So we are looking at this guy's tables, plenty of prewar Harley and Indian parts, some really gorgeous and far from cheap! And there are a few old toys, mostly 1960s beaters. Regardless, if costs none to ask, so I do; "I am looking for prewar toy cars, would you have any?"
The guy smiles and asks me to wait. He goes to his truck behind his stand and comes back with two boxes, and my eye nearly drops.
"They were my grand father's, but now I would like to sell them."
We agree on a fair price, and we leave with the two boxes inside a plastic bag. My friend says to me that he brought me luck, and he is right, these are very nice sets in amazing condition.
The first set was issued by the Dowst Manufacturing Company of Chicago (later, the Strombecker slot cars manufacturers) in 1933. The box contains ten assorted Graham-Paige "Blue Streak" in the 1/43 scale, and they are in very nice condition, most of them like new. The box is very art deco and in exceptionally sound shape for a 79-year old piece of cheap printed cardboard, produced under the Depression and sold for $1 (or separately, 10 cents per car). They were a great success and are not rare, but scarce in such a nice condition.
The contents still have their cardboard spacer that keeps them in place, something often missing when these set are found.
The second set dates from 1938 and contains trucks. The box art is simplified but quite nice, and the box is also in very good condition:
The contents were a surprise: they have apparently never been taken out of the box.
A collectors dream! The trucks are a mix of older models (the two Mack semi, one an oil truck, the other a stake truck, plus the orange Mack "City Services" dump truck in the center, and the red "Contractor Set" with the three red trailers), and 1937 larger models, a tow truck and a pickup. There is a bus and two smaller models, a van and a small pickup.
Even in difficult times, kids had nice and inexpensive toys to play with, and such sets sold to American boys in those years, by the millions.
This guy's grandpa kept his toys nice, and now they will be preserved for future generation when it is my time to kick the bucket! I am not in any hurry.
