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Sunday, February 14, 2016

Hot Wheels Price Hike Heart Breaker!

02.14.2016 – Hot Wheels has become everyone’s collectible die cast cars and a household name for most kids growing up and getting familiar with. They have been a lucrative hobby to for most adults and have been well known by anyone.

For most of the current generation of children getting to know their favorite cars is like a caveman trying to rediscover the wheel. It’s a mass market toy that almost everyone can afford but significant changes in pricing has change all that.


In the US the pricing of a single carded Hot Wheels cost at 99 cents to $1.00 dollar depends on which store carries it. In Australia recent news that it’s now priced at $2.50 AU dollars with a $ 0.25 AU increase in the last two years. It was sighted before that Hot Wheels sold in Australia back in 2013 cost only $2.00 AU dollars.

There has no been increase in the US if there’s a price hike the changes are minor and it only priced on the new release where the old ones retain their pricing. But in the Philippines the news broke out several weeks through social media that the increase has been announced by local distributor Rich Prime through online communities.



Hot Wheels has been available to mass market retail in the Philippines and has been priced at PhP 99.75 pesos each for the last six years. If there was a significant increase its not that much felt not until it recently when they changed the pricing to PhP 129.75 pesos, which is higher than its previous hike for the longest time.

A Hot Wheels at PhP 129.75 is $2.80 US dollars way more expensive than its standard US retail price that is $3.68 in Australian dollars about $1.18 AU dollars more expensive than the standard pricing of $2.50 AU dollars for a single carded die cast car that is not entirely metal in body and chassis. Rich Prime could have transitioned the price increase to having that change when they release the 2016 line and would retain the 2015 release as its original pricing at PhP 99.75 pesos.

Unfortunately this will have huge impact on the mass market alienating everyone, and having only high market collectors as its consumers. No kid would ever afford a Hot Wheels car at PhP 129.75 pesos and they could have still kept the mass market interested buying the previous release from 2015 below. This was unfortunate for casual buyers who just buy random cars namely from parents and their children.



The Hot Wheels brand has established itself further after acquiring Match Box in the mid-1990s which is still being sold at PhP 99.75 pesos where not much interest would bring even if they kept that with that price point.

But with Hot Wheels, Rich Prime could have kept the pricing for the older release at PhP 99.75 pesos instead they increased the pricing at PhP 129.75 pesos. We could understand some of the reasons due to the customs shipping and tax duties. But they could have increased the cost gradually not by one swoop everyone would agree.



It’s the reason why Rich Prime would lose casual consumers and like making a big gap on the buying community unlike what Ban Kee has done with price changes with their Tomica die cast cars that was transitional and still kept their consumers fairly interested with the slight changes.

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