Guilty as charged! I even started working for a bookshop in the hope it would cure me of the motosport literature bug.

It didn't - I just buy the new releases I want slightly earlier than I would otherwise have done.

So in no particular order, I have:

Race programmes: 3500 in all, from a 1911 Brooklands to last weekend's Le Mans Classic
Magazines: 10,000+, including runs of Autosport, Motorsport News and all postwar Motor Sport
Books: from Abeillon on the Talbot Lago to Smokey Yunick's biog, 450 at the last count
1/43 models: All kits (I have to have built it myself) 400 or so, mainly 30s-60s sports cars
Race videos: 3000 hours or so - anything I can find, to be honest

Non-motoring: Bizarre as it might seem, I buy Betamax video tapes for the eighties links and ads.

I think, if I liquidated the collection carefully, I could achieve the vintage Bentley I've always wanted. But not yet.

Not just yet.

Back to the beer cans, sorry, but these are "TNF cans":
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6111026088&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6109733884&rd=1

If they are TNF's, why are there no bids?

Because, even though some are almost 20 years old, they're somewhat easy to find, posting from Australia is expensive, and the seller doesn't accept paypal.

I was just jesting... there are zillions of similar items with no takers on E-Pay. Either buyers are getting more discriminating or they are broke.

By the way, anyone knows the car/dirver on this can?

Ronnie Peterson in the 312, anyone's guess in the boats.

You're faster than a Ferrari, T54!

You mean like this.





I don't collect signatures but I got this one when Flockhart appeared at a Speedway meeting at Western Springs in early 1959.

My name is David and I collect Books on Motorsport /plastic/resin model kits..I build them too.Also F1 race tapes. I dread my next move!

I'm not an autograph person, either. I just like to talk to people when I can -- asking for an autograph would make me feel awkward.

Having said that, I do have one autograph. Like most, Mario's is not legible, but he wrote beautifully and with quite a flourish. I had the picture framed.

Mario used to actually sign his full name.

Now, even if you ask for his full name, as friends of mine have, he only signs the autograph seen above.

It's very interesting to see Andretti autographs from 1965 to roughly 1978 when he changed it.

This'll be my 1978 t-shirt, modelled and Mario-autographed with me in it, 1983.



The white object in the background is the southwest corner of the Firestone garage, Riverside International Raceway paddock.

Just an excuse to bump this joyful thread to the top...

Any new collectors' confessions?

--
Frank S



More pits/paddock photos here.

My wife is a quilter and does embroidery and cross-stitch. I hate to think how much money is sitting there in fabric, canvas, thread and misc. projects she will never get to in 100 lifetimes...and of course she keeps buying more.

I have about 2000 car books. At least I use them!

I'm definately a collector...took a while to realize but looking back i've always been one.
I mainly collect modelcars with the focus on 1:18 but also 1:43 and smaller. Biante,Minichamps,Exoto...
hot wheels (1:64) and i still have all the cars i played with when i was a kid.Maybe around 500 .
Also in my collection: motorsport books (200) Magazines (1000+) Videos and dvd's (100+),Fotos and slides...especially from the Nuerburgring,racing programs (100+) card games (150+)...just everything motorsport related pre 1980 that catches my (ever searching) eye....
like Frank S. i sometimes stand silently infront of all that stuff just watching at it with a big grin on my face.....BUT ......how good must it feel not to need all that stuff....to be free.....*sic*

cheers marty


carcollection

Just look at it like this: you don't need all this stuff, it has just been entrusted to you in order to make you look after it for a while to keep it for the next generation...

My collection includes, roughly, five special areas of interest:

1. motorsport: 300+ books, many of them autographed, event programmes, magazines, press kits
2. cars in general
3. Citroën: 2000+ brochures from 1919-now, 100+ press kits, 100 books, 250 scale models, handbooks, photos etc.
4. Audi quattro/sport quattro: 1 road-going example, 11 books, 15 brochures, press kits, 12 scale models
5. skiing (alpine skiing and ski jumping) 30 books, most of them autographed, statistics, magazines

But, to be honest, I use a lot of it, especially the motorsport and skiing material, for reference purposes. And I find that while in the past, I took with me almost everything I could lay my hands on from motor shows etc., I find more and more things I can easily do without.

I have a plaquette signed by Andre Citroen below his picture, hardcover, with a personal letter by one of his retailers, dated 1937. Is that any good?
I display it by an actual tinplate Citroen C6 convertible in 1/8th scale.

T54

Any good? Very good! Keep it safely!

Oh it is safe except that if it rains any more, my house may sink below sea level... and the plaquette with it! :\

T54

T54
.....your house must look like a museum...the way you displayed the chapparals is great and very inspiring!!!!!
More pics?

Rene

i got a couple of citroen related stuff as well since my father drove citroens since 1971 (unfortunately never the good ones like SM or DS :\ )
I have a few citroen models...most of them DS,a couple of servicebooks and manuals of the GS,GSA,GSX,D Limo,DS 21 and ZX and a little accessoirie catalogue from 1977 in eye-hurting colours.
When i was living in germany i was trying to restore a DS 23 inj. bought it together with a DS 21 both in pretty poor condition....unfortunately the project was never really umm..let's say started ...no money,no knowledge,no patience...
a while ago i have seen a documentary about Andre Citroens trips through the desert...pretty impressive...reminded me a bit of my attempt to restore the DS...well....





that's the reason why i keep it all....one day my two boys will get it all.....when i was a kid i loved to watch my dad's racing slides, play around with his old helmet and look at the pictures of cars in his Auto Motor und Sport collection (which is mine since he passed away in 1999)

cheers Marty

Hello my name is Douglas.. Yes i must admit that i am a Collector.
1... I have Model cars all types and sizes.
2... Tee shirts & Caps & Jackets .
3... Stickers & Coasters & matches and lighters.
4... Books & magazines.
5... Posters & Calendars.
6... Computer Games.
7... Business Cards.
8... CD's& Tapes. (country).
9... Anything that is Motor related.
10...Facts & Figures & Photo's all on Motor sport.

_____________________________________________________

Well it does in some ways but we try to keep it huh, homey...

The Chaparral display is something I loaned to the Pertersen Museum for a special event with Jim Hall as a guest. It normally resides partly at the Marconi Automotive Museum in California, partly at our shop and partly... in file boxes because of lack of space.

Below is the Andre Citroen autograph I was mentioning in a previous post. I got it when I was a teenager in a house my parents rented in a small village in the center of France. The owner had just died and the heirs (mainly a really disagreable woman who looked and behaved like she never had any, if you see what I mean... ) were cleaning up personal stuff in the house. They ran across some beautiful old 1908 Berliet catalogues, some 1912 Panhard & Levassor large catalogues and this plaquette. They were throwing it away! I was only 15 years old but already had been at le Mans 7 times with my dad, and I was a strong car fan. I was in shock that anyone would throw something so beautiful and so rare away and asked if I could have the books and catalogues. The woman in charge looked at me like if I was from Mars and asked me how much I was willing to pay! I pointed out that I would merely pick it up from the thrash where this harpie was tossing the stuff, so she shrudded and said "OK". I picked up the books and ran away and hid for the rest of the day just in case she had regrets.

I still have all of those today, and in the batch are a French AND English version of the "Voyage a Lyon" (trip to Lyon) by none other than Charles Faroux, the inventor of the 24 hours race at le Mans! The beautifully hand illustrated and colored books have been with me for all these years and are still in near mint condition.
The Citroen plaquette was also in the bunch. It is a luxurious booklet. It is a speech given by Andre Citroen at the occasion of the 1921 auto show in Paris. The dealers were invited to visit the Quai de Javel works, and I assume that they were (all 80 or so of them at the time) given a similar signed plaquette with their names embossed on the cover.



In the center is a photo of Andre Citroen, signed by hand in pencil.



Interestingly, this is joined by a letter from the very retailer (this Mr. Lacourbas, also our landlord, then dead as a doornail) dated of February 1955, who was requesting the donation for his retirement of a 2CV car after 36 years as a faithful dealer! No ambitions at all this man, I would have requested a new DS for gawd sake!
Since I collect Citroen toys and have a nice little collection of them over the years, this makes a nice background for some. Otherwise it can fit right next to my collection of DCN's books...
Regards,

T54

Nice story, T54!

Given the fact that the letter of your Mr Lacourbas is dated in February 1955, there is a fair chance that he didn't even know of the forthcoming DS, which would only be introduced at the Paris Motor Show in September of that very year. But I agree with you, at least he could have gone for a Traction Avant...

And thank you very much for showing the book and the photograph. Very nice!

Nothing stunning or un-usual here, just the tickets and programs from where I go.

I love my collection of race tickets... makes very nice memories when around the fireplace in winter!
I especially cherish the oldest ones, so basic compared to the multi-color, intricate, anti-copying cattle-control devices of today!


Do not believe this! Since 1953 and through the pages of l'Auto Journal, we KNEW about the "Super Citroen" through spy photos, intricate cutaway drawings etc... and the spies DID get it very right. Lacourbas would have been dead prematurely from brain lethargy if he did not know... I was eagerly buying every issue with the usual "World Exclusivity" stuff plastered across the cover. I was a perfect dupe for the media then... not anymore. I got off CBS as early as 1971!

Back to collecting, I have a particular liking for the American-made die-cast 1/43 scale Tootsietoy (Chicagoo) toy models of the 1932 Graham-Paige, 1934 Lasalle and Mack trucks of the mid 1930's, and still happily hunt for them all over the place. They are still reasonably priced and so colorful! Mint or near-mint examples only, no repaints please!



T54

Thruxton's (which form most of my collection) are still fairly basic - chequered borders, a simple drawing and a small hologram - at least last time I was there they were. Goodwood's are tasteful too. Oulton Park tickets are exactly as you say though - some are quite hideous with lots of different pictures and hologramic sections. Castle Combe's tickets are a little way down the road as well sadly.

Program covers also need to take a step back for the most part - a bunch of pictures motion blurred together doesn't make a program cover, or at least shouldn't. Art-based or just one photograph is far better. Again, Goodwood's programs, posters and what-not are top of the tree. Clearly done by someone with enthusiasm.

I think it's mostly down to the fact that programs for the big events aren't done by the circuits but by the sponsors or series organiser's such as PowerTour - my main reasoning behind this is that Castle Combe's GT programs are essentially the same as everyone elses these days and their club day programs haven't advanced to far from the style or format of their very early covers from the 1950s - at least not the last club event I went to.

I've thought a few times about buying older programs from the 60s or 70s in stalls but I never end up getting one for the simple reason that I wasn't there and it doesn't really seem worth having with that in mind - it's somewhat impersonal. The things I collect serve to my memory and that makes them more valuable - to my mind alone at least.

Every passion borders on chaos, that of the collector on the chaos of memory.

Walter Benjamin, 'Ich pake meine Bibliothek aus'

I just picked a new book, on what you may ask? ... why on collecting of course! It's title is "To Have and to Hold" by Philipp Blom



Of course we cannot fail to mention the killer of collections ...

I hid myself behind the tapestry and heard him say, 'All this must be left behind [Il faut quitter tout cela]. ' He stopped at every step, for he was very weak, and turned from one side, then the other, casting a glance on the object that caught his eye, he said from the depth of his heart, 'All this must be left behind.' And turning around, he finished, 'And also that. What a trouble I suffered to acquire these things! Can I abandon them without regret? I will never see them again where I am going.'

Louis-Henri de Lomenie
Comte de Brienne, on seeing the aging Cardinal
Mazarin walk through his famous collection on a final visit to his palais

T54:

No wonder nice Tootsietoy Grahams are so hard to find -- you have them all!

Not quite. I want all the color combinations, and I am still missing quite a few! Now I am buying "traders" in case I find the missing ones. Sometimes I get lucky: less than 4 weeks ago, some guy needing money following a family happy event put 6 absolutely MINT ones including 2 very rare colors on E-Pay. Most lurkers believed and concluded that they were repainted because they were so glowing! But I know what I am looking at and purchased them for very reasonable money. When I received them, I was told that they had been purchased by the seller's father in 1937 and NEVER played with because he went to boarding school and the cars were forgotten. Grandma just placed them in a shoe box away from the sun and they were only re-discovered in the late 1970's when the parents died of old age. While the tires were rock-hard, they had not a single crack or deformation. The silver plating on the grilles was perfect. The axles shown zero corrosion etc. And the paint! Indeed they looked like a Scott restoration on a gullwing, just TOO nice!

Got any near-mint Graham-Paige two-tone green convertible sedan for trade?
Regards,

T54

As there are quite a few very valuable collections shown here i wonder if and how you have your collections insured....I'm still in the process of cataloguing (<----spellt right?) what i have but as soon as i have finished that the task will be to estimate the whole collection.
How do you estimate the value of a racing program for example....with some i know for how much they sell on ebay but I doubt ebay is a guide line.
Some of the personal stuff like my fathers racing helmet and goggles mean a lot to me but how do i find a price for that? Just guess? It's priceless to me because money can't buy me a new one if it gets stolen or lost ....
I had the problem of estimating the value of my belongings when i moved to australia...i had a certain amount of money so i kept the value pretty low but now that i am here i want to make sure it is insured properly....how did you do it with your collections?
regards Marty

I found that insuring a collection is very expensive, and frankly not worth the money. So instead I "self-insure" with good locks, not smoking in bed (or ever for that matters...) and having a fire estinguisher handy in case of major explosion of the hazelnut souffle forgotten in the kitchen while distracted by the guests.

In any case, the "you can't take it with you" only applies to that woman buried in her beloved 250GT.

T54

Dave "The Race Chaplain" - have been collecting for some years now, motorsport models x 320, Hot Wheels x 635, Motosport Books x 120, motosport mags/prgrammes etc x 500+, officials credentials x 100+, various other bits & pieces, to numerous to mention. Keep telling my wife that it's our retirment fund or if I was to pass away she would collect a good payout. Still don't know if she believes me!!

Also about to move my collection from a semi detached room into the house, it's a major military operation taking weeks to plan before a model or book is moved. Please pray for me!!!!!

Keep up the collecting - it keeps us off the streets.........

Dave

Dave

What is a semi-detached room? Or is that estate-agent-speak for a garden shed?

I collect die cast models mostly 1/43 and 1/18 scale, drivers helmets (full size, 1/2x, 1/4x, 1/8x), motorsport artwork preferably signed by drivers and team members, race programs, posters, motorsport books, clothing, pins, Tamiya F1 car kits, and Jim Clark memorabilia.

Semi detached room! In my case another dwelling / rumpus room / office that is seperate to the main house. Walk out the back door and take a few steps into the room. Is now going to be used by my son as a bedroom / teenager retreat. He can play his music as loud as he wants!

We used it as a home office for a number of years but slowly became a collection point for my collection plus anything else that was laying around.

Dave

Hello everybody,

I'm also collecting many things !

But I'm especially looking for bugatti things !

I try to have at least one picture of each bugatti !

who can / want help me ? or share info ?.

regards,

Julien

How many do you have so far?

Visiting California?
Have a look HERE and see some serious model cars that actually can be raced instead of collecting dust on shelves...

My latest acquisitions:

I collect all sort of items relating to the Birmingham Superprix such as media guides, magazines that covered the races, stickers and ticket stubs.

I have always been lurking around eBay and various motorsport websites for BSP items.

Also as I am a fan of the old Nurburgring and I just started to collect the race programmes of the Nurburgring 1000kms (pre-1983 as I still dislike the current Nurburgring GP circuit) and I have just obtained a race programme of the 1973 German GP.

But now as my funds are a bit low as I am at university so hopefully my collection will grow bigger in the summer.

As well as making my 32nd scale slot cars I too am a 43rd scale collector.

Being a bit limited for space, I restrict myself to Sports Racing cars from 1950-1962 (so that I can include Birdcage Maseratis) and F.1 cars from 1950-1965.

Among my collection are some 43rd kits that I have built, some metal, some resin. I only go for the more unusual vehicles in kit form. I have built a V.16 BRM, a Gordini 32, a Lancia D.50, a Scarab F.1, and the F.2 Ferrari from 1960 that eventually became the Sharknose.

In mid-build at present are a Porsche 718, a 1962 Cooper and just purchased (at Stoneleigh) the one-off 1960 rear-engined F.1 Ferrari that Ginther drove at Monaco. (I know - it's the same chassis as the aforementioned F.2 car but it does look different.)

My other peculiarity, as mentioned on a current live thread about Maseratis is to repaint models in colour schemes that are not commercially produced. I have a few of these but have mode a few ££££s selling some on a well-known internet auction site.

On the subject of the unusual - on a stand at various motoring events I have seen a 1960 Vanwall (Reims). I have tried to track this kit down but it appears that it has been produced as a one-off by some skillful modeller. Pity.

As some of you know I am a Peterson collector.

Beside that I also collect parts of F1 cars of the 70s, mainly Ronnie stuff of course. To expand my Ronnie collection I have to sell some of my parts.

I don't exactly know or there are any Ligier fans here but I would like to sell this steering wheel, I think it is from the 1976-1979 period because of the logo. Hope there is some interest here

My problem is I collect too many different things instead of just one thing. For starters there are the full size cars, Triumphs, a TR2, TR3 and a Sports 6 (Vitesse 1600 in the UK), a 54 Swallow Doretti (TR2 based), all not running. Also a Devin racing body that I hope to mate with a TR chassis and have some fun with. Oh, and a 71 Norton Commando, because I always liked the way they looked and sounded. In the past I have had a Mk I Mini Cooper S and a 55 Chevy wagon among others. I now have a BMW E30 M3 and a BMW Mini Cooper S. I've a pretty good collection of books including a full set of Automobile Quarterly as well as most everything by Chris Nixon. The rest covers a wide range including Bugatti, the "Silver Arrows", driver biographies, 50s and 60s sports car and GP. I've lately been interested in California Sports Car racing of the 50s. In the garage I've got boxes and boxes of unbuilt plastic kits like the big Tamiyas and the Heller sports cars. With the quality of the 1/18 scale diecast these days I don't know if I will ever have the motivation to build them. One of my main interests is racing posters primarily from the 60s. I collect posters which use illustration as opposed to photographs as I originally studied illustration and design in school. I purchased my first Michael Turner Monaco poster in 1971 for 50 cents! I still have a bit of slot car stuff from back in the 60s, mainly bodies including some unpainted clear plastic ones. I'll have to dig those out and post a photo for T54. And last but not least, lots and lots of color slides shot at races like the Long Beach GP, Riverside IMSA and CanAm, Monterey Historics, Pebble Beach, etc. How my wife puts up with me I'll never know.

Cheers,
Kurt

Blimey, Kurt, neither do I! Must be love, I suppose.

people seem to address this thread as they would an alcholics annonymus meeting.people who collect seem to be like cattle dogs,they are born to do it and have no control over it.i collect among other things,the metal badges from bicycle frames.i began as a small child and wanted save every badge on the planet.iv been in ditches, junkyards,abandon buildings,basements just everywhere to get them.items like badges are different to collect as they were never ment to be used individually.they are a small part of the item ment to be used.its easy to collect say, a watch but a component part is much different.i know one person that collects the packages razor blades come in.ebay has changed the whole dynamics of collecting most things.my collection is larger and broader than ever but really has less meaning,not personally removing each badge,just adding them from unknown user names.as to f1,im saving a place for my upcoming sauber victory trophys.if everyone in f1 especially mad max mosley had the ethics and principals of Peter Sauber the sport would be in a class by itself.

I don't collect ashtrays, but this one is extra special. Spent many happy hours there and miss the place very much.

If you look closely you can tell it's an oldie - they hadn't invented zip codes yet, telephone exchanges still had names, and you didn't need an area code to call across the street.



.
.
.
.

Rene was such a nice man...
I have one of those that he gave me as a present during his last visit in California, years ago. I cherish it, but WE did the cooking!

One of my favorite biographies was of the wonderful man both on and off the track.

Yes, and I am very lucky to have "My Two Lives" signed to me by Rene... one of the most delightful men I have ever met in my life.

Well people say that the soft stuff inevitably leads on to the hard. Is that true? I hope not. I’ve been into the soft stuff for a couple of years now, old magazines and books, but once you get hooked? OK hanging out with a bad crowd around here doesn’t help and now I find I’m wasting a lot of time on ebay. Recently bought the Sotheby’s catalogue for the sale of Innes Ireland memorabilia back in 1997. What was that all about? His silver identity bracelet, estimate £50-£70.….sold for £1035!! A pair of Bouton Rubber Driving Goggles, estimate £100-£150...that’ll be £2070 sir!

Expensive business, addiction. But never mind I’ve just found that one of my old Welsh language pop records from the 70s is selling in Japan for 100,000 yen! Work that one out.

I am a collectoholic too. Stamps, coins & bills, automotive magazines, autographs, various memorabilia. And yes, I do exhibit my favourite items by rotation. Since I can read in English, French, Portuguese, German, Spanish and Italian along with my native Romanian, I love to collect automotive magazines in these languages and to have a consistent look at them from time to time.

I like when I see old or worthless coins on the streets. People just dump coins from the communist period or recent nickles that have a ridiculous value. I seem to collect them like they were orphans. I find’em on the streets and I offer them my home. Nowdays, when I find’em they are already driven over by cars, but I pick’em, wahs’em, I examin every one of them (even if some are so common that I already have 2-3 dozens) and I give them a registration number. But I also have some worthy old coins from all continents, except Australia, in my 700-strong collection.

I even collected items for someone else. Imagine: phone cards! I actually consider them junk but I collected them and offered my entire collection to someone who likes that stuff. And she was delighted. Damn hormones! In 4 months I gathered some 35 phone cards. My friends from Portugal, Spain and Moldova sent me some from their countries. Romanian telecommunications company produces zillions of different phone cards. So, there’s much to collect. And it was quite easy for me to do so without actually buying every single one of them because many people in Bucharest simply throw away used phone cards on the sidewalks.