Amazing Diecast Collectors Stories

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Saric on November 6, 2011 at 10:45pm

Here's a story submitted by new DN member tar (Tim).  An amazing read, we're sure you'll enjoy. Thanks Tim!

*********************************************************************************************************The Great Hardware Store Incident
By TAR

    I will never forget as a child getting to go to the grocery store with my Mom. Yes, there were the treats she would let me pick out but getting them was not the highlight. The highlight was across the parking lot. The coveted hardware store. It was 1968 and up to that point my reward for being good was to pick out a Matchbox car at the hardware store after the food shopping was done. I was pretty good 'cause I loved Matchbox cars and I knew I would get one. I guess I was born at the right time, one could say. Because in 1968, I was 6 years old and in the peak for most normal kids in love with playing cars. I remember this day, however, and always will, for on this day, when we walked into the hardware store there on the end cap, in flashy colors, screaming with 1968 state-of –the-art marketing techniques was a shrine to the hip cars of the day. A collection of toy cars the likes I had never seen. They were shinny, with magical paint jobs, slicked tires, far-out names, and they even came with a button you could wear! Yes, I was only 6 but I knew these were something else. Hot Wheels!!! They were surrounded by accessories and play sets enticing you to race them. This was special! My Matchbox cars were raced across the floor at home but only after a scale equivalent of a nuclear propulsion system provided by my left arm. These cars were different and although Matchbox held there own in the accuracy department they were no match for the California styling of these creations. After the initial shock wore off I remember wondering where did the Matchbox cars go? They used to be on that end cap. The answer was a sign of things to come. They were now located behind a wall in the back of the store neatly tucked away in a small wall mount shelving unit used formerly for nails. I immediately begged my Mom for 4 or 5 Hot Wheels and she said ok. Man was I happy. I think she needed to lead me back to the car so I wouldn’t just walk out into parking lot traffic. My eyes were fixated on these orange track dreams.

        Throughout the next decade I bought all kinds of them and sets and everything else in the product line that I could. Man, I played hard. Drove ‘em into the ground. Literately! I still bought Matchbox Cars and they suffered the same fate except for those cars that fell through the knot holes of the attic flooring. They were recovered some years later when my old toy recovery safaris really kicked into gear (Mom didn’t care for the flooring taken up and put back in the attic). Like most kids I pretty much destroyed my toys until, one day, I just looked at them differently. I was older and my Dad was saying things like, “It’s time to put the toys away now son.” The sound of that was blasphemy! I understood his point and all but, really, put my toys away? NO WAY!!!!! I guess that is when it started. I put down the hammers, lighters, lighter fluid, and all the other acquired implements of destruction and looked at my cars as history. My history. Ok, so now what? Dad (a physician) thinks I’m too old for this stuff. So, I stuck to the motto my best friend and I had come up with (or heard, I don’t remember which). “WHEN THE GOING GETS WEIRD….THE WEIRD TURN PRO”.  So, I bought a couple glass lighted display cases, cleaned up the salvageable die cast, built a model railroad where the cars could hang out (and I could play with them making it look legit), and invested in some guidebooks, mostly on Corgi and Dinky Toys, of which I had a few. I bought magazines and responded to ads in the classifieds (no such thing as internet yet) for Matchbox, Hot Wheels, and other old toys for sale. I couldn’t afford a lot but it was a start. I filled the displays up and showed my Dad which was the first time I can remember him using the word “obsession”. Damn, this was back firing! So then I showed him the collector guides and the values printed within and you know what? That did it. After that, when any of his friends came over to the house, I’d find my Dad up in my room showing off my collection. At the time, I also had some 43rd scale in good condition so it looked pretty cool. The model railroad also helped and I did my best to develop scenery skills. My room looked more like a store with a railroad layout display. Hell, it was Christmas every day in there.

    Now this is supposed to be the story of the great hardware store incident and it is. It’s just that the preceding build-up, I figure, will help to explain my actions on the given day in question here. I will leave out some names and such to protect the innocent and the guilty (namely me) but as collectors I ask you to pause and think after reading this; what would you have done? 
I had received my driver’s license and some freedom. I traveled around our area in search of Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Tomica Pocket Cars, and the like. One day, I was thinking of all the stuff I used to see at the hardware store. The owner, a friend of my Father’s, had always kept the shelves full of toys and overstock in the basement. This was 1980. Maybe something was still down there. I drove to the store and was glad to see a middle-aged woman who had worked there for years. She was always nice to me and now that I was older my smile took on a different tone. Ok, I could sweet talk her and I knew it. I simply asked if there by chance could be any old Hot Wheels or Matchbox or Major Matt Mason stuff still in the basement. She said she would be glad to take a look. A few minutes went by and I could hear her coming up the stairs. She emerged with a box about the size of an old fashion large TV. She dragged it over to me and said, “Is this what you mean?” I glanced down and it was full of Hot Wheels stuff! My mind was sayin’, HOLY S***!!!!!”, but I had to keep cool. There were others in the store and I didn’t want to attract attention. As calmly as I could I asked, “How much does this stuff cost?”. She replied that she didn’t know and reached in pulling up one of the 3 Snake & Mongoose sets. She pointed out a sticker that read $7.95 with a gesture of, “that’s how much”. I pulled out a Hot Curve Sets and it said the same.        …Now at this point I got that weird feeling, you know the one, like ok, I’m never getting out of here with this stuff or I will and then my life will end tomorrow being how this most certainly makes it complete. It can’t get any better than this……              I didn’t have any money on me. Not a cent. But I remembered my parents had a charge account there. The kind that is informal and a service to the local area repeat customers. I was about to say I wanna charge it when she said, “There are 2 more boxes. Do you want me to get them?”  HOLY CRAP!!!  I think all I could do was nod yes.   Once again she left down the stairs. I was looking through the sets that had windows and I could see so many of the cars I had as a child, the Continental in light blue with white interior, a purple Firebird, and a Fleetside. There were so many I just was in a daze. The entire box was sets with cars! She returned twice more with boxes of the same size containing Sizzlers and Rumblers and Chopcycles and of course sets and accessories for each. In one box was a smaller cardboard box with carded Redlines.  I managed to communicate to her that I wanted to charge the stuff and she retrieved the little sales pad with the initial of our last name on it and started writing. God, it seemed like eternity for her to finish. Of course she had to pull out each and every thing including the carded cars one at a time. Being that I had not looked to see which were in there I could feel my pulse racing with each revelation. Finally she was done and asked if I needed help carrying the boxes to the car. I accepted and we each carried a TV sized box to the tailgate of my Mom’s Cherokee Chief. We put them in and I returned with her into the store and carried out the last box. The last thing she said to me was, “What does Matt Mason stuff look like?” Oh man, I told her I would return another day and see about that. I had just charged a crap load of toys and while squaring it with my parents wasn’t the problem I just felt the need to get going.  Now this is where things got murky. As I loaded the last box the owner pulled up and got out of his car, as he was returning from lunch. Knowing me he said hello as he walked past me and then just stopped in his tracks. He looked at the boxes and I said, “Hi”. I knew what he was staring at. I got in the Jeep and decided very quickly that it was time to go. I heard him raising his voice as he entered the store and I was pulling out. Now all kinds of things went through my mind, especially the fact that I had not considered that the stuff was possibly set aside by the owner on purpose. It really was upsetting to me. I thought of the woman and that she was very likely being chewed-out or even worse. I got home and immediately called my Dad at work. I told him what happened and he said he was bowling with the owner the next night and not to worry about it till he had a chance to talk to him. Now my Dad was the most honest man I knew and that put me at ease. He did bowl with the owner and the owner never said a word about it to my Father. I returned to the hardware store and the woman was still working there. In fact, she smiled and said, “I checked and no Matt Mason stuff”. The owner was always nice to me and I came to believe that the products ended up in a good place with some one who loved them and appreciated them for what they were. Today, most of that score is still with me and will be passed down to my son’s. For a long time I told the story to friends and collectors. I never though anything like that would ever happen again but….     I was wrong.       

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Redline69 on November 6, 2011 at 11:17pm

 That's a great read Tim. It's like I was there myself.

 Definetly a score of a lifetime.

 

 Frank

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Scott Jones on November 7, 2011 at 9:34am

oh yes, great read!

 

I probably would have done the same thing, and going back to the store and sensing everything was "normal" should put you at ease...

 

Soooooooooooooo, does this story continue??  The last line kept it open for sequels!!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bob Zickuhr on November 7, 2011 at 2:41pm

Thanks for the fun ride. Great story.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Billy Guerette on November 7, 2011 at 8:01pm

I have to say that one of my best finds in recent history happened just the other day. I was at a local antique dealers house and stumbled across ALL 3 OF THE ORIGINAL DUKES OF HAZZARD CARS IN NEAR MINT TO MINT CONDITION! Well I asked the dealer (Who by the way is now a friend of mine) what he was looking to get for them thining in the back of my mind theres no way hed let them go anywhere. To my UTTER SHOCK AND AMAZEMENT He said Take them they are yours,free of charge. I offered to pay him some money for them and he flat out refused it. I asked him why he was being so nice and he said hed rather see them in a good home where theyd be safe then on his shelf collecting dust.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ralph Mackey on November 7, 2011 at 11:12pm

That was great  story John it was as I was there.

Billy you had the luck with that day Great story.

 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Saric on November 8, 2011 at 8:09am

Thanks Ralph I just posted the story it was written by new member Tim (TAR).

Great story Billy thanks for contributing to this thread!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ralph Mackey on November 8, 2011 at 9:14am

The story was Great Jim thanks

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion