-
- Wanted
-
- Do
you have a passion for antiques and collectibles - and writing?
-
- The
Wayback Times invites you to submit freelance articles for use
in print and on our new web site.
-
- E-mail
your text submissions
to
The Wayback Times.
-
- Articles
published in The Wayback Times since 1995 have covered a wide
range of interests, from Golliwoggs to toy VW collecting, and
from collecting insulators to hunting old books.
-
- Most
authors of our online selection of articles have included their
e-mail addresses and they are always delighted to hear from other
collectors.
|
|
|
- Ad Rates / Articles
/ Classified Ads / Editorial
/ Home / Links
/ Showtime
-
- Antiques and Collectibles
Articles
-
|
- Follow
the arrows to other stories
|
|
- My Toy VW Collection
-
- By Jay Telfer
- Over the years, I have been
asked "what do you collect?"
- Well, I have been collecting
(ahem) toy Volkswagens since 1978.
It is quite the bizarre collection - and out of 1,300 odd toy
VWs, I know I have paid less than $25 for about five of them.
Simple shape and frugal too.
-
- I have a number of VW toilet-roll
holders, a VW note-pad, three different salt & pepper shakers,
two dozen VW candles; a dozen VW transformers; a VW Jim Beam
decanter; another VW with a flask and four glasses in it and
when you raise the roof, it plays "Raindrops Keep Falling
on My Head."
-
- I also have a VW music piece
that spins and plays "King of the Road," a VW potty
(with the original box), a water-driven VW, VW staplers; VW crayons;
VW paper clips, VW stamps; Notes in the shape of VWs, VW napkin
holders, two shelves of VW Vanagon "trucks," VW ads,
several VW lithograph prints; four lights shaped like VWs, VW
sponges, a VW jewelry box, and my latest favorite, VW doorstops
( I have found two of them.)
-
 I also have VW T-shirts, sweatshirts,
VW hats, VW belts with several buckles; VW jewelry, VW coats,
a VW belt purse and I also have a pair of glow-in-the-dark VW
boxer shorts. (Never worn. My wife, Cindy, might get frightened.)
And what no one can ever understand, I have kept all of my Easter
VW chocolates - since 1988.
-
- I rarely buy toy VWs at the
antique stores I visit (although, I just bought one three weeks
ago), but I go in search of Dollar Stores, the anything stores
that sells newspapers, drugs and toys (and everyone in any small
town has one of those.) And for grandchildren, I have two VW
kiddy-cars - not for them to use! Only for thinking about their
value.
-
- It is a fun collection, a silly
collection and an interesting private collection.
- While shopping at a bulk barn,
looking for cilantro, I saw it and suddenly fell to my knees.
They had a VW cake mold. I bought it, brought it home and happily
forgot about the spices. This is what it is like to be a collector
of any interesting duplicated item.
-
- When did VW love affair begin?
Here is my story.
-
- I was living and writing in
Los Angeles in 1977 when a girl living in the courtyard near
me told me of a friend who had had her car stolen. She got her
insurance money, bought herself a newer car and then the police
found her stolen 1964 VW. She did not want to pay the storage
charges. So she signed the pink-slip over to me.
-
 I went to the police impound lot, paid
$60 to retrieve the car, paid another $60 to have the alternator
fixed, and I had myself a car. It had new tires, a rebuilt engine
and small dings on every corner of the car. With no jack and
with the gas cap found under the front hood, the car worked just
fine.
-
- In a year and a half, the only
thing I did was to change the oil and to put in some brake fluid.
Sometimes the stick shift would pull out and I would jam it back
in and the car still ran. I bought some cheap black seat covers
for the car, covering up the checkerboard weave, just to make
the thing look "new."
-
- In 1978, I wrote an article
to Road and Track that was not published. I talked of the miles
per gallon from the 1964 VW, the stopping distance, the cost
of all the repairs, and the 0-60 timing.
-
- After a year and a half of driving
it, I sold that car for $750 and took from it the old owners
manual, and headed back to Toronto.
-
 And
the manual is what turned me on to Volkswagens. The cut-away
drawing of the green 1964 car (on the cover) is what I was attracted
to. There is no wasted space inside of that car. A great friend
from Pasadena, drove a VW Dasher and he let me read a book called
"Small Wonder" about the history of Volkswagens. I
was truly hooked then.
-
- Designed by Ferdinand Porsche
in 1932 - the same design as the 'bugs" on the road - it
was Hitler in 1933/34 who wanted the "People's Car."
In a back to front deal, instead of credit, Hitler had people
paying for the car for many years before they had paid the full
price and then got one of the new Volkswagens.
-
- No cars were ever sold in that
manner, although people paid dearly for Hitler's own secret pre-war
funding effort.
-
- Jay Telfer, founder and former
owner of The Wayback Times, enjoys chatting with VW collectors
world wide. E-mail
him
-
- Other articles by Jay Telfer
-
-
-
- Return to
top of page
-
- This Is Livin' Publishing
© 2007
- 581 8th Line West, RR1
Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0
- Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833
-
- webmaster
|
|
|