Before the interweb took care of of my weekly dosage I frequented local toyshops.

There were a couple of toyshops that catered for the new imported Matchbox cars I collected, or the odd Kitset models.

 A major franchise that still exists today was Toyworld. I visited the one in Browns Bay and Takapuna quite regularly.

Every Saturday I broadened my horizons to travel around Auckland to visit selected Antique Dealers. One such shop was in the main street in Devonport and I bought many used models from there until they closed their doors forever. The 'Devonport Antiques' shop catered on behalf, but could not compete with eBay or Trademe that made auctions user friendly.

The 'Warehouse' marketed a lot of imported toys down in price when they first began in the Eighties. Lately they're more expensive as competition of the interweb up the prices.

Some super cheap markets and shops related to the dotted Chintown franchises will import cheap labour toys. There's a Lego Copy they make where you need plyers to fit the pieces, or risk losing an eye when a bit flies off at lightspeed.

Toys'R'Us, Kmart, Warehouse, Chinatown, Auctions and Antique dealers are fighting a losing battle against the internet.

Although it is nice to splurge on many toys from simply browsing in a toystore.

Before the Internet most of my purchases of older models were made at the sale night of the Sydney Model Car Club held on the second Friday of each month with approx 65 tables.

For new models, because I owned a retail outlet I was able to buy them Wholesale, including all Matchbox, Corgi Ertl etc