A Belmont FIFO worker with a passion for basketball toys and statues has struck gold that he hopes will one day allow him to meet Michael Jordan.
Joshua De Vaney has always had a passion for collecting toys, starting with movie toys and later moving on to basketball memorabilia.
His original goal was to collect toys from his favorite basketball player, Magic Johnson, but he quickly collected 20 toys in one week and needed a bigger challenge.
“I started looking at Michael Jordan toys because I’ve had some since 1996 and there was a huge variety,” he said.
“I thought that’s what I was going to start pursuing and collecting. Since then, I’ve bought back the first two Jordan toys I owned, which sparked my nostalgia and interest again.
“I just started buying everything on eBay and I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff.”
Mr De Vaney said his payout would be about $100,000.
While the money spent on toys will baffle many, a collection of unexplained statues on eBay will prove to be a gold mine for Perth collectors.
“One of the toys had no packaging and had been kept in a plastic bag. This further piqued my interest in why this was happening,” he said.
Mr. Devaney said he contacted a good friend in Chicago who had been collecting toys for more than 20 years to learn more about why the toys were not packaged like other toys.
His friend said he didn’t know why, prompting Mr Devaney to call American toymaker Ohio Arts directly.
“The woman I found at the Ohio State Museum of Art was in the archives department, and she was excited to get my email and asked where I got the toys. “I told her eBay,” he said.
“She said ‘I’ll get back to you in four weeks’ and four weeks went by and I heard back from her.
“She asked again, ‘How did you get these?’
“The reason is these are prototypes. These should never have been released in the first place.
“Michael Jordan was photographed and the toy company was promoting this toy back in 1988, and I quickly discovered through research that I was indeed holding these prototypes.
“I asked her how many she had done at that stage – she said 48 and I did 32.”
Mr. De Vaney said he was subsequently invited to Ohio Arts in 2019 and met with the CEO, who showed him their archives, which did not contain any of these prototypes.
“I took seven of them with me to show and they were just fascinating because they were never intended for release and were never sold and packaged,” he said.
“They’re very surprised that this guy from Perth now has 30.”
Mr. De Vaney said he purchased the statues for $75 to $600 each without knowing their history.
The lack of information about these statues means prices are difficult to predict and sellers struggle to estimate.
However, there is one toy with a glaring flaw that is the rarest of them all and Mr. Devaney’s golden ticket to one day meeting Michael Jordan himself.
“I have a toy that’s different from the others and I think it’s the rarest Michael Jordan toy,” he said.
“Of all the ones I’ve owned, this one has white on the chest, which is a factory paint defect. Nike prices have also reversed.”
Factory flaws make this already rare prototype even rarer and almost impossible to value. Mr De Vaney said he valued it at $70,000 to $80,000 ($108,251 to $123,716).
The Perth collector has been in touch with Michael Jordan’s son Marcus, championship teammate Australian Luke Longley and Jordan Brand vice president Howard White.
“I haven’t given up on my goal and purpose, which is to talk to him and share all this knowledge with him,” he said.
“I’m sure he would have been shocked if he thought, ‘How did an Australian get this toy here?'”
Mr. Devaney said that of the $100,000 spent, about $25,000 was spent on shipping, and estimated that his collection is now worth “at least $200,000.”
He said he hopes to one day donate his collection to a museum in Chicago for display.