Ken Rarick stood yesterday at the front of a room filled with 1960s-era Barbie dolls, toy trucks and one 6-foot-tall green plush Gumby.

With his wife, Lynn, beside him, he watched as toy appraiser Mark Leinberger assigned a value to the toys and board games he'd played with as a child.

Hot Wheels sets, a worn version of the TV-show based game Gilligan's Island, a "Fort Boone" play set, and GI Joe action figures piled up on the table, soiling the white tablecloth with dust.

More than 50 people waited impatiently for their turns behind the Raricks. They'd come to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Moon for the FX Antique Toy Roadshow, to see what price their toys could fetch. If Mr. Leinberger decided they had an item a collector might want, he'd offer to buy it for 60 percent of the appraised value.

People came with bags and boxes, took a number, and waited, many for hours, to approach the front table and display their childhood toys.

The Raricks, of Carrick, waited for two hours before their number was finally called.

It's been a while since Mr. Rarick, 50, played with his pink Hot Wheels car or his King Arthur's Castle play set, but as he watched Mr. Leinberger examine his toys, he admitted he was feeling sentimental. Half-jokingly, he assured his wife that he would not start crying.

But the pain of surrendering his beloved Hot Wheels collection was lessened, if only a little, when Mr. Leinberger told Mr. Rarick he'd be happy to take the majority of his toys and games for $830, or 60 percent of the appraisal value.

"I'm a little sad about the Hot Wheels," he said.

"But ka-ching," his wife said.

When they left, Mr. Leinberger moved on to the next couple and their toys. A Trafford native, he now lives in Florida and travels the country appraising toys, then contacts dealers and collectors who are interested.

His own interest in collectibles started in junior high school with Beatles memorabilia. He started going to toy shows to learn about what collectors were looking for and how much they were willing to pay for certain items.

"You learn a lot when you are interested in it," he said.

He looked at the four GI Joe dolls Lloyd Carver of McKees Rocks handed to him. The Hasbro dolls are from the early 1970s, when GI Joe sported a full beard and talked when you pulled a string from his chest.

Collectors are looking for dolls in good condition, preferably in their original packaging, Mr. Leinberger said. Some of Mr. Carver's GI Joe dolls were missing fingers or tufts of hair, the consequence of the passage of time or the strain of battle.

"That's the problem with toys like this," Mr. Leinberger said. "Who wants to store them?"

But Mr. Leinberger deemed Mr. Carver's dolls in good enough condition that a collector might be interested. He gave Mr. Carver $100 for the four GI Joes.

Collectors all over the world are looking for the toys they played with as children, said Kyle Foreman, who was helping Mr. Leinberger with the show. American-made toys remain the most sought-after, though people clamor for Japanese- and German-made items as well, he said.

But toys nowadays just aren't the made the same, he said. He doesn't think collectors 30 years from today will seek out an original Nintendo Wii the way they search for Redline Hot Wheels now.

"When this era goes, it's over," he said.

The FX Antique Toy Roadshow continues today through Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Coraopolis.

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