Nice collectible car collection I can afford

[Gunsmoke]

Bought this whole collection today, nice Christmas present to myself! These Hallmark' collectibles date back as far as 1991 (so they achieve our "25 year" minimum). Left to right are Santa's 4x4 of 1996 (Jeep), Antique Car, 1991, Haul-idays 1993, 1956 T-Bird 1993, Jazzy Jalopy 1999 (battery operated), Kringle Tours 1992, and Shopping with Santa 1993. These were selling on kijiji locally, all are in original packaging, most never opened. Paid $68Can for the lot (about US$45). Any old car nuts with Christmas spirit should check out their local vendors. Happy Christmas Shopping.  

Edited December 16, 2019 by Gunsmoke (see edit history)

[Billy Kingsley]

I love the Hallmark car ornaments. I believe I had a complete collection of both the cars and trucks but I think some of the trucks got lost or destroyed over the years. I actually had to dial it back a bit because it was getting to the point that the tree was ALL cars. I have a friend who does have an all-car tree, if I only had more space I would do just that. 

[TerryB]

Selling in our local antiques malls for $5 each or less, nice collection!

[Gunsmoke]

Much like the old car hobby, you have to buy these sorts of things for your enjoyment and not as an investment. The original retail price on these 7 cars was about $170 incl sales tax 25 yrs ago, so they depreciated by about 60% just sitting in the original purchasers collection unopened/unused.

[TerryB]

We used ours, for many years our tree had all automotive ornaments including a small gas station.  We later added some train ornaments and a few kiddie car ones too.  I had to finally give in and go back to a mix of ornament themes but a few cars and trains still find their way onto the tree.  Each year we mix it up and bring out ornaments that have been in the “garage” for several years. As mentioned they have a fraction of their original value but they were never purchased as an investment. Maybe in 50 years they will be!

Edited December 17, 2019 by TerryB (see edit history)

[zepher]

I have the T-Bird ornament and a few others.

They are a nice novelty item but as others have mentioned, don't expect to get rich off them.

 

[John Byrd]

Better be careful Gunsmoke, those little rascals are habit forming, ha !  Here are some of our Hallmarks...and we have the boxes they came in too... oh me.

[Paul Dobbin]

Way back in the 1970's Hess Gasoline introduced their Hess Trucks at Christmas time.

For $1.99, I looked forward each year to adding to closet collection.   Then they were

$2.99, $3.99, $4.99, now I think they are $35.99.  I bought them for 14 years, then

sold the 14 Hess Trucks at the AACA Show in Gulfport FL for $450.   I kept the GMC

"Hess Training Van" and repainted it to match our real 77 GMC Eleganza III.

I think anything produced as a "Collectible". is not a good place to spend money, but

it worked once for me with these Hess Trucks.  I did enjoy seeing them light up.

[John Byrd]

Amen on the Hess trucks paying off !  I had never heard of Hess (East Tennessee at the time), but bought about 35 of them at a primarily furniture auction one time, all still in the boxes.  I spotted a couple for sale at the big Nashville, TN. AACA Swap meet one year, and brought mine to it the next year... Wow, were they popular !  I sold several individually for what I paid for the whole bunch, and let folks just make me an offer, on what they wanted, didn't price them myself !

 

 Now, to turn that "lucky story" around, when we discovered the Hallmark car ornaments, I bought the Mustang since we had one.  It was the 2nd in the series and cost 12 or 14 bucks seems like, but that sent her on the search for Number ONE..... She paid $125.00 for the 1st one in the series (The red and white Vette in my pic above) from a lady in Nashville that had bought them all up from every store she could.  GULP !   I've bought real, driveable cars for less than that, ha !

[Gunsmoke]

I know what you mean JohnB, my Mom (an Avon Lady back then) gave me a car shaped bottle of Cologne back in 1967 (Straight Eight). Held onto it for 25-30 years thinking it was one of a kind. In the mid-nineties I realized there were dozens of them produced by Avon over 25-30 years, so started collecting them, eventually tracked down and collected them all, about 66 different Avon cars and trucks. Most still have the fluid in them but I wouldn't put it on my worst enemy! Not worth much, perhaps $5 each on a good day, but fun to have. 

[dalef62]

I have almost all of the Hallmark cars on my tree in our front window.  I have so many that the tree isn't big enough and they are parked around town.

Anyone else have the trees turning brown??

[George Smolinski]

Just got my 2019 edition for a present yesterday. It's the 29th in the series. I have the complete set. I think next year we'll have 2 trees. 1 with regular ornaments and 1 with all Hallmark car ornaments.