>>8552333I did in the 90's actually. I worked for a small company that ran games for fairs, carnivals, stuff like that. We would usually source our prizes from wholesalers, most of whom were candy and toy distributors combined (I don't know why that was a thing, it's just how they did things). We'd work out bulk pricing for the common stuff like plushies and crap dollar store style things to fill our prize tiers and then get to go poke through the deadstock back house. You could find all kinds of crazy shit back there and haggle out a price per box. They didn't care, they were happy to just move the crap out. I found some vintage Star Wars and Joes like that, other toys too, and I once got a giant-ass box of 1/700 ship models for the princely sum of $1.50.
We'd decide what we might want to keep for ourselves, what might go to collector's market, but a bit of it actually went up as prizes because if you had a MIB Kenner Death Star on display as a 5-ring prize and you offered 7 rings for a dollar you would make INSANE cash off your bottle row from people trying all day for it. Then if it still wasn't gone by close they'd usually still be lurking around and you could have a quick auction to get it gone.
But then eBay happened, and deadstock finds are super rare now.
