The popularity of online auction site eBay has created a whole new type of Santa’s helper.
Call them toy speculators – people who stockpile hot toys and resell them online with huge markups.
Rosamarie Sasso, 37, and twin sister Joanne Lenzo, both of Long Island, placed their bets in September when they snapped up what they anticipated would be big holiday sellers: Hasbro’s Video Now, Mattel’s Holiday Barbie and an assortment of Bratz dolls.
Now they are reselling the toys on eBay for 25 percent to 50 percent more than they paid.
The scheme has become so lucrative that Sasso, a mother of three, said she has stopped working as a graphic designer to sell toys full time.
In a good week, Sasso said she makes double the $1,000 a week she earned as a designer, noting she sold $1,300 worth of toys on Thanksgiving Day.
She got the idea to resell toys online last year when her search for a Halloween costume for her son led her to eBay.
“EBay had all the costumes you couldn’t find in the stores,” she said.
Pinpointing the hot holiday toy is trickier. Must-have toys like Cabbage Patch Kids or Tickle Me Elmo don’t materialize every year.
Lenzo said she gets input from her 8-year-old son. “Before Video Now was big in the stores, he was asking me for it,” she reported.
By September, Video Now, a personal video player for kids, was selling out at retailers like KB Toys. Lenzo and Sasso said they knew they had a potential hit.
But a spokesman for KB Toys, John Riley, said he thinks their tactic sounds pretty iffy.
“For people who went out there and gobbled up these supposed hot toys-I’m not sure that was the best strategy for them,” Riley said.
“There doesn’t seem to be one hot, breakout toy this year, nor are we seeing any particular shortages. We’re not having people lining up waiting for the doors to open to get their hands on a particular something.”
But Lenzo is banking on individual stores being out of stock on popular playthings – and frantic parents turning to eBay when places like Toys R’ Us and KB Toys run dry.
However, at press time, all of the “hot” and highest-priced toys on eBay surveyed by The Post had not received any bids.
“It’s like owning a stock,” Lenzo said of speculating in toys. “Should I sell it today and make a small profit, or wait until I get top dollar?”
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HOLIDAY HAWKERS
2003 HOLIDAY VISIONS BARBIE:
* eBay: advertised for up to $75.00, including shipping
* Toys’ R Us: no longer available online
* KB Toys: online for $29.99
HASBRO VIDEO NOW:
* eBay: advertised for up to $69.99
* KB Toys selling: online for $49.99
* Toy’s R Us: online for $39.99
HOKEY POKEY ELMO:
* eBay: advertised for up to $102.00 ( for a package of 4 Hokey Pokey Elmos)
* KB Toys: not available online.* Toys R’ Us: sold out online for $19.99; sold out in Manhattan stores for $24.99; available in Brooklyn, North Bergen, N.J. and Long Island
BRATZ: NEW YEAR’S EVE YASMIN DOLL:
* eBay: advertised for up to $50.00 * KB Toys: available online for $24.99 * Toy’s R Us: not available online