I opened the loft and I would literally have to push the items in rather than climb in first Graham Booth, collector

Hundreds of Dinky, Corgi and Matchbox die-cast toy cars owned by Graham Booth made more than �6,200.

The former car repair shop owner from Llandudno Junction, sold them at a specialist toy auction because his attic was full.

Three collections were sold off in total, raising �30,000 for the owners.

Bidders as far away as New York, Germany and France took part.

The sale of three huge collections in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, included 1,000 toys owned by Mr Booth.

He said: "I think as a youngster my parents bought me loads of Dinky toys, you part with them, they're passed on and they are given to friends".

Mr Booth decided to start collecting his childhood toys again for nostalgic reasons, but it partly took over his life and he found himself spending weekends hunting for specific toys.

"I opened the loft and I would literally have to push the items in rather than climb in first, that was basically the reason," he added.

GRAHAM'S TOY TALLY 16 unboxed Dinky super toys - �440 Eight boxed Dublo Dinky vehicles - �340 Corgi milk tanker - �290 Four Corgi racing toys - �260

Lucy Armstrong, from Halls Fine Arts, said: "It was an excellent day and a great sale".

She said that most valuable items were usually boxed but this could also sometimes mean that a child had never played with them.

"There is that likelihood, you have some really sad stories sometimes," said Miss Armstrong.

"How the child was ill or died or wasn't allowed to play with them, or how they were only allowed under strict governance for best on Sundays and weren't allowed to touch them," she added.

As well as Graham's collection, a toy car collection was sold by a Telford man and there were 70 lots of model locomotives from Middlesex.

One of the items attracting the most interest was a 1930s 'scratch' traction engine, made in Ellesmere, which reached �700.