I added another die-cast car to my NASCAR collection recently, after doing an eBay search to see what all Josh Wise had available on the market. The last car I picked up was also a Josh Wise car, the Dogecoin-sponsored #98 car from 2014. This one goes back a little further, being an America-themed ride that Wise piloted in the Nationwide 5-Hour Energy 200 on May 14, 2011. He split time in the #7 that season with Danica Patrick.
I didn't really set out targeting this specific car, although I do like patriotic paint schemes. I wound up with this one because the seller was blowing it out at about half the price of anything else listed, pushing for a quick sale. I'm more than willing to purchase discount die-cast and there were 5 watchers on the listing already, so I added it to my cart and checked out hastily. Two days! later the car arrived in a Priority Mail box.
Inside the back window you can see the DIN printed on the plastic, which you can use to register the car on the Lionel Racing website. I told my wife while I was registering the number that for me one of the most satisfying parts of getting a new die-cast is going to the die-cast DMV to register my new vehicle. Hey, what's that on the windshield...
Yes, this is my first autographed die-cast car. Most of the JR Motorsports drivers used those holographic stickers on their autographs for a couple of seasons, and they can be found on a lot of Press Pass trading cards from that era, as well as die-cast cars and other merchandise. This isn't a particularly limited piece, being serially-numbered # 0491 / 1284, but it's a pretty cool piece and I couldn't argue with the price.
Just to be on the safe side the box also included this Certificate of Authenticity. More recent certificates actually have the serial number of the car written on them, and collector's get pretty anal about the quality of the handwriting and complain when the certificates are creased or dinged in packing/transit. Collectors are an odd lot.
That is cool. I remember back in the late 90's early 2000's every card shop had a ton of the diecast cars. Is this still true? I don't have a shop anymore.
ReplyDeleteMy LCS owner still has the same cars on the shelf that he did during that time period. He puts them on sale every year during his anniversary sale, and every year they collect a little more dust.
ReplyDeleteNice pickup. I wish I had the space to collect die cast cars. I could store them but what's the fun in that? Those things are meant to be displayed and my shelves are already loaded down.
ReplyDeleteI have a box of the 1/64 cars from my days as a close watcher of NASCAR. Now I just pick up the odd stock Mustang Matchbox now and then.
Storage / display is becoming an issue for my growing collection. I may have to invest in one of the specially-made wall cases they produce for die-cast cars. It's just hard to shell out the $100+ they want for one when I could use that money for more cars/cards.
DeleteReally like that paint scheme. I collected diecast from 1985-2014, 1/64 exclusively. Mostly NASCAR.
ReplyDeleteHad I discovered the world of blogs before last year, I probably would have a blog about them, and had I not gotten diabetes, and had to shell out $500 a month for insulin, I'd still be collecting them.
I considered 1:64 pretty hard before plunking down money on the first batch of 1:24 cars I bought, just from a price/storage space point of view. I just like the greater detail of the larger cars, and the fact that they are serially-numbered. But they are darn expensive, so I will probably never get all the ones I want to have.
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