Donald Kaufman, one of the foremost collectors of antique toy cars and trucks, died earlier this month. He was 79 years old.
His love of toys not only consumed his personal life, but his professional life as well. Mr. Kaufman was vice president of the KB Toys store chain. He retired from that job in 1981, but his hobby for collecting toys never stopped.
This past spring Kaufman decided to auction off his antique toys. The first lot of 1,500 toys brought in more than $4 million dollars. In September, another lot took in $3 million. Bertoia Auctions in Vineland, New Jersey is handling the sale of Kaufman’s collection. All the photos in this post are from the two auction catalogues.
Sadly, Donald Kaufman won’t be able to reap the benefits from the next three lots on the auction block, but afterall the whole point of collecting is to collect what you enjoy. Mr. Kaufman certainly heeded that advice.
RIP Donald Kaufman