SAMPLE Hot Wheels 2008 Japan(Osaka) Convention '67 Camaro & '55 Chevy Panel

I like high-end Hot Wheels.  RLCs(Red Line Club), Convention stuff.  Couple of these cars I coveted were the pair from the 2008 Japan Convention.  I'm a fan of both castings.  Small problem with these RLC/Convention hot wheels:  $$$

Recently, I had some extra cash.  I searched for a set on eBay.  I found an auction with relatively low bid, I think about $50.  Listing says that it's still sealed, only thing wrong with it are the broken rubber bands on the cars.  

After I won it, it was around $70.  I drooled on enough of these auctions to know that if I could get one for $100, I was doing OK.  So considering, I was very pleased to finally add one of these to my collection, and for such a bargain price.

Today, I receive it.  It's more beautiful than I imagined, then I saw this:

  

Seller had listed that this was one of 2,000, and the only thing wrong with it are the broken rubber bands.  I was going "not again".  With the amount of cars I buy, I've run into plenty of issues like this.  I was not a happy camper.  It says "Sample" right on the effing thing, there is no way he missed that.  My initial reaction was to:  a) Return it.  b) Ask for partial refund.  c) Who cares, at this price, I can just keep them as "loose".

I searched for similar sets on eBay, and they said "xxxxx/01,500".  This set wasn't one of 2,000, it should've been one of 1,500.  That's when I realized something was wrong here.  If Mattel intended to sell just 1,500 of these, why would they make 12,500 of samples, or demos?  I google it, nothing.  I headed over to hotwheelscollectors.com forum, and sure enough, there are Mattel people answering questions from other collectors who found the same stickers on other collectible hot wheel cars. 

On the site, it was explained that Mattel uses this "Sample/12.500" hologram stickers on many samples intended for internal use, regardless of production run, or serial #'s, and they are extremely rare.  Here I thought I was getting ripped off on eBay by some guy presenting & selling an inferior product as one of the very limited releases(only 1,500 sold).  I'm sure that was the sellers intention too, but I was actually getting something far more rare than any limited release hot wheels.  It is so rare you have hard time finding information on it on google, let alone find one for sale.   

So glad I got screwed.  Don't read into that, it's for an effect.  lol