A LUCKY pensioner has cashed out on his incredible collection of old kids toys after his grandkids refused to inherit them.
Harrie van de Bosch, 80, put over 800 mini car toys up for sale and made a whopping £75,500 on them at an auction.
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Among the pricey collection was iconic Ferrari and Maserati models and a particularly unique Weetabix truck.
The final set of toys consisted of over 150 Dinky Toys and hundreds of Bedford Vans that were almost all fully boxed.
Many rare editions were also within the set that ended up being sold at Vectis’ Auctions on April 9.
Van de Bosch grew up in a post-World War II era in the Netherlands and often saw Dinky Toys as an affordable luxury.
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He never owned any of them as a child as his family couldn’t afford the pricey models but van de Bosch says he always wanted them.
When he became a father for the first time it presented the perfect opportunity to grab them and let his kids play with them.
The collection started off with the classic Matchbox cars followed by Corgi Chipperfields models before he started to find the more premium toys.
His stunning collection really started to grow in the 90s when he was told about a world renowned toy fair right on his doorstep.
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Paul Majoor, a renowned Dutch Dinky Toys dealer, told van de Bosch about the Houten Toy Fair – a place to bag luxury kids toy in bulk.
It was here where the Dutchman first added the Dinky Toys to his growing collection.
I found a baseball card from 50 years ago in a cheese box – my mom tried to throw it out but it’s now worth $186k
His first ever Dinky Toy was a Citroen Philips Van.
Trips across Europe to various toy fairs such as the Koepelbeurs Toy Fair meant his set of toys only grew in size and worth.
Then as the boom in toys slowed down into the 21st century, van de Bosch took to eBay to finish off his ever-thriving play set.
In order to keep up with the toys he owned and those he still desperately wanted to find, van de Bosch kept a handwritten list of everything he had.
This list turned out to be crucial when totting up the toys when he sent them to auction.
His kids even used the legendary list to keep up with what their father would want as birthday and Christmas gifts.
It comes as a gran who spent decades building up a bizarre collection ended up flogging it all at an auction.
Stephanie Weaver, 78, began collecting bars of soap in the 1970s – mainly from hotel bathrooms – when she was in her late 20s.
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Many of the soaps had fun imprints on them or were shaped like a particular person or item.
One of the weirdest soaps is in the shape of a crown and was produced to mark Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation.
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