I got a little excited to say the least and offered him money for the display. He said that he had bought it when a store was going out of business and has had it ever since. He had no use for it so gave it to me. It was actually from a store where I used to buy Matchbox cars and models from as a kid (Krantz Hobby Shop)
I took the box and headed home - had to clean a little dust off but that is to be expected. Here is a photo of the box as I first opened it.
I took a picture of the date on the newspaper that was in the box as well, Nov 15th 1986
As I removed the paper it was clear this was a square display from the same time frame. The red top was in perfect condition.
As I began to unpack the box I got down to the outer sleeves that had all the graphics on them - boy did they look nice! I also noticed that there was more under the the clear graphic pieces as well, could it be another display?
I pulled the tissue paper off and "YES" there was another display. The inner cards were mint and the top showed a little damage but who can complain when something is free.
Here are both displays laid out - the sleeves that hold the cars are a little dis-colored and the 2nd display on the bottom of the box looks like it had been used at some time. There are a few cracks in that one as well, but for the age of the display I am quite pleased. The box even contained the original instruction sheet to set up your display
I hope you enjoyed looking. I plan on keeping one display and selling the other sometime down the road.
