because of production issues, supply chain snarls, and other factors. But Hot Wheels can still be hard to find today, even though those issues have largely cleared up. That, collectors say, is because of resellers.
“Before the pandemic, I could walk into Walmart at 9:00 [p.m.], raid a pallet and get everything that I could ever want. Nowadays, no way,” said one collector called Frank, who spoke to Jalopnik. “I walk in and there’s now three people that have been waiting since 7:00 for the pallet to come out. I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do than wait for three hours every single night at a damn Walmart.
“It would be really common for me to make a quick stop into Target or something, only to see another collector and just talk about what we found, or any customs we’re working on, for like an hour,” Frank explained.