Buddy "L" Int'l Harvester Truck, ca. 1925
GUEST:
My grandfather owned a car dealership up in New Meadows, Idaho, and as part of a promotional item, somebody gave him the truck-- I guess it was International Harvester-- and then he gave it to my dad. And so my dad used to go all over New Meadows in the truck with his knee in the back of this truck, and he'd just run all over with it.
APPRAISER:
Playing with it?
GUEST:
Playing with it. So it's been well used.
APPRAISER:
And that's this guy.
GUEST:
And that's that guy.
APPRAISER:
That's your dad. Well, who's this?
GUEST:
That baby is me on the truck. I think my dad was so proud of the truck, I'm the oldest, the first child, and I think he just wanted me on it.
APPRAISER:
Well, I'm really glad you brought it here because I like this truck. It's a Buddy L truck, which is one of my favorite toy companies. Buddy L made wonderful steel toys, heavy-duty steel toys made out of the same steel that they made cars out of. This dates from the 1920s, which was when most of the better Buddy L pieces were made. Most of the Buddy L trucks are painted black, and this is a little unusual. It's painted red because it was a copy of an International Harvester truck, and we can see these decals, "International Harvester," here. It's kind of a rare truck. They didn't sell these; this was a promotional item given to dealers. Now, it's a little rough. Somebody had some rough play with this. I don't know who, some rotten kid... (laughing) ...who wore down the paint and things here, you can see. But this particular truck, while it's even in this kind of rough condition, in today's market, at auction, I would say would bring $3,000 to $4,000.
GUEST:
Wow! Even with the condition problems?
APPRAISER:
Even with this condition. Now, really good condition, if he hadn't played with it so hard, the highest price I know in really good condition was $11,000. So $3,000 to $4,000, still a nice piece, and I'm so glad you brought it in.
GUEST:
Thank you. That's grand.
Appraisal Details
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