More pain on the pegs, your challenge awaits
Our plight of empty pegs has moved up in the world as Jalopnik recently wrote an article about the lack of Hot Wheels in every retail store.
They cover all the worldly suspects - manufacturing, logistics, demand - but they also highlight the plight that will never go away: snipers, or as they put them, "sharks." Or as I often call them, the Door Warmers.
The villain of every casual collector and modder, these are the folks that seemingly open the boxes in the store, help the stock boys (or pay them off) and just otherwise buy everything they can find just to resell for 25 cents more on eBay.
As the article discusses, it's so bad right now that even common(ish) mainline cars are selling for anywhere from $5 to almost $50. It's nuts and it's sad.
But the post also hits on something we should all consider...all the non-Hot Wheels brands. The Hot Wheels might be empty peggers but even here in Ohio I've seen pegs full of Matchbox and other brands.
So here's your challenge
And I think it's one we need.
Don't fret over the lack of HW cars...just use what you can get. We pull them apart and rebuild them faster and better anyway, so challenge yourself to do that with what you can find. It's easy to make a fast V16. Try your hand at an "off-brand" casting you're not familiar with...you might be surprised.
And the article also hits on Hot Wheel's own collector club and the "problems" with that type of selling and collecting, but that's another beast for another time.
Discussion
The bad part of this shortage of hot wheels is that the majority of the people aren't collectors,and are just making money off guys and gals like us that like collecting,and racing.The local flea markets here in southern Ohio are literally flooded with new castings at at least 2 times or better than retail,not to mention most have the better castings going for ungodly prices.the sad part is about alll of those vendors will tell you they don't collect,they are just making money.
- Where the are collectors there will be true sellers, right? I'm fine with Joe Fleamarket buying cars just to resell but when there's no alternative because the stores are empty, that's the shitty part. — redlinederby
- I really don’t have a problem with resale,but it’s the sellers that aren’t collectors,that drive the prices up to literally unreasonable prices,at least that’s the problem I see,as well as my other friends that are collectors.I’m truly sorry if I upset anyone here,just speaking on what I’m seeing — Rusty_Rod
Locally, nearly all pegs at the big box stores are empty. A couple of grocery stores that usually have big mainline displays are empty. One did recently put out maybe one case worth of Spring 2021 cars. But today I happened to go to Walmart and they had a nice selection. 
- That is the most cars I've seen on the pegs in more than a year. Guess I'll have to scope Walmart. — redlinederby
Honolulu has been bare everywhere since before Black Friday, although Target recently put out some more Hot Wheels. The problem is, since they all come from the same place, the MBX pegs have been bare too. And, there are no dollar stores here, so Maisto is out of the picture. :(
I keep an eye out for carded Tomica (typically $3) at the Japanese grocery stores. The Tomica in the boxes at the Gundam hobby shops are very pricey.
Here in SF Bay Area, California - I run a circut of 4 local targets, 3 wallmarts and 5 dollar stores.
I've found exactly 1 full pegs - and they are always picked over. When I first started collecting, I found a dollar tree with an unpicked peg rack - and I kick myself for not getting the cars I wanted then.
The line was so long I got frustrated.
I regret that - I truly do.
I literally stopped going to my local Dollar General where I usually picked up my cars, because they have not had a single thing on the shelves, I haven't gone in three years, because there was simply no point im wasting the gas to drive over there only to find out they STILL did not have anything in stock, let alone even a place to stock them anymore.
our stores seem to have restocked,
In Jan, wife and I did a little road trip, and 3 dollar generals had no cars
Walgreens does not even have a place for them now
Dollar tree this weekend had a bunch of cars, but only maybe 4-6 different castings
but they finally had orange long track and curves again
they were out since xmas
I picked up one of these maisto to go nuts on
modding it for the vette races
since it had blackout windows, I completely filled it with 158° diecast
with no wheels, 215 grams so far
it feels like a deer slug...lol
Hm well down here in Rhode Island it's been relatively good In my searches all things considered,usually my best bet is searching in the boxes rather than the pegs but I've been finding things in the majority of my local retail stores (Target,Walmart,dollar general,etc.)
MakersBox Motors has been"toying" with Zuru Metal Machines lately. They have metal chassis and plastic bodies. I'm not too impressed with the wheels and usually swap them out. The plastic body rivets are of a diameter that makes it hard to close back up using the same screws I normally us. I've sent a couple out for races, but no results yet. The Crazy Dave's Zombie Patrol at the Apocalypse Joust is all Zuru and is killing it through!
I don't hunt aggressively for new releases like I used to. I just figure if the shelves are bare that those castings will find me eventually. But I have seriously expanded my collection of original redlines & JL Toppers over the years. I'd rather invest in something that's geniunely "hard to find" and known to appreciate in value.
We have finally started seeing some new deliveries in NZ recently but the nice castings don't last long so you have to be quick - like the Sierra Cosworth and the Toyota Celica, hardly any around at all.
I don't collect, I buy because I like the body shape or style of the car. Plus all mine get raced or pulled apart and modded then raced. I have a decent amount still in packets at the moment but every one of them will get run on the track at some point.
We get so many people buying up cars like the Sierra etc for $3NZD then selling them for a minimum $8-10 and often $30+ the week later.
I have a bunch of crappy cars from off-brands, that don't run but I was gonna use the bodies cause they look fine and then just build a new base for them and use some of my donor wheels I have. I also buy a fair amount of MBX or Majorette (although the Majorette ones really struggled with stock wheels but look fantastic) and do race them at times. Hot Wheels have been my main go to as the mainlines were so inexpensive.