Collectors
Through the years, Hot Wheels cars have been collected mostly by children, but in the last ten years there has been an increase in the number of adult collectors. Mattel estimates that 41 million children grew up playing with the toys, the average collector has over 1,550 cars, and children between the ages of 5 and 15 have an average of 41 cars. Most believe the collecting craze started with the Treasure Hunts in 1995. Mike Strauss has been widely hailed as the father of Hot Wheels collecting; he has organized two collectors' events each year in some form since 1986. The first event was the Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Convention, normally held each year in the fall. The convention occurred in various locations around the country until 2001, when the first Annual Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals was put together. Since then, the Conventions are held each year in southern California. The Hot Wheels Collectors Nationals rotate among cities outside of California during the spring. Strauss has also published the quarterly Hot Wheels Newsletter since 1986 and was one of the first to unite collectors all over the world. He also writes the Tomart's Guide To Hot Wheels, a book listing history, car descriptions and values, which is used by almost every collector to learn more about the hobby and their collection.
In 2001, Mattel launched HotWheelsCollectors.com (HWC™) as an online forum to unite collectors by offering limited edition cars, information about upcoming releases and events, as well as chat and trade boards. Each year, they sell memberships to the Red Line Club™, which includes that model year's exclusive membership car, the opportunity to purchase RLC™ exclusives, a priority window to purchase HWC™ cars before HWC™ members, as well as access to areas of the site with information such as sneak previews of new cars.
There are hundreds, probably thousands, of web pages dedicated to Hot Wheels collecting. People are collecting everything from only new castings to only Red Lines and everything in between. For the most part it is a relatively inexpensive hobby, when compared with coin collecting, stamp collecting or Barbie collecting, with mainline cars costing about $1 (USD) at retail. The price has not changed much in almost 40 years, although in real terms the models have dropped significantly in price. After the cars are no longer available at retail the cost can vary significantly. A common car may sell for less than retail, while some of the more difficult cars can sell for many hundred or even thousands of dollars. The highest price paid for a Hot Wheels car was $72,000 in 2000 for a Volkswagen Beach Bomb, a VW microbus with a pair of surfboards poking out the rear window. This version was a prototype of which only 25 are known to exist. The model was introduced into the Hot Wheels range for 1969 with a significantly modified body design, widened to enable it to pass through the Hot Wheels power booster
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