The World's Greatest Vintage Toy Store Has Secrets!

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Today I am revealing seven secrets behind the world's greatest vintage toy store. Stay tuned. All right guys, welcome back to the channel and for those of you who it's their first time here because you saw the thumbnail or the title, thank you for clicking on that. My name is Matt. I produce this channel, Toy Addicts. I also create and produce other YouTube channels for clients. I'm guessing you're here because you now know that I create and produce the Toy Federation YouTube channel and over the last three and a half years of producing that channel, there have been certain things that have come up or been asked or been tossed around about Toy Federation and I felt like I would address those today because I thought that you might enjoy that and get a little behind the scenes of some of you guys' favorite YouTube show. All right, I made a quick list on the back of a parking ticket, so this is not going to be the fanciest video you've ever watched. I tried to put these in order from what you would care about the most to least. Obviously, we're going to start with the least so you watch the video, but coming in at number seven, it took me an entire year to convince Ryan to let me create and produce his YouTube channel for Toy Federation. I think over that year, well, let me start at the beginning. I was filming a documentary on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy collectors and was going around the country filming all of these collectors and someone told me, hey, you've got a vintage toy store right in your hometown. Well, the town over about 20 to 25 minutes away. And I thought, oh, I'll go check that out. So I got my friend Danny, we went over and we discovered Toy Federation. And I bought a lot of my Ninja Turtles there and I met a lot of collectors there. I learned about Retro Toy Con there. And then I started going in there more and I started seeing what was going on at Toy Federation, which is what became the channel because it didn't take me that long to realize this could be a great channel. People would love watching this. And as Ryan and I and other people say today, it was always our intention to make the Pawn Stars of vintage toys. But I think there was a little confusion between Ryan and I at first of him thinking based on what's out there already that I wanted to make a toy review channel or something like or toy hunting channel, the other stuff that's going on. And at the time, there weren't any other YouTube shows like this on YouTube. Now there's a ton. I feel like we're responsible for that. I'm sure other people will argue we aren't. But you know, imitation is the best form of flatter, however that whatever goes. I knew that I wanted to make the Pawn Stars of toys. I think Ryan wanted to make the Pawn Stars of toys. But it took us kind of eventually talking to me like, yeah, I'm not going to turn this into a toy hunting or a toy review channel, Ryan. I want to just film the trades and show people what's going on here. And so eventually he agreed and we started filming. Now that leads me to number six, which all trades are real. We never script any of the trades. They do come now because of the success of the show. People are coming to be on the show or to just trade with toy Federation. So as far as like completely authentic, yes, people are coming because of the show. But at first it was just me going in there and waiting for people to come in with their toys and sell them to toy Federation or trade them to toy Federation. And it didn't take long. Like every day there's people doing that. So what you're seeing is what's actually happening. He is buying those toys. All transactions are real, are final. None of it is scripted for the video. Number five is there are people from all over the world coming into toy Federation every single day because of the YouTube channel. It's become a lot of people's favorite show. So it has now become a destination or a stop along the way for their vacation. I've met people from Norway. I've met people from Europe. I've met people from Asia. I've met people from every single state in America, Canada, any given time you're in toy Federation. You say, hey, who's from out of town? At least one person, but probably five people will raise their hands because it is just become a stop that people go to. And I think as a filmmaker, that's one of the biggest compliments you can give me because it says yes, people are actually watching and are fans of the show that you're creating. I think that's cool. Number four, at any given time on a Saturday, on a busy day, you can go out in the parking lot and there will be at least one running car with a spouse sitting in the passenger seat, waiting on their spouse to finish toy shopping or toy trading. Now we have a lot of couples that come out of the trading. Now we have a lot of couples that come in and they do it together, but you know, not everybody is always into the same hobbies. So sometimes there is a spouse waiting in the car. Some of our biggest episodes with some of our biggest toy collections that you may or may or may not like the person trading. They had their spouse sitting in the car for the entire trade. Number three, while we're outside of toy Federation, a lot of people don't know this, but that building that it's in is a shopping strip that Ryan owns and used to rent out to other tenants. But every time their lease would run out, he would take over. Their space and turn it into more storage for. The choice. The choice. The choice. The choice. while we're outside of Toy Federation. A lot of people don't know this, but that building that it's in is a shopping strip that Ryan owns and used to rent out to other tenants. But every time their lease would run out, he would take over their space and turn it into more storage for vintage toys. There is one tenant left at the very end, and you may know them if you're a fan of other channels like Retro Rick, and that is Upstate Games. They are the last remaining tenant in the shopping strip, and they're at the very end. Now, fun fact about that, every day, almost once an hour, someone walks into Toy Federation thinking they're in Upstate Games, has a really dumbfounded look on their face when they see no video games, and says, I thought I could buy a PS4 here, or I thought I could buy a Pokemon here. And they say, nope, you're looking for Upstate Games, got to go out, go around in the back, walk down, right there. So, yes, there is a video game store connected to Toy Federation, and you've probably seen videos on it. Number two, over the three and a half years of filming there, there are two things that get said a lot. One is, oh, I don't see a price tag, it must be free. Or there is the other one of, oh, I had that. I think we all know that one. But then there is the one of, hey, I saw this toy last time I was in here. It was still sitting here for this price two weeks ago, or two months ago, or three months ago, or whatever. Can you give me a deal on it? The truth is, that's not the same toy. If you have this toy, and it sells, Ryan has this toy in the back that he then puts back in its place. So what you think is just one toy sitting on the shelf is actually multiple toys being restocked. Now, every toy? No. Does he have every G1 Megatron in the world to restock? No. Does he have every Mickey Mouse Cobra Commander? No. Some are hard to get. Some sit on the shelf for longer because of their price point. But the mainstays, majority, 80% of the toys are being bought and restocked. On that note, a lot of people say, I never see anyone buying toys in the videos. We always see them selling. And so people will make comments like, how can you run a business if all you're doing is buying toys? And we never see anyone, you know, buying the toys off you. That's because we don't film that part. That's not what the show is. The show isn't like, hey, let's watch everybody buy toys. It's hey, let's see people trade in their childhood toy collection. And how much is it worth? That's the show. That's what we show you. Number one, the last thing, some people know this because Ryan and I talk about it, but we about a year into filming, we were approached by Nacelle to create a, you know, actual TV show like produce looks like TV, not just a good YouTube channel. Please, you know, make a full season of episodes for us to pitch to streamers and networks. And we did that. We filmed an entire season. But you know, TV shows are hard. They take forever to be produced and and made and contracts and and making sure everyone's happy. So yes, we have an entire full first season of a toy Federation TV show just lying in wait until you know, Ryan and Nacelle are happy with the terms of their deal. But we filmed it. It's out there. It's great. It may never happen. And that's okay, because YouTube is great. I am a full firm believer that YouTube should be treated just like Netflix or Prime or Hulu. So although it would be great to say, yeah, I produced a TV show. Like I still feel like I do that. I still feel I mean, I look at the numbers and you know, 60% of you guys are watching Toy Federation on a TV. I'm producing it the best I can as a one or two man band and making it look pretty good. So if you're tuning in every week to watch and most of you guys are watching it on TV, how am I not producing a TV show? So those are seven facts that you may not have known about Toy Federation. There's a few more. If you guys are interested and want another follow up video to this, leave a comment. Also tell me in the comments what you found most shocking or what you probably already knew. And if you liked this video, but thank you and I will see you next time.