Diecast CARS Figures: How Are They Gettin' 'Em??

Unknown

This is starting to drive me to frustration. I broke down, went to eBay, and bought one of the Doc Hudson "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" cars that Mattel has been putting out under the "Supercharged" label. This has sparked a desire to collect several others, at least the major members of the cast. Trouble is, as many of you know, they are impossible to find in the stores. Not that they've been discontinued; the stores are full of empty racks for them. But they're all over eBay. If you do an eBay search on "Doc Hudson", you come up with about 600+ entries, 80 to 90 percent of which are the Mattel Hot Wheels-style Doc Hudsons in either of his two versions. Reading the descriptions would be ludicrous, if it weren't so angering. "Very Hard To Find." "Rare." "EXTREMELY RARE!!!" (verbatim.) Well, with about 550 posted on eBay alone, they ain't very dang hard to find! Not to mention what they still have in stock without having posted them yet. And that's just Doc; wait'll you see the rest of the lineup. What I'd like to know is how these freakin' speculators are getting on the inside track.



At first I figured they must be ordering them directly from Mattel. This doesn't seem to make sense; why would Mattel send so many to these people who run eBay stores and leave all the major retailers high and dry? Doesn't wash. Another theory I thought of is that these speculators are getting friendly with some of the store stockers in their area and paying them "under the table" to contact them and let them know when they get in a shipment. Then the speculators are buying them before they even hit the store shelves.



Does anybody have any idea how these jacks are doing this?? I'd like to beat these eBay SOBs at their own game. At least enough to round out my collection without having to pay three to four times store price, not even including shipping! Let me know what you know.



Thanks,



-Tom-

bull_islander

Sorry you've had bad luck. They had been plentiful around here...wal-mart, k-mart, toys r us, kay bee toys. It did take a lot of visits there to find them, but they did show up. I haven't looked much lately as my kid has gotten most all of them (there are a few that were scheduled to be released, don't know if they ever were or not...ferarri, ferarri fans luigi and guido). If you have to buy them off ebay, look for them sold as sets...you'll likely get a much better deal.

[Deleted User]

Find a friend that's taking his family to Disney World. The gift shops were full of them this summer, and they were only charging a buck more each than Target.

Unknown

Thanks, Royer, but with all due respect, that doesn't seem real practical. What I want to know is how the eBay speculators are getting them and leaving the major retailers high and dry.



Bull Islander, they did release the "Luigi & Guido Ferrari Fans" as a "Movie Moments" set, but like a fool I didn't grab it when they came out in the store, and now they're cleaned out. Mostly 'cause I had 3 other "Movie Moments" sets in my mitts at the time. That's the only way you can buy some of the characters such as Flo and Red, and for that matter, Luigi and Guido; they're not sold individually.

Unknown

Cart before the horse here maybe- Maybe those eBay sellers are going to a store and buying 50 of them at a time, when they do find them. Also, eBay draws sellers from nearly all over the world, to have 500 or so on there really isn't that many I guess. I am sure that availability varies with area. I am sure if I rode around Birmingham for an hour I could find a few. Then put them on eBay! LOL

bull_islander

Thanks for the update Tom. We hadn't really looked since Christmas for any of them. I see the luigi and guido's on ebay as well as the sully & mike's. When my son finds out, we'll be hitting the stores again looking...I didn't see any of these out before Christmas and we really hadn't been looking since then.
BTW, the price of the singles at WDW is $6 each. That's about twice what they cost in stores if you can find them.

Unknown

Back when I was collecting Hot Wheels some collectors would make nice with a stock person at the department store and give them a little bonus to be able to search the cases and cherry pick the Treasure Hunt and other rare cars before the case hit the shelves. Some stores would have the rare cars on the shelves, other stores you woudn't find a rare if your life depended on it.



It's also possible to buy diecast by the case online, which is probably what the volume eBayers are doing. The low-volume eBayers probably buy in bulk off the shelf or have access to the stock before it hits the shelves.

Unknown

Todd Jensen wrote:

Back when I was collecting Hot Wheels some collectors would make nice with a stock person at the department store and give them a little bonus to be able to search the cases and cherry pick the Treasure Hunt and other rare cars before the case hit the shelves. Some stores would have the rare cars on the shelves, other stores you woudn't find a rare if your life depended on it.

I'm sure that's what's going on; why else would they be cleaned out all over? In my area, I mean Beaver Dam, Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Appleton and the Fox Cities; Wal-Mart, ShopKo, Target, K-Mart (whatever few are left), everyone. In Fond du lac, it's daily trips to Target and Wal-Mart for several weeks only to see empty shelves. I think somebody has to be paying store personnel under the table for tipoffs when they get in a load and buying them before they even hit the shelves. Why should the store manager care, as long as their stock is sold, right?:mad: