A few years later, my parents started a weekend swap-meet business. After setting up shop, I'd go aisle by aisle, looking for Hot Wheels! I was a collector, and the things I was looking for, (even then) were: redline wheels, shiny metallic paint and decent condition! I would also pick up the car, and spin the wheels to see how fast it appeared to roll. If it seemed slow, I would usually leave it on the table!  I would pick up Redline Hot Wheels (around 1973) for .50 cents or $1.00, take them home and race them against my fastest cars.

Around 1974, my parents started to sell toys. They had a source for Hot Wheels and Sizzlers. (A wholesale closeout store) I was a little Hot Wheels dealer! My dad and I would set up a Fat Track on some tables and people would crowd around the tables to watch the Sizzlers race. They would stand in awe of these cool, bright cars that seemed to have a little race car driver inside because they seemed to have a mind of their own. We sold so many Sizzlers in original cubes after people saw them running on the track!  But probably the most fun I had with Sizzlers was by just charging them and letting them run free. Since the swap meet was held at a drive-in theater, my cousin and I would let 'em run free! The Sizzlers would end up in the most amazing places! Under cars, doing jumps, flipping and landing right side up and continuing; you get the picture. During this time, my dad and I were also selling Hot Wheels. I remember selling 1974 (no, not '73) Hot Wheels in Flying Colors blisterpacks for $1.00 !! Ouch! I was still collecting Hot Wheels, but I didn't like that Mattel discontinued the Spectraflame paint! So I didn't collect 1973 and later cars.  My standards were set, early on. I ran into, and bought, almost every track set there was at the time.

One of my more interesting memories was one day, I was at a closeout store with my mom. I saw, over in a corner of the store, a familiar logo. Hot Wheels! (It was around 1974) In that corner was a STACK of Club Kits! Sealed Club Kits! They were selling for $5.00 each. I had never owned a Club Kit before. (Most of my Hot Wheels were purchased second-hand, so I didn't get to send away for it) When I saw those sitting in the corner, I had to have some! I had never even seen the box before, but it sure looked special. I borrowed $60.00 from my mom and bought 12 Club Kits! I got home, took them all out and ended up with 5 Boss Hoss, 3 Heavy Chevys and 4 King Kudas. These were so cool because they were chrome. They seemed extra-special. A couple of decades later, when I started collecting again, (1994) I dug up my 150 Redlines from childhood and I still had 8 of those special Chrome cars.

My collection today is small by most collectors standards but it is near-mint to mint. I go for premium quality Redlines because I rarely had the chance, in childhood, to open one out of the blisterpack. Today, I get a very cool thrill in "liberating" a Redline from it's "time-machine" package.  There's nothing more exciting (or more expensive) than taking a pristine car out of it's B.P.  I know that's sacrilege to some collectors, but when you collect for fun, not "future investment potential" you end up experiencing this hobby to it's fullest.

David Espino