WILLOUGHBY, Ohio — From 1994 until 2022, Elmer’s Auto and Toy Museum delighted untold thousands of visitors with acres of show barns filled with vintage toys, automotives, motorcycles, and so much more.

But all legends have a beginning and an end, and so too does Elmer’s. After his passing in 2019 at the age of 79, the children of Elmer Duellman have decided to return the collection back to the market, with more than 20,000 pieces to be sold in a series of events beginning Saturday, October 28 at Milestone Auctions.

“It’s impossible to describe how comprehensive Elmer’s collection is. He had a head start on all of us,” said Miles King, co-owner of Milestone Auctions. “As far back as the 1980s, Elmer was buying and selling at a rapid pace and had a small army of pickers from coast to coast who were always on the lookout for items of interest.”

Milestone has rolled out key pieces for the first of the Elmer Duellman auctions. A Buddy L truck made exclusively for International Harvester dealers was produced in very low numbers. The example in the sale is in excellent condition and has an estimate of $3,000-$5,000.

Described as possibly the nicest of all the surviving sets of its type is a Tonka #210 Road Builders set in new-old stock condition. The six-piece set is estimated at $6,000-$10,000.

Duellman’s collection includes a large number of Japanese tin-lithographed toys from the postwar period. An Alps Lincoln Futura in excellent condition with its original box carries an estimate of $2,500-$3,500.

Pure Oil was founded in 1914 and continues today as a dealer cooperative in the southern United States. Likely created as a promotional item for dealers, this Metalcraft battery-powered airmail aircraft toy decorated for Pure Oil is completely original, has retained its box, and is rated by Milestone’s experts as the nicest example they have seen. It is estimated at $2,000-$3,000.