Turn $1 into $200 by Flipping These Hot Wheels

Resellers, start your engines

News

By RC Staff

25 October 2023

Key Points

Specially marked “Treasure Hunt” Datsun 510s are a rare find
Hot Wheels collectors are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for one
They can be found in normal packaging for around $1

You know, we’ve covered a lot of flips. Sometimes they can be pretty complex, or require careful work and patience to pull off. Others might be quick and easy, but are only good for a few bucks in profit. These are great, but what if there was something simple and lucrative? Something that could score a reseller hundreds of dollars off of a simple trip to the grocery store… Well, today we have that something, and we’re going to share it with you.

Hot Wheels Datsun 510 at Walmart

While Walmart is mainly known for having a wide array of generally pretty cheap crap and a colorful assortment of customers, it can be a great resource for resellers. You can buy pretty much anything under the sun there.

Today, we’re looking at a very particular Hot Wheels toy, the Datsun 510 Bluebird Wagon. These are based on the real world car, albeit heavily modified, and have been produced in different designs since 2013.

The version we’re interested in is part of Hot Wheels’ 2023 HW Wagons Mini Collection, which includes a bunch of different (gasp) wagons. The 510 is important because there are special versions of it produced as “Treasure Hunt” cars.

See that? Certain versions of these Hot Wheels 510s are stamped with a “TH” on the side, but are otherwise indistinguishable from the standard cars.

But that TH is a big deal. They are the Treasure Hunt cars, the rarest and consequently the most valuable parts of the collection. They’re similar to Chase variants in Funko collecting, although it seems like the Hot Wheels are even more uncommon.

Hot Wheels Treasure Hunt cars have historically been pretty popular with collectors. They debuted in 1995, and sealed Treasure Hunt cars from that year have sold for upwards of $1,000. Since then, a new series of cars is selected each year and many of them will tend to resell.

The 510 is just the latest version of this trend. These Hot Wheels can be bought at almost any retailer for around $1 each, and you can easily examine the car before buying one for the “TH” stamp.

And why should you care? Because collectors are very, very interested in these Hot Wheels, and are buying them for quite a bit of money.

Treasure Hunt Hot Wheels 510 Resells

Now it’s time for the fun part. Since these cars have started shipping to retailers, resellers have gotten wise to their value and are making tons of money by flipping them.

Right now, a Hot Wheels Treasure Hunt 510 is reselling for anywhere from $150 to $200 at a time. Considering these sell at retail for a little over a dollar, this is an incredibly lucrative opportunity for any reseller that can spare the time and effort to drive over to Walmart

Too much to ask? Maybe for some, but in our opinion this is a trip that’s worth the gas money. We’ll be keeping our eyes on this market in the future, as well as additional Treasure Hunt cars produced for next year.

This isn’t the first time we’ve written about Hot Wheels. Earlier this summer the Hot Wheels Legends Tour provided an opportunity for collectors and resellers to buy rare cars, many of which sold for hundreds of dollars.

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