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My first inkling of interest
in car literature occurred in 1957. My Dad ran
a jalopy (1933 Chevy #22) at the local dirt oval
and he received some minor sponsorship from the
Chevrolet / Oldsmobile / Cadillac dealer in town.
One day I was with him at "Goodspeeds"
and wandered into the showroom. Aha! These were
nice! I ended up with 1957 Chevrolet, 1957 Oldsmobile
and '1957 Chevrolet Pickups brochures - and I
still have all three. I was 11 years old.
Over the next ten years or so I did pick up various
other brochures, but mostly General Motors stuff
sold at that dealership. Never did get a 1959
Cadillac piece, owever.
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Then in 1967, while living in
St. John's, Newfoundland, I got involved with
a motor club. Through a couple of ex-patriot Brits,
I garnered a real interest in British cars.
From then onward, my real speciality
became anything from the United Kingdom and especially
Mini and Morris Minor.
It was not until 1978 that I obtained my first
collection from another party. A young mentally
challenged man had about 1,000 pieces, but he
was only interested in keeping the truck stuff.
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It was after acquiring this nice
collection of all 1950s, '60's and '70's Canadian
brochures, that I got real serious.
I began to write to manufacturers in North America
and the U. K. at first, but soon realized that,
if I could get the addresses, there might be literature
to find from throughout the world.
At my peak, there were 80,000 sales brochures
in my basement, with 20,000 related to trucks
and buses. I still have all 5,000 bus brochures,
but only about 20,000 car pieces.
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Health and age have had a large
bearing on my collecting the last few years. Those
boxes get heavy after two shoulder operations
and advancing age.
At the end of 2002 I took early
leave from work to be with my wife of 35 years,
who had been diagnosed with the big "C".
She left us for better places in late 2003 and
at that time I began slowly lessening my collection.
All of a sudden there is now six years of selling
on eBay, under my belt.
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Other than acquiring rare items
for my collection, the very best part of collecting
literature has been the many wonderful people
I have met over the years. On three occasions
in recent years I have travelled to the U. K.
and Europe, mostly visting with fellow collectors.
As most long-time literature collectors would
know, The Netherlands, for some reason, has more
collectors per capita than any other country.
I know about twenty and there are hundreds more.
A couple of these people have become close friends
and they have shared their collections.
The largest collection I ever saw was over 100,000
pieces of worldwide car only literature. This
was in the U. K. in 2004 and I also got to travel
at 280 k.p.h. in a Porsche!
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Even though I have lessened my
collection radically over the past few years,
I will always be a collector. At least once a
week I do some searching on the internet looking
for Mini stuff I don't have. It is now rare to
find something unique, whereas I have 90% of showroom
items available. Same goes for Citroen ID/DS.
There are some early pieces that I still need,
but don't have a lot of hope of finding some.
They are out there, but the prices are now astronomical.
Saw some at a car show in France but they were
upwards of $50.00 each.
Other than Morris Minor, the
only other literature that I still seek out is
bus and small commercial vehicles, based on car
chassis.
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A friend in Europe sells buses
for a living, so new literature is quite easy
to get. Older bus stuff continues to be quite
rare (and expensive).
Another collecting interest joined in at the time
of my retirement and that is street scene postcards
(must have a vehicle in the scene). Over the last
six years I have been successful in acquiring
about 8,000 such cards and I particularly enjoy
finding views with Citroen ID/DS.
The near future for me has a move to much smaller
quarters and most of the bulk won't be coming
with me. I suspect there will be a small amount
put in storage, and I will always keep my "special"
stuff with me, but at least 10,000 pieces have
to go in the next six months. Should be fun!
Gary Grant
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