £4.80

Considering I only paid about £5 at the maximum for the pet, I'm pleased to see it doing so well, I should add this is an ultra rare pet and it seem's only so many of them was made and is in high demand for avid collectors!

So far Spud has spent £45 of his money, £35 on new Skylander figures, and £10 on a Imaginex set of two DC Friends for his batcave. He's saving the remaining £27 of his money along with the money he will be getting at different stages this week for the new Skylander series due to be released later on during the year, he's also got his eye on a few Lego sets to add to his collection too!

I'm really surprised, but extremely happy at how well everything seem's to be going! We've made other children happy as well as Spud all in one go! Spud's recycling the toys he no longer plays with for other children, who are happy to receive 'new' toys, some exclusives that are not in production any more, some rare and some that are just in excellent condition at bargain prices!

Spud is also left feeling extremely happy with money in his 'pocket' to purchase toys, set's and figures that he is now into! We've also donated toys to charity and also fed the rubbish and recycling bins what wasn't acceptable to be re-homed, and another good thing is the de-cluttering we've done whilst doing so!

So if your children look after their toys well, do try to sell the items on and teach your children about the value of money at the same time. Spud is still receiving his weekly pocket money, but instead of giving it to him cash, I've been paying it straight into his savings account for when he's older.

A few friend's have been seeing his success on the buy and sell sites and have asked if I'll be keeping any of the money for myself, the answer is of course not. I once spent my money on Spud by buying him these toys, now he's selling them, why do I have the right to take the money off of him as they was his toys!

I've got a decluttered home, but it was quite emotional to see the household parting with some of the items Spud has sold. I remember the first time his little hands set eyes on them, and the look of joy on his face when he was gifted or purchased the items. I really did feel like Andy's mum from Toy Story, the only difference was I was not as happy with just putting toys into boxes and bags to be sorted!

I've of coursed managed to sneak a few into a carrier bag to save for when Spud's older, I'll add £10 to his cash pile just to stop my guilty conscious! 

Everyone's a winner all round!

Until next time,
Jada x