Back in 1968 - 77, Mattel made litterally millions upon millions of these little cars. Granted lots of them ended up smashed, buried, burned, lost, or destroyed.:rolleyes:

I'm thinking they are still out there in the millions, so why do they cost so much to buy. I know they are considered antiques, but with so many still out there I guess demand outweighs supply.:confused: Are the number of redlines dwindling down?

ANd after the baby boomer generation dies off, what effect will that have on the prices? Kids today would rather have toys they grew up with. Any input on future generation prices?:thumbsup:

With this economy there are tons of redlines coming out of the closet and some are very affordable. What I mean by that is the prices are much lower than in the past.
The available numbers may dwindle down in this recession, those that couldn't normally afford them are snatching them up and many are for sale at lower prices because people need the money.

When the dust settles, they may be harder to come by at a decent price.
With that said, prices will be up in the future.

Why are they so expensive? Couple of Factors, when they came out no one really Collected Diecast, they were bought as toys to play with. They were opened and banged around. Yes there were a lot of them out there but most of them were beat to death and trashed. They were also a new type of diecast that were meant for racing versus playing with on the floor. Kids (myself included) loved them, they went fast and flew through the air.

As for the future, no one can predict that, I'd guess to say the prices will drop when us Boomers die off in 20-30 years.

I think you are correct Gerald!
As those of us who grew up with them fade so will the luster of collecting them.

I'd guess to say the prices will drop when us Boomers die off in 20-30 years.

This is almost certainly true.

If you want to get rich in 30 years, buy up MIB My Little Ponies and Bratz dolls :drunk:

I would second what Gerald said...I "loved to death" a long list of redlines. My mom worked at Mattel in El Segundo for a couple of months back in the day and brought home bags full bought with her employee discount. And between me and four brothers, they didn't last a year.

As with all fads, I suspect that eventually they will only be worth the value of the tarnished pot metal they are made of, assuming it hasn't melted to dust. Hot Wheels can corrode, btw, and if you find any doing so be sure to isolate them from the rest of your collection as the corrosion can pass from one car to another.

That said, look what has happened with Muscle Machines as an example. When they were out and Rohan Day couldn't draw enough of them they flew off the shelves. Stores couldn't keep them stocked. Then a series of business guffaws led to basically the disappearance from the shelves and esssentially the demise of the brand. And those same collectors that couldn't get enough of them just a few years ago have turned their backs and gone elsewhere.

When it comes to collectibles, there is precious little brand loyalty. What is hot today is worthless tomorrow, and is sought after again 20 years from now.

Now, when it comes to diecast cars, I think the question to ask is "what will transportation look like after the personal internal combustion automobile has gone the way of the dinosaur?" All too soon, maybe in our lifetimes, transportation as we know it will change radically, and cars as we know them (even those cherished muscle cars) will be an afterthought in a museum. I don't know what transportation will look like, but I know it won't be what we are used to thinking it is. And collectors being the fickle blades of grass that blow with the wind will probably walk away from "every" diecast automobile and move on to something else. Maybe a generation or two later they will be rediscovered, but by then most will have been dumped in the trash or put in the recycle bin or otherwise disappear from their intended use.

So enjoy them while you can.

Hot Wheels can corrode, btw, and if you find any doing so be sure to isolate them from the rest of your collection as the corrosion can pass from one car to another.

With that said, I have all my redline Ferraris, about 30, in a case with foam and cutouts for the cars. IF there are any with corosion, will it pass car to car even if they aren't touching?!

With that said, I have all my redline Ferraris, about 30, in a case with foam and cutouts for the cars. IF there are any with corosion, will it pass car to car even if they aren't touching?!

Good question. I'm not a chemist.

That said, I don't think I would keep a corroding car in the same box with any other diecast. My 30th anniversary Deora got rained on in a move, and it started to corrode. I pulled it aside, and figured since it was ruined anyway, I drilled the rivets and savaged parts to redo an old basket case redline Hot Heap. The body I left in the box with the "junk" parts from a couple of other cars I parted, and since I am not a customizer by any means I expect that Deora will sit there for a while. I will get to see first hand how it impacts other bodies nearby.

I've had an old MB racecar hauler set aside wrapped in a sandwich bag for several years. Last I looked a couple years ago it was in about the same shape as I remember putting it in the bag.

I don't think the collectibility of Redlines will decrease too much in the future. The kids that play with $1.00 HW's now will be the collectors 40 years from now when they want to remember their childhood.

I agree kids 40 years from now will be collectors...what I question is the relevance of the automobile as we know it to people 40 years from now? How relevant is the steam train to us now? Sure, there are a *few* who linger and appreciate them, but the mass that drives the market have moved way on down the track from there now, and 40 years from now I wonder how relevant *all* autos as we know them will be. Transportation is going to change...it has to, there is no choice. Fossil fuels are disappearing, and only filthy rich can afford $100 a gallon fuel. Maybe they will come up with a realistic substitute for gasoline and we'll keep merrily putting away...in which case I could well be mistaken. But I also don't think our environment can sustain the burning of fossil fuels for many decades more either, so something has to give.

I can't see an electric car drag race as being exciting. There is something about all that thundering noise that goes with the speed, its an adrenaline rush. Maybe cars will burn alcohol, maybe they will burn hydrogen and spit water out their tailpipes, maybe a whole lot of things that pop up from time to time as we are promised this and promised that...but transportation has to change, radically. There is no choice.

All I am saying is that when that change comes and cars as we know them are no longer relevant, I don't see where HW redlines or any other diecast toy cars will be any more desirable than maybe a kewpie doll or an original Raggedy Ann and Andy doll would be to us now.

A lot of us were there to play with those little gems. and as soon as you rolled across the table you just knew you had a quality toy nothing today even comes close to the orig. red lines so to find one in good shape and unmolested is a very happy moment. Have Fun

Sure, and those of us who played with the originals when they were new are in our prime now with lots of disposable income. And 40 years from now, as the question was asked, all of us who are driving the market today for redlines will be dead, and the kids that play with hot wheels today will be looking for today's hot wheels 40 years from now...if they bother at all.

That is not necessarily true.
I never played with any Match Boxes older than 1965 yet would love to have the pre-65 ones.
A true collector of a certain line of product is eventually gonna gravitate to the rare items of that product. So even though a kid today never played with a Redline I think it would be wrong to assume Redlines will not be desired and worthless in the future.

Hot Wheels Were The First Mass Produced Automobile Boy Toys That Where Made, More Than Toys, They Where Affordable. And Awesome! They Beat The Heck Out Of Matchbox And Cigar Box Cars Witch Were Also Mass produced, And I Agree With... willihunk ... To Find Red Lines Clean And Unmolested, Or Mint, Is A Rush! When I Find Rare Color / Casting Cars For A split second, I have flashbacks To My Child Hood. And Thats A Great Feeling. I Feel That Red Line Collecting Will Carry On A Very Long Time Because, They Dont Make Them Anymore, Well Not Like in the 60S / 70S. And Future Hot Wheel Collectors Will Want To Collect the originals In Mint condition! As They Do Deserve A Place In The Toy Hall of Fame. I Feel You Only Rent Red lines Any way, Sooner or Later They Get Handed Down To Family Or Sold To The Next Collector. This Is Just my Opinion.........Good Day Guys.

Hot Wheels Were The First Mass Produced Automobile Boy Toys That Where Made

I think Tootsietoy holds that honor back in the 1920s.

I stated in my Original listing. THE FIRST HOT CUSTOM CARS WITH (MAG WHEELS. SIDE PIPES, BIG FAT TIRES AND EVERYTHING! THESE ARE THE NEW 10 WORDS) HOPE THEY ARE OKAY FOR HT. MASS PRODUCED Automobile Boy Toys That Were Made. But Two Words Where Edited Out By GeraldE61 : 10-26 2009. I Guess Those Words Are Prohibited On Hobby Talk. My Opinion, Tootsie Toys Where Not That Hot. But They Are Only Toys! And Who Knows Red Lines May Not Be Worth A Tootsie. In The Future. Thanks For The Information On Tootsie Toys.. Good Hunting!

I never had redlines as a kid. missed them by a year or two...
anyway i have had over 1000 redlines at one time.
nothing beats that original spectraflame.the look and feel of these cars is something else.
like Bob said,when you have one in hand you know you have a quality piece.
and prices are down in general.i've had to sell some here and there and took abit less then what they used to easily bring.I use some for trades as well,but truely minty and htf colors still command big bucks.

Production was limited. And most of us kids played. crashed, etc... To find one mint carded commands big bucks. A good example is pink beach bomb with surfboards. I think it sold for $70,000 LOOSE if memory serves me correctly.

Production was limited. And most of us kids played. crashed, etc... To find one mint carded commands big bucks. A good example is pink beach bomb with surfboards. I think it sold for $70,000 LOOSE if memory serves me correctly.

That's actually not a good example. Bruce paid high for that toy because it was essentially a prototype of the most desirable casting in the most desirable color. And it was bought at what was probably the peak of the market. Many other mint carded RL sell for under $100. Those are good examples.

Anybody Out There Have Any Carded Or Loose MINT Red lines, RARE or Hard To Find Colors and castings.That Wants To Sell For less Than $100.00 Let Me Know. But Not Common Colors And Castings. Just The Hard Ones.

Anybody Out There Have Any Carded Or Loose MINT Red lines, RARE or Hard To Find Colors and castings.That Wants To Sell For less Than $100.00 Let Me Know. But Not Common Colors And Castings. Just The Hard Ones.


You should ask on the S&S Board.

There's a bit more to the equation though. Supply and demand for one. A lot of the supply got used as it was intended instead of being set aside to molder in a plastic box. It is the exceptions to that that are around today as "mint" and "carded" examples.

And then there's the little anomaly regarding pink paint. If you truly are old enough and you truly did play with those first couple of years' redlines, then you know that you wouldn't have touched a pink car to save your soul...because Hot Wheels were a boy's toy and pink is a girl's color. Strange how we grow up and learn to look at pink *just* a little different now...different enough that, as a rule, the *pink* colored cars are the more expensive ones, with a few exceptions. Even though there probably are more pink ones out there now because nobody (at least none of the boys they were targeted to) would touch them then. That's collectibles for ya!

I Agree 100% With That! I Know I Never Bought A Pink Red Line When I Was Eleven Years Old. Good hunting!

I Agree 100% With That! I Know I Never Bought A Pink Red Line When I Was Eleven Years Old. Good hunting!

I dont remember seeing pink redlines when I saw the 68-70 releases in my local toy stores. But for 2/3 of the price Matchbox included a few pink cars in its early Superfast range. I had a pink Alfa Carabou with a yellow baseplate as a gift the christmas the casting was first in stores, and I didnt like the colours at all, but I did like the car and it was much nicer even in pink than the Corgi Rockets and Juniors version.When I was 10, pink 67 VW fastbacks were new in stores, and were mixed in displays with purple ones - I remember taking plenty of time trying to decide if I should buy the purple or the pink and choosing the pink eventually, the wide wheels & my sister helping my choice:wave: Pink was girly hippy as a car colour then,especially the ugly no 30 beach buggy with yellow spots (never had one until about 10 years ago) and as a child I only ever bought 2, also grabbing an old stock thin wheel pink Lotus Europa when I was 13

When I was a kid I remember the blue and green colored HW's were my favorites (not counting the club chrome cars). I loved the colors of the Topper JL's but did not like the cars because they did not look as realistic as the HW's.

I don't think the collectibility of Redlines will decrease too much in the future. The kids that play with $1.00 HW's now will be the collectors 40 years from now when they want to remember their childhood.

Exactly. I actually would purchase something that has been a favorite toy/ memory in my childhood.

I actually remembered when i was in grade school, I got this yellow Ferrari Testerossa Hot Wheels with red/ green stripes down the middle and a rear fin. How I desire to get that car back.

I think Mattel must have used a better grade of metal back in the redline era. Even today look how shiny the engines are.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f350/terry9911/tbirdd.jpg
compared to a Solaire from just one year ago...
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f350/terry9911/solaire.jpg

I think it's more to do with a plating (zinc???) they used on some cars.
That's my guess anyway.

.... also grabbing an old stock thin wheel pink Lotus Europa when I was 13

Dude-man...yet another coincidence...I too found a NOS pink Europa after they had gone from all but this one store!
This one was a wide wheel though and it had been in the store rotisserie display for so long one side of it is very faded!!!
Didn't know about a pink thin wheels variation.
Strangley I found it in the same depressed mill town as I found the NOS #33 Zephyr.

Exactly. I actually would purchase something that has been a favorite toy/ memory in my childhood.

I actually remembered when i was in grade school, I got this yellow Ferrari Testerossa Hot Wheels with red/ green stripes down the middle and a rear fin. How I desire to get that car back.

This one?:

http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/juantoo3_album/sales/special%20requests/dec1409003.jpg