The history of my collection.
Actually I had some 55 pieces left from my boyhood in the 50ties-s and early 60ties.
On the picture right you see me as a proud member of the Dinky Toys Club.

Then in 1996, when internet reached me (or rather I reached internet) and it all was still relatively tiny, I used a search machine (Alta Vista) to find Dinky Toys.
I got two hits as I remember. One was of a person in Florida wanting to sell off some Dinky Toys. We worked out a way to pay him and get the Dinky Toys via my Philips colleagues in the US to The Netherlands.
Sounds like long ago now.

During the following years internet and especially eBay and later Vectis came up and eventually I had over 800 models, as displayed on this website.

When I had almost all military Dinky Toys I started to look at airplanes. And boats of which I did not know their existence earlier.

Then, because my father had twice a Mercedes and I myself started my car ownership with the famous Beetle of Volkswagen followed by the even famous Ugly Ducky 2CV of Citroen, I also collected some of those models, including non-Dinky Toys.

When I noticed the amount of Bedfords, these too became a collection target.

Finally for no particular reason, ground movers and related tippers got my attention.

And I discovered also kits, which I did not remember of my childhood. Consequently I' acquired all Dinky Toys kits and their originals.

Finally a number of oddities completed the collection.

In the meantime online communities and forums sprung up, like Talkmodeltoys.com in which I participated.

I joined the DTCA (Dinky Toys Collectors Association) in September 2008.

From 2000 - 2007, the Dinky Toys moved with us to Shanghai, where I grew the collection considerably. I had them displayed in my basement, mainly to inspect myself what versions of models I had in what quality.

After we returned to The Netherlands, for a similar 'hidden' display I needed a complete bedroom.

In 2012 we moved again and somehow I did not get around the question how or where to display my collection, so this time it stayed in the removal boxes until early 2017, when I decided to make display cabinets. However, the amount of space I needed for that was too much.

As it dawned on me that for me "collecting was a pleasure, having is a burden" I decided to get rid of the collection. Easier said than done. It took me till February 2018 to really pack and administer the lot and in March I shipped it of to Vectis, where it has been auctioned on Tuesday 14th August 2018 10:30 AM. more...

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