Shite in Miniature II

60,194 · September 10, 2023

52 minutes ago, egg said:

Daimler

I've got one of those, with baseplate

63,100 · September 10, 2023

Chris Goffey (yep the real one) has just stumbled across a French tat box!

https://twitter.com/ChrisGoffey/status/1700893040167059631/photo/1

14,216 · September 10, 2023

1 hour ago, egg said:

Chris Goffey (yep the real one) has just stumbled across a French tat box!

https://twitter.com/ChrisGoffey/status/1700893040167059631/photo/1

Jeepers! I was paying a lot more than that at the French autojumble. Well done to the Goffmeister!

I managed a rare visit to a boot sale today. Useless items* purchased:

Cheapies from various stalls were 5 for £1, 3 for £1, 50p each or £1 each. One or two things were more expensive, but in total I didn't spend much more than £30. I already had one of those E-Class estates without its lightbar, the thought is they'll get converted to bangers someday.

300ZXs were odd. I was convinced I was just finding colour variations, then I realised the silver one was different (and quite a nice basic casting).

Tomica Dandy Isuzu Elf has led a hard life on the construction site, but for 33.33333333333p it's OK.

Don't remember the Police version(s), did they do they other forces? Shame the tampo is bit squiffy maybe the other side is straighter and will display better?

Possibly a Toyota Celsior or Lexus LS400....

*"I can't figure out why I've bought so many useless items" from Persuasion by Soft Cell, not at the easy listening end of the musical spectrum.

2,273 · September 10, 2023

The DeLorean owners club had its annual event at the Morgan factory on Saturday. Spotted a cabinet of miniature Morgan shite on the tour.

60,194 · September 10, 2023

22 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

300ZXs

Nearest two are Zylmex (or possibly into the MotorMax era, as is the Toyota/Lexus - has it got a D number on the base?)

Wheels on the furthest one look like Welly to me - here's mine with different rims

14,216 · September 10, 2023

Silver one matches up, although I have some numbers where you have a blank.

The other two (and the LS400/Celsior) have a blank where something was written.

60,194 · September 10, 2023

7 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

The other two (and the LS400/Celsior) have a blank where something was written

That's a shame - the 300ZX should have D78, the number's helpful identifying them

14,216 · September 10, 2023

17 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

That's a shame - the 300ZX should have D78, the number's helpful identifying them

Ah, sorry - yes they do all have the number, it just I imagined there would once have been a makers name alongside it.

I have a D114, so it is a Lexus then. As it's less than mint could be a good basis for replicating my 1:1 (although it could be argued its current condition is actually a pretty accurate representation).

27,189 · September 10, 2023

3 hours ago, egg said:

Chris Goffey (yep the real one) has just stumbled across a French tat box!

https://twitter.com/ChrisGoffey/status/1700893040167059631/photo/1

That’s what @Jon parents suitcase will look like next time they go to visit him!😆

5,256 · September 11, 2023

Because I just know* Hotwheels will be the Lledo Days Gone of our generation with boxes worthless ones come 2053….. I even found it hanging up on a peg in a shop!

So I very much enjoyed doing this just like I did 40 years ago 😁

It’s a sweet little thing! Quite heavy too and the roll cage would be drainpipe thick if it was to scale.

40,660 · September 11, 2023

What will be the future valuable stuff? I don’t buy based on this, I just buy it if I like it. I reckon maybe the main line matchbox will be, it follows a tight change schedule compared to the ones 30 years ago, loads of colours that didn’t make it here or weren’t available in U.K.

3,409 · September 11, 2023

I was just about to post in here about Days Gone!

A discussion with my folks yesterday revealed the fact that amongst the other collectible bits and bobs in my late gran's house that we'll need to clear out in the near future, she still had all my grandad's old Days Gone and View Vans in the loft. I remember him having a rather large collection of these when I was younger - in their old house, used to be a floor to ceiling cabinet in their hallway filled with them, and there were more not on show/in cabinets elsewhere in the house. No idea of quantity yet but I gather from the above comments that they're likely worth the square root of fuck all?

5,122 · September 11, 2023

39 minutes ago, Markeh said:

I was just about to post in here about Days Gone!

A discussion with my folks yesterday revealed the fact that amongst the other collectible bits and bobs in my late gran's house that we'll need to clear out in the near future, she still had all my grandad's old Days Gone and View Vans in the loft. I remember him having a rather large collection of these when I was younger - in their old house, used to be a floor to ceiling cabinet in their hallway filled with them, and there were more not on show/in cabinets elsewhere in the house. No idea of quantity yet but I gather from the above comments that they're likely worth the square root of fuck all?

When the time comes, box them up and send them to auction. Someone will buy them. Maybe for an average of 50p each, but they will sell.

Or put them in a skip.

I favour the former as, like burning books, I'm against binning diecast.

5,122 · September 11, 2023

Today, I had a delivery

Many moons ago, @Datsuncogsold me my first Northcord model, which happened to be in Brighton & Hove livery.

Since then I've bought many Northcords and a few B&H liveried buses. So these are his fault.

Commissioned by Omnidekka Models from 80M, its a Wright Street deck.

Really good quality. Available in two routes, so I bought both. As usual I'm reluctant to take them out of the box.

So here's a picture I nicked from the Interweb. Picture by Alec Mitchell from the Omnidekka FB group.

63,100 · September 11, 2023

Some Days Gone are OK like the Vanguards, I mean would we buy this Mini? Maybe?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195962422769

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314782148423?epid=1005612809

or this?

But this junk...na!

40,660 · September 11, 2023

Like @Split_Pin I’m quite bitter about ‘Dayz Gone By’. I’ll happily squash them in the vice. 😂

6,071 · September 11, 2023

17 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Like @Split_Pin I’m quite bitter about ‘Dayz Gone By’. I’ll happily squash them in the vice. 😂

Or give them to a charity shop so they can be displayed in a glass cabinet at £15 each.

33,828 · September 11, 2023

39 minutes ago, egg said:

Some Days Gone are OK like the Vanguards, I mean would we buy this Mini? Maybe?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195962422769

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314782148423?epid=1005612809

or this?

But this junk...na!

I'm pretty sure that Mini went on to be the second 'real' Vanguards casting, albeit much modified, to replace the terrible Corgi Classics effort. I'm fairly certain that @MiniMinorMk3 covered this a while ago and how unhappy collectors were at Corgi Classic's fist stab at it. I'd give one a home as I think it's an excellent model, same for the Traveller.

As for the other junk, I was actually becoming physically irritated on the train en route to collect my new Merc SLK because I was thinking about Days Gone cars. A wanton intrusion into a nice day. The little bastards.

42,580 · September 11, 2023

1 hour ago, Markeh said:

I gather from the above comments that they're likely worth the square root of fuck all?

I know a man who thinks otherwise - but he also doesn't seem to be selling all that many from his market stall...

Would second the advice just to box them up and put them through the auction as a job lot.

My uncle had a similar scenario with his late father's 'diecast collection' - 300 or so Days Gone, all pristine and saved as a 'nest egg' for his family when he was gone.

I think they got £60 or so from the auctioneer, less commission.

I mean, it paid for a decent takeaway but the family probably would have seen a much better return if he'd simply banked the cash value of the Lledos in 1985 (say ~£1,000, assuming each model cost him between £3 and £4), and let the interest accumulate... or indeed, had he had the foresight to buy a couple of shares in Apple...

Still - at least your grandad displayed them, and hopefully enjoyed them for a good long while. I gather the models in the collection I'm talking about were just bought and immediately stored away as 'investments' - based on the antique collector mania bollocks going on in the 80s, when certain early prewar Dinkys were suddenly worth more than the price of a house, and the newspapers were going buck daft breathlessly interviewing Lauren Harries every few weeks.

Jack Odell, at least, did pretty well out of it all.

And the mid-90s Lledos were actually pretty good.

42,580 · September 11, 2023

55 minutes ago, egg said:

I mean would we buy this Mini? Maybe?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195962422769

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314782148423?epid=1005612809

Heh, I picked one of those up at the market a few weeks ago, which I think precipitated the Mini chat and revelation that this casting, modified lightly, is still in the current Corgi Vanguards range.

For £3, it's pretty good.

But I dunno if I'd have fancied paying an awful lot more...

45,047 · September 11, 2023

The thing with the Days Gone stuff is some are collectable, but the vast majority are not. They need to have a production run of less than 200ish to be on collectors radars.

Also the collectors of them are fast leaving us, so the ones that were collectable are now easier to find, so prices will still be dropping.

It's the same with most "collectable" stuff. When they are current there is a lot of speculation and high demand, but after the novelty has gone (Beany Babies), then the laws of economics take over and there is more supply than demand. Something have a second wind, but it usually takes about 20 to 30 years when the nostalgia effect kicks in and people want their old childhood junk back.

Just look at the price of original Star Wars stuff and vintage Lego sets. Boot fair stalls were full of that stuff in the late 1990s and give away prices. At the moment original Pokemon stuff is starting to gain traction.

By the way, none of the modern Matchbox or HotWheels stuff will ever command the prices of the original issue stuff. Too many people buy them thinking if they keep them in a darkened room for 30 years they will be worth a mint. The thing is, too many people have got the same idea, just like they did 30 year ago with the Days Gone stuff.

63,100 · September 11, 2023

Here's a bit more detail from the 1995 Lledo catalogue I was looking at earlier, with mini and morris variations (moar to collect)

42,580 · September 11, 2023

5 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

By the way, none of the modern Matchbox or HotWheels stuff will ever command the prices of the original issue stuff. Too many people buy them thinking if they keep them in a darkened room for 30 years they will be worth a mint. The thing is, too many people have got the same idea, just like they did 30 year ago with the Days Gone stuff.

They'll be worth something for as long as there's a consensus that they must be worth something - but yes, once a cohort passes on, then the things they valued tends to crash through the floor.

The trick behind 'survivor investing' is to not be the last one standing holding the goods, as by that point their notional value evaporates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory?wprov=sfla1

I've waxed lyrical on this before, but I think Billy Bunter memorabilia was one of the first mass-media collectables to gain traction as very valuable, with first-edition books and original copies of Magnet comic selling for ££££ because some wealthy old guys had such positive associations between Frank Richards' stories and their teenage youth in the 1920s and 30s, that they were happy to partake in bidding wars beyond what was sensible to acquire certain rarities.

Once this particular generation had passed, the values of the items cratered because, as you say, supply suddenly outstripped demand. To put it bluntly, no-one cared anymore.

And the same could well happen with Mattel products - or any collectible, really.

These days, I just keep the things I actively like and punt the rest on, regardless of whether they look like 'investments' - because in the long-term they probably won't be...

63,100 · September 11, 2023

There are Lledo catalogues here, a look at 1989 and 2001 reveals many model T vans, proving those vanguard castings to be the outliers.

https://sites.google.com/site/lledomodelsdiecast/catalogues

63,100 · September 11, 2023

Cor look, I could have a Herne Bay Lledo!

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/209033495479857/

45,047 · September 11, 2023

When I stuck these on Ebay a few years ago some of these made over £20, and some did not. Two made over £50.

43,510 · September 11, 2023

At Big Car Boot Romanesc yesterday, I saw hundred or so Lledo laid out tidily on a tarp, all at £3 MIB. I went back near closing time and not one had been sold.

The only one that stood out for me was a white Mini with a saltire on the roof. I toyed with the idea of buying it, thinking it scarce, but put it down again, out of principle.

September 11, 2023

1 hour ago, flat4alfa said:

At Big Car Boot Romanesc yesterday, I saw hundred or so Lledo laid out tidily on a tarp, all at £3 MIB. I went back near closing time and not one had been sold.

The only one that stood out for me was a white Mini with a saltire on the roof. I toyed with the idea of buying it, thinking it scarce, but put it down again, out of principle.

Educate me please.
Is there something inherently wrong with Lledo models or was it the car boot that was the issue?
Said Car Boot wasn't the one at the back of Linslade, home of the Great Diesel Spillage?