SANTA ANA, Calif. — I look at these things and see tiny metal cars. You can open their little doors and hoods and trunks, you can admire their little tail fins, you can roll them across the floor. I see toys, and that is all I see. I am of the wrong gender. I simply do not understand.

On eBay right now, there are 82,810 auctions involving Hot Wheels cars and their accouterments. Unless you are a particular type of male — or the mother of one — you will surely be surprised to learn that there are Hot Wheels surfboards, Hot Wheels sandals, Hot Wheels thermoses, Hot Wheels Christmas ornaments, bedsheets, wristwatches, computer games — goodness, even Hot Wheels underwear. Vroom, vroom. The cars themselves range in value from a few cents to $8,500 for a collection of 126 "vintage" cars — enough to buy, say, a real car.

If the rule for effective storytelling is "write what you know," buckle up, kids, this may be a bumpy ride. A guide is needed in this alien landscape, so I turn to Jon Melin, owner of Way 2 Fast Toys and Collectibles in Orange, Calif. Melin is a quiet guy whose basement shop is an explosion of candy-colored cars that's drool-inducing to the addicted.

Why? I ask. What makes people pay thousands of dollars for old toys?

"It's a guy thing," he says.

I probe further, and as best I can tell, it has something to do with recapturing the magic of youth (most collectors have vivid memories of racing cars around the house as kids), the powerful mythology of the automobile (its promises of freedom and independence), and flat-out, full-blown fantasy.

"And a lot of guys like the old classics," he says, such as '64 Mustangs — things they can't afford in real life.

So toy car collecting is an act of willful imagination. Of deliberate whimsy. Sort of like those people who plunge into ice-cold water in their underwear every New Year's Day. OK. I can grasp that. Sort of.

A very brief review of the psychological literature reveals that there are many motivations for collecting, including the desire to leave a legacy, build an empire and revel in the thrill of the hunt.

When you stick it in a display case on the wall, people like me see a little car — but you see a collection of memories entwined with tales of triumph and loss, tales you can tell your friends at parties — or, in the case of Hot Wheels collectors, at the annual conference (held for years at the Irvine Hyatt Regency), because your friends probably don't want to hear it.

Hot Wheels hit the market in 1968, and some 40 million kids have grown up playing with them, according to Mattel. The lure of nostalgia cannot be underestimated.

OK, I get it. Whatever can make you feel that feeling again is magic.