Posted 2 years ago
polymot36
(1 item)
I am a volunteer at a Thrift shop in /a/small town, Merritt, in the Interior of British Columbia. I have recently taken over the vintage section which is like being in heaven as I love researchinh all the interesting itemsthat arrive in the store. Small problem. I want to buy everything!! Google Lens s is my go to place for solving mysteries and that has led me to your site. I do my research at home and today I brought home a collection ofmodelvehicles. 2 tractors ,1 E glish and one American. A veryshabby lityle fire engine by Huble? and 2 promo cars. One is plastic. It is a creamy yellow 4 door car circa 1951 a d has a wi d up feature that works. I found all this online. The other is a chrome die cast model. It was harder to track down but eventually I landed on your website and there was a car almost like mine. It was podted on your site by a gentleman looking for information. He got some good info but didn't continue to post. I noticed in a picture of the underside of the car there was a number stamped in the metal. It was the number one and beneath it was a circle that contains what looks like a large 5 and beneath it an o and a c. I have the same stamp on my car but it is number 2. The car is slightly different as it has 3 windows instead of 2. I have cleaned mine up and it has wear but is still a solid and impressive sight. I did find a mention of it possibly being a promo car for the first AMT in Canada, at a dealership in Saskatchewan. I would love to have some input from your knowledgeable collectors if they can verify the info re Saskatchewan and whether 1951 would be accurate or if having the number 2 in the stamp means it was a year later. If it is 1951 then the car is the same age as me! . I have never heard of AMT has it merged, gone belly up or does it still produce cars I am not at all knowledgeable about cars But this is an intriguing quest to identify this lovely shiny model. From there I can hopefully ascertain its value. If it is valuable and sought after I will have to fight to by pass selling it for 10 dollars in the store and letting one ofvour local dealers buy it and put a big profit i their bank account instead of ours which is used to support our little hospital and all the other health services in town. This job is so much fun. Yesterday I was immersed in the world of vintage Japanese made binoculars. Last week I was exploring the world of designer head scarves. I have a vintage bamboo fly rod that is going to be up next,so exciting as I am an avid fly fisher. And now I think I may have found a source,with your website, that will be a treasure trove of knowledge to help me in my work. I hope I will not be in conflict with your rules aboutthings bei g for sale. Almost everything that I will be dealing with is going to be sold eventually in our store at rock bottom prices but I think I have a duty to find out more about items that have a significant value even if my manager decides that things should be put in the store and sold for a fraction of their value. But value is only part of my interest...mostly I just want to know about the items for my own personal satisfaction.. who knew that dealerships gave away model cars as promos. A yway I look forward to hearing from anyone that can help me to nail down the details about my cars and to exploring this site.
Welcome to CW. You can have up to 4 pictures in your post. You can add more by using the edit button on your post. The more pictures the better.
Also the photo software is finicky..especially if your uploading from a phone. This can often be resolved by editing your photos...usually by changing the side dimensions slightly, then edit post and replace the old photo.
Here's some AMT history..
https://gluestickssite.wordpress.com/2019/08/04/history-of-the-amt-model-company/#:~:text=AMT%2C%20short%20for%20Aluminum%20Model,pre%2Dassembled%20promotional%20car%20models.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum_Model_Toys
guessing early 1940s Ford sedan
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-toy-car-die-cast-1940s-ford-409673159
Thanks for all the interesting replies. The most valuable was posted by TallCakes which gave me a link to Worthpoint and a listing, undated, that features the exact match to mymystery car, with one expception. The posters model was painted but the owner mentioned that where the paint was missing it revealed a shiny silver/ chrome surface. So that leads me to believe that the car I have was left unpainted for reasons unknown. The manufacturers stamp on the underside I thought was 2 followed by a circle containg a large 5 and the letters o and d . The owner of the painted model thought it was a large S and the letters d c. I had another look with a magnifying glass and although the large symbol is open to being either an S or a five, the smaller letters are dc, which could stand for die cast.It seems from the information in the other links that the AMT worked closely with Ford and that as a sales tool, the car models were painted with all the colours being used for each car type so it is still a mystery how an chromed but unpainted model exists. I am going to try and find the snippet of info that I stumbled across and didn't bookmark, that referenced the first AMT model in Saskatchewan. The little collection that included this car and another promo car also included two tractors. One was an English model, plastic from the 50s made by Chad Valley and in very good condition and another tractor , caste iron and with substantial paint loss. This leaves me to imagine that these items may well have belonged to a Saskatchewan farmer and were kept in the family until eventually ending up in our little town and being part of a house clearance , which is a very common way that our thrift store recieves old artifacts.Thanks again for your link and I will continue to try and find out more about this car and the other odels.