There is a profoundly stupid thing happening in the diecast car world right now. People are actively ruining the fun of hunting for and collecting Hot Wheels cars by scooping up all examples of popular castings and charging oodles of money for them. I’ve had enough of empty shelves and not finding the castings I want, so I took a chance and bought a huge case of 72 Hot Wheels. After the initial thrill wore off, I decided it might not be something I do again.
I’m more or less reliving my childhood. For years, I’ve sort of just stopped collecting diecast cars to collect real cars. But now that I’m pumping the brakes on collecting real cars, I’m back to enjoying toy ones. Every time I go grocery shopping, I go straight to the Hot Wheels display to see what castings I can find. I bought a couple of neat dioramas to display some of my finds. I’m even working on my own custom job.
But I’ve also discovered the dark side of this hobby. I’ve been back into the Hot Wheels hobby for several months now, and I’ve noticed that most of the stores I go to are always cleared out of recent castings. My local Walmart has two pegs for Hot Wheels Premium cars, and there has never been a single time when I’ve seen a single car on those pegs.
The rest of the pegs aren’t great, either. Usually, those are filled with fantasy cars that everyone’s ignoring, or older mainline cars that have been sitting forever. I’ve lost count of how many Fiat 500Es I’ve found in the past few months.
Leeches Ruin Everything
What gives? Sadly, in my absence from collecting Hot Wheels, I missed the rise of a new craze. There are a lot of folks out there who are intentionally wiping out a store’s stock of desirable Hot Wheels cars just so they can resell them for several times their value.
I’ll give you an example. On November 14, 2024, Hot Wheels released a limited-edition Elite 64 series Freightliner Cascadia. I paid just $50 for mine from Mattel before they sold out within 40 minutes of launch. If you missed out, you’re basically screwed:
These flippers are aggressive in their strategies. Some people will buddy up with an employee at their local Walmart to know exactly when the next shipment of Hot Wheels cars comes in. That way, they can snag up all of the hot cars before the public even gets the chance to see them. Some flippers are allegedly even the employees of the stores, so it becomes more or less an “inside job.”
Don’t think you’ll have better luck on Mattel’s websites, either. While Mattel will impose purchase limits on rare castings, flippers have easy ways to get around them. Remember the Hot Wheels x MSCHF Not Wheels special casting that basically every car site reported on?
Mattel imposed a two-car purchase limit, yet that didn’t stop flippers from buying dozens at the same time and then trying to resell them for more than four times their original price.
Some people are still trying to sell the Not Wheels for $60 or more, or at least twice the original price.
That’s not even the worst of it. Some flippers get really scummy by buying up nice Hot Wheels Premiums, taking them out of their cards, and then returning the cards to the store with a car of lesser value inside. The people running the stores don’t know that the cars were switched out, so the flipper essentially gets a car for free that they then sell for multiples of what it’s worth. Some flippers will even make a fake of a premium car and try to sell that as an original for way too much money.
The rampant scalping has sucked a lot of the fun out of collecting Hot Wheels, and it’s not even just the rare cars, either. If there’s a popular basic car out there, it will almost certainly get scalped.
These are supposed to be cheap toys for everyone. The whole idea is that you’re supposed to be able to go through a store and come back home with a haul of your favorite cars. But a huge number of collectors can’t do that anymore because flippers have already taken everything and jacked up prices. It’s basically everything that’s bad about the concert ticket reselling industry, but applied to toy cars.
Now, if there’s a specific car you want, just forget about going to a store. You’re likely going to end up on eBay or some other site full of resellers, and you’re going to pay a lot of money for something the flipper paid $1.18 for.
Alternatives To Resellers
Thankfully, I have had some luck by skipping big box stores and going for local grocery stores not known for selling toys. It looks like flippers don’t go to stores like these, which means you’re going to find lots of cool cars just sitting there. Check out a recent haul (above) I got from one of these stores. They were on sale for 72 cents a car, too, which was awesome!
But there’s a catch-22 here. I was really looking for castings from very recent releases, but didn’t really find many, as the store sat on piles of older stock. If you want something from one of the latest Hot Wheels shipments, you’re sort of back to rolling the dice with Walmart and finding out that you lost the game before you even started playing.
This month, I decided to try something different. I’ve been watching Hot Wheels YouTubers lately and have found the concept of just buying a whole case to be interesting. Mattel releases 15 cases of 72 basic Hot Wheels cars a year, and those cases are generally distributed every three weeks. The usual recipients of these cases will be your local supermarkets, where the boxes will be opened up and the 72 cars put on the pegs for sale.
But some distributors have found that there is a market in selling Hot Wheels cases directly to consumers. You can buy sealed Hot Wheels cases from hobby shops or even from national dollar store chains. Cases from these retailers will usually cost just around what the cars inside are worth, about $100 plus shipping and tax.
These cases will contain a bunch of randomized cars and also releases specific to those cases. These cases will often have at least one Treasure Hunt or Super Treasure Hunt (limited-edition versions of otherwise basic castings) that are specific to that case. So, if you’re a hardcore collector or a flipper, you’ll likely end up buying multiple cases.
In my case, I just wanted to get a bunch of recent cars without having to fight flippers over them. So, I did what I thought was crazy and bought a case. I chose Case G, a case that’s been around for over a month. I’ve watched a bunch of unboxing videos, and YouTubers have pulled some sweet vehicles out of G Cases like a fuchsia and green GMC Syclone, a rad Optimus Prime casting, some great American muscle, some classic off-roaders, and a possible Super Treasure Hunt of a Porsche 911 Rallye.
72 Cars In A Box
My case arrived this week, and I was thrilled to tear into it. For a brief moment, I felt like one of those Hot Wheels YouTubers, and I was discovering a fresh box of excitement. I know, I know, they’re just cheap toy cars. But the purported magic of buying a case is that you don’t really know what you’re going to get, so you get surprised as you dig through the 72 cars.
I think I got a decent haul here. Sadly, I didn’t get a single Treasure Hunt or a Super Treasure Hunt, but I decided that about half of the cars were worth adding to my collection.
It’s hard to pick a favorite here because there are so many great cars in this pack. I love the Honda CB750 Café, the BMW 2002, the Chevy Blazer, the Chevy C10, and the Chevy Silverado. I dig the cute DeLorean, the McLaren W1, and the lifted Mazda Miata.
I’ve never seen a single one of these vehicles in the wild except at a local flea market, where someone was trying to sell them for ten times their original price.
So, I’m quite happy about all of these cars! I can’t wait to display them on my bedroom wall.
Lots Of Unwanted Cars
Then I realized that I still had half of a case of cars I didn’t want. This pile of cars consisted of duplicates like two extra Datsun 240Zs and the two extra Shelby GT500s.
I also don’t really care for the fantasy cars. Don’t get me wrong, the artists who designed these cars are brilliant and creative. The fantasy cars are great, too! But I’ve never been into fantasy cars, even when I was a kid.
So, my plan is to sell off half of the case I don’t want. I’ve bundled the fantasy cars together and hope to send those off to a new home. I figure if I price them similar to what you’ll find in a store, maybe someone will take them away.
But I’m also reconsidering that. Maybe the real winning strategy here would be to give the unwanted cars away. There’s a whole summer’s worth of car shows ahead. Maybe I’ll just place the cars on the windshield of my Honda Life and give them away to any interested party. That could be a ton of fun!
I’m also feeling conflicted. Buying the case was fun, but I’m not sure it’s something I’d do again. When I really think about it, I pretty much paid $120 for the 36 cars that I really wanted, which comes out to $3.33 a car. That’s much cheaper than what flippers charge, but still more than they’re worth. I also didn’t get to enjoy the hunt of actually finding these cars. Or, maybe I should just reframe it. I paid $120 for some cool cars I want and for other cars to give away.
But one thing I’m sure about is that scalping has made this hobby so annoying sometimes. So, if you’ve ever wondered why on Earth your local store always has the Hot Wheels cars you don’t want or maybe the store just never has any in stock, there’s your answer. Someone has snatched up all of the coolest cars. Maybe buying a case is the answer, but be expected to pay for it.
Top grapic images: eBay seller; eBay Seller; eBay seller; Mercedes Streeter
People should go to church and learn some morals
Some of the most immoral people I know are church-goers.
Maybe they haven’t learned yet?
Most of them have learned that piety makes a good disguise.
Been there with Warhammer figures and slot cars (Scalextric etc.). Selling them on eBay when I moved was so liberating, and it reminds me whenever I think I want to get back into it that down that path lies madness. Now I “collect” limited run (because the band only has enough money for 100 copies) cassette tapes from obscure black metal and death metal bands because it’s fun to listen to analog music.
It’s not just Hot Wheels, anything “desireable” and limited in any way gets the same treatement. Record Store Day just happened, and my local shop had a line that streteched adround the strip mall before it opened, people had started lining up the night before. There was one record I wanted; I had no chance to get it. Thiis artifical scarcity is bullshit and takes the joy out of everything. It’s turning me into a minimalist.
Wow, I had no idea Record Store Day was a thing. A friend of mine told me how her sister wanted a limited edition album that came out this weekend and she tagged along for fun. It wasn’t fun. The line at the record store was long, and her sister was too far back to get the album she wanted. I figured it was just something at that one shop they went to. There’s even a Wikipedia entry for Record Store Day.
Once the initial hype run of got to have it now! wears off, they will all be availbe at reasonable prices again. I’m torn, I love that my local record stores get their own little sales bumps twice a year; but I’m never participating in it because I’m not gonna live my life that way.
Yep. No Camper Van Beethoven for me. I am not going to try to buy it off of Discogs.
This has been the case for a long time. I used to be big into Hot Wheels and Matchbox as a kid, then started getting back into them in my 20s, then in my 30s I noticed all the same scalping BS you did and decided I didn’t want to fight for a hobby and now only buy a handful of cars that really strongly appeal to me.
I gave up on the mainstream diecasts. Hot Wheels pretty much for the reasons listed here. If there’s something that is actually worth getting, you’ll never find anywhere except online for bloated prices.
Most of my 1/64 diecasts I want now, I just pre-order from a Diecast distributor online. When they arrive in stock, I get them shipped straight to me. No hassle, no fuss.
I get everything from Johnny Lightning and Greenlights to Inno64 and Kaido House. Which are all usually miles better in detail and correct scale, than the castings from Mattel. (Hot Wheels & Matchbox)
I don’t collect them, but every once in a while, I’ll check out the display to see if there’s any cool squarebody Chevy stuff there.
My late great-uncle and grandfather were collectors, and I saw the amount of money they wasted and the effort we had to expel in packing up and getting rid of that stuff. My mom still has a s-load of football cards that are largely worthless.
The problem was that they collected stuff marked as “collector’s edition”, along with Franklin Mint garbage. So, nothing was really rare or in demand.
I learned about this the hard way, too. I was at a grocery store grabbing snacks when out of the side of my eye I saw something weird in the bin full of Hot Wheels – the Enterprise. It was the Kelvin timeline Enterprise, which I happen to like (not as much as the refit Enterprise from the first four movies, but still…). I snatched it up since it was all of $2.50 OCD my wanted a second so I could have in the package and one out of the package, so I dug around in the bin a bit but didn’t see a second one.
Now I’ve found myself digging through every Hot Wheels bin I see and checking pins on racks. Then I looked on marketplace and sure enough flippers were already selling the JJ Enterprise for $5-$10. Rude.
I did manage to snap up an FC Jeep and now I fear I will end up with Hot Wheels cars all over my desk at work. And my Enterprise is still in the package, dammit.
I break down every once in a while and buy one off ebay. But I try to limit that to one or two a year maybe.
Buying a full case makes sense now and then, but yah it would add up.
With respect to the spare cars you have, consider dropping some at a Children’s Hospital or something. Or if you know any teachers, they would love them for classroom gifts.
I generally pick up a few fantasy cars that are stale on the pegs every fall and give them out during trick or treat. i usually put 10-15 of my own cars in there too so I can try to keep the hoarding tendencies at bay.
Seconding the teachers donation, they go right into a prize box and the kids who earn them, love them!
You want to get really crazy? Wait until the end of the year and you can buy a factory sealed set of all mainline releases for the year. You get all of the regular releases, all treasure hunts and super treasure hunts plus all store specific re-colors. all in you get 454 Hot Wheels for $600 which is only $1.32 per car. Keep all you want and donate the rest to a local daycare or church nursery or whatever.
This has been going on for ages, I was buying hot Wheels for my nephews in the late 90’s at Target. There would be guys waiting for staff to open the newest cases even then. I did buy some doubles of the coolest ones then, their in a box somewhere in the house. I do still have my original 1968-73 ones that i got new as a kid.
Don’t let children play with those older Hot Wheels. Many pre-1979 cars had lead paint.
I guess the scalpers haven’t hit Canada quite as bad, I think I’ve been able to find all the new casings I want easily enough, but also I have nearly 1000 Hot Wheels, so if I miss one or two, life goes on? Then again, I also have a friend who also gently collects, and we usually end up buying an extra for each other, double our odds of finding anything (most of them go to our respective kids though).
I will also go to bat for a lot of Hot Wheels’ unlicensed designs, which are kind of like Weird Al’s style parodies compared to his more conventional parodies, letting the designers riff on an era or genre of car without being quite so beholden to accuracy. My possible favourite example from the past few years is Custom Otto, which was the 2d drawing from the original 1968 Hot Wheels packaging turned into an actual car (somewhere between a contemporary Buick Riviera and Dodge Charger).
I have ran into this as well. Target seems to get scrapped clean but the local grocery store doesnt, so I have found a decent amount of cool cars there even though they dont have the newest or have a huge section. I only buy ones that really speak to me, and yea, no fantasy cars. I love that you are thinking of giving away the ones you don’t want, it really brings joy to kids when they get them!
When I was a kid in the 70’s the main Matchbox line was 75 cars. If a new casting came along, an old one had to be retired. I’ve been out of Matchbox for decades but still have my old ones, but honestly when I see the displays at stores and articles like this I’m simply overwhelmed by the myriad models available now.
Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them. The internet just means that every collector can shop literally every store and garage sale at once, a lot of them have lots of expendable cash and collecting is a hell of a sickness (guilty here at times also). Short of disabling the internet I don’t know that anything can be done about this.
Things will be sold for whatever customers are willing to pay. So the only cure for high prices is for the buyers to stop buying. That’s the hard part. Flippers/scalpers feed on people’s fear of missing out – FOMO. “But what if I never get this chance again?!?!?” Yeah, what if? Will you die? No you’ll just miss out on paying way above something’s intrinsic worth because you’ve inflated its importance to you. It’s why I don’t collect anything anymore.
Scalpers should be forced to step on Legos in bare feet for eternity (with rests in between, so it never gets less painful).
They should be forced to step on them in their bare feet at 3 am when they walk to the can to take a leak…
You’re clearly not on your #hustleculture #grindset. You still appear to be doing things for FUN when you should turn every ounce of joy in your life into MONEY.
P.S. I wish all scalpers a lifetime of stubbed toes and wet socks. Actual drains on society, they only exist to make things worse for everyone including themselves.
Greed is ruining everything. It’s really gotten out of hand spreading into every market imaginable, no matter how niche or small. It’s a shameful and disgusting evil that’s corroding society
I would love to write up multiple paragraphs about this subject, but I’m at work so the best I can do is this pic of my uncle’s booth at the Des Moines yearly toy show at Adventureland. Shows like this are great places to wheel and deal and sometimes you can find really cool items on the cheap.
You see, the real reason Mercedes stocked up on Hot Wheels is due to the threat to her real car fleet from Matt giving away cars to Autopian subscribers.
Tomica’s are the same in Japan at the major chains it’s hard in the major cities to find the cool new cars all of them are picked over like you wouldn’t believe. But in the countryside toy stores they’re still there or the small shopping malls. I wish you luck and thanks for the idea on the dioramas.
Scalpers and AI seeping their way into every hobby and ruining it 🙁
But TIL about buying whole cases of HW cars, if only I had the space.
I suggest you take up whittling. You can make anything you want and it’s going to to be awhile before flippers start grabbing up all of the sticks.
You joke, but it was actually a news story a few years back that here in Minnesota, there was concern about people going into the forest for birch pieces to resell.
Son of a birch!
I’ve been trying to find a Rexy or Roxy for months and never any luck. Scalpers ruin everything, see also TicketShyster
I happened across Rexy at a Kroger of all places (my wife loves AO Racing). Still haven’t found Roxy but I check whenever we’re at a local grocery store. Hopefully I find it but if I don’t…….¯\_(ツ)_/¯
911 Dakar! I love it, too.
My son has really gotten into the Hot Wheel hobby the last few months. We’ve been to every Walmart and Target in the area. I’m going to show him this and I bet he begs me to let him buy a case.
I may need to buy my son a case also. He plays with all the cars, including the Fiat 500e. I think we have at least two of those…
Maybe this will end like the Beanie Baby craze. 10 years from now we will be able to buy these “collectable cars” for next to nothing because the market realized how many were made. The 50 Hot Wheels Cybertrucks some guy stashed away as a retirement plan will be worth $50 total.
The buying up of the desirable models isn’t new either. I remember my step dad doing it in the 90’s. He was never able to resell anything for much of a profit.