My Slot Car Collecting Story

[Dangermouse]

I collect slot cars - not to display on the shelf that isn't what slot cars are for - I collect them to drive them and to race them every now and then. This is my collection story (group therapy session - hello my name is David and I am addicted to collecting slot cars)

When I started out collecting cars I collected those I liked the look of. What I now call Shiny Bauble Syndrome. You know how it goes you see a car and oh that is pretty - bang! you are gone...

Then because I race with a club I also had to collect cars for the series we race - which when combined with SBS - meant I ended with 2 or 3 or 4 cars for a series (oh they make a Porsche as well, better get one of them :)) when I only need one (well 2) to race.

After gathering a rather eclectic group of cars I then started to focus on particular cars or eras or race series such as JGTC cars or classic sports and grand prix cars. Thus I find a wide range of cars in my collection. I didn't think I like F1 cars but have managed to acquire 20 or so of them - the same with Rally cars :) and I won't talk too much about my 35+ JGTC cars or 20+ GT40s :)

Focusing in race series can be dangerous as it can lead to a tendency to want to collect all of the liveries available. This explains the 7 Ninco JGTC Supras I have yep - I have 7 of them when could have had 7 different cars...) at least I stopped after only 3 of the NSX and Nissan and 5 of the Lexus (ummm maybe they only did 5 Lexus)

Of course then there is collecting certain liveries - the Calsonic - or Gulf spring to mind - or cars for certain drivers I have 7 or so Jo Bonnier cars as the yellow appealed to me (SBS)

More recently my collecting has also become a little more discerning as I worked out that no matter how shiny it is some brands of cars just drive like cr.... So while I still choose cars I like the look of I am more selective - e.g. I did buy the NSR Corvette C6R rather than the Scalextric one because even though it costs more I felt I would enjoy driving the NSR one more. (I did buy the Carrera one it looks grand in the black and white livery - SBS)

I don't know if I have reached saturation point or if this is a natural progression in slot car collecting but I am now just about done with RTR cars - there are and will be new cars I want to buy but I find now that instead of a long list I have a short one. I will still pick up bargains as I am not full cured of SBS yet but they need to be a bargain (e.g. Sloter Swiss Cheese Lola for $22 - see more SBS as I have 4 of them already but my excuse is I bought them as kits and bashed them together and now plan to sell 2 of them)

Now my collecting leans towards cars that aren't so readily available I enjoy reading people posts about cars they build and I have read more about racing across the decades so I like to find cars that still appeal to me visually but maybe aren't available in RTR - things like an Alfa 8C 2900 or a Maserati 4CL or a Porsche 550 Coupe

This means I have to buy resin kits and put them together myself. I am lucky in that I have reasonable modelling skills and I get a lot of personal satisfaction out adding extra detail bits to finish off a car...

I imagine my next step might be to make my own cars and mould them up

So what is your collecting story :)


cheers
David
So I am trying to build more resin kits and kit bash model cars into slot cars and stuff like that.

[btaylor]

David, that sounds pretty normal to me! At least thats the way it has been at my place. I have lots of cars i know nothing about historically, but own them because i thought they were cool cars. I have researched some of them just so i knew what i was talking about when asked, but not in depth. I like the challenge of driving and racing cars that are thought to be difficult. (Cartrix f1 legends) Mastering one of them on a road course without total rebuilds is kind of fun to me.
I also collect the Gulf liveries because i like the color combo, and for no other reason. I even make fanatasy cars in that livery for that reason. I too, have enjoyed kit bashing and resin building in all of my different series of cars. None of mine are shelf queens.

Bob

[Modlerbob]

Same here with a few variations. I never was able to get a really active group together here in central florida and if I had my collection might even be bigger than it is.

Sometimes I think in light of my recently reduced financial situation I should sell off most of my collection but I realise that wouldn't help me that much in the long run. But it sure has slowed down my rate of acquisition.

[TsgtRet]

Sounds roughly like me as well. I race with a group on Wednesday nights and we have different classes each week so I need something to run for those. As a result I have one "modern" open wheel and one "vintage"; 2 modern NASCARs; 3 LMPs....anyway you get the idea on having something to run. Meanwhile my "likes" run into larger numbers....my biggest groups are my classic sports cars and Trans Ams followed by vintage NASCARs. I, also, have a "livery fetish"...Alitalia and I've done fantasy cars in it, too.....I still lust after the Ninco Stratos but can't quite justify the cost :roll: . Sounds like we all need to attend a meeting of "SCA" (slot cars anonymous) :D

[4424ever]

Sounds like everyones story is quite similar, same here but one thought comes to mind for me. I can still remember jumping on the board years ago ( about 10 if I recall ) and marveling at how someone could buy a car and modify it right of the hop or repainting it. Guess what I'm up to now hell I've bought cars strictly to tear down for parts and Slot Cars Anonymous? I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM YET :whistle: I'm only at 300 cars :D

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I remember when your Linda Vaughn icon showed up! Heck, I remember Linda Vaughn!

I started in 1962 with Tjets. After retiring, I decided it would be fun to dig that stuff out and I planned an elaborate layout which included a full function railroad yard for scenery. As I collected more and more stuff for the project, I happened to go to Sears to get a replacement for a busted rachet handle, and in the parking lot I found a guy in a shiny red pickup truck with the lic. plate "AFX-TJET". I parked beside him and met him and his adorable little daughter. That was Jenny. Mopar Jenny. I fell in love immediately. He introduced me to his friends in slot cars, and I was multiscale very quickly. Running HO, 1/32, and 1/24 on various tracks all over, I was having a ball, and watching Jenny grow up. The HO tracks were converted by their owners to routed tracks, and I got serious about the big scales. Between 2004 and 2008, I acquired over 400 cars, then I started building my own in 1/32 and 1/24. Now there are more than 600, and I'm still selling off my HO stuff, which is another 400. There are 22 cars in various stages of construction (UFO's- un finished objects), and I couldn't be happier if I was twins. That's my story. Jenny is a grown woman now- very accomplished in her career, and I'm very proud of her. I have hundreds of friends on HRW and local slot car guys, and I look forward to even more good times.

[Mayberryman]

My story differs a little but a very little from the above stories. I consider myself a racer who acquires cars to race with an organization but NOT a collector. At the present time I race with two organizations, The Barn Burner Slot Car Club in Williamsburg, Va. and The Interstate Home Slot Racers based in the Md. to Southern Pa. area Since between the two clubs we are talking about 16 classes I have acquired 45 cars (yes I believe that a spare everything prevents breakage). In 1/24 in the past three years I have raced with several organizations and shops so I have about 35 1/24 scale cars that can be run or modified to run with about five organizations.

I am in no way saying anything bad about collectors as I have seen many collections that run from ones that reside in boxes and totes to those that adorn shelves both in and out of original boxes to those that serve as scenery on layouts. I admire both the collections and the people who take the time and money to assemble them.
One of the best things I have seen in a basement Slot Racing Man Cave was a Refrigerator professionally painted in Gulf Colors that was well stocked with beverages, unleaded of course.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Funny, I was daydreaming about doing that to my beer fridge.

[death on 4 wheels]

I started with AFX,my sister's boyfriend took me to Tiny Tim's in Royal Oak Michigan. Went to 1/32 scale. Rode my bike for 10 miles to race all day on Saturdays. Recently got a AFX set for girlfriend's son. I just moved and got lucky,found a Carrera Evolution set. So I have space for a 8x8 layout. So I guess I'm back! ! I'm already hooked again and haven't even put it together yet. I'll get cars for looks and performance, I've learned to review things. That's why I'm here. Oh,I forgot my name is Bill and I'm a slot car addict!!Lol I like the Trans am ,and muscle cars, GTs.

[Dangermouse]

how many of your cars would you be happy to part with tomorrow mayberryman? If it is all of them then I guess you aren't a collector if you would prefer to keep them then maybe you are a collector - sounds like you collect cars purely to race - :)

I collect cars to drive and to race and I have a few that I mostly look at that are rarely driven - I say to drive and to race because some of the race cars I wouldn't have purchased except that they were required for the series we were running - of course I then chose the car I liked the livery of the best..

[Mayberryman]

[nhdungeonracer]

[miveson]

A great topic David and well I'm going to be a little different to many of the people replying so far.....

I'll wind the clock back to when I was a young lad, not that long ago compared to some but still it was the mid 70's and I didn't get a slot car set for xmas or my birthday. In fact I got a train set which provided hours of great fun, even though the train just went around and around. What made it fun was the lego and army figures that provided so many options to try and derail or shoot down the train. Even years later the train was still running after sustaining years of abuse. I'm not sure then that I knew anything about slot cars but something must of made me think about it....

Years later after the birth of my two kids I whinged and moaned constantly to my wife that they should have a Scalextric set. Eventually in 2008 the wife said let's pull the trigger and purchase some cars, track etc. Sadly I had done plenty of research and I settled on SCX Digital - I loved the idea of fuel and pit stops. I spent months researching and buying up as much digital stuff as possible so that come xmas day the kids had a mass of SCX digital stuff to open. I should have known then that they weren't that interested. I spend hours setting up the track and they'd spend maybe 30 minutes playing and then finding something else to do. The limitations of the SCX Digital eventually led me to sell the complete set after I became frustrated with the cars crossing the line, which caused a momentary cut in power. No dramas with 2 cars, but with 3 or more it was so prominent that I decided enough was enough....

I used the funds from the SCX sale to purchase a Scalextric sport track and power base C7042 and spent years researching / upgrading. The same problem existed where the kids would be interested for about 30 minutes and then find something better to do. My first car purchase was a selection between a slot.it Alfa or a slot.it Audi. I selected the Alfa and it's still in it's shrink wrap to this day.

Of course back in 2008 I missed the early slot.it models and a fair chunk of the Fly classics and then spent probably the next 5 years trying to acquire as many models as I thought I liked. I had exactly the same problem as David in that as soon as I found a car I liked I wanted every livery that the car was made in. To make matters worse I decided that I wanted every model produced by slot.it. Of course it didn't take me long to realize that in order to collect every slot.it model that I would need very deep pockets.

The real problem was the sheer volume of cars released by slot.it - I thought I was doing well and then came the ltd editions and special cars for this and that slot fair.

I think the first obsession I had was with the Scalextric GT40's. I bought one and then was hooked on how nice the car looked and I wanted to acquire ever livery ever made. Of course being a technologist I really, really enjoyed the chase of hunting down the rarer models using eBay and other sites to find that elusive car at a price that was close to RRP. I'll admit that I did pretty damn well finding many of these cars and eventually ended up with every GT40 made by Scalextric.

Of course the obsession didn't end there and once the GT40's were complete, I moved on to other models that I liked such as the Scalextric Mustangs and Camaros. Then my biggest downfall was buying a Fly 917k. Once I'd bought one, I needed to acquire the other 54 models that Fly made. I'm glad to say that I eventually acquired all of the 917k models but then of course it meant that I had finished. Of course I couldn't possibly finish and then I found more cars from years ago that I wanted to collect - the Ninco classics.......

If you repeat the cycle continually then I have plenty of collections of cars that are complete and a few that are missing the odd model. I'll be honest in saying that I absolutely refuse to pay through the nose for a car that is clearly not worth what buyers are asking. I've always tried extremely hard to pay close the RRP and surprisingly I have generally paid within 10% of RRP on the vast majority of purchases. Of course there will always be exceptions for the last 1 or 2 cars in a collection that may be harder to find.

I'll admit that I do on occasion buy more than one of particular cars that I like. Not with the intention of keeping it on the shelf but with the intention of selling the car at a higher price than I paid. I've done particularly well in making good selections. The most I've ever bought of a single car is 24. I know that might sound like madness or excessive but buying the right car in bulk enables me to continue to add to the collection without outlaying any additional $$$.

Whilst many will whinge and complain that I'm driving prices up or reducing available stock, I do take significant risk in attempting to determine what cars are going to appreciate in value. I've made some fantastic decisions (Scalextric Lotus 49 Gold Leaf) and some terrible ones that have lost me money. Love me or hate me, I keep the manufacturers and retailers in business and it enables me to keep doing what I love doing, which is buying slot cars.

Many forum users will dislike the fact that the vast majority of my models sit on the shelf, the shelves are impressive but I don't actually have a track that would possibly allow me to race many of the cars that I own. I have a few club tracks within 60 minutes and a few hobby tracks also within 60 minutes. Sadly with family, work and sporting commitment taking precedence I barely get the time to take some of the cars for a spin. I have probably close to 50-60 cars sitting in a box that I have raced......

I am positive that once my kids move out, that I'll be able to create a permanent track and race many of my shelf queens - in the mean time I'm still chasing about 20-30 cars to complete some of the collections that I started a long time ago. The constant release of models makes it so difficult to keep the collections relevant. I will say that I've given up on Fly/FlySlot. They release so many liveries and limited edition cars in small numbers that it would be financially suicidal to attempt to keep up with them. I drew the line at Fly and decided not to extend many of the Fly collections with FlySlot cars.

My challenge for 2015 is to try and keep the number of unique new cars added to the collection below 40 which would be one of the quieter years for me. I'm probably at the point of being close to the end of my journey for collecting previously released cars. I'll admit that some of the rarer and more unique cars from some of the more obscure manufacturers are enticing me at the moment. I really like the transporters but realize that I've well and truly missed the boat (even thought I had possession of a broken in transit Ferrari Transporter)

In case you are wondering I am well short of many of the collections that many of the other forum users have. As of today I have close to 800 cars, 150 of those are duplicates and the collection is growing.

I love this hobby and well every man/woman needs a hobby - I love that fact that there are so many facets to slot cars and I'll continue on my journey of collecting as many cars that interested me as possible.......



Mark