New variation SF19 F1 Lotus

[motorman]

£400 plus commission!

[godsey1]

Thanks for the information Motorman. I looked at the auction site and couldnt see it.

Tony

[SMS88]

£400 plus commission!

That is very cheap for what they are - hopefully its somebody from here that has won them!

[Idris]

£400 plus commission!

That is very cheap for what they are - hopefully its somebody from here that has won them!

I agree - dirt cheap.

[SMS88]

If not won by anybody here we may see them on Vectis which may just fix their true market value...........

[Idris]

...we may see them on Vectis which may just fix their true market value...........

I’ve been trying to work out what the true market value of this variation might be. There are a number of points to take into consideration:
1. The labels are not found on any other Lesney product.
2. The body is factory painted in what for this model is a non-standard colour.
3. It seems likely that it represents an aborted promotional issue. (If it were an actual promotional, then it would seem reasonable that it would have been recorded when it came out.)
4. It was never distributed through normal sales channels. (N.B. It is conceivable that the models which were produced were simply boxed up and sent out with standard SF 19d stock. This would be in keeping with the normal Lesney policy of “waste not, want not”. If the total number of yellow models so distributed were very small, it would not only explain how they escaped detection at the time, but also how four came to be auctioned together – some sharp-eyed person had spotted them together in a shop way back in the early ‘70s.)
5. It is not a pre-production.
6. It appears to be very, very rare. (Uncatalogued, with only five examples known publically to date.)

Thinking out loud:
- Point 1 means that people who are wary of label swaps will be interested.
- Point 2 means that people who don’t collect label variations but who do collect colour variations will be interested.
- Point 4 will mean that people like Tinman (assuming he collected early SF) will not be interested.
- Point 5 means that those who are wary of buying (or simply don’t buy) alleged pre-productions will be interested.
- Point 6 means that “completist” collectors will be interested.

There are analogies with other models:
- Points 1, 2, 4, and 5 can be applied to the Jaffamobiles, but these were produced in significant quantities.
- Points 1, 3, 4, and 5 can be applied to the Castrol labels which occasionally turn up on standard-colour early SF.
However, because neither of the above falls into the super-rare category (Point 6 above), they can only provide a minimum price indication. I would suggest that since the Jaffamobiles are comparatively common, we should look to the Castrol-labelled SF for our benchmark.

Now, early SF pre-productions seem to sell for around the £300 - 400 mark. At the moment, the SF 19d Yum Yum variation is only slightly more common that a pre-production but, as pointed out above, I think it will appeal to a much wider range of collectors.

So, where does that leave us? To me, it points to about £50 for a playworn but displayable example (although I have the feeling that figure ignores the impact of the ‘completist’ collectors too much), rising to about £500 for a mint and boxed one. On the other hand, we can’t ignore that fact that four of them have just sold for £400, making the market value about £100 each (so perhaps my logic is fundamentally flawed).
I would be interested to know what other members think but, at the end of the day, it must be recognised that this is a purely academic desk exercise. We will not know for sure what the true collectors' market price is until one of these models comes up either on Ebay or at Vectis and is thereby brought to the attention of the wider collecting community.

[SMS88]

The fact that the Yum Yum tape labels arent found on any other models implies that they were made specially for this model at the request of whoever was using ´´YUM YUM´´ for a promotion.I believe 4 cars turning up in the UK away from London but not that far away means they came from an ex employee of whoever made whatever YUM YUM promoted way back in 1971-72. The fact that one showed in Denmark in an F1/Le Mans small scale racer collection makes it most likely a souvenir of a business trip to the UK by a Dane - I wonder if Mars confectionary had a new product launched in 1971-72 with slogan ´´YUM YUM´´ because that would fit the west outside London and Denmark connection. Expect more to show in UK and none elsewhere -if shop distributed in DK then others would likely show up in DK and Germany but I bet none show up except in UK in future!
The yellow colour over white primer like this seems to only have been used for the yellow #12 Setra so that choice of colour rather than other yellows like the base of the #75 Carabou paint suggest to me that they were painted whenever that yellow candy paint was in stock ( no earlier than 1971 or perhaps even in 1972 after the Lotus has been deleted but probably not after all components had been used up).
The fact that 4 turned up in the UK together ,3 boxed ,at least 2 of which show signs of having been played with, does suggest that these spent a short time being handled by kids yet remained together - the most obvious reason for 4 to stay together and not all being played with would be if they were showroom or office gifts that were never given away but pulled out for kids to play with while their parent(s) were being sold whatever was being sold.I dont accept idris´s idea that some canny collector spotted them as odd back in the early 1970s -if that had been true then they wouldnt be sold the way they were in a small town auction house (they would be on ebay)+ only mint ones would have survived with others given permenantly to kids to keep - cars arent given to kids if they need to be kept by whoever has them for other kids that may need to be distracted & collectors want swaps with other collectors with kids just getting easily replaced toys to trash!

[Idris]

I believe 4 cars turning up in the UK away from London but not that far away means they came from an ex employee of whoever made whatever YUM YUM promoted way back in 1971-72...

...except I have been given to understand that they first surfaced at a provincial auction house on the English/Welsh border!

The fact that one showed in Denmark in an F1/Le Mans small scale racer collection makes it most likely a souvenir of a business trip to the UK by a Dane...

Pure, unadulerated supposition.

The fact that 4 turned up in the UK together ,3 boxed ,at least 2 of which show signs of having been played with, does suggest that these spent a short time being handled by kids yet remained together - the most obvious reason for 4 to stay together and not all being played with would be if they were showroom or office gifts that were never given away but pulled out for kids to play with while their parent(s) were being sold whatever was being sold.I dont accept idris´s idea that some canny collector spotted them as odd back in the early 1970s -if that had been true then they wouldnt be sold the way they were in a small town auction house (they would be on ebay)+ only mint ones would have survived with others given permenantly to kids to keep - cars arent given to kids if they need to be kept by whoever has them for other kids that may need to be distracted & collectors want swaps with other collectors with kids just getting easily replaced toys to trash!

It all depends on who spotted them and the models' subsequent history. It is quite possible that the original owner merely dabbled in collecting, moved on to another hobby and then let his grandchildren play with the modern racing cars which he had four of anyway. Alternatively, the original owner may have died and his heirs, not realising what they had (perhaps because there were four of them), let their children play with them.
At the end of the day, we just don't know, and will probably never know either.

[SMS88]

The fact that one showed in Denmark in an F1/Le Mans small scale racer collection makes it most likely a souvenir of a business trip to the UK by a Dane...

Pure, unadulerated supposition.

No first hand facts actually idris !
I live in Denmark, I bought the Yum Yum Lotus from a local dealer alongside 12 of the other circa 1970 F1/Le Mans racers he got from the same collection which originated somewhere on the island of Sealand. All items in that collection of a few dozen were vintage toys out of production by 1980.I have owned a Tekno Volvo Amazon ´´ Politi´´ car since I was 7 or 8 years old, a souvenir my father bought for me when he went to Copenhagen on a business trip , back in the 1960s and pre 1975s a new toy car was a standard popular choice gift for boys under 16

[Idris]

[quote="SMS88]No first hand facts actually idris ![/quote]

"...makes it most likely a souvenir of a business trip to the UK by a Dane..." is a statement which does not (and never will) meet the dictionary definition of the English word "fact".