Price of Airfix 1/76 figures and the relative cost of things

[Pete F]

I just got an email from a well known model shop announcing the release of the two latest 1/76 Airfix figure reissues. The Russians and the Japs - both of which I loved back in the 1970s. BTW I was a bit miffed at their recent(ish) reissue of the US Marines as the colour of  the plastic was so far from the original to dent the nostalgia - but that's another matter.

 

The figures were advertised at £9.95. 'Fair enough', I thought. Then I thought 'maybe that's a little much'. In order to come to some sort of reasoned conclusion I looked at historic values of things.

 

I can't be exactly sure - but I recall buying these types of sets in 1975 for either 20p or 25p a box. Perhaps someone else will remember prices more accurately. It defiantly wasn't much more than that as I have a vivid memory of buying HMS Fearless around that time with a 50p piece. The website Measuring Worth is pretty good at providing and discussing historic values compared to the present day. It concludes that 25p in 1975 is worth between £1.97 to £5.04 today. Even allowing for that to be the top end, it does show how things have changed. 

 

Apologies if this has been discussed before and its not a rant at Airfix. More an observation at how difficult it is to get kids back into such things when prices are, relatively, so high. I volunteer at a military museum and they won't stock Airfix figures (despite my repeated demonstrations of US Marines trying to row a dinghy in the sink) because they are so expensive and the profit margin is so small.

 

Anyway, I shall doubtless buy the Japs and the Russians but I wish it was the youngsters doing so. I know they could get far more fun out of them than me.

[Black Knight]

You are so old fashioned!

You'd be surprised just how much 'pocket money' young uns get these days, but most of it goes on their mobile phone costs

I'm told by friends, that depending on age, young uns get between, an average of £5 to £20 per week

I supplement my dottir's 'pocket money' by £13 per week - she gets it as £26 per 2 weeks

 

Price comparisons are very hard. 

In the 1100s through to the 1500s, a loaf of bread, which was 3.5 times a modern loaf in size was 1d. 

1d in the 1100s was a daily wage, by the 1500s it was about 1/4 a days wage for the average labourer worker. Today that wage is about £45

Thus in comparison, a loaf of bread should cost about £13 or £3.20

Cheapest loaf I can get is 89p, dearest is about £1.35

Value of money and products varies so much price comparisons are just a game

 

PS; I think I can guess where you got the prices for the Russian and Japanese figures. You are paying for the 'free' postage. Airfix RRP for them is £5.99 each

[Pete F]

25 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

Price comparisons are very hard. 

Agreed, but the site I mentioned does acknowledge that and discusses the variables in a reasonable level of detail.

 

25 minutes ago, Black Knight said:

PS; I think I can guess where you got the prices for the Russian and Japanese figures. You are paying for the 'free' postage. Airfix RRP for them is £5.99 each

That seems much closer to the expected price.

 

As you say I'm too old fashioned. The US Marine's colour was still so wrong!

 

BTW they can only row in circles 🙂

Edited July 13, 2022 by Pete F
typo

[alt-92]

11 minutes ago, Pete F said:

BTW they can only row in circles 🙂

Aaaaaaand now I'm trying to remember if that chap was left or right handed. 
Thanks for that!

 

 

 

 

[RobL]

Pfft.  £5.99 for a box of 45 1/76 figures?!  Count yourself lucky.  In 1992 Games Workshop boxes of 10 of their basic Space Marine squad figures were £12.99.  Today they're £32.50.  According to the BoE's inflation calculator they should only cost £23.16 as of 2021?!  So they're about 40% above inflation!?!

 

My income since 1992 certainly hasn't inflated that much, nor I believe has most people's.

 

Problem is that there are still too many people who will think nothing of paying over inflated prices, and so the gouging continues in many many hobbies regardless of the actual cost of production.

Edited July 13, 2022 by RobL

[Pete F]

19 hours ago, alt-92 said:

Aaaaaaand now I'm trying to remember if that chap was left or right handed. 
Thanks for that!

 

The best site for answering this sort of question is http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com but beware it is a time sink.

[Neil.C]

18 hours ago, RobL said:

Pfft.  £5.99 for a box of 45 1/76 figures?!  Count yourself lucky.  In 1992 Games Workshop boxes of 10 of their basic Space Marine squad figures were £12.99.  Today they're £32.50.  According to the BoE's inflation calculator they should only cost £23.16 as of 2021?!  So they're about 40% above inflation!?!

 

My income since 1992 certainly hasn't inflated that much, nor I believe has most people's.

 

Problem is that there are still too many people who will think nothing of paying over inflated prices, and so the gouging continues in many many hobbies regardless of the actual cost of production.

 

The thing is most people nowadays have a lot more disposable income than they did in the past. 

 

Businesses know this and set prices accordingly to make as much profit as possible.

[IanC]

I don't think the price is too extortionate for what you get. My gripe is the amount of flash around some of the figures, but that's hardly surprising after the amount of time these moulds have been in use. I remember the Russian set was particularly bad the last time I got hold of some.

 

Still, for the price of a pint of Peroni, they're a reasonably cheap way to wallow in a bit of nostalgia. 

[Pete F]

3 hours ago, IanC said:

My gripe is the amount of flash around some of the figures,

Yes - a right pain to deal with.

 

Shame they can't do a run in hard plastic. Does anyone know if there's a technical reason this is not possible? It would make them much more appealing to modellers.

[IanC]

32 minutes ago, Pete F said:

Yes - a right pain to deal with.

 

Shame they can't do a run in hard plastic. Does anyone know if there's a technical reason this is not possible? It would make them much more appealing to modellers.

 

I think the soft plastic was originally to do with getting them out of the moulds in one piece. And presumably to keep them safe to play with, and tread on! 😄

[pigsty]

23 hours ago, RobL said:

According to the BoE's inflation calculator they should only cost £23.16 as of 2021?!  So they're about 40% above inflation!?!

The trouble is, this isn't a meaningful comparison.  Inflation figures are an estimate, compiled from a bunch of fairly-to-very common items, but omitting all the thousands and thousands of others.  And they change every year to reflect what people actually buy.  I'd be astonished if any modelling-related item had ever been in that basket.

 

If any individual item actually rises by the official figure, it's a fluke, because the figure is at best an average.  Items can go up a lot more, or a lot less - just as you wonder why your pot of pasta salad is nearly 30% costlier when the rate is meant to be "only" 11%.  In fact, I still chuckle at the memory of a petition to the government a few years ago, demanding that no price be allowed to rise more than the rate of inflation.  There was someone who'd thoroughly mixed up cause and effect.

 

The best comparisons are either with price inflation in toys generally (for these purposes they have to be classed as toys) or with moulded plastic goods.  And then you have to account for the fact that no-one's obliged to stick to any rate of increase at all and they'll generally charge what the market will bear.  This is in practical terms all but impossible, and it's why I ignore inflation and try to think in terms of buying power.  How much of my hard-earned do I need to part with?  If it's less (as a proportion) that it once was, I'm happy.  Well, happy-ish.

[3DStewart]

It's worth remembering that VAT has gone up considerably. I remember it being 8% (it may have been lower on introduction in 1973); now it's 20%. There's nothing Hornby can do about that.

[Dave Swindell]

1 hour ago, 3DStewart said:

It's worth remembering that VAT has gone up considerably. I remember it being 8% (it may have been lower on introduction in 1973); now it's 20%. There's nothing Hornby can do about that.

Standard VAT rates since 1973:

From                      To                                    Standard rate

1 April 1973            July 1974                        10.0%

July 1974                17 June 1979                   8.0%

18 June 1979          18 March 1991               15.0%

19 March 1991        30 November 2008        17.5%

1 December 2008   31 December 2009         15.0%

1 January 2010       3 January 2011                17.5%

4 January 2011       Present                            20.0%

[Graham Boak]

Before VAT there was Purchase Tax.

[Pete F]

22 hours ago, pigsty said:

The trouble is, this isn't a meaningful comparison.

 

Very true - but if you look at the link I provided at the beginning of the thread (repeated below for convenience) you will find a fairly detailed discussion on the subject with different figures depending on the method of comparison. I have always found it the most useful site for this sort of thing. 

 

https://www.measuringworth.com

[Giorgio N]

On 7/14/2022 at 4:33 PM, Neil.C said:

 

The thing is most people nowadays have a lot more disposable income than they did in the past. 

 

Businesses know this and set prices accordingly to make as much profit as possible.

 

Considering the well known financial problems Hornby suffered from and the issues that afflicted other companies in the not so distant past, I'd say that many model companies do not really seem to make that much of a profit....