Last weekend, we were traveling near Pittsburgh, and I stopped at a Goodwill that happened to be on our route. When I asked about their toy section, the worker told me that they've been getting away from taking toys because of dangers related to lead-based paint. This is the second time I've heard this at a thrift store. Anybody else running into this? Is it everywhere, or just some parts of the country, or what? It'd really stink to think that slot car stuff is getting landfilled because thrift stores won't take it...

--rick

Yeah, it's here in Texas too. Sucks like hell. Used to, I could go into a thrift store and look through a huge bin of diecast cars. CHEAP diecast cars. It wasn't uncommon to run across a slot car or two, or even parts of a slot car, for the same cheap price. I used to buy ToysRus returns at Goodwill too. Many a slot car track could be found. Freakin lawyers have this whole country turned upside down.

Not happy about it.

Colorado Too!! I was in a goodwill Thuesday afternoon and stumbled around looking for the " toy Section" and there wasn't one. Has anyone checked out Goodwill.com to see if they stopped selling stuff?
Clyde-0-Mite

The Goodwills around here have always had very little space for a toy section. Most times it appears to be a mere afterthought. I think it may be very low on their priority list when it comes to dedicating square footage. I think it may be more of a focus on what folks really need when they're down... clothing, furniture, household items.... stuff like that. nd

Here in Pittsburgh, many of the second-hand stores here have had much less slot stuff appearing on the shelves. Partially because of all the slot guys who hit the stores, partially because some places would think they're exprts and put the item in a display case, slap a $50 tag on it and claim it's vintage. I've even heard rumors of back-door shenannigans where workers and managers would hold things for certain people.

But yes, finding slotcar stuff is a lot harder than 10 years ago. I wish I knew you were coming here. I'd try to arrange a meeting at AB's to run cars around.

I wish I knew you were coming here. I'd try to arrange a meeting at AB's to run cars around.

aagh. i'd have said something if I had any idea. this summer i've tried to throw stuff out on the forums here for a couple of trips we've taken, one where we drove down south and two where we drove to Allentown, and i never got anything worked out, so i didn't post anything for this trip. we didn't have a whole lot of spare time anyway, my kid was playing in a baseball tournament... and to be completely accurate, we were actually in Monessen and New Stanton, not Pittsburgh. i did, however, try to cruise flea markets in the area early on Saturday and Sunday morning... got a few Tycos at the drive-in flea market in Latrobe. only problem was I had to be back at the hotel by like 9AM or my two younger boys woke up and tortured my wife, who was stranded in the room with 3 kids without a car. she gets into this "Wait till your father gets here" kinda mode and gets madder and madder at them AND me till I get back... long story short, it wouldn't have been a good weekend for me to go off roaming to do slot car stuff, but I will mention it here in the future anytime we go up that way. we're only an hour south of Harrisburg, so we're not that far...

--rick

Cool Rick..... But back to the thrift stores, if they could have one tenth of all the barbie crap be slotcars, it would be slotcar heaven.

Value Village is about the only one left around here that has any selection of toy.