Could there be more of these than the real thing? They’re die-cast toy cars, and if you no longer have yours, for sure you had some. In this country yours were almost certainly Matchbox, Dinky or Corgi, and there’s a non-stop trade in them. (By the 1980s American Hot Wheels had strangled the UK makes and they have their own collecting world, but that’s beyond my period.) We’ve all heard of the precious rarity that sells for thousands, but what’s in that box in your attic is unlikely to contain one of those gems. For most of us their value lies in transporting us back to the magical days when that Volkswagen camper and Ford Capri on the carpet weren’t toys, they seemed the real thing. Rich in memories, they are likely to be intermittently exhumed and exclaimed over and then consigned to the dark once more.

“A Diamond T tow vehicle sold last year for £2750 – and I have one!”

Yet there are people who trade in these metal miniatures and while you’re unlikely to get a great offer from a dealer you can make something on private sales. David Harper, often seen on BBC’s Antiques Road Trip, has a YouTube video in which he reckons there is money to be made on Matchbox cars. But he counsels that the key is to buy in bulk and sell separately, and that profits won’t be rapid. Having bought an assorted boxful, Harper reckons it could take a couple of years to realise the individual values. So if you can bear to part with them, your box of childhood favourites can net you a decent return online, but it will take patience.

You won’t be surprised to hear me mention the phrase ‘mint and boxed’ – this is one

Buying a car in 2023 is hard, but that seems to be the way it’s going for just about everything these days — even toy cars. And supply-chain disruptions alone don’t explain it. Just like concert tickets, sneakers, game consoles and luxury watches, the Hot Wheels market has been overrun by resellers who snap up the most desirable new die-cast releases from Mattel and flip them for a profit. As with all those other products, the problem has only grown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows no sign of stopping.

In case you missed it:

About a year ago, I wrote about how Target and Walmart seemed perpetually low on stocks of Hot Wheels die-casts, along with possible explanations for that phenomenon. At the time, Mattel’s pre-pandemic staffing cuts, the pandemic itself, and physical bottlenecks like the Ever Given debacle and last year’s border-crossing blockades were believed to play a role. But there’s another issue affecting the Hot Wheels market, the same one you know all too well if you ever attempted to get your hands on a PS5 over the past 24 months — scalpers.

Hot Wheels “mainlines” — the cheapest, blue-blister-pack cars you see in supermarkets and drug stores — cost $1.29 a pop. It’s frankly an astonishing price, barely 40 cents more than what Mattel charged in 1982, even though inflation means they should really cost around $2.88. Positioned above the mainlines are premium, “adult-targeted” collections like Car Culture and Team Transport, which will set you back about $7 or $15, respectively, if you’re buying them in a store.

On the whole, then, Hot Wheels are pretty cheap. However, new casts drop in waves, cycling in and out of stores very quickly. Retailers get shipments every few weeks, and