• Determine Which Toy Vehicles You Want

• Gauge the Age of Toy Vehicles

• Understand Toy Vehicle Scale Sizing

• Pick Up the Hottest Hot Wheels

• Maximize Your Matchbox Collection

• Value Diecast Vehicles & Other Toy Vehicles

• Care for Your Toy Vehicle Collection

• Find Diecast, Toy Vehicles on eBay

• Buy Diecast, Toy Vehicles With Confidence

Determine Which Toy Vehicles You Want

Determine Which Toy Vehicles You Want

Before searching through the more than 100,000 toy vehicle item listings on eBay, decide which toy vehicles you want. Collect your passion by searching out items you’ll love for years to come.

Some toy vehicle collectors stick to a general category, such as diecast cars, diecast passenger trucks, toy vans, toy boats, toy aircrafts, toy motorcycles, toy helicopters, or toy buses, but we recommend getting as specific as possible. For example, if you always liked playing with Tonka toys when you were a kid, build a collection of pressed steel Tonka trucks.

Rev up your toy race car collection

You may not be able to fit a full-fledged race car in your garage, but you can stock your shelves with diecast replicas of cars made famous by your favorite NASCAR, Formula 1 (F1), NHRA, Indy, and LeMans drivers.

• NASCAR toy vehicles: Action/Revell, Racing Champions, and Team Caliber (TC) produce diecast toy vehicles of the cars driven by Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, and Rusty Wallace, as well as NASCAR legends such as Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Dedicated racing enthusiasts also need promotional vehicles that advertise specific products and brands.

• Formula 1 (F1) toy race cars: Stock your shelves with diecast toy vehicles of the cars driven by Grand Prix racing stars such as Michael Schumacher, Mario Andretti, and Mark Webber. You'll find options from Hot Wheels, Minichamps, Exoto, Corgi, Matchbox, Maisto, and more.

• National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) toy cars: Find miniature diecast versions of the funny cars, top fuel cars, and pro stock cars used by top NHRA drivers including John Force, Tony Pedregon, Greg Anderson, Kenny Bernstein, Joe Amato, Gary Scelzi, Larry Dixon, and Tony Schumacher. Top NHRA diecast toy car brands include Hot Wheels, Matchbox, and Maisto.

• Indy toy cars: Championship cars have an aerodynamic, low-to-the ground look. Collect small diecast versions of the cars raced by Indy stars such as A.J. Foyt and Emerson Fittipaldi.

• LeMans toy cars: Find Audi, Bentley, Porsche, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes, and Ford diecast toy vehicles made famous by France's famous LeMans endurance race.

Select specialty toy vehicles

Pay tribute to working men and women with a collection of specialty toy vehicles.

• Farm toys: Look for modern and old-school farm toys, such as toy combines, toy tractors, toy balers, John Deere replicas, and Caterpillar vehicles from Ertl, Norscot, and Tonka.

• Construction equipment toys: Along with farm toys, the Ertl, Norscot, and Tonka brands produce toy construction equipment such as Caterpillar replicas, toy cranes, toy dump trucks, toy cement mixers, and more.

• Emergency vehicle toys: Nab toy police cars, toy fire trucks, toy ambulances, and other toy emergency vehicles from brands such as Code 3, Welly, Franklin Mint, Dinky, Corgi, and Brooklin.

• Delivery & service vehicle toys: Pick up toy commercial trucks and vans from Johnny Lightning, Hot Wheels, Ertl, Danbury Mint, and more.

• Military vehicle toys: Flush out toy military vehicles such as toy tanks, toy Hummers, toy Humvees, and toy Jeeps from Micro Machines, Corgi, Dinky, Tootsie Toy, and more.

Find the toy cars you love

Attention car enthusiasts: Make your wildest car ownership dreams come true.

• Toy tuner cars: Jada, Micro Machines, and Hot Wheels produce the hottest car modifications, such as the Shelby Mustang, in scale sizes.

• Toy muscle cars: Bulk up your collection of high-performance vehicles with a sporty look. Look for diecast scale models of the Pontiac GTO, Trans Am, Corvette, and Camero.

• Toy dream cars: Collect diecast BMWs, diecast Porsches, diecast Ferraris, and other toy vehicles representing cars scores of people only dream of owning. Popular brands include Minichamps, Exoto, and Tomica.

• Movie-inspired miniatures: Find toy vehicles based on your favorite movies and television shows such as a toy Batmobile, toy Herbie, toy General Lee from "The Dukes of Hazard," and toy cars from the James Bond films.

• Precision vehicle toys: Precision vehicle toys have working operating features and a true-to-life interior, exterior, and colors. Popular brands include Ertl (makers of John Deere Precision vehicles) and Franklin Mint.

Gauge the Age of Toy Vehicles

Gauge the Age of Toy Vehicles

Toy vehicle materials, manufacturing techniques, and detail can help you determine the age of a vehicle. For example, manufacturers produced simple toys made of cast iron, pressed steel, and slush before World War II. During war time, iron and steel were mainly used by the military. But after the war, the toy vehicle industry again used the materials as well as Bakelite, diecast, and plastic. The toy vehicle industry also took advantage of the technical advances achieved during the war, producing more detailed toy vehicles.

• Diecast toy vehicles: Diecast toy vehicles come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Tootsie Toy, Corgi, Dinky, First Gear, Franklin Mint, Maisto, and Matchbox produced vintage diecast cars and trucks manufactured before 1970. Vintage Hot Wheels, including Red Line Hot Wheels, were manufactured between 1968 and 1980. You can also find a large selection of modern diecast cars, diecast trucks, diecast airplanes, diecast motorcycles, and diecast boats on eBay.

• Pressed steel toy vehicles: Look for vintage pressed steel cars, trucks, and jeeps from Nylint, Tonka, Buddy L, Marx, Structo, and Wyandotte. You can also find modern pressed steel trucks, vans, farm equipment, and other specialty vehicles produced by Tonka and Nylint after 1970 on eBay.

• Plastic toy vehicles: Collect vintage plastic toy vehicles from Revell, Marx, F&F, and Ideal or grab the latest modern plastic toy vehicles, including military Micro Machines, Ertl farm toys, Herpa toy cars and trucks, Tonka trucks, and NASCAR race cars.

• White metal toy vehicles: White metal toy vehicles, often made of pewter, come in hand-built designs.

• Cast iron toy vehicles: Sturdy cast iron toy vehicles were produced before World War II and sold under the Hubley, Arcade, and Dent brand names.

• Tin toy vehicles: Vintage tin scale models realistically portray vehicles produced from the early 1900s through the 1970s, including American cars of the 1950s and 1960s. Modern tin toy vehicles are also available.

• Slush toy vehicles: Barclay, Kansas, Tootsie Toy, and others produced basic, lead-free slush (also called hollow cast or pot metal) vehicles before World War II.

Build a contemporary toy vehicle collection

Keep your collecting goals in mind when you shop for toy vehicles that hit the market after 1990. They'll stop you from getting caught up in fads. You may want to look at:

• Contemporary aircraft toys: Find the latest rescue aircraft toys, military aricraft toys, NASA aircraft toys, and commercial aircraft toys.

• Contemporary motorcycle toys: Collect toy motorcycles like those produced by Harley Davidson and Orange County Choppers (OCC) .

• Contemporary diecast cars: Discover diecast cars from Corgi and