Lotte World job site 20 years ago Korea, I'm on the left!!

I'd like to GIVE A Big Thank You to all the great customers that have visited my auctions, my listings and my store; who have bought an item or two or more; who stumbled onto my space by chance and then decided why not and took a look around. It has been my pleasure to serve each and everyone of one of you thousand or so customers who purchased an item or more; who made an offer or two and who asked a question. And here is my store "about me" eBay story:

My name is David Yevchak and the name of my store is Checkered Past Diecast. The "Checkered" part of my stores name is a nickname I inherited from my Kindergarten, Elementary, Junior High and High School acquaintances.... my college buddies used several different variation of the name, most of which can't be mentioned here. The checkered part of the name stuck with me for the last 50 years or so…. You know it’s kind of funny, but it never fails…. I say Yevchak and I get back checkered!!

I grew up in and around Los Angeles California; born only minutes away from downtown L.A. and for the first 14 years or so raised in East Los Angeles. I attended parochial schools through High School and studied to be an Architect at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University. For as long as I can remember I always wanted to be an architect, nothing else. Many opportunities presented themselves to me… an either by the graces of God or by dumb luck…. I managed to take the right road.

This road took me from California to Seoul, Korea to Northwest Arkansas where I live today with my beautiful wife Barbara. About ten years ago, it was Barbara who re-introduced me to the world of Hot Wheels. Re-introduced??? Let me explain; I was ten when Hot Wheels first introduced themselves to the world in the 60’s and in a few years I amassed an impressive collection of everything Hot Wheels. Sure I did blow up my share of Hot Wheels using illegal Mexican fireworks, but I had many favorites (’68 Python & ’69 McLaren) and managed to keep a about a hundred in primo shape. These Hot Wheels eventually found themselves stored in boxes and forgotten as I concentrated on academics in college and my career.

Small part of my collection you can find in my store.

When my career sent me to Korea in ‘86, I gave up my condo and leased a storage unit for my accumulated property. I met my first wife in Korea and since her family was from Arkansas I decided to move from California to Arkansas (unlike Jed Clampit). When I unpacked, I found the Hot Wheels I had packed up 15 years earlier, they were almost brand new, WOW!! So I devoted a bookcase for them in a room I made into my architectural library and office.

Well Arkansas gets much colder than sunny southern California and water pipes have a tendency to freeze and split. One particularly cold winter kept busting the pipes under the north facing bathroom and being an architect!!??#%*?.... I took it upon myself to install an electrical heat tape to these pipes to prevent them from ever busting again. Well…. That was my third mistake, the first mistake was displaying the Hot Wheels in a room adjacent to the bathroom. The second mistake was not installing the fuse that comes with the electric heat tape. We returned from shopping in town one evening to find that our home had been gutted by a fire, a fire that started under the north facing bathroom. The culprit……? The fire marshal determined it was started by incorrectly installed electrical heat tape!!!!!!

I was more upset that I lost many irreplaceable architectural books and reference manuals, my drafting squares, triangles and scales, my drafting board and vemco drafting arm, etc.. It took me awhile to realize I also lost the Hot Wheels. You might be wondering what happens to the diecast metal in a hot fire? It melts!! I eventually replaced my architectural equipment…and divorced. It wasn’t until after I met Barbara and remarried that I began to collect Hot Wheels and other diecasts again. And it all started with a Hot Wheels car in my Christmas stocking. Now I have several thousand diecast Hot Wheels, Jada Toys, Johnny Lightning’s and more!!

If you made it this far…. Thank you for letting me share my story with you.

David “Checkered Past” Yevchak