We were lucky to catch up with Keith Libra recently and have shared our conversation below.

Keith, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

I 100% manage our entire social media presence & am happy with the results I’ve attained thus far. I feel like so much our brand’s identity is tied to my identity, I can’t imagine handing it off to someone else. I want our posts & interactions to feel authentic, just as if you were in our store & talking to me directly. If I could share anything with other business owners, it would be just that: make sure your online presence is authentic & constant…I post multiple times every single day.

Keith, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Keith Libra. I am a life long collector of toys & action figures & yes that means I was going to Toys R Us throughout my entire teen years into adulthood. I have bought & sold toys on the internet for over a decade. A few years ago, my wife convinced me to take leap of faith and to open a brick & mortar toy shop in Westland, MI. Now I get to share my love of toys & collectibles with everyone who walks through our doors. I say we specialize in anything retro, rad & cool…be it Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, GI Joe, Masters Of The Universe, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Wrestling figures, etc.

I feel like what sets us apart from others is our passion, our knowledge & our desire to share it with others. I’ve learned an absolute ton about toys in my life and love teaching others or discussing their interests with them. I attempt to engage and talk to every customer who steps foot inside our store. Also, I host a weekly podcast named the Time Blaster Toycast, where my cohosts & I discuss growing up in the 1980’s & 1990’s, with a specific focus on action figures, video games, junk food and retro geek stuff. We call ourselves your weekly tour guides as we travel back in time… when toys were cooler, movies were funnier, times were simpler & life in general was just MORE RAD!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

My business absolutely started as a “side hustle.” Two months after our daughter was born, my employer closed it’s doors & I lost my job. My wife & I decided then that rather than pay for day care and get a new job, I would become a “stay at home Dad.” While I loved my time at home with my daughter, I needed another outlet & wanted to find a way to contribute financially.

At the start, I simply looked around my house for items to sell. Being a life long collector, I had a number of action figures I no longer wanted and started to research their value. I was shocked to learn that many of them were worth more that I had imagined. That started me down the path of selling toys. Eventually, I ran out of my own toys to sell so I branched out to hunting & purchasing things solely for the purpose of reselling them.

Along the way I gained a ton of knowledge and lots of friends/contacts in the community. After years of gradually growing my online business this way, my house was filled to the brim with inventory. Our garage, basement and closets were full of toys. Eventually, my wife convinced me to open a brick & mortar toy shop to house all of our treasures and to share them with the world.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Being honest, open & friendly. So much of the inventory I now acquire is obtained from the people I meet in our shop. Customers know they can trust me to give them a fair assessment/appraisal of their items. I’m not out to lowball anyone or make them feel bad in their decision to let go of their personal items. At the same time, I want to hear the stories of why/when you bought the toys you’re selling to me…or why you held onto them for 30, sometimes 40 years. I am in the business of making people feel good and remembering a simpler time in their lives, and that can be accomplished by taking the time to talk & get to know the customers who walk thru our door, or by providing them an audio guide via podcast to help jog those old memories they thought they may have forgotten.     

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.timeblastertoys.com
• Instagram: @timeblastertoys
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timeblastertoys/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroKO
• Other: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/timeblastertoycast

Image Credits
Keith Libra