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Who is the biggest Shelby memorabilia collector?

Discussion in 'Shelby Collectibles: Books, Model Cars, Posters & ' started by bitzman, Feb 21, 2008.

  1. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

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    I thought I had a lot of stuff but I have only to read ebay on any given day to
    see there's lots of stuff I haven't seen (like the parts catalog with the one off Lone Star mid-engine car on it). If anyone wants to nominate the name of a major collector who has a business trading this stuff, I'd like to hear it.

    One valuable item I traded was the original driver's school brochure
    but at least I photographed it first...

    I did buy off ebay and still have the hair pomade ad where Shelby doesn't look like Shelby and the Jantzen clothing ad where he is wearing a Tam O'Shanter...a sort of Scottish beret

    hey it was money back when racers weren't allowed to be paid prize mney sports car racing
     
  2. vernonestes

    vernonestes Well-Known Member

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    John Barnes is one of the biggest collectors in the world...i read an article in the Shelby American that said that he has over 5000 pieces of memorabilia in his own private museum.

    Also, autolit.com is run by a guy named walter miller would i believe has one of the biggest collections in the world....but probly not of shelby literature in general.

    I love collecting this stuff as well but i certainly am nowhere near most of he guys that have been in the hobby for far longer.

    Wouldnt happen to have any more of those driving school brochures laying around would ya?
    COuld you post that pic?

    Best Regards,
    Vern
     
  3. bitzman

    bitzman Well-Known Member

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    Can't find the pictures instantly because my 10,000 pictures are filed in no order. But if I do I can contact you and you can scan them from my shots. I can tell you exactly what the booklet looked like if you want to start your search. It was horizontal, with blue the only color other than black and white. About 3" tall and 7" wide and had a picture of Shelby, Brock and Timanus (latter two his staff) in front of a Ferrari 250 Tdf , a bugeye sprite, and so forth, the schools cars. Today ironically the Ferrari which was an old beater in 1961 is probably worth about $500,000. I think one other picture shows a Cobra. I heard the first Cobra was also used as a school car.There's also a cartoon-like drawing of Shelby.

    About Walter Miller you can find his website (http://www.autolit.com) with one click of the mouse but there's no word on whether
    you can go there in person (I think it's Syracuse NY) and peruse the files. So when I tried to use the website to look for something on Shelby , if you didn't have exact title exactly the way they listed it, it doesn't come up. When you read his bio on the site, it says he he donated his collection to a museum called The Museum of Automobile History. If you figure it out, how to find things, let us all know. By the way he assures customes everything is original.

    Do you know the name of John Barnes business-where he can be contacted?
     
  4. rsimkins

    rsimkins Well-Known Member

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    While nothing in his collection is for sale, I think Rick K. has a fairly extensive one. I don't believe he talks about it much.
     
  5. vernonestes

    vernonestes Well-Known Member

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    Didnt Rick K sell alot of his stuff on weeeeebay a while back?
    If he still has a big collection, i can only imagine what kind of cool stuff he has having first shot at everything back in the day.
    Best Regards,
    Vern
     
  6. rsimkins

    rsimkins Well-Known Member

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    Sorry to say that I really didn't keep up with that. He may have. I'm sure someone else will chime in and set the record straight. I know at one time he tried to get all most anything that came along.
     

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