Hi, nice to meet you. I am Ivor Turcin, a Hot Wheels collector from Zagreb, Croatia. I am the founder and owner of the app "Diecast Parking" with the tagline "Transform the way you collect cars" because I knew there had to be an easier and smarter way to collect cars!
From a young age, I was always playing with cars. Growing up in the 90s in Croatia, I had a collection of about 300 cars, mostly 1:64 scale models from manufacturers like Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Majorette, Maisto, and some 1:43 scale models like Bburago. Acquiring these cars was a challenge since they weren't readily available in local shops. My parents often bought them on trips to Austria. I vividly remember one trip to a store called Metro, where I spent at least 30 minutes choosing from hundreds of Hot Wheels cars. I played with them on a carpet with a printed 2D city, using my imagination to create countless adventures.
In college, I decided to sell my childhood collection to earn some extra money. I discovered a community of collectors on Facebook groups who were passionate about diecast cars. Initially, I thought my buyers were purchasing for their children, but I quickly realized the depth of this hobby.
I enjoyed selling on marketplaces, a skill I had since primary school when I sold seashells during summer holidays. I bought another collection from a colleague and became more involved in the diecast car community, attending fairs and making new friends.
After some months of buying and selling, I found myself in a store looking at Hot Wheels cars. I spotted a blue Tesla Model S and bought it, thinking it was a fun purchase. That moment, in May 2016, marked my return to collecting. My collection grew rapidly, and today I have around 700 cars.
In April 2019, I started an Instagram page, Hot Wheels By Ivor, to showcase my collection, which is primarily Hot Wheels with some Matchbox and Majorette models. I made over 700 posts, but as my collection grew, I faced challenges tracking my cars via Instagram.
When I first started using Instagram to track my diecast car collection, it worked well. With a small number of posts, it was easy to manage. However, as my collection grew and I reached over 700 posts, it became a nightmare. Finding a specific car meant scrolling through my entire Instagram page, which could take several minutes. In that time, I might miss out on a trade or a chance to buy a desired model from another collector. Talking to fellow collectors face-to-face and trying to show off a favorite car was also a hassle. Scrolling through hundreds of posts wasn't practical, and Instagram's lack of sorting options by manufacturer or vehicle brand made it even harder. Eventually, I stopped posting my cars on Instagram because it wasn't reaching new or old followers effectively.
I also tried storing photos of my cars in my phone gallery. While it seemed convenient at first, it quickly became frustrating. I love to travel, and my travel photos mixed with my car photos made it hard to find specific car images. Scrolling through a sea of photos just to show a colleague a particular car or to verify if I had a certain model was annoying. Plus, if my phone was lost, stolen, or damaged, I'd lose all my photos. This method felt too risky and inefficient for managing my collection.
In the beginning, I could keep track of my collection in my head. With only a few cars, it wasn't a big deal. But as my collection grew, remembering every car, especially with different variations in color or rims, became impossible. I found myself accidentally buying duplicates, which was particularly frustrating when the cars were expensive. Trying to mentally track a large collection just didn't work for me.
At one point, I turned to Excel to track my collection. Excel allowed me to record detailed information about each car, from the manufacturer and brand to the year of release and rim type. However, adding pictures was a huge hassle. Even with Google Sheets on my phone, I had to transfer images to my computer, crop them, and insert them into the table. It was time-consuming and inconvenient, making Excel far from an ideal solution.
Why have an app to track your collection? There are plenty of reasons: easy tracking and managing your collection in almost real time. You can buy a car in the store and immediately enter its information into the app, either right there or when you get home and can take better pictures. The app allows you to easily search for details, helping you avoid buying duplicates.
You can also maintain a wishlist to keep track of cars you want to add to your collection when they become available in stores. While waiting for them, you can keep them in your list to remember and share these wanted models with your colleagues.
No more problems with endless scrolling for pictures of cars and no worries about losing photos. The app stores everything in your account, so when you change your phone, you just log in and have it all again.
You can have all of that in my app, Diecast Parking. Download it for iOS and Android for free!
As you can see, I've gone through almost every phase a collector experiences when starting out. From mental tracking to using galleries and Instagram, and finally to creating an app to track my collection. I have to say, I'm really relieved because I can use the app anywhere and anytime.