Kit value - 1/12 Doyusha Countach LP500S

[DSM-Mark]

Hi everyone,
I have a question about the value of the above kit. This is NOT a classified ad!
I plan to sell this kit locally but I don't know how to price it. It seems to be more rare now than it was 5 years ago (makes sense), but I can't seem to find any examples for sale anywhere.
The good: It's complete and pretty much all still on the trees and in the baggies.
The bad: Someone tried to paint the body and managed to do about half the roof with a brush. That paint has to come off, but it would not surprise me if it came off easy. (it wasn't me that did it, so I don't know what kind of paint was used).

If you were to sell this kit locally, what would you price it at? I don't want to list it for $60 and find out it's actually worth $150...
Thanks!

[countach79]

it has been said before that kits are only worth what someone will pay

having said that, i bought the countach kit in a similar cond to yours ( body primed but not much else started )

I bought mine from the usa for around $50AU

I've seen them go anywhere from $40US ( started ) - $90US (un started)

probably not much help, but just my 2 cents :-)

I'd take it from ya if i lived over there

[CrateCruncher]

I'll add my experience to what Countach said.

First the good news - it's a nice model with a lot of accurate detail and tons of parts. I built the LP400 and, though it took a long time, I had a ball. It's a great build and fits together quite well.

Now the bad news - Otaki, then Testors, then Doyusha all popped this kit out by the thousands over the years making it relatively common. Add to that the fact hardly anyone ever actually builds one and you have street prices far below what they ought to be in my opinion. (If the world were "fair" this would be a $300 model!)

Now the really bad news - Since the body has been brush painted thats going to cut the value in half because with so many pristine examples floating about people won't want to take a risk buying yours.

You have three options -

1) Sell it as is on fee bay or maybe at a local show for $50 and be done with it.
2) Restore the body carefully and then sell it for $100 if your lucky.
3) Do #2 but build it instead (what I'd do).

Even in pristine condition these kits rarely sell on the internet for more than $150. The LP400 version does better because it's somewhat rare and most Countach people like the earliest cars without all the wings/fairings.

If you just hang onto it the price will creep up over time but I doubt it will outpace inflation - but you never know.....it ought to be worth a lot more.

cc

[rallymaster]

mode yell on (nothing personal following may I add)

What the hell make people think that as soon as a kit is "rare" or named like that it makes inevitably increase its value...???!
that's not the kit value anymore but the "idiot value" paid by those who're scared to miss a thing they could have bought the week before (and often would also be able to week after) and would sell mother and father to get it !!
a kit value is what it costed once released, rest is only pure speculation.
If an idiot would offer 1000 dollars for it, would someone dare to pretend its value is now 1000 dollars...??
Speculation kills the hobby... and do remember you'll also be the buyer once or another...

mode yell off

[DSM-Mark]

Originally Posted by rallymaster

What the hell make people think that as soon as a kit is "rare" or named like that it makes inevitably increase its value...???!

Supply and demand.
If supply goes down as the limited number of copies produced inevitably get built, stepped on, dropped from great height, flooded under 2 feet of water, eaten by the dog, or other great catastrophe the available number of units will go down. If people still desire a kit, they will be willing to pay more to get a copy of it.

I thought about selling this thing 5 years ago, but decided to keep it and build it one day. At the time I found 3 or 4 of them on ebay, which gave me an idea of their current market value. Today I couldn't find any. I'm just trying to find out what my procrastination has done to the value of this kit.

I did not hoard this kit to sell at a profit later. It was a gift to me that I intended to build but time and hobby choice has made it so I still have it but am even less likely to build it now.

Yesterday I sold four OOP 1/24 kits for ~$20 each. Well less than I paid. I'm not trying to strongarm anyone here, or even get 'top dollar'. I'm just looking for a starting point for a kijiji ad. I don't want to put it up for $100 and be that guy that overprices his stuff and hopes for an idiot buyer.

I'll probably post it for $60 and hope to get $50 for it.

It's helping to fund my new hobby... the 18-105 lens I bought for my camera last week

[CrateCruncher]

Originally Posted by rallymaster

mode yell on (nothing personal following may I add)

What the hell make people think that as soon as a kit is "rare" or named like that it makes inevitably increase its value...???!
that's not the kit value anymore but the "idiot value" paid by those who're scared to miss a thing they could have bought the week before (and often would also be able to week after) and would sell mother and father to get it !!
a kit value is what it costed once released, rest is only pure speculation.
If an idiot would offer 1000 dollars for it, would someone dare to pretend its value is now 1000 dollars...??
Speculation kills the hobby... and do remember you'll also be the buyer once or another...

mode yell off

Wow! Not sure what set you off Rally. It's just that everything with durable tooling goes into and out of production and we have to figure out some rules for what a reasonable "street price" is for them at all stages if we want to trade them intelligently. Otherwise we become the very fools you mention, asking or paying "idiot values". Yes, feeBay is full of examples of a crazy price paid here and there but the "street price" quickly returns to reality and the fools quickly run out of money..... unfortunately.

By the way, MSRP is just a guess thats totally made up by the manufacturer anyway and it's usually too high because it's much easier to discount than raise MSRP once the product is out. It has no meaning once the product begins to trade in significant quantities.

On your last point, First we are the buyer. THEN, we become the seller. There may be several years in between. I for one am only willing to pay for something a price I can resell it for with some certainty if I decide not to build it. Again, thats why I spend some time looking at market prices before i buy anything. (99% of my model collection is OOP.)

In my view speculation is buying something undervalued with no other motivation but to immediately resell it for a tiny profit. Considering how inexpensive most model kits are, that's a heck of a lot of work. I could make more money digging aluminum cans out of dumpsters.

[rallymaster]

Originally Posted by DSM-Mark

Supply and demand.

I'm not naive and I know what a market is made of, but in what I was refering to I don't see any demand but just some people trying to know how high they can put their "supply" to get a clown "demanding" it three times its price !!
- once more I'm not talking about this thread especially but of this rare = expensive concept in general -
there is a lot of seller having been trying for years (I'm not joking) to sell some tamiya kit around 80 / 120 euros !! by chance no idiot to purchase till now...
but a tamiya kit still worse what it costed, plastic hasn't golden with years and no money appeared under decals !!
that's only trying to make money on stupidity and/or ignorance and that's cheating with reality, which is after that moved by real supply and demand, the logical law of the market.
But in my mind I'm not thinking to kits which leave expensive prices after a lot of bids (all of us inevitably thought to Ebay...) but thinking to some seller trying to make you swallow false argue just to justify a price.
Rare never imply high price as long as nobody want the kit.
So I can't understand why some people try to sell things higher and higher without letting market decide (except to make money as qualified above).
that behaviour make some purchase forbidden for some modelers who don't have a lot of money to put in their hobby...
And that's sad...

Originally Posted by CrateCruncher

Wow! Not sure what set you off Rally. It's just that everything with durable tooling goes into and out of production and we have to figure out some rules for what a reasonable "street price" is for them at all stages if we want to trade them intelligently. Otherwise we become the very fools you mention, asking or paying "idiot values". Yes, feeBay is full of examples of a crazy price paid here and there but the "street price" quickly returns to reality and the fools quickly run out of money..... unfortunately

Yes, you deserve explanations cos I'm less angry than the tone of my post let imagine it...
first, just let me say I'm not talking of the buyer side as you are above, we all - I suppose - did one or several time pay more than reasonable for something we hardly would like to see in our collection.

I'm criticizing the fact that some people always suppose there will be an idiot (who should better be called ignorant or not confirmed modeler or newbie not to be too rude) to buy things prices they don't worse...
That killed the market on both sides: on one hand some other ones will try to do the same, and on the other hand some buyer completely loose or forget (or don't learn) the right price of things.
I can't understand for example that some people pay 180 euros for a bad 1/43 diecast just as if they were used to have to pay such price because it once left that price (??!!) when in the same time a handbuilt detailed kit of the same model doesn't even reach the nude kit price !!
That's what I call stupidity in buying behaviour.
And what make speculation take supply and demand place.
Ignorant or completely idiot buyers encourage narrow minded seller thinking there will be a more idiot person than themselves to pay their prices.

And that's why I will never encourage someone to sell at a not justified price or buy at that same price, how hard I want the item.

I'm probably a bit naive on this point precisely, but I think that keeping reasonable on both sides, seller and buyer, will keep market calm and stable.
but more than that I think I'm maybe just too honest to understand and practice speculation, even if I had thee good surprise to sell some kits to such unreasonable prices, I never try to sell to this price. In this case it really was a real demand than set price level.

unfortunately that's not good spirit and honesty that manage the world, that's money !!

[CrateCruncher]

I hear ya! I too get annoyed at all the "auction" sellers asking ridiculous "buy-it-now" prices on things to see if they can catch a fool with money. It is getting to be a problem in automotive models because as you say, there are fewer and fewer multiple-bid transactions making it difficult to know what stuff is really worth. It only seems to be a problem in the car/bike model categories for some reason. I also watch airplanes and there's no buy-it-now b.s. going on there. I even follow some vintage electronics categories and most everything is a real auction there too.

I think the best thing is to avoid buying or selling anything until I see several sell in real auctions with multiple bids. The hardest part for me to accept sometimes is that 20 fools who all pay way too much are no longer fools - they are a new market price.

[corvettekid_7684]

Well, I paid $150 for a 1/12 LP400 in brand new condition. Perhaps I'm a fool, but I wanted it and thats what it took to win the auction. I'm an even bigger fool since I already had a 1/12 LP500 Testors version in my closet...oh well. Personally, this model is so nice, I felt it was worth it.
I also bought an assembled one for $30, but wouldnt have paid any more for it, so there's that...