Dolls, Decoys, Tools And Tractors, Collector Has Them

Craig Bakay | Mar 01, 2017

Gwen Tobin insists she’s “lost interest in possessions” but admits to still having “boxes and trucks of Star Wars stuff” in her North Crosby home that used to serve as an antique shop she ran with her husband of 56 years, Vince.

“We’re trying to clear out a lot of it,” she said at the Bedford Historical Society’s Open House last Saturday in Glendower Hall. “We have boxes we haven’t opened in 10 years.”

The Tobins have definitely done the circuit, getting up at 4 a.m. for a trip to Kanata or Ottawa or Gananoque to sell at shows.

“I like to buy, my husband did most of the selling,” she joked. “When we first started selling, at the flea market in Smiths Falls, I only had Depression Glass and didn’t do very well.

“But one lady came over and said ‘you have to have more than just Depression Glass because you never know when somebody will come in wanting it and you have to have things for the other people to buy.’”

That’s when she learned to diversify.

And she certainly did learn.

But these days, the shop is officially closed and she only does a few shows here and there. But she still has a lot of items and is prepared to tailor shows to what the organizers request.

“Last year at the show in North Crosby, they asked us to bring tools and kitchen items,” she said. “For this one, Joe Stinson asked for toys and dolls.”

So, along with a couple of boxes of tools and decoys (including one carved by her grandfather), she brought lots of toys and dolls including a large assortment of metal tractors.

But the dolls seemed to get a disproportionate amount of attention, particularly the Barbies.

“I’ve always liked the ‘character’ Barbies,” she said, pointing out the Sonny and Cher, Donnie and Marie, and Brooke Shields editions.

But there were also several others, including the ultra-rare Barbie pregnant with twins, as well as the regular Barbie, Elvis, Wayne Gretzky and G.I. Joes.

“I don’t know if I have favourites,” she said. “And I’m too old to remember when I started collecting dolls.”

How about when she started collecting in general.

“That’s easy,” she said. “When I was born.

“My mother did family trees and the collecting just evolved from that.”