I had a great day last Saturday in Amsterdam with my beautiful, and may I say very patient, wife. Amsterdam (aka Amsterdamage) is about a fifty-minute train ride for us from The Hague. We started off the day with lunch at Bagels and Beans in the Museum Quarter with Dutch collector Arwin Haalboom (SNLMace on the forums) and his lovely girlfriend Vivian. Arwin has been collecting on and off since 1995. He and I have been friends on the forums and then Facebook for about six months and we chat regularly. However this was the first time we were going to meet face-to-face and I was interested to see if Arwin was as happy and laidback in ‘real life’ as he was in cyberspace. Well I must say my wife and I were really taken with both of them. It was an absolute pleasure and we will do it again soon. If you ever do a trade with a collector in your area, I really advise you to try to meet them in person and have as much fun as we did.

Arwin, my old mate Boba Fett and I

Not only did I finally get to meet Arwin, we also managed to sort out a sneaky vintage star wars trade. While I have been warned about doing business with the Dutch, I think I easily came out on top. These Dutchies aren’t as smart as they think they are and us Aussies aren’t as stupid as we look.

Snowspeeder

Arwin’s trade bait

Not only did Arwin give me some great figs but he also gave me this little beauty. Can anyone guess what it was? Very inappropriate Mr Haalboom, especially in front of our girls. Oh well, you only live once I guess.

Thanks Arwin!

Meeting collectors like Arwin is one of the reasons I love this hobby, not just for the collectibles but for the collectors. Hence this blog. Arwin and I plan to organise a Benelux collectors get together sometime in the next month or so. All welcome of course. I’ll advertise soon on the forums.

Well after ripping off Arwin for all he is worth, I decided to head to one of Amsterdam’s local treasures, ‘A Space Oddity’, a great vintage and modern toy store on Prinsengracht – smack bang in the middle of one of the city’s hippest areas. I haven’t been there for about a year and back then the owner, Jeff, had loads of boxed star wars toys but not so many MOCs or loose figures. This time though his store was loaded with star wars delights and not only that, but they really were priced to sell – a breath of fresh air in this period of inflated vintage prices. I spent ages roaming his store while my wife shopped at the boutiques around the corner. Not only was the store fantastic, but Jeff is an absolutely lovely bloke and we shot the breeze for a bit as well.

A Space Oddity shopfront

I ended up buying an unpunched 77 back Luke Jedi (Kenner) in fantastic shape (bubble a bit yellow though), two loosies and a Japanese star wars print advertisement. All for just 105 euros! I would have bought more but I knew the wife wouldn’t be too happy after my recent MOC binge and clothes shopping extravanganza in NYC and Georgetown. I was planning to take some photos of the inside of the store but of course my phone battery had died by that point. I was in a rush to leave as my wife was waiting so of course I left my stash of figs from Arwin in the store. Thanks Jeff for holding onto them for me!

Space Oddity haul

Head to Jeff’s website if you’d like to learn more about his store:

http://www.spaceoddity.nl/en/

Oh yeah did I also mention that we went to a museum in Amsterdam? Almost forgot among all of the star wars dreaming. We saw a great exhibition, dedicated to the amazing Swiss/French artist Felix Vallotton at the Van Gogh Museum. It’s moving to Tokyo soon but you have to see it if it comes to a city near you. Okay okay, that’s enough non star wars talk for now.

I felt content on our way back to The Hague, with my bags packed with star wars love. That contentment though was soon to be dashed after I noticed my wedding ring had disappeared! Maybe Arwin stole it? I guess they were right to never trust the Dutch.