Boxing clever at Lymingtons

The Lymingtons Auction event in June comprised just over 330 lots and many groups of diecast, albeit unboxed, went for quite modest sums. Aside from that, there were several lots of old shop stock, still boxed up, remarkably enough from the neighbouring area.

Curiosities included an unopened trade box of six Corgi Aston Martin Vanquish models from the film “Die another Day”: you couldn’t see the contents (the brown outer box put paid to that) but this lot, and another, made just £40. Something to salt away? On a similar note, a trade pack of six The Saint Jaguar XJS models, dating from 1978, were more tantalising since this lot was shrinkfilm wrapped: this timewarp didn’t sell, although an estimate of £400-600 was noted.

A quartet of mint Inspector Morse Jaguars Mk11 cars, with a separate brown trade box, made £50, while 11 blister carded James Bond Lotus Esprit models, from “The Spy who Loved Me” film, with two brown outer boxes, sold for just £45. And, with royalty very much in the news at the time of writing, how about the Charles and Diana Mini Metro in purple? Twenty-four in a trade box were taken home by one fervent royalist for £95. (The real thing, it ought to be added, was darkish red…)

A Mettoy (Corgi) garage, reference N140, was delightfully compact and came with its original box. Some slight damage was noted (and a lift seemed absent) but this still sold for £75 in the end.
Corgi Routemaster buses also put on a good show: the No 468 with “Naturally Corgi Toys” rubric made £25 whereas the “Church’s shoes” was bid to £150; but this was surpassed by the “Red Rose Tea” example, that netted £240.

And Dinky models? A Foden Flat Truck with chains in red and grey did well at £360 whereas a mere £40 snapped up the boxed Elevator Loader in yellow and light blue with an Eaton Yale Tractor Shovel thrown in. Both were mint. A plastic Blaw Knox bulldozer in orange and green was near mint but was minus its driver: with an excellent box, it was knocked down for £120.