That’s right, 30,000 cars! Obviously, they weren’t all full-sized, but still. If you haven’t already read this story then you should. A man named Dennis Erickson spent his whole life stashing away automobiles of every size. Most were diecast, but he had a handful of real ones too. Most people didn’t even know about them, but they lined just about every wall of his home. He was very meticulous and kept them all clean and documented. Some believe that his toy car collection was the world’s largest!
Besides his cars, his church was also very important to him. So, when he passed away he left his home and its contents to the church. Now they are selling everything off with the proceeds funding a remodel of their youth facilities. These mini motors may not be real barn finds, but this story isn’t any less amazing. We aren’t suggesting that anyone hoard this many away, but diecast does seem to be the way to go if time and money is limited. How many of you guys have your own miniature collection?
Source: KARE-TV
WOW!
Interesting story, sounds like the kind of guy I would of loved to have met, discussed cars and marveled at his collection.
I remember seeing this guy and his collection on an episode of American Pickers. He was mentioning that the collection was going to get donated to his Church.
They are selling the die cast but not the real cars.
The lower left ’67 Chevy looks real!!!
Speechless!
Cool that he got joy from these while he was alive, but sad they’ll now be scattered around the world.
I love this. It proves to my wife that my collection is not so bad.
This is actually a pretty sad story. Anyone with even rudimentary knowledge on the subject can infer what this collection represents as far as the owner’s mental state.
The church thinks six figures?! That has to be highly unlikely.
Regardless of the value and despite that it would be neat to see it kept together, is it really marketable complete? Seems that would spoil the fun for a true collector no?
There really are 6 billion stories out there!
Actually, I don’t think six figures is unrealistic. The cars that are currently at auction have been bid up surprisingly high. Even if they were to only 2,000 of them at $50 a piece, they would have it.
Eccentric!
@Bobsmyuncle
Actually, I’m betting his mental state was a fair bit better than most folks. Looks like a man who did what he liked and liked what he did, and his friends seemed pretty pleased with him. We should all be so lucky…
Yup!
That’s certainly one way of viewing it.
30,000 cars at $5 a piece would be $150,000 and I’m sure he has several rare ones too.
I don’t see that evaluation personally.
Just cataloguing them for evaluation would be staggering.
One buyer at 6 figures without extensive cataloguing? Good luck!
Hey Bob, have you seen some of the prices? Seems to me that they probably made it. I’m sure someone will tot it all up and let us know what the outcome was, non?
Not a great website to market these on. Very low exposure and looking at past sales, some things are not pulling market prices.
Should have saved all ME hot wheels !
Niffy read, thanks for finding and shipping it to us! Reminds me of the early seventies plastic race tracks we ran our little cars on …. Fun times!
Eccentric maybe, mentally unstable from age maybe, a lover of cars and they were his family and now god is…. JMHO !!!
That is truly amazing…..
This makes my collection of 1500-1800 HO scale construction equipment look like a passing fancy. Not crazy – just someone who took great pleasure in organization (an engineer as stated) and every component in its proper place. And he didn’t have a spouse to impose constraints.
I hope an Angel picked him up and whisked him to Heaven in something that resembled one of his favorite diecasts.
It would be a nice addition to my collection…..
Looks like fun Birdman!
This story merely reminds me that you can’t take it with you. Enjoy it while you can.
Just bought $100 dollars in Challenger diecasts. Was going to buy a pair of Daytonas, but got outbid.
Hey Seth, you were the one bidding against me! In the end, I backed out too. Won a few other ones though. Some of those cars went for decent money so I’m guessing the church is going to make out alright.
Wow! Those really must have gone for a lot then. I’m wondering if that was all the cars or just one batch. They seemed short on ’70s Camaros.
Clicking on the link,I could only find a few auctions
that hadn’t ended.
This was on the news quite a while back.I guess it
took them a long time to sort through & list them all.
That collection deserved to stay together. Turn it into a museum or something, make your money on the proceeds of that and sale of the house.
The next time I get yelled at for my small, orderly and varied obsessions, vehicular and otherwise, I’m waving this article around! I’m a piker!
Man, I envy that guy … what joy it must have been to collect!
Right with you Irish Bill! I only have about 1700+, so my wife doesn’t think I am goofy! Hey what’s so bad about cracking a cold one or six and dream what would happen if you won the lottery!👍🙀
Bird man, you better get busy! You got a lot of empty space! I need to rent a few walls from you!! You can even add rows like a library and a fridge and a Lazy Boy and…….
I’m getting close, 22,000 hot wheels and matchbox cars, and 18 full size cars. I’m on my way to his record!
Size vs Quality: Fellow named Bruce Pascal has a “mere” 3,500 Hot Wheels but they’re worth a Million Dollars due to rarity of some of his Hot Wheels
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/entertainment/videos/a31544/this-is-what-1-million-worth-of-hot-wheels-looks-like/?src=social-email
I see no eccentricity, nor a mental issue, in doing what you love.
I would hate to try and keep it all clean, though.
No? As someone that sees this kind of behaviour often, there are similarities to this story and many other examples like it. I’ll refrain from pointing out the details out of respect.
It’s not hard to rack up quite a collection. I can put my hands on over 1000 hotwheels without leaving the chair near them. I have around 1/18 100 diecasts, 300+ built up plastic cars and probably thousands of hotwheels, matchbox, and other cars in 1/43. I don’t try hard.. They are easy to amass. 30000 is a large number; would take an effort. I knew a collector in town that had over 2500 cars. He would buy ONE of anything he didn’t have and was collecting as many replicas as possible. His ultimate goal was every car ever made. Unobtainable of course, because there is no replica of every car ever made. But he would buy it if it was even a reasonable facsimile of the actual car. Eventually donated them tot he local museum.
I hope the organization makes a bunch of money. I need to sell a bunch of mine soon. Can’t take it with me and could use the money at this point in life. Even if they go cheap. I’d take a couple bucks per car right now if someone took them all in one load.
If a crazy obsession with cars is a sign of poor mental state, heaven help all of us.
r.i.p.
The most important question, did he save the boxes?
He would’ve needed another house then, non?
Not as weird as this guy. If your wife complains about your collecting hobby, show her this!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3776535/Bizarre-collection-big-breasted-mannequins-goes-auction-owner-died-leaving-SIXTY-figures-having-spent-years-displaying-marital-home.html