The Unexpected World of Toy Collecting: A Conversation with Kayleigh Davies

When Kayleigh Davies walked into her job interview at a specialized toy auction house fifteen years ago, she had no idea she was stepping into her dream career. "It was one of those moments where you walk into a place and you're like, this is where I belong," she recalls. The cabinets were glowing with lights, toys were everywhere, and suddenly a world she didn't know existed opened up before her.

Today, Kayleigh is a seasoned toy specialist and antiques commentator at Auctionet, where she's spent over a decade watching the collectibles market transform from a niche hobby into a mainstream phenomenon.

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From Charity Work to Cataloging Treasures

Kayleigh's journey into the auction world wasn't planned. After growing frustrated with funding cuts in the charity sector, she simply searched for jobs within a twenty-mile radius to see what existed. An auction house was advertising for a trainee cataloger, and despite having watched plenty of Bargain Hunt, she'd never considered that working with antiques could be a career.

Her boss quickly dubbed her "the Star Wars expert" after she helped sort a massive collection, separating vintage figures from modern ones. This was at a time when auction houses were still skeptical about plastic toys. "A lot of auction houses were like, that's a plastic task, why would we want to get involved in that?" she explains. But she was working somewhere that looked forward, and the timing proved prescient.

The Psychology of Collecting

One of the most fascinating patterns Kayleigh has observed is how people collect based on their childhood experiences. "People tend to go back when they get into their forties and maybe they have a little bit more disposable income," she notes. "They start to look back and they either want the things that they had as a child or the things that they wanted and never got."

This insight allows specialists like Kayleigh to predict market trends by tracking what different age groups collected as children and when they'll have the financial means to pursue those nostalgic items.

A Tale of Two Collections

While Kayleigh has handled plenty of expensive pieces over the years, it's not the high-value items that stick in her memory. Instead, she lights up when discussing a collection of 1980s Transformers brought in by a man whose mother had extraordinary foresight.

Throughout his childhood, this boy's mother had bought him Transformers for birthdays and Christmas. But she'd also secretly purchased duplicates of everything and stored them in the loft, sensing they might be valuable one day. Years later, he had both his beloved, well-worn toys and pristine versions still in their original packaging.

"His whole family came along to the auction to watch," Kayleigh remembers. "His mum was really proud for making this good investment and giving him this money that he's putting towards a deposit for his house." It was the perfect intersection of nostalgia, family love, and smart collecting.

The Gender Gap in Toy Collecting

One surprising reality Kayleigh has observed is that girls' toys significantly underperform boys' toys at auction. While action figures in pristine packaging can command remarkable prices, dolls and similar items rarely reach comparable values.

She attributes this partly to different collecting behaviors. "Action figure collectors prize pristine items in the packaging and they want to see it on display," she explains. "Whereas doll collectors want to dress things up. They want to display them in the clothes because that's the fun of dolls."

But there's also a financial component. Kayleigh suggests that women in their forties might be returning to work after having children and lack the disposable income of men the same age. "Maybe give it five or ten years, maybe they'll start having the disposable income to collect," she muses.

Pop Culture Goes Mainstream

What was once a niche market has exploded in recent years. Most major auction houses now have dedicated pop culture departments that didn't exist a decade ago. Handwritten lyrics, concert memorabilia, and costume pieces are achieving record-breaking prices.

The key is provenance. Many people who worked in venues during the 1960s kept autograph books, and those who collected tickets and memorabilia can often tell you exactly where they were when they met the Beatles. "There's so many of these things hiding in the average person's home," Kayleigh notes.

Life at Auctionet

Kayleigh's current role involves reviewing every item published in the UK market to ensure accuracy, quality photography, and proper presentation. "It's awful for somebody who loves buying from auction," she laughs. "I spend about half of my time just looking at auction catalogs."

But she also gets to visit auction houses, handle PR, and write about exceptional pieces. Each auction house has its own distinct personality, shaped by its specialists and their particular passions. From Lots Road's Picasso drawings to smaller houses finding gold pocket watches with presidential provenance, there's endless variety.

Advice for Collectors and Families

For anyone wondering what to do with childhood belongings or family heirlooms, Kayleigh has straightforward advice: catalog what matters.

"If you feel like you've got something good, write down what it is, where it came from, how much you paid for it," she recommends. This simple step can prevent the guilt and confusion that often accompanies clearing out a deceased relative's home.

She's dealt with countless families struggling with questions like "Mum said something about this bar, but I can't remember" or "She said one of these things was special, but I don't know which one." Beautiful cataloging and photography can help families preserve memories even after items are sold.

The Real Value of Collecting

What comes through most clearly in speaking with Kayleigh is her genuine passion for the stories behind objects. She's not chasing the highest hammer prices or the flashiest sales. Instead, she's fascinated by the personal histories, the unexpected finds, and the way objects connect us to our past.

In a world of endless consumption, collecting offers something different: depth, continuity, and meaning. Whether it's a 1920s bangle engraved with "goody ho" to commemorate a weekend away, or a child's treasured Transformers now funding a house deposit, these objects carry stories that deserve to be told and remembered.

And sometimes, just sometimes, they're worth far more than anyone expected.

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