What do you use to track Hot Wheels inventory?

Kracon Monday, 9/10/2018

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Collecting off and on over there years and the main frustration is a tracking system. I can’t believe by now no one has come out with a good database program for keeping a good inventory of what you have. My last Hot Wheels fever was in 2012 and I have the Excel database I created from data dumps of the www.southtexasdiecast.com/hwguide.html#castinglist site.  The other option is dumping the cells from hotwheels.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Hot_Wheels_by_Year .

 

I saw a post that spoke an APP but it was for Apple only and I have Droid. Mattel came out with software for the 30th birthday that sold with a drag bus but they never updated the software and since its Windows 9x it won’t even install on Windows 10.

 

I keep buying duplicates because I not always 100% sure of what I have. I have been taking pictures of my recent buys laid out on tables to zoom in and check.

 

Now the hotwheelscollectors.mattel.com has options to build a list but I’m sorry this is pretty bad. It’s too buggy and slow. I can never seem to edit the list.  Now if you look on the back of a HW care they give you a code like KN21G to build a collection on the HW site but they don’t make that easy to find.  You can sit at you PC for an hour trying to find it. When the real site for this is play.hotwheels.com/en-us/index.html Once you try this out you realize this isn’t going to work for you. Try using it on your phone and you will just give up with the slowness of this system.

 

So what are you guys doing?


Discussion

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redlinederby 9/10/18
Site manager

I agree 100% and it's something I've been harping on for years. Think there is a HUGE opportunity for Mattel to bring an inventory app or something to the table. They have all the data. They have all the photos. It doesn't need to be fancy - just an "Have it" / "Want it" kind of thing. And better yet, they can advertise in it, OR, just out right charge me. I'd happily pay $5 for such a thing...make it premium, targeted and premium collectors like us.

Everyone that has tried to make an inventory app (including myself) has relied on crowdsourcing data, which is fine and all, but always results in varying degrees of quality. And some other attempts rarely focus on just Hot Wheels (or even diecast) and seemingly always expand to include other collecting hobbies.

I'm hoping...hoping...that Mattel will make something in the space as the current generation of kids gets a little older. I'm sure Mattel sees the "legacy" collectors that are 40+ years old as "non-tech" and thus don't consider an app as a good return. Once the kids that only collect with technology get their own income streams, we'll probably see something...hopefully that's sooner rather than later.

[End rant] 

But to answer your question...I don't do any sort of inventory tracking because there's no easy solution. I don't have the patience to mess around with a spreadsheet and all other avenues I've found require too much overhead for something that should be a simple checklist. And yeah, I end up getting a lot of dupes but they just become donors or kid cars anyway.

This is a good app... 

youtu.be/-69LyvMqUBs

Also, this is a great website that I have been meaning to do a tutorial on..

collecthw.com/

Edit: LOL.... I just noticed the picture of my car table in the topic thumbnail!! AWESOME!!


  • This is an example of the crowdsourced data I was talking about. Lots of data but consistency varies. To each his own. — redlinederby
  • this has a 2.7 rating and took me some time to find it. Then it wants you to create an account . — Kracon

There's probably close to 1,000 cars in there...and it's like Christmas when I go searching for something...and I got two more just like it.


  • Did you mean to post these 2 pics under this topic? — Kracon
  • Yes...yes I did — LeagueofSpeed

That box is slam full...the Quest for Speed is Eternal....

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grinder 7/2/19

Today I finally decided to try to use the Hot Wheels website to track my collection. First I signed up for Mattell and realized that wouldn't work for entering codes. 

So I created a Hot Wheels account and entered 4 codes and also put one car on my "Wish List".  I can easily see my wish list, but I can't see where my collection is. If I search for a specific car it does show I have it in my collection, but it really is useless other than to sit there in a store with your phone entering codes and I'm not about to do that. There isn't even a QR code you can scan.

And then there's the issue that I don't JUST collect Hot Wheels. Matchbox is also owned by Mattell, but there are other die-cast cars that would be good to track too.

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WorpeX 7/2/19

Yeah, I ended up just building my own website to track my collection. There really just isn't arent any good options. Mine is worpex.net. It's a very hand-made set-up which allows for adding anything and tracking results/tournaments. With a little bit of work I could probably open-source the code for others to use.


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Bongo 2/10/22

Has anyone built a spreadsheet for tracking stuff? Something that could go into Google Sheets? Seems like it could be a good solution for some. 


  • I don't know of any Google Doc but that would be pretty easy to create. However, check out HobbyDB as they have a huge list of Hot Wheels already and let you know denote which you have and what you want. — redlinederby
  • I'm not much of a collector, exactly, but I think I'll need help remembering what cars are where, what I have, what I need, etc. Probably best to just build something to suit me. Thanks for the suggestions though! — Bongo

This year I started a catalog in Google Sheets..... here's a sample of how it's layed out.

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SpyDude 10/19/22

I use the tried-and-true method:

"Oh, crap, I have FOUR of these????  Why couldn't I find any of them when I was looking for them??"

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GryphonSoul 10/20/22

I keep track of my diecast inventory simply by typing them onto a note pad page and filed in my diecast folder. Every time I buy new cars I bring up the note pad and add them on. Simple enough for me to just scroll the list to see what I have. Year, Make, Model, Color, Duplicates, Weight and Driver. 

Easy and Efficient.

Maybe someday I'll worry about using something more advanced (complicated), but I like simple. 

"Keep your roof to the Sun". 

I have 4 Carrying cases set up like in my "DIY/ Life Hacks" video.

everything else is lined up on every shelf of every book cases I own. 

I buy cars from "memory" I'm pretty good & proud to say I've bought less than 5 doubles in my time collecting...However I am OFTEN fooled by a new paint job!https://youtu.be/Z7MVrw1ZulI

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CrazyEights 10/21/22

I have a bad case of CRS, so I couldn't tell you what I have.


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