Toy Titan Sells Multimillion-Dollar Collection

Donald Kaufman has been collecting toys for nearly 60 years and has accumulated one of the choicest selections of vintage toys on the planet.

"He bought from the major American and European dealers," says Rich Bertoia of Bertoia Auctions of Vineland, N.J. "Kaufman did the Chicago Toy Show, the Allentown Toy Show in Pennsylvania and Atlantic City. He also did other shows. He bought from all the major American shows and auction houses. Many of the toys in his collection were handpicked by advanced dealers."

But now the businessman who founded and later sold the KB Toys company is putting his unique collection of more than 7,000 pieces up for sale. The selection includes tin luxury vehicles, cast iron rarities, pressed steel examples, comic character toys, pedal cars and more.

The first sale, which takes place March 19-21, is expected to realize between $4 million and $5 million. Bertoia will hold several subsequent auctions, concluding in 2010. Experts say Kaufman's collection will fetch a total of more than $25 million.

Highlights include a rare Hubley revolving monkey cage wagon from the 1920s with a pre-sale estimate of between $30,000 and $40,000, a Hubley clockwork "Say It With Flowers" motorcycle estimated at $75,000 and a luxury European limousine from 1907 estimated at $50,000.

Kaufman, 78, has been asked many times why he's sending his collection to the auction block. He always comes back with the same answer: "It is time. I want to have as much fun selling the collection as I had in building it."

Donald Kaufman was selling cars when he came upon his passion. The first toy he ever bought was called a Red Baby, an international harvester dump truck. It reminded him of the toys from his childhood. He bought the truck for $4 and that planted a seed that grew into a passion for collecting vintage toys.

Despite the current financial crisis, Bertoia Auctions has high expectations for the sale and expects the largest crowd of buyers ever. "I think antique toy money has already corrected itself and people have saved," says Rich Bertoia. "Remember, during the Depression, there was one market that zoomed and it was the antique market. People seem to have a kind of social conscience, that antiques are treasures that must be revered and cared for. A lot of people view these antique toys as art."

Experts like Leila Dunbar, who in the past supervised Sotheby's (nyse: BID - news - people ) December 2000 sale of toys from the Estate of F.H. Griffith (sale total: $1.4 million) and the 2001 Covert&Gertrude Hegarty Collection (sale total: $2.2 million), have seen toy prices appreciate steadily over the past 30 years. According to Dunbar, the toy market, like the art and antiques market, is largely predicated on supply and demand. "When a fabulous toy collection comes on the market, such as the the Covert Hegarty auction at Sotheby's, there is an overall bump up in prices," she says, "because these ultra-rare and sought after toys often sell for record prices and seem to lift up the other prices in the market."

Toy collectors and specialists agree that Don and Sally Kaufman have built one of the greatest private vintage toy collections in the world, and the most significant sold in years. We'll see if these treasures measure up when the gavel drops.