A Very Rare Buddy L Prototype Insurance Patrol w/ Box

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Clouds with Sun

10° C / 50° F

A Very Rare Buddy L Prototype

Insurance Patrol w/ Box

I've been blogging since January 19, 2011, and what I originally liked from Milestone Auctions was their clean and neat photography.  Soft and diffused lighting is used, and the item (s) for sale are placed on a white base and background (seamless paper).

The owner of  Milestone Auctions is Mr. Miles King, and it was he personally who wrote back and gave me his permission to write about his fine company and to use his photos on my blog.

Please click on this sentence to redirect to the Milestone Auctions on Liveauctioneers

Whenever I'm adding a blog post, I like to visit either the website or the auction site where a collector or a company is selling their merchandise. I start by go through the list of 1629 posts (this post will be the 1630th), and see who I haven't written a post for in a while. 

When I chose Milestone Auctions today,  I was very surprised 

and excited to see a toy that was unique. The description was very exciting 

for myself,  but I'll let you decide. It's not often that you see a toy going to 

auction that is the prototype and was never chosen to be mass produced. 

I wonder why not?

Item Details

Description

"Only known example of the Insurance Patrol with Headlights and Bumper.

Still has Factory Prototype Tag that says "205 C 1928 9 LBS". Truck came

from the Buddy L Morgue Sale. All original with near mint paint and decals.

Still has pull cord and Buddy L tag.This truck was never put into production.

A wonderful addition to even the most advanced collection.

Comes with original Buddy L Box with Blue Stripe Paper. This toy sold at the

Buddy L  Morgue Auction for around $ 40,000. One of the most important

Buddy L Toys there is. 27" Near Mint."

(27" = 68.58 cm)

Thanks for dropping by.

My name is Mr. Stacey Bindman,

and I can always be reached at

toysearcher@gmail.com 

 

A Rare "Private Label" Buddy L Firestone Tow Truck

Monday May 4, 2020
Overcast (Cloud)
11 C  52 F

A Rare"Private Label" Buddy L

Firestone Tow Truck

            Lately, I've been writing  more than my usual number of posts.  I have lots of time on my hands due to this pandemic, as I stopped doing volunteering work at a local food bank, here in Montreal. I'm a "senior" now, and older people are more prone to getting more sick from the Corona Virus.

Anyway, I'd been looking through my old posts, and just by chance I saw a nice wooden toy that was nicely photographed. That toy was made during WWII and it was made from wood, as metal was in  high demand for the war effort and the making of armaments. It turned out to be owned by Mark L. Hartman, a seller on ebay.  Mark, another excellent  seller on ebay was selling it.

The original post about another rare toy was written on  July 31, 2014. If you click on the link below, you will be able to read about that rare wooden toy from WWII (World War II).

Please click here to redirect to that post

Returning to today's other "rare" toy, here is the description that Mark wrote to me:

  "I know it was from 1953 based on an International Harvester Cab design and came with the Jack pictured and I believe tools that I don't have. Tire axles had acorn nuts that screwed off so you could change a flat? Private label Firestone decalling...nothing said Buddy l except script on the wheels...that is all I got...let me know when you post...MARK"

The dimensions of this tow truck are:

Length x Width x Height:

24.5"x  6.5" x 6.5"

622 mm x 165 mm x 165 mm

Please click here to see the ebay listing and the asking price of this rare toy

That's it for today

Have a great day or evening,

wherever you are

You can always reach me at

toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

An Exceptional Set of 1920's Buddy L vehicles comes to auction

Sunday, April 7, 2019
Sunny with clouds
9 C  48 F

An Exceptional Set of 1920's Buddy L vehicles comes to auction

      I'm always elated  when readers write to me. And so it was with Mr. Myron Frank.  Myron had inherited a set of 10 Buddy L cars and trucks, and was asking for advise as to what these fine early 1920's Buddy L toys would garner at auction.

"Hi, I have a small collection of Buddy L trucks.  They were my Dad's and he passed.  I know these have value, but not sure the actual retail.  

There is a local toy auction house that will put them up in April, but with no certainty on sale price, and there is also a lot of "trust" involved in the auction process.  e.g. we will sell them but you just trust us on what they sell for.  

I am attaching photos of the ten trucks we are considering selling.  Any estimate of value appreciated.  Also, if you would like to make an offer on the lot, let me know.  The trucks are located in Central Indiana.  

Thanks, Phil F. " 

      I'm not an expert on the value of toys, so I didn't want to give  any incorrect information to Myron. What I did suggest however, was to do a search on the Bertoia Auctions website, a very famous and successful toy auctioneer.  I also suggested for Myron to visit the  Liveauctioneers  website.

    There are innumerable factors that determine the price of what a toy (or anything else) will sell for at auction. The time of year, a local auction or an Internet auction, the number of people bidding on the toy. As well, sometimes you'll find a toy at one time will sell for more than at another time.

Please click here to visit the Bertoia Auctions website

Please click here to visit the Liveauctioneers website

Please click here to visit the ebay website

Interestingly, the ebay website was the one website that offered the most number of these Buddy L Flivver cars and trucks.

          Myron's collection most certainly is a fine collection. I especially like the "dust" that has collected on these toys over the years.  I wish Myron great success as his collection goes to auction

More Fine Toys from Mr. Ken McGee

Saturday, December 10, 2016
Cloud with some sun,
-6 C  21 F

More Fine Toys from

Mr. Ken McGee

Please click here too visit this outstanding ebay merchant

Mr. Ken McGee does sell toys, but his specialty area is in 

automobile (car) ephemera (paper collectibles).

He collects and sells all kinds of car manuals and other items from bygone era cars. 

The example below is from a 1912 Jackson car company specification booklet.

If you visit his store, you may become more interested in this section of his ebay store, that his exceptional toys!

1912 Specification Booklet for the 

Jackson Automobile Company

1925-1929 Buddy L Fire Pumper

Painted pressed steel, restored toy

Brass bell and bright polished boiler

Moving flywheels and rods on piston pump

L x D x H:  23 1/3" x 8 1/2" x 10 1/2"   596 mm x 216 mm x 266 mm

1940's Wyandotte Humphrey Mobile

Wind-up lithographed tin toy

Rear door opens.

L x W X H:  8 1/2" x 5" x 7 1/2"  215mm x 127 mm x 190 mm

The Humphrey Mobile is based on the cartoon character 

from the Joe Palooka comic strip of the 1940s.

THe front of the toy is offset, allowing for the toy to complete a 

right-handed circle when wound up.

1927 Chein Royal Blue Line Bus

Lithographed  painted pressed steel with metal tires.

Very rare toy.

L x W x H:  18" x 7" x 6"  457 mm x 178 mm x 152 mm

 1930's Keystone Air Mail Plane NX-263

Painted pressed steel with decals.

A pull toy when a string is attached to the hub of the propeller.

L x W x H:  24 1/4" x 24" x 9"  622 mm x 610 mm x 229 mm

1930's Kingsbury Wind-up Roadster

Painted pressed steel with wind-up mechanism and

battery-operated lights.

L x W x H:  12 1/2" x 5" x 4 3/4"  317 mm x 127 mm x 121 mm

The rumble seat of the above toy opens and closes. 

The size of the battery is a size "D". The rear tail light also turns on, 

as well as the front headlights. THe Kingsbury toys that moved all had a unique 

design wind-up mechanism that you can see to the left of the bottom most photo.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, 

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever yo umay be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

An Exceptional Photographer/ebay seller Revisited

Saturday, November 14, 2015
          Cloudy and mild temperature

An Exceptional

 Photographer/ebay Merchant

Revisited

   I remember when digital cameras first came out. People would take poor-quality photos, then think that a photo-eidting software would fix everything-not! The only thing that happened was that bad photos simply didn't have to be made into prints.   Eventually, thank G-D, people started to take better photos and the photo-editing software raised the photography level a few steps higher!

   I first wrote to Ron Michaud, who lives in Maine, USA, about 2 years ago. He's an excellent ebay merchant who receives outstanding comments from his clients. I noticed his listings because of several things-lots of photos of his toys, quality photos and larger sized images, knowledge about toys.

Please click here to visit Ron Michaud's excellent collection of toys for sale on ebay

You can easily read the knowledge that Ron Michaud has when he writes about this Buddy L Sprinkler truck.  The truck is quite large measuring 25" ( 635 mm) in length.

I've taken 3 photos below and partially or fully extracted the truck and placed it against white. Of course, Ron;s photos certainly present the truck excellently. Ron doesn't just take front,side,top and bottom photos quickly, but he thinks about what he wants to show  in his merchandise.  He uses a regular focal length lens and in some cases prefers the wide-angle to exaggerate the toy. It's great to see suburb photography from a seller of toys!

I like the Buddy L toys because they have lots of features to them, 

they're large to play with, and they were built to last!

Whomever restored these toy and the others for sale (if they're  the same person) 

certainly did an excellent job.

I like this rear-angle and lower camera-angle photograph. 

It shows the "spigot" or tap that allows waterto pour from the rear of the truck.

The black rounded pipe at the rear of the truck is not a bumper - it's a pipe with holes. The truck is a sprinkle truck and would have been used to add water to roads in order to minimize dust on dry hot days of the summer.

I'll be writing Ron as soon as I add the labels for this post. I haven;t contacted him in a long time, and I would want to thank him for having allowed me to use his fine photos.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com