“People collect anything,” I said to the man standing next to me at one of my auctions this week. I was referring to two small clear plastic boxes of yo-yos that were about to be auctioned off. He smiled.

A minute later, he bidded on the lot and got them. I never got to ask him what he would do with the 20 or so yo-yos, but I’m sure he’s going to sell them. Along with those in the container were more than a half-dozen lying loose.

The man only paid about 5 or 10 bucks for the lot. Once they were set aside for him on another table, another auction-goer came over, ready to take a look himself. I even checked them out, and they were neat.  

As Baby-boomers, we remember play-time spent with those round wooden toys. We’d roll the thin string around the groove, slide the loop around our middle finger, and let the yo-yo roll off our hand. Effortlessly. Well, not so effortlessly for me. I had cousins and friends who could do that, but not me. My yo-yo rolled toward the floor (and gravity) and just hung there.

I don’t recall ever doing anything fancy with it, but my cousins did. I’m not sure if their tricks had names (likely they were made up on the fly). I found on the site howstuffworks.com that yo-yo tricks ranged from the simple to the difficult. Simple: walk the dog, skin the cat, around the world, the sleeper. Intermediate: sleeping beauty, jump the dog, thread the needle, monkey climb the tree. Advanced: Texas star, through the tunnel, rattlesnack.

We’d spend time together as kids trying to out-best the other. It was good clean, simple fun, and it probably taught us some skills (I know it brought frustrations) that we didn’t even realize.

Yo-yos have been around since at least 500 B.C., according to Wikipedia, with an early Greek vase showing a boy with a yo-yo. The word yo-yo is thought to be from a Filipino word, according to about.com. The toy was first patented in this country in 1866, but remained obscure until a Filipino American began manufacturing it in California in 1928. The company was later sold and became home to the Duncan YoYo Company, which is credited with making the yo-yo one of the country’s most successful toys. It reached its peak in the early 1960s.

In my research, I found a serious community of yo-yo collectors. There’s a yo-yo museum (some collectors have set up websites displaying their own collections), books on collecting the toys and conventions.

A Florida doctor boasts a collection of 6,000 yo-yos, including one of the most unusual and largest, according to a story in American Profile magazine. It is a 6-foot, 820-pound toy made by a woodworking class in Jasonville, Ind., in 1990. He bought it on Ebay, and he says that it works.

I found some beautiful yo-yos on the web, including those at Dave’s Wonderful World of Yo-Yos and some Coca-Cola ones at Chris Gillings’ Collections.

If you’re interested in collecting, the Museum of Yo-Yo History offers some tips. One tip: Don’t do it to get rich. It won’t likely happen. Do it because it brings you joy – and memories.

Related posts:

1. Collecting Coca Cola: It’s the real thing
2. Collecting restaurant placemats
3. Collecting shells and other sea life
4. Collecting vintage black dolls