{"id":3964,"date":"2026-01-23T15:06:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/23\/toy-car-sells-for-whooping-22k\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T15:06:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T15:06:06","slug":"toy-car-sells-for-whooping-22k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/23\/toy-car-sells-for-whooping-22k\/","title":{"rendered":"Toy car sells for whooping \u00a322k"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2026-01-23 15:06:04<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>A tiny toy car has stunned collectors after selling for a jaw-dropping \u00a322,000 because of its unusual colour.<BR><br \/>\nThe three-inch Matchbox Regular Wheels 62c Mercury Cougar was expected to fetch between \u00a33,000 and \u00a34,000 when it went under the hammer at Vectis Auctions in Teesside on Janaury 20.<BR><br \/>\nInstead, it sparked a fierce international bidding war before selling for \u00a318,000, with fees pushing the final price to a record-breaking \u00a322,000 because of its pale yellow paintwork. <BR><br \/>\nThe model was a rare \u201cfirst issue\u201d casting produced briefly in yellow before the design was switched to the familiar metallic green.<BR><br \/>\nA spokesperson for Vectis said: &#8220;We believe this to be a world record for this model. This is a rare example due to the colour. The yellow is a first issue colour and wasn\u2019t produced for very long before changing.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nThey added that other details confirmed its authenticity: &#8220;It also has clear windows without windscreen wipers and without a rear view mirror, which shows it is an early casting and hasn\u2019t been repainted.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nThe car was described as being in \u201cexcellent condition\u201d, a key factor in driving the price sky-high. The identity of the buyer has not been disclosed.<BR><br \/>\nMatchbox toys were first launched in 1953 by British firm Lesney Products and quickly became a global hit, before the brand was later acquired by Mattel in 1997.<BR><br \/>\nFor comparison, a real Mercury Cougar cost around \u00a32,200 when it launched in the US in 1968 &#8211; meaning this pocket-sized version has now sold for ten times the price of the full-sized car.<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026-01-23 15:06:04 A tiny toy car has stunned collectors after selling for a jaw-dropping \u00a322,000 because of its unusual colour. The three-inch Matchbox Regular Wheels 62c Mercury Cougar was expected&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3966,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3964\/revisions\/3966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}