Bill Nevins Amazing Find

Bill Nevins passed along his amazing find he had gotten recently and like to share it with you. Bill also noted his father had passed away  recently, Laurie and I offer our condolences.

Monday I got a call from a voice from the past. A collector that I had known and was friendly with back in the early Eighties, called me out of the blue. He told me that he was about to move to a warmer state and wanted to know if I was interested in buying his collection. Apparently he did not want to take it with him. I had not seen this guy in maybe 20 years, but he was a fellow Bussler ACW collector and I thought “Why not?”. It couldn’t hurt to take a look. Besides, he was asking for very little money.

I knew he had a ton of Busslers and that he was a prolific figures painter. SO we made arrangements to meet today and when I pulled up I got the shock of my life.

Not only did he have Busslers, but he had about 500 Britains Swoppets, 25 cannons and crews, several caissons and cannons, 150 or so mounted, all of the Britains Western Town plastic buildings in duplicate and about 75 Timpo Swoppets both foot and mounted. And that’s only the beginning.

Inside of 8 plastic tubs were approximately 1,000 painted Bussler ACW figures, many of which were painted by the Gettysburg Toy Soldier people. It is stunning to see!!

An additional 6 tubs contained Bussler, I/R, Shenandoah and Musket Miniature castings and parts. There are a dozen unpainted Bussler caisson and cannon teams. There are also 50 various artillery pieces of assorted brands still in unopened packages.

There was so much that it filled up my 9 passenger van.

This was a lifetime of one man’s collection. Without a second’s hesitation, I paid what was asked. I would be embarrassed to admit what he asked for, but that’s what he wanted, so I happily paid him.

I’m gonna have some fun this weekend, sorting it all out. This is, by far, the largest ACW collection of figures that I have ever seen.

And now they are mine.

Life is really strange. Nothing can replace losing my Dad, but he was 87 and it was his time to leave this Earth. It’s just that the timing of this is so great, that you have to think that it can’t just be an accident. Maybe it is. But, I would rather believe it’s not.