The Unseen Asset: How Verona’s Vintage Toy Fair Reveals the Power of Legacy Storytelling
For multi-generational family businesses and established Toy Fair leaders, the challenge isn’t creating value; it’s packaging the value they have already created. They have spent decades, sometimes centuries building expertise, knowledge, and a story of resilience. But how do you transform that accumulated history into a contemporary, premium asset that builds trust and justifies a higher price point?
Learn How to Leverage Your Story through our Story To Asset Framework.
To understand this, we must look at where story and value intersect, and there is no better classroom than Verona, a city not only famed for the iconic Vinitaly wine festival (a powerhouse generating an annual contribution of over 45 billion euros to Italy’s GDP) but also for preserving profound, intimate histories.
This is the city where Mr. Obehi Ewanfoh, a Nigerian Legacy Consultant for founders and business owners who want to transform their stories into strategic assets, has resided for over two decades.
And from this vantage point, he has learned that the principles of enduring business and lasting legacy are the same, whether you are selling a world-class Amarone or a prized, decades-old tin toy.
Every other day, Obehi helps founders and business owners stand out in a busy market and attract the right clients, using his Story to Asset Framework. He understands that the most potent marketing tool is the one that tells the deepest truth about a company’s origins and enduring “why.”
It’s a conviction that has fueled his work, including his podcast with over 1000 episodes and his books, all dedicated to demonstrating the transformative power of a well-told story.
The secret to packaging experience as an asset lies in the power of nostalgia, craftsmanship, and verified history, a power perfectly encapsulated by one of Verona’s most enduring, yet lesser-known, treasures: La Borsa Scambio del Giocattolo d’Epoca e Automodelli (The Vintage Toy and Model Car Exchange Market).
A Historical Thread: The Soul of Italian Craftsmanship
To the casual observer, the Borsa Scambio, held semi-annually at VeronaFiere since its inception in the distant year of 1980, is merely a collectors’ market. It is, in fact, one of the most long-lived exhibitions in the sector, bringing together 200 Italian and foreign collectors to exchange everything from automatons and puppet theatres to Lenci dolls and tin soldiers.
But for Obehi, and for any business leader focused on legacy, it’s a living archive of Italian ingenuity and resilience.
See also Obehi Ewanfoh: 3 Lessons from My 10-Year Research on Building a Legacy from Scratch
The market highlights a vibrant, post-war cultural phenomenon, Italian creativity transforming humble materials into objects of desire.
The event is a testament to Italy’s ability to innovate with limited resources, a trait Obehi sees mirrored in the resourcefulness of diaspora leaders. Consider the great Italian toy houses showcased:
INGAP (Industria Nazionale Giocattoli Automatici Padova):
Founded in 1919, in Padua, by two brothers, Angelo and Pio Piazzai, INGAP became perhaps the most famous Italian toy company of the 20th century. Facing shortages of raw materials and capital, they excelled through artisanal skill and design quality, becoming pioneers in the Italian metal toy industry.
Their decline in the 1960s with the advent of plastic underscores a crucial business lesson: even the greatest brands must pivot to protect their legacy.
The Ecosystem of Craft:
Beyond INGAP, the event celebrates companies like Alemanni, Marchesini, Furga, and Lenci. These brands didn’t just sell toys; they sold social and cultural identity. The refined Lenci dolls for girls and the “militaristic” rocking horses for boys were tools for learning possible societal roles, reflecting a colorful, creative response to a post-rural, pre-economic-boom reality.
These are not just old toys; they are tangible assets of a nation’s history. They embody a time when, as the narrative suggests, “we were little more than poor people,” but the time for play was sacred.
The items on display, from small wooden tractors to tin cars made from leftover boxes (a parallel the original text draws to ingenuity seen even in modern Africa), are physical proof of how ingenuity under pressure can create lasting value.
The Market Opportunity: Legacy as a Premium Asset
For the Established Diaspora Leader or the Multi-Generational Family Business, the vintage toy market offers a profound strategic insight: Nostalgia and verifiable provenance command a premium.
The global collector’s market for vintage toys is a multi-million-dollar business. While simple, common pieces may hold modest value, truly rare, well-preserved items can reach staggering figures, especially when packaged with a great story.
For example, some vintage video games and rare ’90s toys have sold for tens of thousands of euros. This is not about the functional utility of the item; it’s about its story.
- The Scarcity of Authenticity: A 70-year-old tin toy, meticulously crafted by a family-owned Italian firm, is inherently scarce. It cannot be replicated with modern mass production.
- The Emotional Premium: Visitors to the Borsa Scambio, like the next edition on Sunday, February 15, 2026, don’t just buy a toy; they buy a memory. They are paying for a “swooning dive into the past,” an emotional connection that transcends mere transaction.
- The Generational Bridge: The Borsa Scambio acts as a generational bridge, allowing today’s children to discover how their grandparents played. The adults, in turn, find their personal stories immortalized in objects. This bridging of generations is precisely what a successful family business requires to ensure continuity and relevance.
Your business’ accumulated experience, your 20+ years of expertise, your 50+ years of family history, is the “original, well-preserved packaging” that drives this premium value. The challenge is not in the having, but in the packaging.
Leveraging Heritage: Transforming Your Story into a Strategic Asset
How does a founder or a family business use the lesson of the Verona Vintage Toy Fair to build their own strategic asset?
Obehi Ewanfoh, leveraging his work from Verona, uses techniques like the Photo Elicitation Technique (PET) and deep, structured interviews to help clients uncover the hidden narrative power of their business.
Just as an appraiser identifies the rarest mark on a penny toy, Obehi helps identify the unique, non-replicable elements of a founder’s journey or a family’s history.
For businesses looking to stand out in today’s commoditized market, the goal is to shift from selling a service to selling a legacy.
1. For the Established Diaspora Leader: Packaging Expertise as Proprietary Methodology
You have spent two decades solving a unique problem for a niche audience. That process is your INGAP—your unique, non-replicable creation.
- The Legacy Signature Program: This is where AClasses Academy helps you transform your accumulated knowledge into a proprietary solution, your brand’s unique methodology. It’s not just a collection of tactics; it’s a systematic framework derived from your unique story of overcoming challenges. This framework becomes the undeniable, premium solution for your own clients, much like a limited-edition toy from a master craftsman is the coveted item at the Borsa Scambio.
2. For the Multi-Generational Family Business: Immortalizing the Provenance
Your 50+ year history is your verifiable provenance. It’s the reason customers should pay a premium, but that history must be felt, not just stated.
- The Legacy Book: A book is the ultimate container for your story and experience, crafted as your unique message. It moves you from “vendor” to “authority.” Like the detailed history of the Ingap factory or the story behind a Lenci doll, your book contains what you have learned and the message you want to leave for the next generation. It is your incredible asset that makes you the undeniable authority in your industry.
- The Legacy Video: A picture is worth a thousand words, but a cinematic film immortalizes your journey. This is a business’s most powerful tool for shaping its narrative of ‘why’ it exists and where it has been. Just as the Borsa Scambio allows families to connect generations through physical objects, a Legacy Video connects your brand emotionally to future generations, making your history a premium marketing asset that justifies your price to a new, discerning clientele.
Obehi’s vision, rooted in his two decades in Verona, is clear: every founder, every business, is sitting on a goldmine of strategic assets, their own stories.
The city’s wine heritage proves that scale and global impact are possible, while the Vintage Toy Fair proves that the deepest emotional and financial value comes from preserving and celebrating your authentic, well-crafted past.
What is Your Call to Action?
Your legacy is your most valuable asset. Before you print another brochure or launch another campaign, let’s talk about how to immortalize it. Whether it’s crafting your proprietary methodology, publishing your definitive Legacy Book, or producing a cinematic Legacy Video, your story is the ultimate differentiator.
Book your free 15-minute Legacy Strategy Call today to design the asset that will tell your story for the next 50 years. Book Your Free 15-Min Legacy Call Now
