Do You Have Gold Mia and Tia FEVER?!

You're driving around running errands, and suddenly you decide to make a "Pit Stop" and run into a Wal-Mart to see if there are some "Gold Mias and Tias" in the Toy Department. You're kind of over the insanity of going into stores all the time to try to track down the Newest Cars Die-Cast Toys you want. You're always a few toys behind in trying to get caught up with your collection. And, even though you figure you'll just waste time walking to the back of the store only to turn around and walk out empty handed, you go on in. You walk with purpose and a hurried pace, because just in case there's something good in there, you've got to get there before another crazed collector! You get to the aisle of familiar red packaging. No one is there! You flip through row after row of the cute little Cars. You accidently knock them off the pegs as you try to see if there are any you don't have. Suddenly, six deep on the last row, you spy a Pit Crew Member Guido! You don't have that one yet! You grab at him gingerly so you don't damage the backer card, then you feel as excited as if you struck gold! You feel like Daffy Duck in "Ali Baba Bunny" when he screams, "It's mine, ya understand? Mine, MINE, all MINE!, get back in there!, down down down!, go go go!, mine mine mine! YAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" No gold Mias and Tias on this fine day, but you still struck gold in that thar store! PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Cars collectors with Gold Mia & Tia Fever should consider the benefits of CA (Not California, but Cars Anonymous). It is a Twelve Tread program designed to wean humans off the paint fumes of Cars collecting. Check your local tire dealer for locations nearest you. ;-)

http://carsdiecasttoys.blogspot.com/

Thieves and Hogs - Tainters of Collecting

Two things have come to my attention as I've watched the insanity of Cars collecting. The first is hopefully a short-term issue, and constitutes the "Thieves" in the title of this article. As the Big Blu-Ray McQueen promotion comes to an end, we caught a glimpse of people being thieves by opening up the Blu-Ray disks at Wal-Mart's, etc. and stealing the codes inside the packaging. How sad and pathetic these people are to resort to such a low thing! You couldn't just do the right thing and pay for the darn disk?! I guess future promotions of this sort will have to be kept under lock and key to thwart the thieves.

There has also been stealing of the newer Cars out of the Target exclusive Dinoco 400 set. The thieves buy the set, then switch out the Vinyl Toupee, Octane Gain and No Stall Cars, with older commonly available characters, and return the set attempting to pull one over on the store. The crooks are also blatantly shoplifting! They are opening the new character 3 packs containing Charlie Checker, Lightning Ramone, Dirt Track Doc Hudson and the NEW Gold Mia & Gold Tia and simply stealing the individual Car. I saw a pack that was opened and missing a Charlie Checker just last week when I was in Target. Again, I can't believe the greed and common thievery. I hope the store security catches some of these low lives and makes an example out of them!

The second and more long-term issue constitutes the "Hogs" of Cars collecting. These are the people who are basically "Stalking" the Wal-Mart toy department staff. They gather around the toy department and linger as the "Stocking" begins around 11:00 pm. They started out by swarming the stockers while they put the Cars on the pegs and literally grab up all the newer characters. They've gotten to the point where now, they are brazenly opening up the store's boxes and taking out the Cars before they are put on the shelves! These pigs are the reason you can't find the NEW Characters for weeks and months! These are the Ebay Selling Hogs! I've seen this in other categories of collecting as well.

As long as the Secondary Market is impatient, frantic and willing to overpay for an item the minute it comes out, greed will continue to dictate this kind of behavior. What is crazy, is that these Cars Die Cast Toys aren't even limited in production. If you are simply patient, they will eventually appear in your local stores in abundance. Believe me, a Secondary Market is needed in all categories of collecting to ensure a hobby's longevity, but true scarcity should dictate supply and demand, not hoarding and over reaction. This makes collecting no fun, and quite frankly a chore!

I got impatient and purchased Sully and Mike on Ebay and I regret I did it. I overpaid, and as you all know, you can find them everywhere! The Moral of the Story...be patient!! Don't buy into the mania. Think of how stocks become over priced, look at the mess our housing market is in, and how about the days of $1500 Beanie Babies! Very few make out when people act without prudent thinking. Don't feed the Thieves and Hogs, slaughter them with patience.

http://carsdiecasttoys.blogspot.com/

Red Line Club Revs Up for 2008

The Red Line Club (RLC) at HotWheelsCollectors.com, opened up for RENEWALS on January 22, 2008 at 9:00 am, Pacific Standard Time for one week (Priority Window). It Opened for NEW MEMBERS on January 29, 2008 at 9:00 am, Pacific Standard Time. The membership will run you $24.99 plus $4.95 Shipping and Processing. Why is this important to Cars Die Cast Toys collectors? Because, it is rumored that another Disney/Pixar Cars set called the "Motor Speedway of the South" will be released this year via the Red Line Club. In order to be eligible to purchase such a set, you'll need to have a 2008 membership to the Red Line Club to do so.













The Red Line Club™ is a premium membership at HotWheelsCollectors.com. Here are just some of the super benefits of the 2008 RLC™ membership:

• Membership Kit – Includes exclusive Hot Wheels® car (the Boss Hoss!), collectible button, personalized membership card and a poster by original Hot Wheels® artist Otto Kuhni!
• First Priority on Sales – RLC™ members enjoy a 24-hour advance opportunity on most HWC™ Exclusive sales -- and earn RLC™ Rewards Points when ordering during that time! Use the points you earn to get special cars at the end of the year!
• Exclusive Cars – Only RLC™ members vote on and purchase the sELECTIONs™ cars!
• Exclusive Content – Some areas at HotWheelsCollectors.com are available only for RLC™ members to view!

The way I look at it, why not get in early to try to get the lower editions of the Boss Hoss, and get the full year of use out of your membership! It took 18 minutes to get my order processed, and I was one of the first 4000 to Renew and get the Chrome Boss Hoss! There appears to be a lot of cool releases coming from the RLC in 2008. I may start buying more than just Disney Cars releases this year. It is also the 40th Anniversary of Hot Wheels this year. Checkout it out, and be ready to rev your collecting engine!

http://carsdiecasttoys.blogspot.com/

Blu Ray McQueen Close to Finish Line

Exactly two months ago today, I launched Alternator Valley with a Big Ka-Chow! I reported on the unkown release of this Limited Edition (15,000) Dinoco Blu Ray Deco McQueen die-cast car! Many still don't know that you can get it. First, you must purchase the Disney/Pixar Blu-Ray Disk. Second, visit Disney Movie Rewards and redeem the code on the insert. Finally, you find the Lightning McQueen Blu Ray graphic, click on it, and for the cost of $3.50 for Shipping & Handling, you'll be able to place your order to get it! The promotion runs until January 31, 2008, or until supplies run out. The numbers of the orders are into the 16 thousands and don't correlate to the 15,000 edition size. I spoke with a supervisor at Disney Movie Rewards and she confirmed the numbers don't reflect sequential order of the 15,000 Cars being given away. She wouldn't tell me how many were left, but said people could still get them until they run out, or until the end of the promotion. So, it appears there's still time to get one if you want one. Here you'll find Disney Blu Ray Discounts for the Cars Blu Ray Disk and other titles. He comes packaged in a simple plastic wrap, and is shipped in a padded manila envelope. Disney has been shipping them about 3 weeks after your order, but asks you to give them 6 to 8 weeks for delivery.

COMING SOON! "Customs - Counterfeits & Copyright Infringement" also, "Thieves and Hogs."

http://carsdiecasttoys.blogspot.com/