Child's play: Collectors preserve their past with favorite toys.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Mary Beth Breckenridge

Jim Scichilone was heartbroken the day he came home from school to discover his Playmobile dashboard had been donated to charity.

It was a toy he'd craved as a 10-year-old with a passion for cars, a toy he was thrilled to find under the Christmas tree in 1963. He even has photos of himself and his brother on that Christmas Day, the Deluxe Reading Playmobile in prominent view.

But as Scichilone grew older, he played with it less and less. And one day, it was gone.

The Playmobile never left his heart, though. When Scichilone would frequent flea markets and sales as an adult in search of parts for the old appliances and cars he restores, he'd always keep an eye out for a Playmobile. He looked for 30 years, he said, but he never found one.

Then he bought a computer.

In short order, Scichilone had located the object of his decades-long desire on eBay and bought it for $227.50, a considerable markup from the $9.99 his mother had paid for the miniature Mercury dashboard.