Each picture essentially shows different groups of purchases. Obviously the Red Box truck required a few pictures of its own, and the carded pics just because they wouldn't all fit in the same picture.
The first picture was a set I found in the bottom corner of a cabinet in an antique store in Armstrong when I was chastising my son for touching things that he shouldn't. The lovely lady that owned the store told me that in the forty seven years she has been there that children had only broken something three times, and she lost count how many times adults broke things. While I was crouched down talking to my boy, I spotted the Flying Bug in an old tray that was wrapped in a plastic bag. Trying to describe it is hard, but it was just there. Not a proud display or anything, just another bag of stuff, so I asked her to pull it out, and had to give her directions through the case to even find it so that she could retrieve it. The tray was from an old Matchbox case and was so brittle that it was falling apart just touching it. She told me that she didn't know anything about these cars as she had three girls. These 12 cars were in the tray and I bought the whole lot for $20. The Flying Bug, Tyre Fryer, Road Dragster, and Countach are all SuperFasts, and are older than some of our fellow CCF members. The SuperVan is a Macau casting, and the 300ZX is a Burnin' Key car. I think I got my money's worth.
The second picture is the most expensive single purchases I bought, but they are also pretty special. The Woodie is a Hi-Raker and easily worth the $5 I paid. The Lamborghini Mazla and Beach Buggy (1969 and 1970 respectively) at $10 each are in very good condition for their age. The Twin Mill is an original Redline from 1968, so I begrudgingly went over my usual max and paid $18 for it so that I could round out my collection of Twin Mills.
The rest of the open cars came from picking through boxes of mass collections and varied in price from 50 cents to $1, and there are some fantastic finds in there. These ones are my favorites! I love picking through and finding these treasures that people just don't care about. A Nomad, a 32 Vicky, and a 72 442 are just a few of the massive scores. The Stutz and the 928 are both cars that I had when I was a kid, and it blows my mind to see these cars sell for $15-20 each.
The next time I go down there, I need to visit a couple of these people again when I can go by myself and have some time to pick through their stuff instead of having to move along quickly for the short patience of a five-year-old. At least two of them told me they have boxes and boxes of open cars that I can pick through. I'm really looking forward to it!