[HAWL] Surprise Saturday: Flea Market Finds in Stuttgart

A minor hawl, but I actually found a few things:

A couple of vintage carded Siku to go with the ones I found earlier this year. Today we have the Camaro Z28- production starting 1983, and Peugeot 505 STi, production starting 1982. Along with these I found an HO scale fintail, not vintage, but I don’t have it, and the price was right.

I found these at the Karlsplatz flea market in Stuttgart. A regular Saturday affair, I was never able to visit it in the past. I was surprised at the size of it, dozens of vendors, from yard sale stuff to regular pickers/dealers. I didn’t take any pics, as I have heard stories of paranoid Germans getting snippy when in “street scene” pics, and we all know what an outdoor flea market is like, it was little different from one in the US. I was there an hour after they opened, and some vendors weren’t set up yet - I expected more punctuality :) I also didn’t want to spend the day there, as I have a fun rental car to drive.

There were several sellers with diecast, most of it modern, common and cheap, some had buckets of playworn stuff, and the content was exotic due to location - lots of Siku and Majorette. At around a Euro each, probably much cheaper in bulk, there could have been treasures for someone, but I focus on mint material. I notice one vendor even had a few old Corgi and grey wheel era Matchbox in the cheap bucket, worn, but complete. Not a bad deal.

The surprise was the volume of HO material - I saw hundreds if not thousands of HO cars there. Some of it was cheap - a couple Euros each, some of it was retail and then some, as some sellers “know what they have”, and end up not selling things and bringing them back for months, no doubt. Few of the cheap ones were in packaging, and HO material is a Pandora’s Box that I’d rather not open right now.

I only saw one Tomica, a boxed China-made 911/930 Turbo for 20 Euro. Had it been Japan, I might have done it. Some other odd brands like Gama, Conrad, etc. Almost no fintail content, and no hoards of mint in package 80s era Majorette and Siku as I had imagined - it was all playworn. If I am lucky enough to make it back here, maybe next time. I also noticed a couple flea markets on my drive, maybe a European diecast hunting trip could be the next vacation.

The reverse of the Siku cards, I think the cards date these models:

The Peugeot was in the range from 1982-88, and the Camaro in 1983-95 (long run!). The obverse appears to have a 288GTO, which was in the range from 1985. The reverse shows what looks like a MB 124 wagon, which entered the range in 1986. I’ll then guess these are from roughly 1986.

That is all.