[Nurmix]

This is not a for sale post, and I'm not in any way affiliated with the seller. But I had to share this Craigslist Los Angeles listing I came across. This guy has a huge a beautifully kept Aurora collection of cars, track and accessories, many of them in their original boxes. I'm tempted, but the price is very steep. I'm pretty sure my wife would kick me out of the house if I brought this stuff home (and she saw what the price was). I contacted the guy to ask him a few questions. He said he's the original owner, and he started on this collection at the age of 9. This is primarily very early Aurora "Model Motoring" 1960s stuff here. Lot's of nice pictures so you guys can check it out. Curious to get your thoughts on it, and what he's asking ($2,500!). A few pics from the listing...

 

[model murdering]

At a glance, we see alot of accessory pieces much of which only has collector value. A bit of what appears to be some rare O guage track, a piece of which is a squeeze which I've never seen but for a pic. Stacks n stacks of unboxed H0 track. Far too many wheel controllers that no one will ever need or use. Four transformers, one of which is an unrectified Vibrator unit. The unique piece would be the add on rectifier that came later. A later MM2 car new in the package. The corner of a set box (unidentified).

The olive Tow Truck could be a money ball. There's a row of missing Vibes in the close ups. At a distance in this pic we see more Vibes: a yellow Sunliner, green Vibe T-bird, a red Country Squire, a yellow Police car, a green HotRod coupe, the yellow HR coupe, and what looks like a pair of Rivieras. Lurking is a white Tow Truck carcass.A single AFX Russk8it controller. A pair of Aurora thumb killer contollers. A hop up kit box. Common AFX cars in near perfect packaging. Wheelie bars intact!

Common Indy Racers, The HDTP 'Stang has spent a lot of time on it's top. Obviously a fav, the silver accenting is rubbed off. The blue vibe Vette is cut. That split widow Vette is wasted. The Tuff Ones Cheetah looks to be on the wrong chassis. Tan Porsche 904 and F-1 car all common including the two Tycos.

Nice Vibe yellow XK140 HDTP and iellow Hot Rod roadster. The tan Vibe truck is cut. Fast Back 'Stang is cut. Lincoln is cut. Both Cobras missing their glass, the red has been drilled (ruined) for a non factory rollbar. GT40, T-bird, Daytona flame thrower (lighted) and a virtually unused Maserati are all common. We can just make out a tan chaparall 2D body, and the back of a dump truck body color unknown.

The boxes of misc parts are always fun. I see chassis parts and what looks like Vibe guard rails. I'll look over this again. We're missing some things. Any more pix?

Bill

 

[Nurmix]

At a glance, we see alot of accessory pieces much of which only has collector value. A bit of what appears to be some rare O guage track, a piece of which is a squeeze which I've never seen but for a pic. Stacks n stacks of unboxed H0 track. Far too many wheel controllers that no one will ever need or use. Four transformers, one of which is an unrectified Vibrator unit. The unique piece would be the add on rectifier that came later. A later MM2 car new in the package. The corner of a set box (unidentified).

The olive Tow Truck could be a money ball. There's a row of missing Vibes in the close ups. At a distance in this pic we see more Vibes: a yellow Sunliner, green Vibe T-bird, a red Country Squire, a yellow Police car, a green HotRod coupe, the yellow HR coupe, and what looks like a pair of Rivieras. Lurking is a white Tow Truck carcass.A single AFX Russk8it controller. A pair of Aurora thumb killer contollers. A hop up kit box. Common AFX cars in near perfect packaging. Wheelie bars intact!

Common Indy Racers, The HDTP 'Stang has spent a lot of time on it's top. Obviously a fav, the silver accenting is rubbed off. The blue vibe Vette is cut. That split widow Vette is wasted. The Tuff Ones Cheetah looks to be on the wrong chassis. Tan Porsche 904 and F-1 car all common including the two Tycos.

Nice Vibe yellow XK140 HDTP and iellow Hot Rod roadster. The tan Vibe truck is cut. Fast Back 'Stang is cut. Lincoln is cut. Both Cobras missing their glass, the red has been drilled (ruined) for a non factory rollbar. GT40, T-bird, Daytona flame thrower (lighted) and a virtually unused Maserati are all common. We can just make out a tan chaparall 2D body, and the back of a dump truck body color unknown.

The boxes of misc parts are always fun. I see chassis parts and what looks like Vibe guard rails. I'll look over this again. We're missing some things. Any more pix?

Bill

Wow, Bill. Amazing breakdown and analysis! Yeah, there are more pics. I'll post them tomorrow.

 

[R33CE]

Any Super II's in that lot ??

 

[model murdering]

Nurimix .... "Yeah, there are more pics. I'll post them tomorrow."

Great!

Back in Pic 1, I spy a green Vibe semi trailer and what I assume maybe a white Vibe tractor. Looks like there is another dump truck, a white Cobra, and a couple others as yet unknown.

Treasure hunts are always fun.

 

[X2slotbob]

"Value". What is the value, do we reckon?

On the surface (because I cannot go into depth on this stuff like the big boys...) the price of $2500 is not too far out of line with what is listed in lots on the high end in ebay.

BUT...in the real world, does one need a bunch of early track, controllers, powerpacks, & etc.? I fiddled with early aurora track connections a bunch as a kid, and imo, they are not as good as late model AFX. Steering wheel controllers are rough to operate quickly, and the wheels break off, and so forth.

Which leaves the cars. There are a bunch, but what would a potential buyer (potentially Nurmix) do with them? As MM points out, use 'em, bruise 'em, and the value plummets. Would some of them be runners on newer chassis and the rest be in "a collection"? Is that "worth it"? I would suggest it is a subjective thing.

Even if one can verify the value, is it "worth it" to you?

Probably a lot of it could be flipped on ebay if one had the patience and jumped through all the ebay shipping and whatnot hoops.

Also, almost everything is negotiable. Almost, one never knows. If I decided that it was "worth" $2500 and/or "worth" it to me, I would start the bidding by indicating interest and asking if the seller was interested in a cash offer. If the response was "yes", my next round would be to indicate that but I was definitely interested and would be willing to make an offer--but that I didn't want to hurt any feelings, . If the seller responded positively, my first offer would be $1250-1400. With the goal of buying eventually for $1700-1800.

Food for thought.

ps--Just remembered. In 2003 or so I spotted an '89 Dodge Ramcharger for sale. Not mint, but not rusty. Coincidentally it was marked $2500. I went through the steps above, counting on the same $1700-1800 purchase price. I offered $1250 cash--and the buyer accepted. It's parked right out front. One can never tell.

 

[KensRedZed]

Collector markets are not the same thing or there wouldn't be a Hot Wheels car worth $150,000.00 US dollars. Zyikes!

 

[Nurmix]

Here are some more pictures...

 

[Nurmix]

And more...

 

[Nurmix]

Last ones...

 

[model murdering]

The blue Dump Truck is desirable. We now know the other dump truck is grey, common. The semi tractor was White. There is also a gondola trailer with the aforementioned green container. The blue HDTP white Falcon is rare to see in good condition. Nice but common, uncut grey HDTP Corvette and white HDTP Mercedes. The same cut fastback 'Stang. Nice, but common white and yellow Rivs. Lurking in the Dutch Masters cigar box looks to be a yellow Ford with black HDTP. Cant make out the model though. As a general rule, the early Ford stuff brings more dough.

The complete traffic light is desirable, often found incomplete.

A box stuffed with lock and joiners. Interestingly the locks are made from the same plastic as everything else. They are subject to shrinking and cracking too.

I'll keep picking at it.

Bill

 

[Nurmix]

BUT...in the real world, does one need a bunch of early track, controllers, powerpacks, & etc.? I fiddled with early aurora track connections a bunch as a kid, and imo, they are not as good as late model AFX. Steering wheel controllers are rough to operate quickly, and the wheels break off, and so forth.

Which leaves the cars. There are a bunch, but what would a potential buyer (potentially Nurmix) do with them? As MM points out, use 'em, bruise 'em, and the value plummets. Would some of them be runners on newer chassis and the rest be in "a collection"? Is that "worth it"? I would suggest it is a subjective thing...

That's just it. I have no need for any of the track, controllers or power packs. My old-school / childhood track is all Tyco LOK, along with some Quik-Click pieces and adapter tracks. I also have some Auto World track from the set I bought my son for Christmas, and an additional Auto World set I picked up this month, along with adapters to connect it to my Tyco stuff. All this old Aurora track is neat to see, especially given the original packaging, but I'm not planning to open a slot car museum any time soon, so not interested.

And I'm slowly getting my old Tyco and AFX cars tuned up and running. I don't need 40 vintage cars to go along with it (that I likely wouldn't run anyway).

I've done the ebay selling stuff in the past - mostly with my other hobby, retro video games (Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision), but it was very infrequently. It's not something I'm keen to do now, with slot cars or anything else.

I guess what it really comes down to for me... there's nostalgic value in my own stuff, since I've had it going back to the '70s when I was a kid. That's certainly a big part of my interest in getting it all in great working order again. This Aurora stuff... not something I had as a kid, so I don't feel any real connection to it. And since my intent getting back into slot cars again after all these years is to run them, and have fun with them with my son, I'm not interested in a massive display case of unused stuff I can't use.

I appreciate the feedback. Value is most definitely subjective. Since I'm new to these forums, it's good to hear from others who have more knowledge of the older stuff. I was curious if the consensus was that this guy was off his rocker asking $2,500 (an amount I would never pay for the collection, even if I was looking to buy), or if that price was a bargain - if a buyer wanted to resell.

Here's the ad copy...

 

[R33CE]

Anybody that would consider paying anything close to what this guy's asking would indeed have to be in the museum business....

 

[model murdering]

Anybody that would consider paying anything close to what this guy's asking would indeed have to be in the museum business....

Or a nutty slot car guy with more disposable income than sense. I amassed a collection like Johnny cash brought home a Cadillac. A little bit in my lunch pail every day.

If I did by a collection outright, there'd be an additional $2500 marital penalty in the manner of her choosing.

 

[Nurmix]

If I did by a collection outright, there'd be an additional $2500 marital penalty in the manner of her choosing.

You and me both! And the penalty would likely exceed $2,500...

 

[X2slotbob]

News Flash! As tough as Johnny Cash was, slot cars and HO beat him!

"[Johnny Cash] also built on his image as a country and western star to participate in a marketing campaign for Lionel electric trains. By the 1970s electric trains in general were losing popularity to slot cars and other model cars, and those electric trains which did sell were for the most part the smaller HO gauge. The bigger Lionel trains and the larger track sets they required were dying out. Cash called on the traditions of Lionel trains for Christmas in a series of commercials which kept his image on television, themed by his music, during the middle of the decade. Lionel sales [nevertheless] continued to drop as the idea of electric trains around the Christmas tree was replaced with a growing number of electronic toys."--History Collection [italics & underline added]

 

[dgersh]

Thanks for that bit of music/hobby trivia slotbob - very interesting.

Lionel is kind of a sad story: besides coming out with the first known tabletop car racing set, they were the iconic US model train maker all the way into the 50s - but they couldn't adapt to the changing market, as shown by the above comments, and disappeared like other iconic brands: Sears Roebuck, etc.

Don

 

[Glock24]

This is not a for sale post, and I'm not in any way affiliated with the seller. But I had to share this Craigslist Los Angeles listing I came across. This guy has a huge a beautifully kept Aurora collection of cars, track and accessories, many of them in their original boxes. I'm tempted, but the price is very steep. I'm pretty sure my wife would kick me out of the house if I brought this stuff home (and she saw what the price was). I contacted the guy to ask him a few questions. He said he's the original owner, and he started on this collection at the age of 9. This is primarily very early Aurora "Model Motoring" 1960s stuff here. Lot's of nice pictures so you guys can check it out. Curious to get your thoughts on it, and what he's asking ($2,500!). A few pics from the listing...

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My father had a car just like the orange one in the last photo (Cheetah), also one like the black Corvette but in red I think.