British man sells Matchbox car collection for insane amount
A British Matchbox enthusiast has cashed in big time, putting his entire store of toy cars up for auction, with one model selling for an insane amount.
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A British man has sold his pristine Matchbox car collection for an eye-watering sum.
The collection, which numbered close to 3000 models, sold at auction for £300,000 ($573,000).
Simon Hope, who founded the classic car auction house H&H, began collecting the cars 60 years ago at the age of eight.
The cars are in pristine condition because Hope’s grandma wouldn’t let him play with them on her dining table. He basically took them out of the box and put them back in.
Hope didn’t get serious about collecting the cars until he was older, when he started tracking down the cars he wanted in the best condition possible, buying cars for insignificant amounts.
The cars were sold individually and not as a whole set by British toy auction house Vectis.
The most expensive model was a lime green ERF Dropside truck which sold for £7000 ($13,372). A Ford Kennel Truck sold for £3200 ($6112) and a white Ford Mustang for £2100 ($4011).
Julian Royse from Vectris said people were paying big money for cars from the 1970s and there was a really big market in the Czech Republic.
“Models from the 1950s which have previously been very valuable are now less so and later examples are extremely desirable. We find demand far outstrips the supply and as such people will be very keen to get their hands on pieces which may not come up again in their lifetimes,” says Royse.
Originally published as British man sells Matchbox car collection for insane amount