Prices of kits- just cruising Ebay

[Bennygman]

I used to see these sort of prices all the time- I basically thought of it as an 'ignorance tax'.

It's a bit like antique shops and the like, unless you're clued up they have all the power and you none. It just comes down to "pay what it's worth to you", I guess.

Steve.

[PsiFox]

My birthday pressie of the Airfix 1 24 model came from Ebay £97 delivered.

[MikeR]

The only thing certain on eBay is that nothing's certain. It just goes to prove that the Great British public are a curious breed prone to bidding wars & poor research. That's their look out, I'm afraid, and nothing for those of us that either want a bargain or pay a reasonable price to get upset about.

The old addage of "A fool and his money are soon parted" holds true to this day... and explains why I've not got any money

Working in retail gives another addage: Individually, people are fine, put them in a group and their IQ drops to negative values! Must be herd instinct....!

The trick is... set your price and stick to it. You know the value of an item, be it a model, a CD, a car, or whatever else. You know what's in your wallet as well.

The most important rule is... if everyone's on the make, and charging too much, then walk away. Don't be anyone's fool. Keep searching, and patience is rewarded.

Wot 'e said! Know your limits, stick to them and you can still come out on top.

Having said that, I just paid £29.99 + pp from Hannants for a 2nd hand Hasegawa EF-111. Must have been stock from a closed model shop as it still had an £18.99 sticker on the end! However, as 30 squids was the price of the last F-111 Hannants had, I'm happy enough with what I paid, though it's getting towards the upper limit of what I'm willing to pay.

Mike.

Edited February 18, 2011 by MikeR

[Stu_davros]

I'm another person that still buys and sells models on ebay, and i have done for 10 years. During that time I have bought a lot of bargains and sold a lot of kits for a lot more than i paid for them. I have on occasion bought a kit off ebay and then sold it back on ebay for more than I paid for it, purely due to the seller listing the kit in the wrong category, misspelling the name of the kit or not mentioning relevent information, (such as the manufacturer.)

I don't consider myself a collector and I'm certainly not a trader, just someone interested in model kits and ebay.

There are always a minority trying to sucker someone with a very overpriced kit described as 'ultra rare', but there are a few people out there that regard money as no object and will pay anything for a desired kit, ( the Frog bloodhound is a good example ).

And as for freely available kits going for more money than Hannants charge, perhaps the buyer is not concerned about a few extra quid he's paid and only really cares about everything he wants being easy to find in one place, regardless of whether it's a model kit, a DVD or a new jacket. I know I don't concern myself if I pay a couple of quid more for a kit off ebay instead of searching through all the online retailers for what i want.

Cheers,

Stuart

[plimsol]

Couldn't agree more with that, sad to say. And it is sad too, because I've used eBay for a long time to plug the gaps in my collection at reasonable prices, but now, trawling through it this morning as Mentalguru has some of the prices are quite terrifying - Airfix 1/72 Mossie FBVI at £15 anyone? Not to mention the 1/144 Tridents going for £60 from one trader, 'rare' Novo kits etc etc.

What worries me isn't that these people are selling the kits at such inflated prices, but that someone will buy them at that kind of price - not someone clued up, such as on BM for example, but someone looking for a gift for a relative who knows a keyword such as 'Spitfire', 'Wellington', Hasegawa, Airfix etc etc. Looking at the feedback of some of the unscrupulous traders out there - and there's a batch of at least five or six it's sorely tempting to name and shame - people are forking out though, and that's the real tragedy of the piece, because I'm willing to bet that 80% of them don't know any better - the other 20% have probably locked into a bidding war...

Would it be feasible to write a set of guidelines for maybe some of our less experienced members on what to expect from certain manufacturers and subsequent price points - not set in stone, but coherent enough for them to say 'ah, that's clearly overpriced, I'm not buying that...'

Anyway, yes - I've had nothing but joy off buying from BM... avoid those fees and get here!

C

Yes but ask does not get, well with me it does'nt

[Acky190]

Yes but ask does not get, well with me it does'nt

I think we have all seen the sellers being referred to here, there is so much of this "Rare" "Ultra rare" & another favourite "Rare vintage" just doing a quick search on the bay for these prowords will throw up 100's of dubious kits with high starting/buy it now prices. I do seem to remember one seller who week in week out listed the same kits with crazily high buy it now prices, I once emailed him and asked him what the prices were all about and he replied that simply that is what they had once gone for!! It does make me chuckle though when like with the re-release of a certain couple of Airfix kits that all of a sudden we see all the original boxings coming out of the woodwork with now reasonable starting prices!!

[Acky190]

I have just found another pearler here. What is going on here, a knock off Airfix kit that has been started/sprayed and is now being listed with a price to make the mince pies water Not to mention the pricey P&P.

Edited February 18, 2011 by Acky190

[AnonymousFO98]

Why so glum Acky made me laugh!

I like his one but is already overe what I would be prepared to pay

If Airfix have the moulds still would a reiissue be a good idea? Would like a Basset

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...ME:B:SS:GB:1123

[Threadbear]

A couple of years ago I started selling my aircraft collection on ebay. I always priced the kits at prices at what I considered fair prices and fair postage and packaging. And my feedback on customer satisfaction reflected that.

But to be honest, not that Im complaining, some of the prices that people paid were astounding!!

Aeroclub 1/48th scale DHC Chipmunk £45-00

Matchbox 1/48th AD-5 Skyraider + Cobra resin cockpit + Aeromaster decals £105.00!!!! (and that was started)

I did well out of selling my books and kits and decals, however then the turbo blew on my car...... :shithappens:

Guess where all my ebay went????

[Ghostbase]

Ah the dreaded eBay

Well, my confession. I started on eBay in Nov 2003, a friend of mine who had worked in several model shops wanted to sell his aircraft kit collection so I set myself up as a seller and I sold his collection, made him £450 profit if I remember correctly, he was delighted

The idea was then to sell my stash, was never going to build them anyway. Sold about half of them, worst decision I ever made, now wish I had kept them.

Funny thing is that I then started buying on eBay and now over 5 years later my stash is well above what it was way back then, now how could that be?

I have a 100% positive rating on eBay and I aim to keep it that way, I charge P&P at cost and in a couple of cases where I over-estimated I refunded the buyers immediately. Description also matters, I try to be completely honest about any kit that I list, reputation really does count.

The price some bidders will pay just amazes me. Was just a few years ago Modelzone were selling the Revell 1/72nd H.P. Victor for £6.99, I purchased two for the stash. Someone today just bid £27.50 which I cannot believe for this flawed old Matchbox kit (yes I have one of those too!) so the next freebie listing weekend I might list one of my kits for £25 and see what happens.

Michael

[AndyC]

I joined eBay in 2006 when I got back into modelling and virtually all my early additions to the stash were from there. I recorded the prices paid and I have to say that prices have gone up hugely since I started. I paid £7.50 or less for all my US medium bombers in 1/48 (B-25, 26, A-20C and G, A-26) and some of my kits cost me less than £5.

I buy on there infrequently now. My benchmark is at least 40% off retail (and I always check Hannants/Model Hobbies).

I think that 2nd hand kits at some shows are also getting expensive (relatively). I bought nothing in the SMW kitswap this year except decals and nothing caught my eye in the trader halls either. Likewise Modelkraft this year. I will see whether Yeovilton will yield anything tomorrow.

Andy

[Pilgrim_UK]

My benchmark is at least 40%

Try to keep to that as well its an auction site not a shop in my book. Watched an item i bid on but never won to the end then a list of similar items appear on BIN cheaper from a shop. Seen this a few times once when i won an item myself.

Heres another one. Shopping on the US site can be cheaper as some recasts from Hong Kong are dearer on the UK site than on the US site both are free shipping.

Edited February 21, 2011 by Pilgrim_UK

[Threadbear]

I think there are fewer bargains on ebay now. More trader stuff on "buy it now". Your better of bideding your time and looking for bargains in Modelzone etc or using this site.

[bigVern1966]

I think Ebay is tending to lean more towards the strange breed of kit "Collectors" who don't actually build kits, as far as I am concerned if kits were designed to be stored away or collected then there wouldn't be so many parts! This is also why IMHO kit prices are forced up, for example the Airfix SR.53. How many of these kits have actually been built in the past 15-20 years? I imagine the ratio of kits built to kits "Collected" favours the collectors, but unfortunately this has the adverse effect of forcing the prices up and in some cases making many feel that certain kits can't be built as they are worth so much more in pristine un-built condition. A prime example is this Frog 1/24th Bristol Bloodhound, looking at the price it went for what are the chances that this will ever be built? And if it were to be built how would that effect the value?

Read the Thread about it. (it will not be built, though a 1-24 scale model will be based on measurements taken from the plastic on the sprue and it is ultra rare and a bargian at £1638, as the last one on e-bay went for well over £2000).

[Takamota]

Was looking at ebay today as i needed a few 1/72 F-16's for an upcoming project..... found this revell one which is not, as far as i believe, a rare kit yet. I was a little gobsmacked. Surely it's a mistake??

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Revell-1-72-F16-C-Fa...=item483f4c5e9a

[Acky190]

Read the Thread about it. (it will not be built, though a 1-24 scale model will be based on measurements taken from the plastic on the sprue and it is ultra rare and a bargian at £1638, as the last one on e-bay went for well over £2000).

I did read the thread, but was wanting answers to the questions I posed rather than a pointer to the original thread!

[JohnT]

E-bay has become a funny place in some ways.

I was after a 1/48 Classic Airframes Lockheed Hudson for ages but would not bid over £50 which I thought was far too much anyway. Amost gave up on bidding altogether when a week ago bagged one at 50 quid. Quite chuffed especially when my search on e-bay shows one sold at £118 in the US this week.

I think the solution is to set a maximum price on what you will pay, stick to it and one day you will get lucky

JohnT

[Julien]

Yes ebay is a strange old place. There are still bargins to be had though.

I got 4 1.48 hasgeawa sabres for £50 delivered which considering 3 out of the 4 are OOP and the 4th retails for £26 is a bargin to me.

Some of the "shops" are not bad. The new airfix sabre is £8.99 at hannants plus postage, can be had for £8.50 including postage on ebay.

It helps as well to look on ebay where people have listed in the wrong category. also there is a site called www.fatfingers.co.uk which searches ebay uk for listings which have been mistyped.

Julien

[Rosenberg92]

Guys, there are still bargains to be had, it just needs a bit of patience.

Totally agree, recently picked up both Academy and 1/72, the A-37B Dragonfly and OV-10D Bronco kits for 99p with free postage, and both still had celophane on them! You get alot of plastic for the money here! If you are willing to wait for the right kit and price to come along, then yes, a bargain can be had.

Although, I do often see kits on ebay fly past the price I have seen them for elsewhere, and it makes me wonder if those bidding for it know of other websites other than ebay... I mean, to pay £18 plus postage on top for a 1/72 Hasegawa Mirage F1... when they are readily available for about £10 or £11 it seems bizarre.

However, what one man sees as a bargain may not be true to the next, we all value certain things in different ways. I would be willing to pay £20 for the Hobbyboss Mil Mi 8 kit (if it were not readily available for £10), whereas others here would not go beyond paying £5 for it. I guess the real bargain is whether or not one gets what they have been seeking for a while for much less than they expected.

All the best,

Dan.

[hythe]

It's not all bad, I agree - just requires a bit of patience and self-discipline - I just picked up a Hasegawa Grumman Tiger (fated for greater things, but more of that later!) and Fujimi F-4E and EA-6A, for a grand total of £16.96, plus postage. Not ridiculously cheap, I grant you, but far from a rip-off...