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Tom May never owned a lunch pail when he was a child.

As a fortysomething controller in Santa Nella, May owns 550 of the metal lunch boxes.

"I was a brown bagger all the way through school," said May, a master of lunch box lore. "Maybe that's why I do this."

Whatever the reason, he said, "it's turned out to be a great investment."

May's fascination with the miniature cases, which first appeared in the 1950s and could pack little more than a thermos and sandwich, began 10 years ago when he shelled out $1.50 for four metal lunch boxes at a flea market.

"You know how that is: you go to the flea market and buy somebody else's junk and end up putting it next to your own junk," said May. "I thought I'd keep them for the nostalgia."

Those boxes -- including one of the "Beverly Hill Billies" and another of the "Dukes of Hazzard" television sitcoms -- ended up in his attic.

But, in 1988, after he bought 100 boxes from a former collector for $2,500, "I knew there was no stopping then. We wanted to get all of them after that.

"Part of collecting is the hunt. The suspense of the hunt," said May, standing in front of a wall lined with custom-made shelves that display the treasures in his two-car garage.

"Sometimes, before you turn the corner, you can even feel it in your gut when you're going to hit it, when you're going to find that lunch box you've been looking for."

May and his wife, Betsy, share their enthusiasm for the detailed art that distinguishes each box.

To the untrained eye one Harlem Globe-Trotters lunch box looks like the next. But May's eyes are critical.

The basketball-dribbling entertainers are wearing purple outfits in one lunch box scene and a different color in the same scene on another box. He has both.

In some cases, lunch box artists created several different scenes with the same television or film star, May said. "So you never know.

"What's interesting is you have a Roy Rogers lunch box but then you find out there are several different ones out there," he said.

And in building a great collection, rarity is the aim of the game.

Hopalong the first

May is the proud owner of a Hopalong Cassidy box, which was the first model that debuted in 1950.

"It was the first commercial product tied to television," said May, who owns a copy of just about every publication that deals with lunch boxes. "Every time there was a successful TV show, a lunch box manufacturer would get their endorsement."

May has limited his collection to American-manufactured metal boxes. But those stopped rolling off conveyor belts in 1988, after mothers complained that children were using them to hit each other.

Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo" was the last to capitalize on the metal lunch box tradition.

Although plastic lunch boxes are collectibles and are still being manufactured, May prefers metal.

He hopes to acquire Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right and Hometown Airport boxes, which are rare treasures. "Those would complete the collection."

A member of the city's planning commission, May hasn't always shared his weakness for lunch box art with anyone outside family and friends.

"I used to get teased a lot more. But not so much anymore," he said.

Some of the teasing may have stopped after people realized how serious he is about lunch boxes.

Ted Fischer, 60, of Ceres, shares May's passion for lunch boxes.

He owns 500. "I used to have a lot more," he said.

Fischer is a collector at heart. He got started with coins then switched to comic books, for which he has a mail-order business -- Captain Collecto.

He got into lunch boxes about nine years ago, "when they first became a hot item."

The world of lunch pail art collecting got a boost when a price guide was published by a collector on the East Coast, he said.

Brings back memories

A few years later, Fischer spent $700 and bought 100 boxes and the collection, which also focuses on metal boxes, took off.

"You own them because you love to look at them. It brings back memories or fantasies," Fischer said. "Collecting is not just collecting. It's studying and learning about them."

One of his favorites is a dome-top metal box -- a variation of the traditional square lunch box -- that is decorated with "The Jetsons," the space-age cartoon family. He doesn't own one.

May does. He paid $650 for the lunch box, which is covered with art on all sides.

The same box, in mint condition, is worth as much as $1,200, according to a catalog from Christie's, one of the world's largest auction houses.

In December, Christie's auctioned off one of the largest collections. Such a move may have brought the world of lunch box art collecting to new heights.

On the other hand, the sudden attention could backfire.

"I kind of wish the prices would go up slower," May said. "I would hate to see it get to where it's an exclusive thing."

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