Do You Know the Value of Your Hot Wheels?

By Jon Brecka

I was recently invited to answer questions and to estimate values of Hot Wheels at a Barnes & Noble book store in my area. I didn't know what to expect, as far as the number of people or the type of stuff they had. So I was surprised by the number of near-mint and better old cars that people brought in. There were several beautiful 442s redlines, 1973 enamel cars, Beach Bombs and trays of great cars. One collection of eight cars I valued at $3,500! Another collection was near $2,000!

The best part of the day was that no one had any idea what their cars were worth. Almost all of the cars were ones that these collectors had played with as kids. What this day showed me was that there are a lot of great-condition older cars still sitting on closet shelves, and that a lot of people still don't know the value of the cars.

Jon Brecka wrote this article for Toy Shop magazine, a Krause Publication. He is an avid Hot Wheels collector and a Hot Wheels columnist for both Toy Shop and Toy Cars & Vehicles. These are the opinions of the author, not the opinions of eBay, and therefore eBay does not validate the accuracy of or endorse these opinions.