End of an Era

As the British summer wanes it was an apt time to receive a letter from the bank stating 

The said account was my old vintage toy business and the letter marks the the end of a twenty year ride.

Inactive for years now, as is my original eBay business account, I began the enterprise in 2005 after leaving my old career in charity management. 

It was a golden moment to be honest as I detested my old job. The prospect of buying and selling vintage toys full time was just too good an opportunity to pass up. After all, I'd sort of been building up to it since the early 1990's with my mail order offer and cellar 'shop' in our old house, both of which were great fun.

In Autumn 2005 I launched Mad About Monsters.

As with all small ventures setting out, I had tons of enthusiasm to get it going. To this I added an attic office, business cards designed by my daughter, an eBay shop, lots of stock and the aforementioned account.

I sold thousands of items on eBay back then. I also stood at more toy fairs than previously and gave our as many cards as I could.

I also had customers outside of eBay, for whom I tracked down new lines such as Mego re-issues. I also sold vintage toys for other people Including a vast Meccano collection for my late old pal Richard, which went for a thousand pounds.

Occasionally I was given old toys for work in kind (cellar clearance)  such as a collection of Action Men and a couple of friends at the very start gave me their unwanted childhood artefacts, for which I was truly grateful.

It was huge fun and I actually looked forward to 'going to work' upstairs in the loft office.

I even became a Power Seller on eBay, an accolade that no longer exists I don't think but I was massively chuffed.

Alas, as anyone selling old toys will know, it's a huge effort to make it pay and even doing it full time it simply didn't bring in enough cash for the family coffers.

I had to get a part-time job, with a literacy charity. It was OK, as it wasn't every day and left me plenty of time to be a toy boy.

After many years and some fabulous sales like an uber-rare Sindy dress and clutch to name but one, the pressure of needing a regular profit and the dreaded cashflow problem killed off Mad About Monsters. It was a sad day when I stopped trading in the late '000's and got a full-time job again, this time in a high school for my sins.

The letter this week closing my old toy account is the very last chapter in the rise and fall of my stint in the vintage dream machine and marks the end of an era.

All was not all lost though. 

Shortly after, with inspiration from our industrious dog Blue, who never gave up looking for his ball, I started a new venture, blogging Moonbase Central!

 I'm pleased to say I'm buying and selling old toys again too, but no pressure this time.

Purely for fun!

Have you begun and ended enterprises and ventures readers?