Collectables fair a massive hit as almost 500 turn out
It has been going for the last 27 years and was inspired by a personal collection of now more than 14,000 toy buses.
Linda and Geoff Price have been holding their toys and collectables fair ever since June of 1991 – and like a fine wine it's improved with age.
With visitor levels just shy of 500 last weekend the pair now look towards continuing the fair In Oak Park Active Living Centre in Walsall – which sells everything from Stars Wars figures to Jigsaws.
Linda Price, 62, from Walsall, said: "It has improved – we started off in the old Oak Park Leisure Centre in the small hall and then we progressed to the larger hall.
"Over the last 12 months they have opened a big new living centre – it is a big hall again.
"We have over 80 tables of collectables for the public to see, we are dealing with the traders who have been following us for many, many years.
"We are quite happy it – we have had just under 500 people in.
"For us that is about right for this time of year, this is the first one we have done since Christmas.
"The next one is the 18th of March – we do March, May, September, November and January.
"Collecting is a luxury rather than an essential, we get a lot of senior people in but we do get the families as well."
Linda's husband, Geoff, 67, has been collecting metal buses since the age of nine when his parents bought him for Christmas in the 1950s.
Now, still collecting, he has amassed an outstanding 14,200 metal buses – which he keeps at home.
Mr Price said: "At the moment it is about 14,200.
"I have been collecting since I was nine-years-old and I am 67 now – a long time.
"Collecting has changed over the years, we get more older people in now than younger one's.
"It is nostalgia for the older one's now – and these collector fairs give you the opportunity to buy very old models.
"We cover all sorts of toys – Star Wars figures and then Lego and then jigsaws and books and metal railway sets.
"The support is there for it and the customers are coming in and spending."
The pair also run fairs in Cannock, Lichfield, Brierley Hill, Wolverhampton, Stourbridge and Dudley.
Updates on the dates and times of their events can be found on www.transtar-promotions.co.uk
