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I am reading a book on Chapparal and Jim Hall at the moment, in an interesting paragraph he discusses the sponsorship with Cox for slot cars.

The cars were the official Jim Hall supported models using Chapparal blueprints. What was really interesting was Hall talks about the sponsorship and how they received some money upfront and then 11 cents per car sold in royalties.

Now that was back in 1965. So how many cars did they sell. Hall said they picked up around $45-50000 for 2 years. Think about that for a minute.

I read today about limited edition runs of 3000 and 5000 and I figure most standard runs are around the 5000 - 10000 mark. Now there are multiple liveries across a range but would we get up to those numbers - I don't think so.

Because yes that is around 400 000 cars per year sold - for 2 years (that Hall mentions in the book)

So wow - 400 000 slot cars sold per year. Imagine where we would be today if they were selling 400 000 units per year of one car.

The other question that comes to mind - where are all of those 800 000 Cox Chapparal cars - makes it a bit hard to believe they are rare (when mentioned on eBay :) )

DM

I had one. Magnesium chassis, I think I remember.

The early versions had the Magnesium Chassis. The Chaparal2-E had the Iso-Fulcrum Chassis and a movable wing !!

I had the 1/24 Lotus with the same magnesium chassis....I remember I was the odd guy out, everyone else had Chaparrals.

But remember you are talking numbers from the hayday of slots. And during the time there were not so many models being turned out by each company. Look at the choice of models available from each brand now. The available choice dilutes the number able to be shifted for a single model.

In the hayday a company might offer a choice of 3 or 4 moulds for a year or two, not 12. There was also less dilution from secondhand and vintage stock as there was no vintage stock.

An awful lot of those Cox Chappies would have been raced to death and destruction. Still more would've found their way into landfill in somewhat better condition. I know someone who just recently shipped his remaining 60s race weapons to a friend of his in the US.

But, there seems to have been a lot of NOS just left to rot in warehouses when the slot boom went bust.

Back in the 1960's $45,000 to $50,000 would have been some serious money- would be worth $338,000 to $375,000 in today's dollars!