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A toy car which cost ten shillings back in 1965 has sold for £720 at auction.
The Corgi 007 ‘Goldfinger’ Aston Martin DB5 was on the Christmas wish list of millions of James Bond movie fans.
It came with some of the exciting gadgets of the real car - including a working passenger ejector seat.
But like many toys of the era, the box and ‘secret service’ paperwork was quickly crumpled, torn and discarded, the ejectable ‘passenger’ figure lost and the car scratched from numerous collisions.
Now, the original version has become a collectors’ item, with the very best examples - complete with box - fetching high prices.
So when a ‘near mint’ car with box and papers came up for sale at the Canterbury Auction Galleries last month, experts had no problem valuing it at £200 - £300.
But bidding was fierce among collectors and the hammer eventually came down at £720, plus the 27% buyer’s premium.
It's original price of 10 shillings is equivalent to about £9 in today's money, meaning it has increased in value by 8,000%.
Corgi won the first Toy of the Year Award in 1965 for their Goldfinger James Bond Aston Martin DB5.
Also supplied in the box in a hidden compartment were the ‘owner’s top secret documents’, and a 007 lapel badge.
The company produced subsequent later versions of the Goldfinger Aston Martin, - the last a 50th Anniversary edition in 2014 which was a complete sell out - but none are as desirable as the original 261 model.