What would be the value for sale on these kits.

[jano11]

Originally Posted by drunken monkey

I think the point is, the supposed value of the kit is almost meaningless until you have sold it.
If what you want is $100, having a kit in your hand that might be sold at $100 isn't the same as having that $100.
Then there is, as he said, the fact that not everyone will pay $100 for it.

The thing to bare in mind when it comes to selling is this
i) what did you pay for the kit?
ii) are you willing to take a loss on the kit?
Adjust your selling prices according to your answers.

A bit of a flawed logic there as not everyone would pay 10 millions for a Rembrandt at an auction but if one person pays than that's it's value.

[CrateCruncher]

Predicting the actual selling price of super-rare items like Rembrandts is always going to be a challenge. But one thing is a certain fact. The price will always trend UP because Rembrandt is very, very, DEAD. He can't paint anymore in his current state of health so the supply of original Rembrandts is a fixed quantity. Meanwhile the supply of super-successful humans wishing to acquire a Rembrandt continues to go up. (Humans, unlike Rembrandts, can reproduce themselves with unskilled labor, .)

The same logic works with old Ferraris too. So the trick for us humans is to acquire the items that will be super-rare, a fixed quantity, and highly desirable before anyone else recognizes them and starts driving the price up. Immortality would also be great.

[drunken monkey]

People, don't argue for the sake of it.
And the hell's talking about rembrandts?
I thought we were talking about plastic kits that retail at $10-20.

Originally Posted by jano11

A bit of a flawed logic there as not everyone would pay 10 millions for a Rembrandt at an auction but if one person pays than that's it's value.

Flawed logic?
Please explain to me how what you posted above isn't a re-wording of what you quoted me posting?

Originally Posted by jano11

not everyone would pay 10 millions for a Rembrandt at an auction

Originally Posted by me

...not everyone will pay $100 for it.

Originally Posted by jano11

if one person pays than that's it's value.

part one of my two-part selling price decision making questions:

Originally Posted by me

what did you pay for the kit?

i.e what you valued it to be worth.


That is also why it is relevant.
What you paid for the kit is your starting point.
The next question is are you willing to take a loss.
Those two questions should be your basic price setting guide.
Everything else depends on your needs.
Again, if what you need is cash, having a plastic kit isn't going to help.
What a kit sells for is just a reference point to a potential, it isn't fact.
Set a price that you are willing to let the kit go for.
If it sells for more, great if it doesn't, it shouldn't matter.

[CrateCruncher]

Back to model kits then. Thats the point of the forum and this thread. Someone earlier said: "Model kits are uncollectable." For me to agree with that I must modify it slightly: "[Tamiya] model kits are uncollectable." Why do I pick on Tamiya? Because they are a well managed company that keeps track of resale market prices for their OOP kits. Every time a popular kit begins to appreciate, BAM, repopped and the market is flooded with retail stock. The Ducati NCR (kit#1422) is starting to appreciate due to rarity. I have no illusion that the Tamiya people are not pulling the tool out of inventory for another pop any day now. As a collector, the most appreciation we can possibly realize is the interval between the last retail price and the resale market price just before reissue, and our timing must be spot-on. Hardly worth the effort.

But what about companies that went out of business. Surely the quantity of those kits is now fixed, right? Not hardly. Steel tools just seem to last forever. Revell Germany has acquired tools from Monogram, Airfix, Protar, just to name a few and they have a nasty habit of repopping popular kits.

What about resin kits? The tools don't last so they're collectable right? Different danger here. Obsolescence. Resin kits of rare but popular subjects are often crude and lacking in detail or quality. As soon as the price gets high enough someone will make a new model thats just a bit better and make the old kit practically worthless.

The only kits that seem collectable in my opinion are the ones that are the most extravagant, ambitious ever made. They are so over the top that the original manufacturer couldn't sell them in sufficient quantity to remain in business. No one will ever repop them (I hope) because the volume they could sell probably wouldn't even cover the cost of refurbishing the tools. Examples: Pocher, Feeling43, Sergal.

Next time you see a hobby business struggling due to their kits being ridiculously overpriced ask yourself is this an opportunity? In ten years what will people think of these?

[scale auto style]

PERSONNALLY everything is collectable. i know some people collecting beer caps. other collecting license plate. in fact these thing have no value.. ( for me ) because i don't collect them. for the ones who do they can get a good value. one of my customer ( who collect license plate ) told me he pay 1200$ to get one from the personnal mercedes of hitler. he want it he pay it.

same thing for the kit market. for the modeler who want to built kit... they don't want to pay 100's of dollard for a kit. always CHEAPEST as possible. but you have to admit that a chitty chitty bang bang from aurora in mint condition will not sell at the price it was in the 60's... i sold one a couple month ago 560$us. in the 60's it's sell for somthing 1.35$.

kit price is base on the rarity and what you can get locally. an example here in canada a tamiya castrol RB kit 24111 is selling around 40$ the japaneese retail is 1600 yen +- 18$ so if the modeller based is selling price on what he pay.. he will be to high for a japaneese modeller but maybe in the range for an american modeler...
it's very hard to set a price.

the things i do when i sell a kit is:

1- what the kit cost me.
2- did i want to make a profit on it OR i want to rid the kit out of the closet ( in that case it's a liquidation price often under the JP price )
3- is it RARE or a common kit.
4- in anycase if you want the top price list it at an auction site.. ebay is not the only one. it's the most popular but not the only one. BUT be carefull... always ask for your entry price the MINIMUM price you want for it. and not doing like a lot of people i know.. 0.99 cent and cancel the auction before the end because it doesn't sell high... if you got a bid at your minimum price the only things it can do is going higher.



hope this help you a bit.

yours

sebastien

[jano11]

Originally Posted by scale auto style

PERSONNALLY everything is collectable. i know some people collecting beer caps. other collecting license plate. in fact these thing have no value.. ( for me ) because i don't collect them. for the ones who do they can get a good value. one of my customer ( who collect license plate ) told me he pay 1200$ to get one from the personnal mercedes of hitler. he want it he pay it.

same thing for the kit market. for the modeler who want to built kit... they don't want to pay 100's of dollard for a kit. always CHEAPEST as possible. but you have to admit that a chitty chitty bang bang from aurora in mint condition will not sell at the price it was in the 60's... i sold one a couple month ago 560$us. in the 60's it's sell for somthing 1.35$.

kit price is base on the rarity and what you can get locally. an example here in canada a tamiya castrol RB kit 24111 is selling around 40$ the japaneese retail is 1600 yen +- 18$ so if the modeller based is selling price on what he pay.. he will be to high for a japaneese modeller but maybe in the range for an american modeler...
it's very hard to set a price.

the things i do when i sell a kit is:

1- what the kit cost me.
2- did i want to make a profit on it OR i want to rid the kit out of the closet ( in that case it's a liquidation price often under the JP price )
3- is it RARE or a common kit.
4- in anycase if you want the top price list it at an auction site.. ebay is not the only one. it's the most popular but not the only one. BUT be carefull... always ask for your entry price the MINIMUM price you want for it. and not doing like a lot of people i know.. 0.99 cent and cancel the auction before the end because it doesn't sell high... if you got a bid at your minimum price the only things it can do is going higher.



hope this help you a bit.

yours

sebastien

Agree.

[CrateCruncher]

Originally Posted by scale auto style

....you have to admit that a chitty chitty bang bang from aurora in mint condition will not sell at the price it was in the 60's... i sold one a couple month ago 560$us. in the 60's it's sell for somthing 1.35$.

The Chitty kit is a classic collectable kit. The box art is beautiful and many people still remember the movie. Even the model itself can be built into a nice replica with a lot of work. But there's a danger in spending $560 for it. What if Polar Lights repops it next week? What will the original be worth? Sure, it will say Aurora but is somone going to pay a $500 premium for a word on the box? If you think it's unlikely ask all those collector's that paid $500+ for their mint condition Monogram Rommel's Rod. That one just got repopped and retails for $17.95! I remember people said the Rommel tool was destroyed in a fire...yea right.

Somebody just repopped the Giant Franky-stein too. Glad I don't collect that stuff.

[scale auto style]

What if Polar Lights repops it next week? What will the original be worth? Sure, it will say Aurora but is somone going to pay a $500 premium for a word on the box? If you think it's unlikely ask all those collector's that paid $500+ for their mint condition Monogram Rommel's Rod. That one just got repopped and retails for $17.95! I remember people said the Rommel tool was destroyed in a fire...yea right.

an original stay an original for the COLLECTOR issue. just look the Maurice richard rooky card. it's stay a VERY HIGH value .. even of the number of Re-issue of the original card was done. the only difference between the original and the re-issue was the copyright on the back and the different paper use to print it. the art was the same. and guess what.. the re-issue still at 0.25$ but the original over 1000$

so for the modeller RE-issue is good for them. also it's not the same feeling having a 60's kit in hand and a new one. the kit has past, some history under the box. don't wory about the new kit of today it will be the same thing in 40 years so collection is a mentality. i sell a lot of vintage kit. 95% of the time are Collectors. rarely i sell a vintage kit to a modeller i always told them... do you want to built it now or you want to put it on your closet with the 1215101421 other kit you have in advance... it will re-issue one day or an other... it's sure and if it's not you have enough kit to make for 3 life.

i know it's not a good selling approach but i want my customer comming back every week to see if something new on the shelf and not only selling one kit 200$ and forget this customer for 3 month. This is my philosophy. ( of course when i know a custmer that he got the money... you know the kind of... Hummm what i will do today... wash the porsche or burn 2 sets of tire with the Lambo... ) this one will leave the place with the vintage. ( and for those who think it doesn't exist... FALSE i have 2 customer like that ) and it's funny to talk with them... they are completly disconnect from the reality

so

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[CrateCruncher]

You make some good points Sebastien and I may have over-sold my point. But I know that the Aurora monster market was hurt by all the Polar Lights reissues. People with large collections took a bath. The original kits are still worth considerably more than the reissues but they lost a 50-75% of their peak value and still haven't recovered 10 years later.

I noticed an original Rommel is currently listed on eBay for $400 or make offer. Last week he had the same kit listed $750 Buy It Now. Reissues hurt collectors. When someone repops the Chitty kit I'll be standing in line with the other 3,000 people to have one for $17.95 + tax.

[scale auto style]

Originally Posted by CrateCruncher

You make some good points Sebastien and I may have pushed my point too far in my last post. But I know that the Aurora monster market was hurt by all the Polar Lights reissues. People with large collections took a bath. The original kits are still worth considerably more than the reissues but they lost a 50-75% of their peak value and still haven't recovered 10 years later.

I noticed an original Rommel is currently listed on eBay for $400 or make offer. Last week he had the same kit listed $750 Buy It Now.

NORMALLY and it's important to read NORMALLY a re-issue will affect the original piece by +- 25% for the first 5 years. and will regain his lost in +- 5 other years. like i said this is NORMALLY. but a lot a circunstances can affect this. like the super compagny AMT with theyre 300 re-issue of the famous corvette kit... forget the original value of this kit. but for REAL collector they will spend a couple of $$ to get THE original boxing with the shrink wrap.

aurora monster got an uppercut by the Re-issuing because the buyer was mostly modeler and not collectors. the modeller want this kit to built it at any price.. and this affect the $$ value by this high demand of the kit. in fact the best way is... FORGET everything we wrote here..

ask the price YOU want to getand that's it. for some people it will be to high and for other it will be a bargian. no one here can be a judge in this and if i see somebody telling someone.. HEY MAN YOUR PRICE ARE TO HIGH forget him ... may be his real name is scroodge so... ask you want... not only ask what it supposed to be... what what you realy want and by this way if someone by your kit. both of you will return by a FANTASTIC transaction. you got your price and he spent the money he want to.

that's the kind of business i have. when both people are happy

so now i have to leave the WEB the DO-luck kit is under way. oups.. as i say the Do-luck..... ... yes check the site for update

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