Carson City resident Jeff Halpern began
collecting die-cast police cars while working
at a hobby shop in
Burbank, Calif. Soon
he had a personal
collection of more
than 1,200 model
cars, and he started a
Web site to showcase
his collection.
It didn't take
Halpern, 35, long to
figure out he could
make money from his
extensive catalogue of
cop cars. Founded in
2000, policecarmodels.
com sells die-cast
models of law
enforcement vehicles
from nearly every
state in the United
States and most major cities as well.
Halpern moved to Carson City in August
in order to get the business out of his fourbedroom
house in Los Angeles, which he says
was overrun for more than seven years by
cardboard,"popcorn" packing and tape. He
bought an affordable house in Carson City
and works out of a 1,400-square-foot warehouse
at 5801 Sheep Drive.
In 2006 Halpern changed his Web hosting
to a Yahoo-based shopping cart system,
which boosted sales by 40 percent. He previously
filled orders by phone. Today, 99 percent
of his orders come from the Internet.
"It's secure and easier for them to order,"
he says.
Halpern orders fully decorated model
cars from China, as well as blank stock
because some collectors prefer to add paint,
decals and light bars themselves. He
acknowledges he's limiting sales by not
stocking other types of model cars, but says if
he expanded his product line he would butt
heads with much stiffer competition and
investment capital for expansion is scarce.
"Police cars are the smallest, tiniest niche
of the die-cast industry," he says,"but I have a
pretty good following of regular and new
customers."
Cars typically range in price from $10 to
$30. Halpern says the economic downturn
hasn't really affected his business.
"The economy sucks, but cop car guys
don't seem to mind," he says."A lot of cops
are customers, and they aren't losing their
jobs anytime soon."
