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Syracuse Herald-Journal 2000

Crazy About Cars – Passion fuels world’s largest collection of ‘automobilia’


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WALTER MILLER collects automobile literature and memorabilia from around the world, like these models that were used to
DENNIS NETT/Staff photographer
demonstrate new car lines. His collection fills a building on Carrier Circle, plus several other storage sites around Syracuse.
Passion fuels world’s largest collection of ‘automobilia’
By Kenn Peters
Staff Writer
A
s a boy, Walter Miller made a few bucks clipping car ads out of magazines and selling them at summer auto shows and flea markets.
The idea of making money by selling information about cars appealed to him. And when he graduated from college, he sunk his last $500 into a collection of automobile literature – enough to fill one small file cabinet. "My parents said I didn’t have to go to college to sell magazines," says Miller, now 41
and living in Syracuse’s Sedgwick neighborhood.
But that didn’t stop him and, again, he turned some of his tiny collection into cash.
That was all it took. Miller was hooked and he began buying and selling auto material to make a living.
Today his collection of automobile memorabilia and literature, or automobilia, as it’s called, is considered to be the largest in the world.
People from across the country and around the world call and visit him, looking for that impossible to find piece of informa-
tion about a car time has passed by. And they’re rarely disappointed.
Interested in a new-car brochure about the 1955 Chevy? Miller has it.
Want to read all there is about a 1944 MG? Miller has it.
Need a brochure about the 1971 Cadillac, printed in Polish? Miller has it.
In fact, you name it and Miller has it.
His collection of millions of pieces of material – any material related to cars and trucks, from showroom brochures to internal
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