Small Scale Military Headquarters

A couple Christamas ago when everyone was talking about 21c new f-86 releases that was still a month away. I walked into a WM and went down the endless rows of toys. I checked out the 21c area to find nothing new. My wife asked me to get a new toilet seat since the one at home had been broken for about 2 weeks. Not wanting to spend the night on the couch i walked over to hardware. as i was debating cushion or no cushion seat i looked up. I couldnt believe my eyes. The plane that wasnt expected until after Christmas was sitting on the very top shelf they use for storage.
Could it be? The f-86 Huff! I ran down and grabbed a ladder. placing it up to the shelf. As i stepped higher and higher i found not one but twelve f-86 Huff's. As i pulled them down one at a time. a WM kid walked up and asked me to stop. I looked at him and said fine you hand them down. sent my sons for a couple carts and off we went to the register.
We were barely able to fit them in my truck(i almost left one of the kids there) I went home and began to list them for auction. I sold eleven in 5 days just before Christmas. they went for 180 to 250 dollars each. The planes didnt start showing up again until just after the holiday. I dont know how it happened or why. But it was my biggest fined and a very Merry Christmas!
I didnt get the toilet seat and my wife is still mad that i brought home toys and not a toilet seat!

my best find was two years ago - finding 8 Mig 15s for $5.00 each - also had a few p-51s too I even sold one out in the parking lot to a man and lady who saw me with the cart piled high and gave it to them for $5.00

1/6 scale Stuarts for $35. I got all for that they had at Wally.

I found 6 or 7 FW-190Ds at Wal-Mart for $2 each. I bought them all and then sold or traded them. There were also a couple of WMs around me that would periodically purge their XD and I bought more than a few planes for $5 each. The trick was just checking the price everytime I went to the store. They never marked the clearance price or even moved them into the clearance section. I miss those days.

That is a good question. I just bought a Snake Cobra and a Cav Huey MIB for $10 each at the local flea market. Besides that, I have had quite a few OMG moments. No, I can't match $2 190's but I picked up 7 Cav Hueys for $10 each several years ago, the same for Tiger 1's.

-Ski

I found 6-7 Juno Eclipse figures for $4.50 each on the clearance isle of WalMart.

Boy, those are some great buys you folks found! I haven't been so lucky. The lowest price I have ever paid for a 1/18 plane was $20.

I have told this story before, (but haven't we all told our BEST FIND EVER stories before? And we ALL love to hear these stories over and over) I was at my local WM with my Brother-in-law and his boy in his pickup truck. We had come to pickup my new patio furniture set. I was heading to Lay-a-way dept to make the last payment and take charge of my new patio set.
On an end cap, were 8 1/18th White and Grey Stukas. I spied the price tag - 15.00 each! Wahoo! I ran up to the front of the store grabbed a cart and piled them in. Overflowing with Stukas, I pushed the cart to the front of the store and paid for my planes! I got some wild-eyed looks and one old guy asked me if I was going to take those planes home and fly them.
Oh, I did get the patio furniture too!

A few years ago, when the Tiger tanks first came out (I believe I may have been the first here to locate them!), my wife called and said there was a tank at WM she hadn't seen before. I asked her what it was and she replied,"A German Tiger I Tank?" I asked how much they were, so she scanned one. $10!!!! "Grab all of 'em!" was of course my response.

I have also run across $25 Avengers and $35 1/6 R/C HUMVEE's, of which I bought 5 of. I still have 2 that have never been out of their box.

Of course, my all time best deal was at TRU. $3 M1 Abrams and $2 LAV's. My cart was full that day too.

-Rob

Wrong scale here, but.... a year or two ago at Target, right after Christmas. They had gone thru a clearance purging of FOV tanks. All had gone. Then one day they showed up again after the aisles had been reset. Only now there were Tigers. I scanned one and it came up at $5! I scanned the rest and they were all the same. So I walked out with four $5 tanks. Two days later they restocked. Same price! I took them all again. This happened about five times. I got Tigers, Abrams, Pattons etc. Eventually they got smart and raised the price back up, but not before I filled my closet with spares!

Then, about two years ago, a Walmart near me was preparing to close as they were going to open a new store nearby. One day the toy manager filled an upper shelf with old 1/18 stock she had found in the back room and which was not going to the new store. I picked up an F104, two Bf-109's, one the black version, and a P-51, all at $15 each.

It always pays to scan the prices!

Everyones surprises seem to have to do with price. WM's in my AO never dropped their prices more than $5 on any 1/18 I have ever seen on the clearence isle. I've seen tons of planes on the clearence isle at $34.99 and then they just vanish.

My best find was a winter Stuka at retail. But it was sitting on the shelf at WM about two years after they had disappeared from the shelves everywhere and I had failed to buy one. In my AO it was a surprise to find much of anything other than planes in 1/18. When I did find any, it was usually at TRU at retail. But even then it was a surprise. Boils down to I guess it was a surprise when I found anything in this part of Texas.

A $.99 1/18 M-113 MIB from ebay. It was listed under general toys so I was the only bid.

20 p38 for $20 i bought 6..

There was the $1 XD "Hard Top" hummer that I found a couple years ago, but discounted items are really nothing new...

My surprise find was the "tropical" Stuka and "Bunker Hill" Corsair at a Wal Mart in early 2006. They had previously only been shown on the Area21 site and were not due to arrive at mass retail until a couple months later.

I was at WM one day when they had about 11 winter US Halftracks on an endcap "Clearance!" Scanned at $5, so I took six and my buddy took five. But, the best was when they restocked their 1/18 XD figures after having a clearance on the old ones. Someone had forgotten to remove the peg "Clearance" prices and although they scanned at full price, I got all 55 restocked figures for $1.50 each because I filled my cart before I brought it to the toy manager's attention! CLEANED THEM OUT!

My biggest surprise find, not referring to pricetag, was some spinach S2 109's back in 2002 at a mall in Wilmington, NC.