My Matchbox Car collection started in 1965.

My parents and my brother were going away for the weekend to visit my Uncle and his family in Maryland. For some reason, I did not want to go. I stayed with my Grandmother at her house.

On Saturday afternoon, my Aunt Ann came over. She bought me a present, 4 little toy cars! Little did she know what she was starting. I tore open the boxes (which were never seen again) and quickly pulled out my new treasures: A Volkswagen bus (the #34B Volkswagen Microvan), A racecar (the #41B D-Type Jaguar), A newspaper truck (the #42A Bedford Evening News Van) and A moving truck (the #46B Pickfords Removals Van). I spent the rest of the time playing with them.

My collection grew from there. My mom or dad would buy me some cars during the year but at Christmas, mom would bring me a little catalog with pictures of all the current Matchbox cars. I would neatly make out a list of the ones I wanted for “Santa”. The big guy never let me down as on Christmas morning, under the tree, I seemed to always get the cars on my list. Sure glad we always gave him cookies and milk. (Mom would say not only did he like the snack, but he was nice enough to do the dishes!).

I only collected Matchbox cars for a couple of years. Later, one year my wife got me a book on Matchbox cars and I was hooked. I got an issue of Matchbox USA, wrote to many of the dealers listed and started building my collection. The first thing I did was to get better condition cars of the ones in my collection along with their boxes. Then, I started getting the cars I wanted as a child but never got and then just getting the cars I liked. I then expanded into building, accessories etc.

Those first 4 cars have had a major effect on my life so it seems. They are the focal point of my displays. I have always loved Volkswagens, I also love Jaguars. Also racecar is a palindrome which is a subject that intrigues me. I worked through high school and college at the local stationary/newspaper store, greeting the newspaprer truck sometimes as early as 3:00 am! I‘m not sure where the moving truck fits in but every job I have had has moved their location while I was employed there.

Here are my first 4 beauties. Enjoy!

Hello and Welcome to my Collector's Corner Blog

My name is Michael and I am a collector of baseball cards and Matchbox Cars.

I have been a collector of baseball cards since I was a young child and over the years have accumulated a large collection of baseball card sets, my favorites are the Mickey Mantle cards.

For me, my biggest thrill was completing the 1965 Topps set. I had about half the set and in 1984, bought the 1965 Topps Mickey Mantle card. It took me about 2 more years to complete the set. Remember, this was pre internet/ebay! I not only completed my 1965 set, but many more sets and I still continue to collect and complete sets to this day.

In April 1988 I submitted a piece to Baseball Hobby News entitled, The Joy of Completing a Set One Card at a Time.

I wanted to share my journey with other baseball fans and collectors.

I started my Matchbox Car collecting after I decided to find duplicates of my original Matchbox Cars I had has a child, but in better condition with boxes.

Once that was done, I then started another journey of collecting vintage Matchbox Cars and newer cars that I find interesting. I am a big fan of Volkswagens and not only have a large collection of Matchbox VW's, but other brands as well. My Matchbox collection not only contains cars/trucks/planes, etc., but many vintage and newer Matchbox collectibles.

A Small Sample of some of my Matchbox Cars & other collectibles.