Its that time that most collectors come to in their life..

Unlike a few people who have endless resources (or the space to house their collections) I recently had an epiphany and realised that it was time to re-evaluate my interest in collecting rally memorabilia, books and more importantly scale models.

I turned 60 at the start of the year and a few things have happened in my life including some exciting travel adventures that have made me realise that the clock is ticking. Never quite managed the parenting thing so there is no-one other than Mrs L to leave the collection to and I know she wouldnt want the responsibility!

Therefore (for now) after much internal debate I've decided to sell on most of my collection apart from 2 distinct favourite eras in 1/18th namely Group B and the 2 litre Group A7 kit cars and yes that does mean potentially losing the MK2 Escort!

Part of my problem is that a few years back I shifted direction from 1/43rd to 1/18th ironically to reduce the number of models I had, having previously limited myself to 3 favourite liveries per car! That was before Otto and a few others came along and started producing such great models! It soon became apparent that one room in a three bedroom house wasnt going to be big enough to cope and the insurance might not be enough to cover a potential loss either.

So over the next few months will be hitting ebay hard and maybe go back to doing a few toy shows. Still planning to dable in buying and selling and will certainly try and be an active member here as still love the sport and its heritage and its hard to turn my back on something that has given me so much pleasure and allowed me to make many great friends and aquaintences over the years

Thanks for listening

Chris

hi chris, been having similar thoughts over last while, whole room devoted to models and only my daughter to leave them to when the time comes.... been considering how i'd go about picking out one cabinet of favourites and selling the rest.. not in favour of the huge cut ebay/paypal take from the sales though.. wondered if posting a notice on social media like fb then having a sale/auction at the house would work, could you consider similar to save the fees?
obviously selling on here would be the first option surely mate, but in the meantime, best wishes for the plans ahead, i recently retired and these thoughts come to us all at some point i'm sure. the hardest thing for me when it comes to it will be picking the ones to keep...

billy

60-You are only a boy! I too am thinking the same way! Sell off my collection and use the money towards a dream car. If I croak my siblings will just put them all in a skip!

a skip??!! lols rory!! but you're right, several of us dont have family who would appreciate our collections, no appreciation of the time, effort and money invested...

Hardest part of the decision has been that most models these days be they 1/43rd or 1/18th actually look like quite like the real thing unlike when I first started collecting when even Provence Moulage/Starter kit models often needed to be viewed with a bit of a squint! My initial collection was made up of mostly "toys" like Burago, Polistil and the like.

Interesting that you mention a 1:1 scale new toy Rory as my mind has drifted in that direction as well as still have some ability with the spanners and have unfinished RWD drive business.

As I say am not stepping away and want very much to keep visiting here to see what you guys are up to and discuss the new releases etc. Might even find the time to digitise a lot of my back catalogue of rally photos and share them here as well.

I did get a 1:1 toy last year: An E30 318iS Currently driving me mad with the awkwardness of maintenance! But I plan to sell it in 2026 and buy the dream car. When I look at the €1000s tied up in model cars it makes sense to sell them off!

must be something in the air, as i recently treated myself to a mk3 Focus RS. as retirement pressie.. though i followed it up with the Autoart 1:18 version lol!!

This article kinda ties in with this topic
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-21/two-sisters-selling-off-model-car-collection/104104066

I'm a bit younger than you guys but have been musing over the same issue recently. Was thinking of selling the run of the mill cars and vans but holding onto the Breen, Meeke and Meagher cars as well as other Code 3 and Irish cars, the Touring Cars and F1 cars. It's a tough decision.

aye the diffcult choice would be which ones to keep... in my case, the two cabinets of irish stuff , or a cabinet of ford yokes,or mantas, or gpb..... and on it goes..

my first decision would be to sell the 36 or so 1:43 mantas i think.... my eyes getting too weak to work on the wee stuff! lol!

Im probably a bit younger than ye as well. The thought has crossed my mind what would happen the collection if my time came early.
I know it would be a burden for those left behind for sure, so Ive started to catalogue what I have, how much I paid and what it should sell for. Obviously time will change the the value, but I would hope it would at least hold its value.

What I have told my other half is if needed, to come onto this site to get advice on where to sell, what to avoid etc. I know most of the collection would end up being sold elsewhere, but I know that she would get great advice from the members here. Facebook is full of scammers, but here Id like to think we have a tight enough community to help each out.

brian ive told the wife exactly the same....

Even Otto releasing the Sunny GTI-R wont sway me!

I decided to rationalise my collection a few months ago as i couldn’t see an end in sight. Got rid of about 200 road cars. Figured out a rally theme so it wasn't an endless journey and bought a few bases to convert to fill in the gaps. Did a count up the other day and realised i have ~150 models to build and had sold zero of the 100 odd rally models i’d planned to sell as the effort to get boxes out, and list them was horrible. I may have to retire earlier than planned to give me time to build them all before i croak or am too short sighted to build them….and the ebay listing is going to take ages. And i’ll still be left with 500+ 1/43 rally cars for someone else to deal with at some future date.

flip Paul....!! are we all mad?!!

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