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Rob

David

I would just like to thank everyone that came and made this such an enjoyable day for me, Special thanks to Kevin ghosthunter for organising and arranging stuff, cheers Kev.

nickjones wrote:I would just like to thank everyone that came and made this such an enjoyable day for me, Special thanks to Kevin ghosthunter for organising and arranging stuff, cheers Kev.

No problem Nick, I felt it needed doing properly and I was pleased Barry Potter, Ann Evans and her Photographer, Rob Tysall were very happy to help. Glad it all went well and especially pleased to hear the book created a lot of interest.

Ghosthunter.

nickjones wrote:Hi All.
I was up at 4.20, out by 4.50. at the station for 5.15 to catch the first of 5 trains to Sandown. finally got there at 9.45 and walked the last mile to the show site in the poring rain. I was drenched, had a quick look at the offerings and picked up a nice error piece in a gpw 21c commer milk float with an odd size front wheel, also got a couple of rough semi rares, a green 30b ford station wagon with gpw and black base and one other which has slipped my memory.
Then I met Barry Potter and posed for photographs with him and then I was interviewed by Anne Evans of diecast collector magazine. My book launch was announced several times over the tannoy system and for me the most enjoyable part of the day was the stream of people coming up to me thanking me for such an excellent website, thank you one and all.
the day was over too quickly, Kevin ghosthunter offered me a lift to the station which I gratefully accepted. so we set off for the station only to find that the heavy rain had caused a signals failure so there were no trains stopping there, so I got a mini cab to the next station and caught the train from there, the next 4 trains were uneventful and I got back to clacton at 6.45 because there are no evening or sunday buses into tollesbury I stayed there for the night and made my way back to the boat on monday, it was a tiring weekend but a very enjoyable one.
this pic, left to right.
Bob Tutt, Gary Galvin, Pillip and Fabrice from Belgium at the back, ? not sure, Reg fixer, and Kevin ghosthunter

Very good to read the reports here and that the organisers of Sandown reporter the book via the soundsystem in the hall.
I realy like the people photos posted here.
I wasn't at Sandown but went to the swapmeet in Aachen, Germany. This was the 80th event, organised 2x per year since 1976.
From 2017 there will be no swapmeet in may, only in november.

I met many long time collectorfriends: Tomas Kodrle and Pavel Sobol from the Czech Republic and Jan Naessens from Belgium and Christian Falkensteiner from Austria. After Aachen I went to collector Bob de Graaf and his wife who lives near Maastricht in the very south of the Netherlands. There I also met Joahn Bruynooghe from Belgium and we had a good dinnner there.
A good day indeed.


Long time Matchbox collector from Ostrava (easten Czech Republic) Tomas Kodrle on the left.
And Pavel Sobol from Bruno (southern Czech Rebublic) on the right.
They arrived friday evening with german collector Martin Berger and other friends in 2 cars and stayed in the same hotel as Christian Fakensteiner.

Tomas already collected Matchbox before the iron curtain period and was one of the very few people who had contacts in western Europe at that time. He was a member of Ray Bush his UK Matchbox club.
I once visited him from Prague when I was in Prague for a longer period at Alex Picha his place.
From Tomas his place I visited the Tatra museum and an absolutly astonishing private collection of East Europe toys. One of the most impressive collections I ever saw.
Pavel always organized a big Czech swapmeet in his city with 100 tables but next time in december it will be the last as to much work for him now he gets older.

I got a mid 90ties Matchbox catalogue from Tomas in Czech language.

It was quite some years ago that I did met Tomas and it was good to meet him again.



In Aachen I was surpriced to meet Jan Naessens from southern Belgium.
He lives near the French boarder and was in Aachen for a whole weekend.
It was many years ago that I did meet Jan. We had a drink and it was good to speak with him again.
We were both heavily envolved in the Belgium Matchbox club at that time after the 50th Years Matchbox celebrations and the big Matchbox exhbititons in the Belgium toymuseum in Mechelen (just south of Antwerp) and later on a big Matchbox exhbition in a shopping mall in Kortrijk (south west of Belgium)



After the Aachen swapmeet I travelled to collector Bob de Graaf and his wife who lives near the southern and very old city of Maastricht.
Collector Bob de Graaf on the right and Johan Bruynooghe in the middle in Bob's toyroom.



marcel

The chap next to Reg is Ray French, my YY collector mate from my home town.

Tomorrow is the Houten toy fair, any forum members going to this toy fair? Come visit me at my table!

matchboxmarcel wrote: They arrived friday evening with german collector Martin Berger and other friends in 2 cars and stayed in the same hotel as Christian Falkensteiner.

Just a small correction: in spite of his German sounding name, Martin Berger is also from the Czech Republic. If I remember correctly, he resides in the town of Upice in the north of the Czech Republic. He owns one of the best collections of Matchbox regular wheel Miniatures in the country.

Aachen was as always worth the trip for me, both for Matchbox and Citroën models. Although the number of stalls gets smaller every time, there is still more than enough for me to check during the few hours that the event lasts.

I`d love to, but it`s too far away

Hi All, Did anybody go to the NEC. this year Pete.