Top: A Walmart dump bin - Portland, Oregon 07/02/2015
Images 2 and 3: People showing off their hauls of multiple regular Treasure Hunts on Facebook.
For information on the history of Treasure Hunts, please check out this Diecast 101.
A few months back I wrote an article debating whether collectors should buy regular Treasure Hunts. With a few exceptions, regular THs appear to be marketed by Mattel towards youth, with an aim of bringing in new collectors. The post tackled the issue of whether you should leave them to the kids, as our friends over at The Lamley Group have advocated or if you should buy them for yourself. Although regular THs are typically based on fantasy models that collectors often pass up (in non-TH form at least), I ended up concluding that grabbing one for your collection is not causing any harm. I even went so far as to declare that finding a regular TH can be genuinely exciting. I know from experience (and you likely do as well) that going through store display after display, digging in dump bins, cubbies, and endlessly flipping through walls of pegs can turn the fun of hunting and collecting into a monotonous slog. In those situations, if you do happen to stumble upon a Hot Wheel sporting the Symbol of the Flame I’ve discovered it can sometimes help you feel that those diecasts you are really looking for isn’t a completely lost cause. In fact, it could be on the very next peg! Since it is extremely rare for many of us to come across a display that hasn’t already been thoroughly combed through, I don’t think anyone should be shamed for picking up the occasional Loop Coupe or Maximum Leeway TH.
Most people liked that post, and even Lamley himself chimed in with this comment:
Which brings us to the images at the top. This behavior needs to stop.
I never want to believe that an adult is behind the kind of theft in the first picture. I’ll usually just imagine some little kid who didn’t know any better opened the package. It’s awfully tough to say that here though. This card I found in a dump bin and was the only one removed from its packaging. Considering there were hundreds of cars in there and the only one missing was this regular TH? That’s tough to actually believe.
The other two images were posted by collectors on Facebook and I simply can’t imagine why anyone would want to show off their prowess at finding multiple copies of the Mad Splash TH. Not only are you taking them away from kids, but what are you going to do with 6 copies of that car? Scalping usually take the blame for this kind of thing, and if they were Super Treasure Hunts that would be an easy call, but these are regular THs (and not very desirable ones at that). Frankly, you’ll hardly make enough of a profit to pay for the gas it took to get to the store if you are selling them on eBay.
Super Treasure Hunts have managed to bring out the darkest impulses in collectors. Spending a dollar on a Datsun 510 wagon and then being able to turn around and sell it for $40 online apparently is enough for some people to completely disregard that they got into collecting diecasts because it is enjoyable. The hunt, debating new releases with other enthusiasts, displaying your diecasts and, of course, sharing them with your kids is awesome. I’ve passed the cars I owned as a kid to my son and we hunt together whenever we come across a display. We enjoy that time together (and making silly Vroom-vroom noises while pushing them around on the floor).
Please don’t forget that these are TOYS for kids that retail for $1. That’s a bargain that brings some happiness to your family during play time. So please stop doing this, and even if you do “leave them for the kids”, make sure you are not encouraging these kind of things by giving the thumbs up/like/heart button to posts where someone shows off their haul of 12 Poison Arrow TH.
We can be better than this. We should be better than this. We are better than this.
Related: The Lamley Group (who has been on a roll lately) also recently published Should Hot Wheels Get Rid of Super Treasure Hunts?