We were lucky to catch up with SAMUEL DAVIS recently and have shared our conversation below.
SAMUEL, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today
I would have done more research on Hot Wheel fanfare and culture to get a better understanding of what the masses were into and what I actually had. My son and I had been track building since 2013. The first event where I sold cars was in 2023. Between then, we built quite the personal collection of cars we liked. A trip to any store with a Hot Wheels section would see us leaving with five to twenty easily. Eventually we had too many to open and play with and found ourselves with bins of cars. During that period we were only concerened with how well a car could perform on our track builds. In 2023 during the Winchester Community Fair, I made my first major mistake. At the fair I set up a sizeable track, and many individual track sets. I would then sell off my collection to be used on the tracks. Due to not undertanding the Hot Wheels market, I wound up selling off my collection at far less than its value. And no I’m not talking scalper prices if you’re getting that idea. Onlyafter getting invited to set up at several car oriented events did I begin to understand the demand for certain types of cars. Between those events and a deep dive into Hot Wheels history and culture, I realized how many rare, special, and coveted cars I sold off from a collection that took a decade to build. Although very succesful now, a week doesn’t go by where I don’t think about how much money was left on the table at my first event.
Other avenues I would have taken to gain success faster would be to start collecting cars earlier in order to get ahold of older cars that havent been seen awhile.
Get involved with YouTube and social media sooner before it became saturated with similar content.
Build the business while still working at my aviation job in order to have a constant stream of capital.
Get assistance from an organization such as the SBA in order to avoid missteps and pitfalls when creating my businees strcture.
Not ruin my credit while trying to scale up. This happened after I quit my job and went head first into the business.
Not being afraid of failure(or success). Although I had the vision, support, and acclaim, I was still afraid of the shame of failing. Especially since my businees is different and non traditional. On the flip side, I have foreseen my success and that makes me nervous too.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a retired vet. I was in the Navy from 1998 to 2018. I was a helicopter mechanic stationed at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego my entire career. I’ve deployed four times. once onboard USS Constellations final deployment in 2002. Twice on USS Abraham Lincoln 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. And finally on USS Nimitz in 2013. I remarried in 2012 and that’s when I began my journey with Hot Wheels. In this new marriage my wife brought an 8-year-old son, and I brought an 11-year-old daughter. Christmas of 2012, I bought my stepson “son” a Hot Wheels set called the Triple Track Twister. Like all Christmas gifts, it was fun for a few days, then discarded like so many presents are. During a visit to Toys R Us I saw that they carried individual track extensions and various other track building accessories. I never knew they had stuff like that, or I just never paid attention. I bought a handful of tracks and a few boxes of accessories and the Trackmaster was born. For years, my kids, their cousins, and I would create track layouts that were both massive and dynamic. Some builds would take up the entire garage or first floor of our house, Our interest took us to watching other builders on YouTube. We found ourselves critiquing the Youtubers builds and deeming ours superior.
Every year my squadron would have a children’s Christmas party. It comprised of the standard bounce house, face painting, snack table, and Santa Clause with gifts. For the 2014 party they were looking for fresh ideas. I volunteered to set up a giant Hot Wheels track. Building a huge track in a helicopter hangar is a dream come true due to the unlimited space. The track was a hit. I volunteered my craft to various squadrons around base until I retired in 2018. In between Christmas parties my services were requested for friends’ kids’ birthday parties, gender reveals, and holiday parties for the Impala club I am in, Cali-SS. Since I was being paid for the side ventures, I decided to become an actual legal business entity. Initially I would just set up large tracks and sets, and provide the cars to play on them, and that was that. I eventually evolved to selling cars as well. Nowadays, depending on the event, I’m either only selling cars, or setting up track and selling cars.
Some of the problems I have been able to solve are circumventing the scalper culture and getting more of the coveted cars to the folks who otherwise are not able to get ahold them at a decent price. Another issue solved is getting kids off the electronics and them getting involved in hours of physical play with other kids. Also, some of the track sets are either too expensive to buy or too big to leave set up in their homes. Through my service people can enjoy the latest track sets without burdening their households.
What sets me apart from other Hot Wheels vendors is my involvement with the community at large. I’ve formed strong relationships with various moms’ groups, local car meets, car shows, vendor markets, community organizations, churches, businesses, a drag strip, and even a malI. I am most proud of making people happy. Hearing someone say, “I’ve been looking for this car everywhere!” or “I’ve never seen anything like this before!”, or “You have really good prices.” brings of plenty joy to my heart and motivates me to see what else I can do to make the people even happier.
I’d like people to know that I’m on the grind. That everything I do, I do for them. I am constantly brainstorming on how I can provide a better experience. I want to establish myself as the guy to see to get the cars you want at a fair price.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
At the moment Instagram is my primary form of communication. I’m in the infancy of builidng my website. Being available for the people and organizations that I have cultivated relationships with is what really established my brand loyalty. I try to meet every booking request that I can. Even if it requires me to take a little time off from work or scheduling mutiple bookings in a day. After several events folks become more like family than clients. Being involved and personable is key. Doing little things like knowing someones favorite vehicle, stashing away a car for someone, or even giving a free car goes a long way as well. Folks don’t forget those small acts of kindness and consideration.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
One of my biggest missteps that I’m still trying to rectify to this day. 2023 is when I made the decision to try to make this my main job. At that time I was four years into being a house dad. My retirement benefits facilitated my lifestyle. Mortgage, bills, car note, all covered. I was funding my business from retirement income. Since my neither my wife or I worked, we were covered but didn’t have much play money. As the businees slowly grew, I realized that I needed more capital. I exercised the strength of my credit cards. Those helped temporarly, but it became more difficult to pay back the large balances on their due date. I put faith in the hustle and tried to work my way out of our debt avalanche. Unfortunately, my infrastruture and clientele wasn’t robust enough to facilitate my lifestyle, scale my business, and clear my debt. To add insult to injury, the transmission went out in my Suburban, which was my primary family vehicle and business vehicle. In the summer of 2024 I had to make the tough decision to throttle back on Trackmaster, and go back to working as a contractor on base. The income from the job has allowed me to scale at a rapid pace. Now I’m in a position to where I have too many booking request and are working on employing personnel and getting an officila work vehicle. Unfortunately I’m still repairing the damage done to my credit. Currently my job and business have a symbiotic relationship.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/california_trackmaster/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560654965173
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@californiatrackmaster
