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I bought my M1b BP Autotanker without a box, at an age when I was really wanted a box.

I think it was the display model at an old Zeller's department store in Thunder Bay, Ontario. (in the end of old downtown Fort William, with a wooden floor too, IIRC).
I seem to remember the display having many vacant spots even before I made my purchase, and I created one more.

As if they just weren't big sellers.

But it's possible even though it came from a stock drawer it still didn't have a box?

This was probably after 1970, and I guess by then the maintenance of Matchbox displays was not an on-going thing.

I wonder what happened to the display (and its models) in Lil's Hobby Lobby, beside the A&P near the railroad tracks and the river?

It had a lot of many-year-old models in the 1970's and likely had boxed examples of most. But one day in the mid-1970's (must have been after 1975) I went with a fairly big list intending to purchase a sizeable number of models. But the cranky old owner (I remember his name was Paul) chased me away after selecting about half-a-dozen models or less, when he realized I had a long list.

It seemed odd at the time. Why would he turn down my money? But then recently I've noticed that when I get three doughnoughts with coffee in the morning at a self-serve place that it feels like more than three times as much effort as buying one would be. And just possibly he had had thoughts of retaining as much stock in the display as possible and selling it to someone as a package deal.

I'm reasonably sure I bought my 2c dumper that day, and I think some 8 variation too. And I think I got more than just a couple, but I don't really recall what they were, but they'd be the nicer-looking boxed ones in my early collection.

the few small stores that had counter space ,usually pulled a boxed one from the back but if they were too busy or low you got the display model
I have often wonder about the pre '75 blisters
1 believe it started as a US thing (Bronner)and where stores were going more toward self service and shelf/display/labor issue.
2 it would show customer exactly what you get/keep it safe/avoid pilfer/box mix up
3 it was an era of not keeping the box,had 2 drawers to keep mine in , everything belonged in a box, but father made me keep condensing.... cut out pictures for a scrap book eventually all the packing got tossed and if cars weren't hinden they would have went also
4 blister w/o box would have been .03-.04 cheaper does anyone know if the cars were shipped to US..... 100's dumped in a tin for processing onto the card?

That is a very interesting question mmi! With Bronner doing his own blister packs out of the NYC and Jersey area, how were the boxless Lesneys shipped? Unlike Brad, I had bought many later Lesneys off the racks in blister packs from Two Guys, Woolworths, Kresgees, and such "Big Box" stores while still finding rare obsolete boxless models in small hobby shops out of their Fred Bronner cardboard, and also from Bronner's plastic rotating display units. As a kid AND as an adult, I had never thought about having to hire a salesperson to pick out each Lesney for customers in small stores rather than have them pick their own on the later blister pack racks used in larger department stores. Thanks for pointing that fact out, I still miss arguing with those grumpy store clerks while pointing out the differences in their display models. We had spent up to one hour doing just that on a two color #69 RW Hatra in a Rexall Drug Store Bronner cardboard display hanging very high on a wall in Stillwater New York. It took three clerks to argue, and us to be very patient until finally the owner agreed to get a ladder and give that yellow and orange Hatra to us and then simply replace it with the latest all yellow model. We Won.....
I have many fond memories of finding Great models with or without their original boxes, so I still enjoy buying them either way many years later. When my Dad and I entered Four Star Hobby Shop in Schenectady N.Y. one day many years ago, we asked if they had any discontinued Lesney models other than in the Bronner cardboard display. The man who's face I still remember to this day, went to a very small closet. When he reached in, he came out with a small wicker basket with about a dozen early Lesneys in it. He explained they were all obsolete discontinued Lesneys, and they were only 25 cents each. Did we buy them all? No, we dumbly picked out only six that we needed for $3 (Including an early #52 yellow Racer with wire wheels on it, along with a few first series we did not have), and left the other 6 there. "Those were the Days my friends, we thought they'd never end"..... I am off to bed now with those pleasant memories of buying Matchbox models WITHOUT their boxes..... kwakers

.the mom pop hardware/drug/grocery etc (most were 9-5 /6 days)hard for a kid to get to)
all had some type of display set up where kids could not get to it, so on the rare occasion of getting there while open,get permission to not take little brother in cart while still in the car,run dont get caught, find an adult immediately, hope they were not busy,would help you,had something you wanted at normal price(new/last one cost more) (before mother was done and out the door.
there were no big box here till '70 ,father only made $25-30 a week so mother then learned how to make july christmas buys of 4/8/10 for $1, un open case lots unfortunately we played with them ,anything un used for 2 weeks or empty boxs was clutter to father .
had a school type birthday around '72 got 50 or so mix of all the old stock and new (must have been a sale on what every kid wanted) YY e, f , no box blisters / g's h ,kings, rw e/f's

I remember the switch-over to blister packs around 1970, in Canada. I was sort of sad that I needed to buy my GT-40 without a box. (I bought a lot less than 75 models a year, remaining on a child's budget throught my teenage years, and did not keep up with new issues at all, but for whatever reason I decided I wanted to have a GT-40).

kwakers wrote: Thanks for pointing that fact out, I still miss arguing with those grumpy store clerks while pointing out the differences in their display models. We had spent up to one hour doing just that on a two color #69 RW Hatra in a Rexall Drug Store Bronner cardboard display hanging very high on a wall in Stillwater New York. It took three clerks to argue, and us to be very patient until finally the owner agreed to get a ladder and give that yellow and orange Hatra to us and then simply replace it with the latest all yellow model. We Won.....
I have many fond memories of finding Great models with or without their original boxes, so I still enjoy buying them either way many years later. "Those were the Days my friends, we thought they'd never end"..... I am off to bed now with those pleasant memories of buying Matchbox models WITHOUT their boxes..... kwakers

kwakers, Now, that is a great story about the two tone #69 Hatra -- well done! You have a great memory!
In the small town where I grew up in the 1960's, we had a department store (sold clothes, shoes, hats, a few toys AND Matchbox) and a hardware store (tools, lawn items, appliances, a few toys AND Matchbox!) I recall both stores having the classic cardboard regular wheel displays and we would take our allowance and other hard earned money to "barter" with the store clerks for particular models (usually with boxes). I was fortunate that most of the original boxes ended up separately in a large whiskey liquor box that persevered in my folks basement closet for nearly 3 decades -- very fortunate on that! My Dad said the whiskey box with other assorted Matchbox items HAD to come out of the closet in the early 90's and that is when the "collecting bug" bit me again!
Yes, "Those were the Days my friend...........".
Bill

This is just like sitting at the pub and talking about the good ol' days just without a cold beverage but that can be easily fixed

brainstrust wrote:This is just like sitting at the pub and talking about the good ol' days just without a cold beverage but that can be easily fixed

If we all use webcams we could then see each other enjoying the drinks!

Ghosty.

I will now get myself a luke-warm Redds Apple Ale to celebrate this Great idea tonight. It is 12:15, and durangokid's similar to my own story of store shopping is worth a toast in anyone's book....... Who could ever forget having found not just one two tone Hatra left over in a store display, but a second one over a year later in a store's display that was 60 miles away from the first one. Both stores had been re-stocked with the all yellow versions, but somehow we were the only collectors to request buying those odd two colored Hatras from these displays?? Blind luck, but a collector's eye for oddities right from the beginning......Cheers from my own "Pub" stool at the ancient Dell in our bedroom.....kwakers

Redds Apple Ale.....just googled it. I must try it but icey cold not luke-warm, sheesh what's that all about