It seems sweeping tariffs are coming on products imported into the United States. Or not coming. Or just imposed for a week before being repealed. Or… well, you get the idea.
Whatever strategy President Donald Trump is utilizing regarding these taxes, the result has been massive confusion, some hoarding, a drop in consumer confidence, and a lot of misinformation about how tariffs actually work.
Since large percentages have been imposed on almost every product from every country, it seems safe to assume the price of clothes, food, furniture, and cars will be affected. And most importantly, let’s look at how it might affect the model car collecting market.
It’s a model car. How much could it possibly cost?
The most obvious effect on collecting will be the potential rise in the cost of model cars. The collector market spans everything from Matchbox cars for around a buck to limited edition large-scale masterpieces selling for thousands of dollars.
My local big box store typically has Matchbox cars priced around $1.29. It seems they were holding steady at around a dollar for years, but inflation caught up. A 25 percent bump in price would make these models go for about $1.60. The actual cost isn’t that big a jump, but enough to make a collector pause on an impulse purchase. And if you are someone who shows up weekly or more to scan the pegs, you might buy 20 to 50 cars a week. That will add up. So maybe you cut back.
Maybe a collector will have only two model cars instead of 30, and they will cost a few bucks more, to paraphrase the architect of this whole kerfuffle.
As for the more expensive models, if you could afford a $2,500 model, what’s a few hundred more? Historically, income taxes were created as a substitute for universal tariffs, as the lower-income population felt the pinch of tariffs more profoundly than the wealthy.
Is this a good time to be a seller, then?
Higher prices mean higher profits for sellers, right? Not necessarily. If you are buying cases of Hot Wheels direct from Mattel, your investment cost will likely go up. So even if your sale price goes up, profits don’t increase substantially.
Also, remember from the previous question… buyers may sit the market out until things stabilize. It might sound like blasphemy around here, but model cars aren’t the most important thing in the world to some people.
Should you consider going old school?
Perhaps this is a great time to focus on filling in the older parts of your collection instead of chasing every single new offering that hits the stores every week. There is no tariff penalty on used, vintage items that are already in the country. So it might be a good time to spend that money completing the historic part of your collection. Fill in those gaps, or find better examples of old models to upgrade from your placeholders.
As far as selling, maybe it’s a good time to thin out the collection and pare it down to just the essential models you love instead of being a completist and owning a lot of models you don’t care about as much.
What to expect long term? Short term?
Who knows how long this tariff nonsense will go on? Slapping fees on every product from every country (even some uninhabited ones) seems reckless and pointless. Some countries might negotiate. Some might force the U.S. to reconsider what gets taxed and for how much. Some countries might just pull up their stakes in the American market and look elsewhere for trade partners. It’s happened before.
Or it could all go away in a week or two. Until this all gets figured out, this writer will rifle through some recent Hot Wheels purchases, rip open a few blisters, and make funny engine noises as he zooms those cars around his desk. Such enjoyment makes a model car worth more in some ways.
Ron Ruelle is a cartoonist, writer, and illustrator who also writes about model cars. You can see his work at www.ronruelle.com
