How a toy car can recapture a moment (and put a little cash in this student’s pocket)

Collecting toys is in Andrew Bates’ blood, the UMKC senior said — and now it’s in his wallet.

A supply chain management student at the university, Bates was exposed to the hunt for nostalgia early, he said; his father was snagging Hot Wheels for him before Bates was born.

“I was (slow) to embrace it,” the founder of Flame N’ Go Collectibles said of collecting toy cars. “But then I saw the money that could be involved with it, and thought ‘OK, these are actually kind of cool.’”

Andrew Bates, Flame N’ Go Collectibles, sits in the crowd alongside fellow student competitors in the November 2024 Side Hustle Challenge at UMKC; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

The family turned its hobby into a side hustle about six years ago, but when Bates joined the E-Scholars program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City last year, he said, he was able to take it up a notch — focusing on marketing and the direction for his brand. Bates shared his journey so far with Sam Kulikov, co-founder of Social Apex Media, for a new UMKC Student Venture Series podcast from the Regnier Institute at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Through Flame N’ Go Collectibles, Bates and his partners buy and sell collectibles — both individual pieces and collection — beyond just toy cars.

“You can hit 100 different garage sales (sourcing cars), but not every one of them is going to have Hot Wheels,” Bates told Kulikov. “So you kind of have to diversify a little bit so you’re not wasting your time running around to all these places.”

Legos, video games, music media — if it’s legal and collectible, Bates said, he’s bought and sold it. But the focus always remains on items that bring back memories, he said, pointing to trends that show most people look back about 30 years prior with longing for the past.

“In the 60s and 70s, a lot of people were exposed to these toys,” Bates said, referencing his own favorite era. “They got lost over time, but when people get older, they realize just how much joy these toys bring to them.”

And that feeling is worth paying for, Kulikov added.

“These things are beyond toys, they’re art; and they’re capturing moments in time,” he said. “On the business side of it, people are willing to spend money to purchase capsules of time, to relive those moments — even to just get a couple more minutes of that emotion again.”

Bates’ personal toy car collection boasts more than 100 Redlines, the original Hot Wheels series that dates back to 1968, he said.

“I love the ingenuity that it took to design those cars,” he said, noting he doesn’t prefer mint condition pieces himself. “I like the ones that are just slightly played with because that tells a better story than the ones that just came right out of the package.”

His customers share that same drive to collect, Bates said, acknowledging each person has their own mini niche.

“My customers are just as crazy — if not crazier — about it than I am; but we’re all on different missions as collectors,” he said.

Watch the full podcast below, including Bates and Kulikov’s discussion of imposter syndrome — then click here to check out Kulikov’s interview with Hold Tight Baby’s student founder, Riley Rhoads.