Steve Kushner is the man behind the outrageous collection of 150+ “one of a kind” customized Hot Wheels cars listed on eBay for $1,000,000 under the username of bttbbosscross954. “BTTB” stands for Bad to the Bone Customs, “boss cross” is self-explanatory, and “954” is the area code for South Florida, where Steve is currently a resident.
In most ways, Steve is just an everyday gear head who inherited his passion for cars from his weekend drag racing father. Amongst the things that could be seen as normal is his story about how he got into collecting Hot Wheels when his favorite aunt used to buy him one every time they visited the local five and dime. Steve even grew up to be car dude with decent car dude taste, owning a ‘66 GTO Convertible, ‘70 Mach 1, and ‘69 Boss 302 in his day.
But in some ways, Steve is, dare we say, a tad eccentric. It’s not that it is entirely unheard of for a Hot Wheels collection to be worth an absurd amount of money. After all, Hot Wheels’ own media website states, “Some of the largest Hot Wheels collections are valued at more than $1,000,000.” It’s just that a million dollar collection of Hot Wheels that are customized with things such as cat hair and kitty litter, and lovingly named Dirtball Dragster, could be seen as peculiar—especially given the price tag.
It should be mentioned that the collection consists of cars that have been more meticulously customized using parts from 7 or 8 cars and taking 25-30 hours to assemble just one creation. Goldie Blocks, a custom dragster that has 20 golden engines glued onto a subframe, is Steve’s favorite custom in the corral.
The good news is that amongst the madness, there seems to be some sense of sanity. You see, Steve doesn’t really care about the money. His parents recently received a pretty decently sized settlement lump.
He put the cars up for sale due to constant nagging from his family and friends to do so. He likens the collection to a beloved family pet and just wants to see his precious pieces to go to a good home that will love and appreciate them as much as he does.
“If somebody wants my babies, and they want to give me a ridiculous amount of money, they are for sale, but only to a good home,” Steven declares. He quickly modifies his statement by warning, “The collection is NOT for sale to anyone with kids who could be prone to playing with them. I have nightmares about that sort of thing happening!”
By the way, Steve wants people to know that there is a $50k finder’s fee for anyone who introduces a buyer that actually results in a sale.