Record price for truck!

The record-breaking Matchbox truck.

THE world’s most hotly sought after Matchbox car achieved a record-breaking price when it went to auction.
The Matchbox Quarry Truck, quoted by experts as the rarest and most valuable Matchbox toy ever made, smashed the previous record for the sale of a Matchbox car and sold for £10,200 in the auction which took place during the 25th Matchbox Club Convention.

Kevin McGimpsey of the Matchbox Club, and auctioneer on the night said: “Being the only surviving example from possibly six, it was very strongly contested. It is now the rarest and the most valuable Matchbox toy made, and the first to achieve a five figure sum.”

The truck was designed as a sample for 1955 and is thought to be the last of only six examples created by the two Lesney Matchbox owners, Jack Odell and Les Smith. It was to become part of a ‘Major Scale’ collection, measuring 27cm in length, but never made it to full production due to the success of the smaller scale Matchbox cars we are most familiar with.

The Quarry Truck was offered for sale by current owner, Takuo Yoshise, from Japan, who has owned the vehicle for over 25 years. Now in his mid-seventies, he was keen to pass on the ‘treasure’ to a good collector.

The sale took place at the convention in Harrogate where at least 200 of the world’s keenest collectors gathered. Matchbox cars are some of the most keenly collected toys in the world, and the sale of this model was well in excess of £7,500 the highest ever price for a single Matchbox die-cast model previously. Not bad for a toy that was originally slated to sell for just £1.5.9d (129.5p).