Diane and I hit the antique show today at the Expo. I have never seen so much slot car stuff there! Those antique dealers must think slot car stuff is gold! Don't they realize we're all CHEAP? First I spotted some late model Tyco cars for $15 a piece........uh, no thanks! A couple rows away I find an oild 1/32 Lionel '63 Corvette split window couple..........mostly there.............$40!!!! So on I go......Then I think I've found the mother load!...I spy a box (a little larger than a shoe box) that looks like its filled with new, bagged old 1/24 parts. I wander over to check it out. Sure enough there are a bunch of new in the bag chassis kits from the early 60's. Kemtron and some brass chassis kits, cool old stuff but..........NOT at $30 and $40 each!!!! There was a plastic box with 20 or so 1/24 wheels for threaded axles (nothing cool like Cox wheels), just the plain old stuff NOBODY WANTS, for get this $75!!!!! So I start digging through the box to see what's on the bottom. One complete slot car with a scratch built tube type brass chassis, ball bearing front wheels, and a very cool Kemtron motor with a rewound armature (best thing in the box by far!). I didn't have the courage to ask how much that one was! Also in the box was a Dynamic chassis with a Kemtron motor, wheels and axles..........$55!!! There was a new Kemtron motor in the box for $75!!! In addition to this stuff was a couple painted but used lexan bodies, and one Cox Ferrari F1 body that was painted and abused..........So by now the dealer sees me digging through this box and comes over to make me a "great deal"........He says if I'm interested in the whole box of stuff, he will sell it all to me for HALF of what he has all the stuff marked at...............Well gee, wet my pants I all most did........NOT!.......I tried to be nice and explain to him he had some good stuff in the box but, I didn't think he would ever get those kind of prices around hear, and that Ebay was probably his best bet. I asked him what he would sell the whole box for.....He said we could "add it up at 50% of his marked value". I said "well that appears to be WAY over $100", and I felt $100 would be all I'd be willing to pay. He then asked if I thought he could get $100 a piece for the Kemtron motors on Ebay....................I walked away..........Next I came across two pretty nice looking Aurora Thunderjet 500 cars. A very clean Ferrari GTO, white with red stripes, and a ultra common (but nice) Indy car. $25 each was the reply when I asked how much.......Sadly that was probably the best deal I would see!.......Down the row a bit I ran across a very clean and nicely built 1/24 Monogram Scarab (but obviously used). The sticker on the bottom of the car was visible through the glass showcase, $85......Same row another 50 or 60 steps, I spy a 1/24 lexan bodied car in another display case. Looks really clean, but nothing special.....Turns out to be a Dynamic 36D car, one of the factory RTR cars. The dealer says he has the box, and the box is pretty clean. The car is beautiful (for a lexan bodied "Thingie")!...........Ok, so how much are you asking (at this point I'm not sure why I even asked)?????.....$695!!!!!........OK
The last slot cars I even bothered to look at were a couple more HO cars. An Aurora A/FX 55 Chevy (with a brush painted trunk lid - I have no idea why), and an Aurora Excellerator Firebird with a broken window post. The '55 Chevy was $25, and the Firebird was $20................So what did I end up with for my day's hunt? My first find was a small hardback book; Gurney's Eagles (very cool old book) for $3.50. Next I found a 1965 - 66 Oregon Driver's Manual for 50 cents (that little booklet is going in the glovebox of our '65 Corvette along with the owner's manual). And lastly I found a pair of large ceramic or resin cars, one's a '57 Chevy bank and the other is a '53 Corvette planter (or something). The pair cost me $10 and they were new with the box.....................Told you I was CHEAP!!!!