The Toy Department — Local services in Fairfield

This review and photos attached are from their opening week a few years back, but every word holds true to this day. Buy and sell from this store knowing you'll be treated right! The Toy Department WORKS on every level and is a must visit. Quality. There is a need for GOOD, quality vintage items in the “real” world, not online. Not beat up or incomplete junk. There are top notch, rare, quality items available. These items are priced a little less than what you’d have to pay online for these items, which encourages higher end collectors and is a refreshing change. Display. Good selling demands good display. The cases are uniform, well set up and displayed top notch. I HATE going to a shop and seeing vintage items tossed around, dusty, etc. Your shop should resemble a museum, not a flea market. Safe and fun for kids. I say this as a parent. I can take my 6 year old and not worry that he’s going to break something expensive. He’ll actually have cheaper stuff, well organized and bagged, for him to see and play with. The good stuff is locked and cased. Prices. The newer, less pricey items are priced REALLY good! My 6 year old son spent all weekend playing with 2 POTF2 12” figures (Luke 100th and Electronic Vader). The figures we’re on the floor, carefully bagged, and a mere SIX BUCKS! Not “individually priced”, which will incentivize repeat visits and make parents happy. Clear pricing. Clearly displayed pricing on everything. Seems a no brainer but you’d be surprised how many shows or markets don’t even bother with this. Selection. Fills a void for any and all 1970’s – current lines. Pegs of random stuff. A $4.00 toy was on a peg and that could damage the card (!). I love it. Let’s get rid of this nonsensical “Comic Book Guy” mentality, a mentality that killed some toy lines (looking at you, SLU’s). Open it up, who cares. Have fun. Knowledge. Ran by the most knowledgeable and accessible guys around. Not a hint of pretentiousness, and totally nice dudes. Very impressed and thought this store deserved a full review. They pay well and fair for...

Scoring system is based on the 4P's. Parking, Picks, Price, and People. One star is required for review. Then one star is given for performance in each area. These 4 areas are important to me as a collector.

1 star for Parking: Ample parking available in the front of and to the side of the store.

1 star for Picks: If this shop has one positive, it is definitely the selection. Wide variety of items. Online transparency via socials of restocks and new merchandise hitting the floor. Great to see.

Pricing: Difficult area to judge. There are items in this store below market value. There are items in this store well above market value. This is not a store to go into and just buy something you are interested in. More often than not you will be paying well above market value, esp considering condition. Do your research, be informed, and be prepared to walk away. I have no issue paying slightly above market value considering a shop has expenses to cover and you are paying for the experience that is shopping in a brick and mortar store.

*Make note of the fact that the prices in this store are firm. So be informed and be prepared to walk away if the deal is not right.

People: Never had an issue with anyone being rude, that being said they are not overly personable. Courteous in all interactions I have had, but not necessarily friendly.

If you are in Ohio or any surrounding areas, this store is worth making the stop. The selection alone warrants stopping by. The variance in selection and pricing almost guarantees you will be able to find something you will want.

**Be Aware: This is not a store to sell or trade. Offers are WELL below what you could get from any other store in the area. Truth is they do not need the inventory and can afford to offer anywhere from 5%-10% value. I went with a friend selling a decent collection of market value around $1400, and was offered $115. I suggested to the friend to try another local store before calling it a day and they received $800 cash the same day from a shop less than 20...

I live about 3 hours away but I do try to find time to come up to Toy dept. regularly. I am mainly interested in Star Wars, transformers, and 1/6 scale figures, which Toy dept. has a great selection of, including some 3rd party stuff related to those franchises (mainly transformers though). With that said there’s something for everyone here and I’m sure you could find something regardless of what you collect.

The staff are always friendly and don’t hesitate when I need help with something such as opening a case or wanting to take a closer look at an item.

Pricing seems pretty fair at least in my opinion.

My only gripe is like most people that review this store, I feel like their cash/store credit offers are fairly low on trade ins. But that’s more a critique on the unpredictable nature of the collectible market as I understand values can shift daily. There’s also overhead, and you never know how much of an item the store has in their inventory regardless of rarity.

I come for the selection of hard to find items and often find them cheaper than eBay, so to that Toy Department has my thanks because I have knocked some very hard to come by collectibles off my list by visiting and I will...