Treasure Hunts and Premium Releases: Out of Control

When Hot Wheels first came out with their Treasure Hunts, and as of late, the premium sets such as Entertainment and Car Culture series, it added a new dimension to the hobby. Because they had Real Rider wheels and special paint jobs, they had many collectors searching for every inch of the earth for these cars, particularly when the Treasure Hunts eventually evolved into Super Treasure Hunts. It was innocent enough, until scalpers started selling them. Nothing wrong with making money, but it's also the way they are doing it. Not only are they charging obnoxious prices for them, but it is also the unscrupulous tactics in how they get these cars in the first place. And if you ask me, it has damaged the hobby for a lot of collectors, to the point where some have renounced the hobby altogether.

First off, some of these guys are really rude just by going into the stores and trashing everything that was neatly stocked. Then they disrespect the employees by bothering them about the cars that are in the cases, mostly without permission, and not even approaching the workers with common courtesy. Now those workers are pissed, and you give other collectors a bad name. They will buy every sought-after model that is there so they can sell them online. Nothing you can do about that, but the worst thing is when some of these dudes make deals in the stockroom with some workers they already know, and the product gets sold without even reaching the floor for anybody else. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth of all parties involved, except for the scalpers. I used to work at Walmart, but I wasn't collecting back then. But if I was, I would be snitching so much nobody would like me. I even heard stories about guys bumping kids out of the way so they can get to the good stuff first. And to think, these are grown ass men behaving this way over toy cars.

But I don't see Mattel, or these stores like Walmart or Target doing anything about it. Why would they, since they are making profits?  And you could also argue, why blame the folks that are hoarding and reselling these cars for extra money, like any other collector's items? Sure, you can't just go up to some guy and tell him to not buy out the whole lot of Supers and Fast and Furious Skylines. But just because you can buy as many as you want, don't mean that you really should. Besides, how many do you really need? And I refuse to pay $20-$30 on something that I could have bought at my local store for around $3-$5 bucks. Especially if it was a mass-produced item to begin with. And do not give me that "supply-and-demand,-collectors-don't-want-anything-that's-readily-available" lecture. That's bullshit. If you have to always run around collecting stuff that way, then more power to you. But I'm not a sheep though.

You know, I'm not even that into hunts anyway. I just only buy what I like. But that doesn't mean I have to give in to the rat race to get what I want.