DALLAS — Royce Harmon, works at Cowboy Toyota in Dallas, but he says there’s not a car on the lot that compares to what he has in his garage.
“I like looking at cars, I like being around cars,” Harmon said.
Harmon, 59, mostly works odd jobs at the dealership. He retired from selling cars years ago. Now, he just buys them.
Thousands of them.
Hot Wheels line the walls and die cast cars fill up the shelves.
Harmon has so many toy cars in his garage there’s not even room for real cars.
“I ain’t done yet,” Harmon laughed.
Actually, his garage doesn’t even have room for every one of his toy cars.
The walls inside his house are lined with Hot Wheels, too. He even wears a Hot Wheels jacket he found at a truck stop.
His obsession began almost 30 years ago when he bought a toy car for his sons.
“I was excited and they weren’t excited,” he said. “They wanted to play video games.”
Every year, Harmon bought a new toy car, hoping his kids would play with it.
They never even opened the box.
“After that I said, ‘this is what I’m gonna start doing: I’m gonna buy cars and start putting them on the shelf,’” Harmon said.
He lost count years ago, but estimates he’s got more than 5,000 toy cars.
“They call me the guru,” Harmon said.
Perhaps his most amazing accomplishment is that he’s collected that many cars and never bought a single one online.
“That’s cheating,” he said. “You have to work for what you get.”
Harmon learned that the hard way. As a kid, he asked his grandpa to buy him a toy car.
Instead, his grandpa gave him a cold response.
“Put it back,” he remembers his grandpa saying. “Can’t make me put nothing back now.”
There’s no telling how much Harmon has spent on his collection. Of course, some people say he’s crazy.
“You know what?” he asked. “I’m happy. As long as I’m happy, I don’t care about anybody else.”
He says that’s what’s important: Find something that drives you and give it your all.
“Do what makes you happy,” he said. “You only live once.”
That’s what will make your heart full and your garage fuller.