As a vintage Hot Wheels collector for over 16 years, I've seen a lot of different phases in this hobby and it's clear that we've been in a period of Redline Hot Wheels values declining over the last several years.
Part of this can be attributed to the economy, but I believe there is an overall larger trend that is affecting the values of collectible Redlines.
This larger trend has to do with the demographics of collectors.
You see, most vintage Redline collectors are between the ages of 40 and 50 due to the fact that Hot Wheels were first produced in 1968 and the brand is actually 42 years old. This means most of today's collectors where first introduced to Redline Hot Wheels several decades ago.
I know for me, my initial experience with these toy cars started when I was 5 years old. (in 1968, when Mattel Toys first introduced them)
Now, I'm 46 and an active collector of these Redline gems.
Other generations of people are into different nostalgia collectibles, based on the types of toys or other popular items that they were into as children.
In fact, as the generations go, less and less people seem to be interested in diecast cars (or cars in general) which I find sad and rather discouraging...
So the main reason that Hot Wheels values have been declining is that the people who are in my age range and who would be the most interested in Redlines (from a nostalgia point of view) are growing older and their priorities are changing. For example, they may need to raise money for children going to college, or they may be more focused on building (or rebuilding) their retirement savings, perhaps they are busy looking for a new job or starting a new business or any number of other considerations that hit someone as they enter middle age.
As these considerations move to the forefront, the nostalgic hobby of collecting vintage Hot Wheels seems to gradually fall by the wayside and less and less people are collecting them.
While this is a sad thing to see happen, it is not a bad thing for collectors who are in it for the joy of collecting, rather than for the potential monetary gain that can come from buying and selling these little gems.
I know that I've personally seen several of my collector friends fall by the wayside or sell off their collections. Fortunately, they remain friends, even though their interest in collecting has diminished.
Who knows what the future will bring, but I believe we may be seeing the gradual decline of Redline values now and into the foreseeable future - only because less and less people are buying them as collectibles.
Brandon James is a writer for http://www.Cash4Redlines.com
He has partnered with Dave Briggs who has been collecting vintage Hot Wheels since childhood, and started buying entire collections of Redlines in 1994.
Besides collecting vintage Hot Wheels, Dave also buys vintage collections (Redlines that were issued between 1968 and 1977) and also has a website that explains his Hot Wheels buying process at: http://www.Cash4Redlines.com
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