Planning to land in Oxford sooner rather than later and due to this today all of a sudden started highjacking Ebay UK looking namely for old Matchbox cars Made in UK before Matel era. Had to stop myself. Anyway as for those NOS almost nothing in the UK. Probably I need to find some collectors' sites. There are some in the US but shipping costs for a small car blister are.. meh..
It's a syndrome btw, all collectors are prone to that, from psychiatric point of view, my sister is a shrink.. but nobody's normal
I was wondering if Mystic knew the big-price ebay seller, I kind of thought he had a connection to the Moscow Mall Store with all of the photos on the internet. I'm seeing more hoarder/collector collections go up for sale around here, hundreds of lots of similar items, one of the cool ones last year was a guy that had tons of coo-coo clocks and other artsy 40s-60s clocks. There must have been a few hundred of every shape and size, most went for the bare minimum. Vintage train sets don't seem to be popular at all any more, even boxed equipment, too bad I have a few boxes of those and slot cars.
Nope, mate, bread-and-butter!! Tho it might seem as a BB collectors' mecca (this VintageMoscow store) I've never even been there. I used to travel to Moscow a lot on business, sometimes every other week but this had been before my BBX saga started, years prior. Moscow is 500 miles from St. Petersburg down south-east- an 1 hour flight, or 4 hours by a high-speed train, or a 6 hrs highway driving. Even now if my job pushed me to catch a plane to capital I wouldn't go to that place. What for? To drool over prices?
Wow.... Still have a soft spot for those, somewhere deep, as couldn't afford many of them back then, too expensive.. A sign of that our generation is kinda leaving this small globe. Those who came after mostly prefer Matrix.
You must be looking in the wrong place. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/model-of-yesteryear/184323172691?hash=item2aea846953:g:0TIAAOSwZgBe39gC These look to be the right era (pre Mattel). Since they cost about £2.50 each in the late 1970s someone is losing a lot of money here. Sales like that come up almost every week, while every Antiques market has cars for about £5 each. If you want boxed 1970s model cars with the the Speedfast wheels that is a different story. Those were the ones kids played with in the 1970s. Two that I have picked up at car boot sales. The missing plastic Lion is probably worth more than a Model of Yesteryear
Thanks! Will give them a look tonight. I'd buy a couple for my friend as a gift and for myself. Namely "proper" UK made Matchbox cars from whatever age but pre-Matel, Matel acquired Matchbox in 1997 IIRC.
Do some research into the box colours. Production shifted from the UK to Macau in 1983. The two cars I just added a photo of above are "Made in England" copyright 1975 and 1978. The Police Range Rover is a British Icon although I don't understand why the light on top is red.
Wow, He sells amazing items. I am sure he has even better equipment in his man cave as his private collection.
I have found that the categories/sections don't work very well on Ebay. For example there is "Sound and Vision" but also "Collectables - Radio, Television, and Telephony". Doing some research after your posts made me smile this morning https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ORIGINAL70s-Matchbox-Lesney-Superfast-Rolamatics-20-Range-Rover-Police-EMPTY-BOX-/313185349755?hash=item48eb4d307b:g:kh4AAOSwp8lfOUIZ&nma=true&si=LqtQzdgxcbPCXvcYdIk7V7c7CAE%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 I think every collector smiles when they see an item sell for far more than they paid for theirs (I think £3 in my case). I will have to look after that Boxed Range Rover toy. I guess that most kids getting one would throw the box away the day they got it. In contrast Grandparents would be "Make sure the Models of Yesteryear are safely locked away in the glass cabinet before the grandchildren visit. If we keep them in perfect condition then by the time they are 21 these will be worth enough to buy them real cars".
Exactly, same here. That's why when looking for something more or less specific , like Akai GX for example, or Sharp GF, I always use general, root search. Yup, went through a few pages of the link you gave I also stumbled upon a lot with a few empty Matchbox boxes.
This was from rival UK manufacturer Corgi but gives an idea Roughly the same price as a Chart LP back in the same era. When LPs started reappearing in places like Sainsburys I checked the price (about £18) against inflation and decided they were more or less the same in real terms as they had been last time around
Proof that there is still stuff out in the wild and one mans junk is another's prize purchase https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-54842558
