Buying Wholesale - Hotwheels

[MrMatt]

I was thinking about buying Hot Wheels cars.
Anyone know how to buy wholesale, maybe from a distributer or something?

I did find the factory set direct from Mattel
http://www.hotwheelsshop.com/store/hwprod.php?p_page_id=216464&p_display_group_id=648

But I imagine stores are paying a bit less than that price, any pointers?

[Just a Guy]

Well, I've seen hot wheels at grocery stores being blown out for a buck or less. Some stores have a buy so much and get a gift card, or buy so much from the toys and get a gift card (usually about 10% savings)...which would bring the price down to about $0.90/car. Just after christmas, these stores blow out their toys, I've seen them at about 50 cents then...and you can still get a gift card.

[MrMatt]

Exactly, if they can blow them out at $1 or $0.50, I was thinking I should be able to pick up a case/skid for only a few hundred bucks.

I think they'd be great halloween treats. My wife LOVES being the "house giving good stuff". Hot Wheels would definitely help.

[MoneyGal]

oh, phew! I was kind of worried you were going to try and buy in bulk as "an investment." :tongue-new:

[MrMatt]

Well as an investment it doesn't make sense. The low retail cost, even with a great markup wouldn't make it a very worthwhile investment.

Plus with 2 little boys having a few hundred cars will be great!!!

[MoneyGal]

Perhaps you are too young to remember the "Beanie Baby" craze. I even remember a fantastic photo in the Globe and Mail of a divorcing couple having a judge divide and allocate their precious Beanie Baby hoard.

[MrMatt]

Perhaps you are too young to remember the "Beanie Baby" craze. I even remember a fantastic photo in the Globe and Mail of a divorcing couple having a judge divide and allocate their precious Beanie Baby hoard.

I remember Beanie Babies, that was nuts. I don't think Collectable Pogs ever got that bad. I also remember the collectable hockey cards fad about 20 years ago, but that might have been a bit more local. I'm not a fan of collecting mass produced product.

[steve41]

OK..... here we have a thread titled 'How do I invest $1 Million' juxtaposed with one about buying 'Hot Wheels at a discount'. This is a joke, right?

[MoneyGal]

"How to spend $1M on buying hotwheels at a discount."

[MrMatt]

I was thinking a few hundred would be enough.

[Just a Guy]

Exactly, if they can blow them out at $1 or $0.50, I was thinking I should be able to pick up a case/skid for only a few hundred bucks.

I think they'd be great halloween treats. My wife LOVES being the "house giving good stuff". Hot Wheels would definitely help.

What you forget is that these stores buy hundreds of thousands of these and sell them for full price and full profit. Near the end, they cost the store more in space than they'd generate in profits, so they can't really afford not to blow them out. It's not the same as they buy them for less than these prices though, in the volume they purchase, they probably still make a small profit.

I suppose you could track down the auctions where they sell off these things to the discount store chains. All the dollar store type places attend them.

[onomatopoeia]

as someone who loved hot wheels when he was young, and as a father who's little boy drives them around all the time, i can say, your house would be VERY popular at halloween.

I had a milk crate full of random hot wheels when i was young. The amount of car crashes at my house would count into the millions. The general lee had many a turn jumping things.

[gtprince]

Mr Matt, one of the suppliers that distributes to me, has a friend who deals with toys. I will ask him tonight, and let you know.

[MrMatt]

Cool, let me know what you find out.

[marina628]

I sold a beanie baby for $1200 on ebay about 10 years ago .I have most of the first generation Beanie Babies and estimated they are worth about $15,000 .I am selling 400 of the 'cheaper ones ' on ebay now and my BIN price total is $11,000 USD ,every morning I wakeup with almost $500 in paypal.I have about 2000 of them lol.I am saving the best for last but estimate about $30,000 in sales this year.I had a friend with flower shop and she use to get me the great ones and let me prepay.Pierre the beanie baby i got 24 for $11 each and sold them for about $80usd on ebay. That was way before I had a real job lol

[MrMatt]

FWIW I bought a few bags of hot wheels at Walmart a few weeks ago for $1 each. They're back up to $1.37 now.