I was thinking to open a thread to list where we get our 1:64/3inch diecast cars. This could be practical for those who travel in other countries to get some cars.
They are two main issues for collecting current brands: distribution and scaplers. However I think here in Europe we have more problems with the distribution than with scalpers. Scalpers seems to be a big problem especially in the USA. Everywhere some shops tend not to refill their pegs and wait to refill until the last car is gone. Or they keep old stock in the pegs that do not sell – not thinking to put them on sale to make room for new stock that sells better.

I am only talking about the 1:64 scale, as for other scales the picture is completly different. For example if you collect 1:43 Italy is a very good place : not only in supermarkets and toy shops also at every gas station – but for 1:64 it is like a desert,
I would categorise the countries in three groups. This is out of my own experience and what I read here and elsewhere.

1. Big bunch : here you get many brands and many lines in many different shops – just the distibution is sometimes an issue.
   ex.: USA, Germany, Australia
2. No too bad : here you get several brands, but some brands are completly absent – distribution is always a issue
   ex : UK, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Japan, France, Austria
3. Diecast desert : very few brands, horrible distribution or completly overpriced
   ex : Sweden, Italy, Denmark

This may change from time to time. As what I read here it seems that UK is getting worse than Switzerland, specially for MBX. When I was in Scotland two years ago I found cars that didn’t showed up here jet. Since I started to prepare theses lines it seems, that MBX is again well aviable in UK - at Tesco. Last year we started to get HW Premium! Like UK we have many trift shops – but here they are not in the middle oft the city but outside where the rent is cheaper – and always have full of furniture.


@administrators: could we open a new sub-forum here?

Best Regards
Armin