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1/18 Die Cast? Yeah, I got a couple.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 12:47 pm
by BMCTED
I guess I got interested in cars when I saw my first Indy 500 on The Wide World of Sports back in the Early 1960's. Then I saw Stock Cars on the same program ... and then Ford beating Ferrari at Le Mans ... and then I learned about Formula One.
I started building 1/24 scale when I was 12 in 1962. When I got out of the Army, I became an auto mechanic at a International Truck/Farm equipment dealership, which also sold Checker Marathon automobiles, within 2 years I was hired by a VW dealership. Eventually I ended up as a mechanic, then shop foreman and finally Service manager at a Porsche repair center.
I raced and drove rallyes in VW's, then MGBs starting in 1976. I raced MGB's in the north east until the mid-1980's.
Yeah ... I've loved cars almost all my life. I discovered 1/18th diecast about the time I stopped racing. At first I just wanted to get "The 10 Most Beautiful Cars I Ever Saw" ... and then the whole thing got out of hand.
Now it looks like this:
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The below is the Ford and Ferrari Collection ... and some racing cars
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The boxes below are some of the collection I have no room for.
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Most recent purchases. 2 of the most beautiful cars I have ever seen!
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Re: 1/18 Die Cast? Yeah, I got a couple.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 1:05 pm
by BMCTED
Re: 1/18 Die Cast? Yeah, I got a couple.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 1:12 pm
by BMCTED
I was fortunate to find my first car in 1/18th diecast. It was a 1960 Volvo PV 544 except mine was beige. I never thought I would ever find a model of one.
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Re: 1/18 Die Cast? Yeah, I got a couple.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 1:30 pm
by The Wiz
Do you trade or buy with other collectors?
Re: 1/18 Die Cast? Yeah, I got a couple.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 2:30 pm
by Vaquero
I built a ton of them as a youngster, don't even know what happened to them.
RP
Re: 1/18 Die Cast? Yeah, I got a couple.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 2:45 pm
by BMCTED
The Wiz wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 1:30 pm
Do you trade or buy with other collectors?
Sometimes.
I've bought a couple things off Ebay. I had a number of duplicates I sold at a local auction, others I give to children we go to church with.
For a number of reasons I am very surprised to find myself getting older. I have a feeling you know exactly what I mean.
To keep my wife from having a problem, in the eventually of yada, yada, yada, I am culling my collections. At one point I had a collection of military rifles from the last century. I'm down to about 30 or so pieces. I collect, build and restore banjo's and mandolins and such, I've worked that down to less than 10 ... but I started building a Lap Steel Guitar and I'm restoring an old autoharp. I've sold off almost all of my larger R/C airplanes, equipment and motors (I'm keeping the stuff under about 24 inches). My last MGB-GT and all the parts will probably be sold this spring.
I guess sooner or later, I'll start moving some of these on, at least the stuff in the boxes.
But right now its a sunny day in NoGa and I'm gonna go have lunch.
Re: 1/18 Die Cast? Yeah, I got a couple.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 2:58 pm
by daytime dave
That is a great collection. I collect 1/64 scale diecast. I have run out of room too. There's no way I could go to a larger scale. I gave away and donated all my larger scale cars during my last move.
The larger cars look great in the china cabinets.
My father collected a lot of things like you. When he passed, I had little idea of their value. An estate specialist contacted her sources and did most of the heavy lifting for me. I managed to sell off our joint collection of farm and garden tractors myself. You are doing your wife a favor by taking care of things a little at a time. My mother passed within months of my dad and I had no idea about her collections either.
Re: 1/18 Die Cast? Yeah, I got a couple.
Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 3:49 pm
by BMCTED
daytime dave wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 2:58 pm
That is a great collection. I collect 1/64 scale diecast. I have run out of room too. There's no way I could go to a larger scale. I gave away and donated all my larger scale cars during my last move.
The larger cars look great in the china cabinets.
My father collected a lot of things like you. When he passed, I had little idea of their value. An estate specialist contacted her sources and did most of the heavy lifting for me. I managed to sell off our joint collection of farm and garden tractors myself. You are doing your wife a favor by taking care of things a little at a time. My mother passed within months of my dad and I had no idea about her collections either.
There are a lot more cars available in 1/64th. Sometimes they can be a *little* cheaper, but some of those little cars can be very pricey.
The bigger cars can have a lot of detail, or can have a lot of detail added on if you are so inclined. 1/18th scale cars can be spectacular when they are "right", and sometimes "right" doesn't have to cost a lot.
I had a bit of luck ... when I started collecting cars, I owned my own Auto repair shop, the name of which sounded kinda "generic". I got introduced to a guy who sold stuff to hobby shops, and was able to get a wholesale account with the people he was working for. From that, I got hooked up with a couple more wholesalers, so I was buying very cheaply. Sometimes these folks would turn me onto hobby shops which were going out of business and I would buy inventory. I actually did sell some stuff, but most went on my shelves.