The following editorial reflects the personal thoughts of Doug Breithaupt relating to our common hobby of miniature cars. It is intended to generate discussion relating to 'Tales of Toy Cars'. Your letters are welcome and may be submitted via e-mail. Toy Cars Travel in Packs |
Cheap Toy Cars - $.25 or less
Summer and other Asian 'clam-shell' casting producers - They produce the cheapest cars and once in a while do something not done by others.
Bargain Toy Cars - $.75 or less
Maisto, Motor Max, Welly, Real Toy, Yat Ming, Imperial and Tootsietoy - There is some real quality, variety and value here. cars like the Toyota Camry, Lexus IS300, Honda Accord and Ford Crown Victoria (stock) and welcome and unlikely to be done by others.
Mass-Produced Toy Cars - $1.00 or less
This group is dominated by Mattel although Majorette is still a player. Hot Wheels and Matchbox are doing unique vehicles, they just seem to be focusing on something other than production cars at present.
Limited Market Toy cars - $3.00 or less
Siku, Tomica, Guisval, Corgi, Norev, Edocar, Hongwell and the base-level cars from Johnny Lightning and Racing Champions/Ertl all fall in this range. The quality is usually very good and the variety can be amazing. These producers focus on their home markets and may do many unique models. These can be hard to find elsewhere.
Collector Toy Cars - $5.00 or less
The more expensive Johnny Lightning and Racing Champions/Ertl models join AUTOart, Revell, Tiger Wheels and the mid-level collector models from Mattel. These are high quality models with a price to match. Because of low production, some rare cars may appear but too often, the models are 'high profile' cars.
(Overpriced) Collector Toy Cars - $15.00 or less
This is the territory for Mattel's top-end collector series and models
from Minichamps, Tomica Limited and Kyosho. The quality is no better than
the previous category, just higher prices. Production and distribution may
be very limited, perhaps justifying a higher price.
Let's look at this another way. Here is my personal list of the highest
retail price I would expect to pay for particular toy cars and what I really
think they are worth in the marketplace. Of course, prices differ from store
to store and in different parts of the world. As a general rule, toy cars
cost 25% of retail to produce with a mark-up of 100% at the wholsale and
100% at the retail level. As an example, a $1.00 toy car is a $.50 car at
the wholesale level and a $.25 car at the production level.
| Manufacturer Summer or other 'clam-shell' toy cars High Speed Yat Ming Real Toy Tootsietoy Maisto Welly Motor Max (new castings) Imperial (new castings) Hot Wheels Matchbox Majorette Edocar Guisval Hongwell Siku Norev Corgi Tomica Tiger Wheels Johnny Lightning Racing Champions AUTOart Revell Ertl (American Muscle) Hot Wheels Collectibles Matchbox (Premier models) Minichamps Kyosho |
Retail Price $,25 (seldom sold as singles) $.50 $1.00 (often found for $.50 each) $1.00 (often found for $.50 each) $1.00 (can be found for less) $1.00 (often found for $.50 each) $1.00 (often found for $.50 each) $1.00 (can be found for less) $1.00 $1.25 (often found for less) $1.25 (often found for less) $1.50 (can be found for less) $2.00 $2.00 (seldom found in the U.S.) $2.00 $3.00 (can be found for less) $4.00 $3.00 $4.00 $5.00 (except for TofTC special) $3.00 $3.00 (some series are less) $4.00 $5.00 (some series are less) $5.00 (watch for sales) $8.00 $8.00 (some series are now less) $8.00 $15.00 |
Corrected Price based on avg. quality $.25 (they must cost $.06 to produce) $.50 $.50 $.75 $.75 $.75 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $.75 (Maisto and Real Toy castings) $1.00 $2.50 $3.00 $3.00 $2.50 $2.50 $3.00 $3.00 $3.00 $3.00 $3.00 $5.00 $4.00 $3.00 $5.00 $5.00 |
| Your comments are always welcome. doug@breithaupts.com. |