Where Do You Find GeoTrax Today?
Since Fisher Price discontinued the production of GeoTrax back in 2011, they have obviously become impossible to find in brick and mortar stores such as Toys R Us, Kohl's, and so on. For a time, you probably could have found some sets as remaining stock in these places, but eventually these boxes were bought up too. So where do you go now to find GeoTrax that were relatively easy to get for nearly a decade?
There are two main sources of GeoTrax today and several other lesser known places you can look. All of them are online where you can sometimes still find "new in box" (NIB) sets but more likely will see second hand (or third or fourth...) pieces, sets, and lots.
The two chief sources are Amazon and eBay. I am aware of at least three other sites that usually carry some GeoTrax items supplied by third party sellers -
OnlineAuctions,
UniSquare, and Sears. If you really scour the Web, you may be able to find even more sites that sell them. If you do, you might post a comment below letting us all know about your discovery.
There is actually one more site I know of where you can sometimes find GeoTrax. It's Craigslist. The reason I didn't group it with the other sites above is that your searches there are obviously regional and are very hit and miss.
What GeoTrax Can I Expect to Find at Amazon and eBay?
In general, sellers tend to offer more complete sets on Amazon. This is a function of the way Amazon is structured. You need to have a UPC (or EAN) in order to list an item for sale there. An individual piece of GeoTrax hardware, like a train engine or a curved piece of track, doesn't have a UPC. On the other hand, a complete set does.
That said, not all listings on Amazon are for complete sets. You will want to read the description carefully to see exactly what is for sale. Usually just a piece or two from a larger set will be missing. Smaller sets are likely to have every piece accounted for.
Prices on Amazon tend to be somewhat higher (at least, for GeoTrax) than on other sites. Part of this relates to the completeness mentioned above. In addition, sellers are aware that buyers may be using Amazon bucks that they have gotten as a gift or by some other free method, so they are likely to have more to spend and are more willing to spend it. There are also people who do virtually all their shopping on Amazon simply for the convenience and are willing to pay more as a consequence.
Some have compared eBay to a yard sale (rummage sale, garage sale). It's place where you can find pretty much anything, including what other people consider junk.
GeoTrax sets and pieces are certainly not junk, but you can often find what you're looking for at a lower cost than on Amazon. You can also usually find that one missing piece (at a premium, yes) to replace the one that got lost or accidentally got thrown away.
I hesitate to say that you'll need to replace a broken piece because, in my many dealings with GeoTrax, I can probably count on one hand the number of items I've seen that actually were broken. (This doesn't include remote controlled trains that no longer run, because they still work fine as push trains.)
On eBay, you can also find combinations of sets which are sometimes discounted compared to the cost of individual sets. Once in a while you'll also see "sets" that aren't really sets but are mismatched pieces put together by someone who wasn't sure anymore what constituted the original set.
You can see what was originally included in many GeoTrax sets at
GeoTraxPacks.com.
What about Those Other Sites? What GeoTrax Do They Have?
Smaller sites like OnlineAuctions, UniSquare, and others most often will have fewer offerings than the big two. However, you may be able to find some deals there that either aren't offered elsewhere or are priced lower.
The format of these sites tends to be more like eBay than Amazon. This is so sellers can list items without the UPC requirement and can generally post anything they want (within site restrictions, of course).
If you can find a GeoTrax set for less on these sites, it's probably not because the quality is lower but rather because of the fee structure setup by the site's owners. Many smaller sites charge sellers lower (even zero) fees than eBay. Since sellers are allowed to keep more of the profit, they can reduce their prices and still get the amounts they want.
Also similar to eBay, you may find parts and pieces on these smaller sites too, though these may be fewer and farther between than on eBay simply because the seller knows his audience is larger there.
How Long Will the Supply Last?
As I hinted at above, GeoTrax pieces - vehicles, buildings, track, etc. - are really, really sturdy. Pieces produced in 2003 (the debut year for GeoTrax) are still in circulation today (2015) and should be for many, many years to come. Pieces produced near the end of the run in 2011 are today just four years old. They'll last even longer.
I personally expect the supply of GeoTrax to diminish more from carelessness - throwing them out in the trash - than from misuse or neglect.
Something else that I expect to happen though too is that the cost of a given set will continue to rise. This will not necessarily be to a decreasing supply but from a steady demand and from the (perhaps misguided) notion that older toys are more valuable.
If you're in the market for GeoTrax, my recommendation is to get what you want sooner than later.
