The trouble being a lazy collector

redlinederby Tuesday, 4/12/2016
Site manager

I'm a lazy collector.

I don't show up to a store at 6a to raid the pegs. I don't know anyone at Walmart that can get me a box of cars. I don't go to any swap meets or markets. I just generally don't pay attention to the collector market.


I'm not trying to collect every car or their variants. I just want the cars I like...such as the new Japan Historics. They look awesome and I wouldn't mind one or two on my shelf, but then I read articles over at Lamley Group along with photos from elsewhere and it just depresses me while also making me angry.

Why can't I find anything fun at the store? Because someone raided the stock room or bought everything with intent to resell. 

I'm sure I've raged on this before but it's just really annoying.

I should be able to walk into a Toys R Us or any other retail store and find a good spread of cars. I know some of that has to do with when/what the store ordered and how much they sell, but still. It's just a bummer to think that a person can't go into the store, find a car they like and buy just one or two. You don't really need 36, do you? No, you don't. Lets not make cars rare that don't need to be. Treasure Hunts and the likes should be rare, that's their purpose, we don't need to make every line scarce.

The "thrill of the hunt" is lost when you know there's nothing to hunt for. Going to the store and standing in front of rows and rows of cars on the pegs should be wonderful experience but it's rare that happens anymore. Finding a cool car or line you want should be a rewarding experience dependent on luck, not your ability to get up early or grease the palms of the stock boy.

Scouring eBay or Instagram to find a car you want is not a pleasant experience. Digital hunting is not a sport...not to mention it's expensive. Hell, one reason I got back into Hot Wheels is because they're (still) cheap.

Or maybe it's just me, and most folks do have the time and budget to be super elite Hot Wheels snipers...in which case, I envy you...kinda. I'd like to think that if I did have vast resources to put towards collecting that I would be sportsman-like about it and buy just the one I wanted and leave the others for the next person. Not to be charitable or feel superior but just because I don't really need more than one.

Because buying cars just to resell is not collecting, it's a business, at which point you should just act like a business and try to get cars directly and let us average, lazy collectors enjoy the hobby too.


Discussion

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ThinIce 4/13/16

I just wish the market wasn't so saturated with fantasy castings. I go to Walmart from time to time (only 3 minutes away from my house so no big deal), but the pegs are always full of the same cars. From time to time I'll see new models replacing older ones as different cases are sorted out, but out of the hundreds of the mainlines, I'll only find 1 or 2 cars, if any, that appeal to me.

 

For me, the best place to check are thrift stores and garage sales. I have found some pretty nice and rare castings and a bunch of other older mainlines for the same price or cheaper. Other cars I don't want I just donate or sell back to the store. 

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JohnK 4/18/16

I'm a casual collector and when I can, I grab a FEW extra to resell at minimal extra for other casual collectors. What do you want from the Japan Line? I'm up in Canada and there are a few MX3 and 2000GT still on the pegs. I also have some extra New Star Trek, Marvel, BMW, Batman vs Superman, Capt America etc. Getting a Heritage Series or some of the other stuff can be tough, although I did get several 240's and 510's. Anything with a Real Rider is about $5 other are about $3. Pay actual shipping costs, no crazy ebay shipping  markup.


  • sorry if that should have been in a different thread I thought it was relevant — JohnK
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gtaman 4/18/16

I agree with Thinice, I think a lot of times it is Mattel's fault, I got to freshly stocked pegs ONE time, so I thought I will go through all of them since it is my only time that will ever happen, I found no supers, tons on "speed slayers" and one each of a mig rig, and a single cutlass 442.  Why on a big shelf like that are there 50 speed slayers and one 442?

I remember being a kid in elementary school and about every week I would go to Wal-Mart and see all the good castings such as GTRs, DeLoreans, Skylines, etc. Those that I had are rare now, and today there's only Mig Rigs, Preying Menaces, Arrow Dynamics, and other cheesy fantasy castings.


  • I remember being a kid, and there WERE NO Walmart. Ahhh, the good ole days. — CrzyTrkrDude
  • mamoth mart is where i spyed my first, mom said no. — fordman
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redlinederby 4/19/16
Site manager

Glad I'm not alone :)

It's not that I can't find the cars I want online easily and affordably, it's that I shouldn't have too. But that's the state we're in right now, I just have a hard time accepting it and that directly influences how much I invest in collecting. I always thought the fun of collecting was the journey, not just getting to the end so a car can sit on my shelf.

Thing is, we as generations are to blame. Speaking only of my generation of late-70s and 80s kids, we grew up not caring about whether or toys survived childhood. They were there to play with and then discard (or blow up, or bury, or smash or whatever). It wasn't until we got into our 20s when the people that did keep their toys started selling them and making a quick buck. "I had that Darth Vader!" "I had that Stage Fright!" "They're selling for what?!" We've all been there and to make up for it we approach almost every toy as though it's the Ark, all hoping we can sell it in another 20 years. I fell for it...did I make any mad cash? No.

I'm going to do my best to find the cars I want in the wild, just because I like the joy and excitement I get when I stumble across one or actually venture out of the house to hunt down. If all else fails, yeah, I'll go online and find a store or trade. 

And now thinking about it, I did watch Nintendo Quest not long ago, so that probably rekindled some of my opinions on this stuff. Good doc if you have Amazon Video. Guy tries to collect all NES games every made but only does so by traveling to stores and meeting people - no online shopping. 

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ThinIce 4/19/16

I look for cars and sets online, but Ebay is a double edged sword when it comes to deals. There are mainline cars you'd pay 5 dollars for when they fetch for one dollar at most major US retailers. Or you can buy certain hot wheels sets, used car lots people are pricing to sell, and specific models from past years that finding in brand new condition would be unlikely depending on your location. 


I buy cars to enjoy, but I don't want the hundreds of dollars I spend on cars over the years to end up being nearly worthless when I get older. While I'm not a treasure hunt inflator nor car reseller, there is an enjoyment of having exclusive models or sets that have a premium price tag. Alternatively, people want to buy cars now and not worry about looking for them at inflated prices 10 years down the road. If my mom hadn't given some of my cars away, I would have cars in my collection worth 3-10 fold of what I paid for.

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redlinederby 4/19/16
Site manager

I guess that's the thing...I don't intend to ever sell any of my cars. Unless someone walks up off the street and says hey, I'll give you $500 for that car, I'm not going to sell them. I have some collector quality castings too, and I love having them, but they're also fair game for my kid to play with. Nothing is sacred because there's never any intent to recoop expenses...especially when I try not to pay more than $1 for a car.

I had a period where I bought a bunch of Star Wars stuff with intent to resell on eBay. This was when the first resurge of Star Wars happened in the late 90s. I'm a life long Star Wars fan so I figured I'd be in my wheelhouse for collecting and selling. But what I found is that I had a hard time letting things go because I was a fan.

I had too strong emotional ties to Star Wars so I couldn't part with things I had intended to part with. Same with Hot Wheels. I think in order for me to buy toys with the sole purpose of reselling at a profit, I'd have to pick a franchise I'm not into...like Barbie or Smurfs or something...something I don't care if I see go out the door.

I have thousands of Hot Wheels, which means I've spent thousands of dollars. If that collection doesn't gain any value, that's fine. If it doubles in value in 10 years, that's fine too but it doesn't matter because I'm not selling it anyway. 

Like anything else, you have extremes...I just consider myself in the middle and finding it hard to be there because it feels like I'm very much the minority.

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ThinIce 4/19/16

I don't play with my cars, mainly cause I'm a 21 year old in college occupied with other things/haven't actually played with toys in years, so displaying them is the next best thing for me to enjoy them. 

There are a lot of sets in my collection that I don't necessarily think would be any fun to play with but are pretty cool to have, such as my Hot Wheels Action Packs. My general purpose of collecting harder to find cars is that they make my collection more interesting to look at (for me at least).

I hope to buy some orange track pieces or ramps and build my own downhill and trick tracks, but a lot of these projects require time commitments I don't have at my expenditure. 


Collectors at some point thin off their collections through garage sales, online bidding, gifting, etc. I can always use money I'd gain, profit or not, to buy new cars. If you don't plan to sell, then that wouldn't apply. But it's not uncommon to hear about collectors selling off what they have accumulated.


  • Purging is a necessary evil, even for us lazy folks — redlinederby

After hitting Target, Walmart and dollar stores when I first started, I now head to my local flea market every couple weeks or so.  I get beat up all metal hotwheels 2/$1.  



  • buddy's dad has over 1000 redlines, 20,000 mainelines... asked me how to sell the mains.... charity — fordman
  • Yeah I have given away stuff I know I will not use and my kids don't want. When I started I bought everything around. Now I'm choosy. — Steele_Mill_Racing
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