I know maybe some of you got asked this a lot, but I’m gonna ask anyway. How did you get into collecting? Who introduced you to cars and diecasts?
To me,it was my dad. He used to be a driver. From big trucks to saloons, from construction site to company bosses, he had done them all. So you might guess that he’s a gearhead. And not only him.I have at least five uncles who also worked as drivers. We all live nearby. They used to bring their rides to our front yard, which also served as an impromptu truck stop. So I was raised in a gearhead family. These guys sometimes brought me toy cars, car posters, calendars, even took me to go-kart races, slalom contests (they were quite big in the 80's here). Some of them were also pretty good in drawing, and taught me how to draw cars. When they played songs on the cassette player, the album cover had cars on it. Naturally I grew up a gearhead.
As I grew up, I thought it would stop, but it didn’t. I continued obsessed with cars. When I was in college, I drew more cars than impressionistic, or surrealistic paintings, or whatever it is they did in the art school. I knew more about Chevys and NASCAR than about Van Gogh’s missing ear, I often slept it off during lectures, especially when the professor started to talk about concepts and art history, and instead I doodled - you’ve guessed- cars. Sorry, sir.
Then in the 5th semester, I got a job as a 2D artist, started making money, and that was the first time I bought my first Hot Wheels. That was, 2001 or something. And still doing that until today. Around 2010-2014, everything was all fast and furious, I hunted like there was no tomorrow :D . Today, though, I’m a lot calmer. Only buy when it is necessary. I enjoy customizing more than collecting. Also,I make pretty good money from it without having to go to office everyday.
So that’s my story. How about you guys?