The Unexpected Value Of Your Old Hot Wheels Cars Today

If you grew up playing with toy cars, chances are you still have one or two laying around your house (or maybe even a whole collection), and if your car of choice was Hot Wheels, you might just be sitting on a small fortune. Vintage Hot Wheels aren't just nostalgic memories of childhood, they can also be quite valuable collector items and there is a hot market for them today.

Hot Wheels originally sold for less than a dollar per car when they were first introduced in 1968, but according to GoBankingRates the most valuable vintage Hot Wheels car is worth $175,000 — in case you are wondering, it's the Pink Beach Bomb, a car that Mattel only made two of due to a manufacturing error. While most Hot Wheels aren't worth that much, there is an active collectors' industry in which cars you may have once paid nearly nothing for can be worth hundreds of dollars. There are plenty of resources, including online price guides like HW Price Guide to help collectors understand the value of their Hot Wheels, whether it is a carefully curated collection or a few old toys leftover from your childhood.

Like a valuable coin hiding in your change jar, or a musical instrument you found in your attic, learning that an item just sitting around your house is valuable is always a joy. With Hot Wheels having such a huge imprint in the world of collectables, it is important to understand what it is that may make your collection of Hot Wheels valuable. To begin with, the condition of the car is one of the most important factors in determining the value of your Hot Wheels. Mint condition is ideal, particularly if the car is still in the original packaging. Cars with scuffs and scratches can still be valuable depending on their rarity, but cars in damaged condition will definitely carry less value than those in pristine condition.

When it comes to the age and rarity of the model, the older the car and the less copies sold are a huge deal, as with any type of collectible item. The "Original 16" collection of Hot Wheels released by Mattel, a set which Fandom reports is also known as the "Sweet 16," includes highly sought after models like the Hot Heap, the Deora, and the Custom Fleetside. These original cars are part of what is known as the "Redline" models which, according to History, featured a red pinstripe on the wheels and "Spectraflame" paint jobs that reflected the shiny metallic paint the early Hot Wheels made within the first 10 years of production were known for. If you've got one of these gems, you are likely sitting on a golden egg and should consider getting it checked out for authenticity and worth.

Psychology Today reports that 33 to 40% of the population collects something, and found that, based on research conducted on why people enjoy collecting, the hobby can be the result of a fascination for finding unique items. This event was found to stimulate the areas of the brain connected to the pleasure center. When it comes to collecting Hot Wheels, this hobby can be as much about the nostalgia of reliving childhood play as it can be about the joy of the act of collecting itself and the pleasure one gets from finding, or trying to find, the most unique Hot Wheels possible.

According to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, which inducted Hot Wheels into its Toy Hall of Fame in 2011, this iconic toy was created by Mattel Inc. co-founder Elliot Handler and has reached such an incredible level of success that eight Hot Wheels are sold every second.

In a way, Hot Wheels are like sports collectibles that we start collecting for fun but often turn out to grow in value as we age. Kids begin collecting them because they enjoy the fun of trading them, playing with them, and searching for new items for their collections. As we age, it becomes harder to part with our collections, partly out of nostalgia but particularly as we learn that these items may be valuable someday, making them a childhood hobby that doubles as an investment.