What has happened to costs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[N4521U]

What has happened to prices in this hobby.......
Extras for my BG45 Macchi C.205
$12,50AU for an IP.............. includes postage
$25.97AU for a seat............ same
$18.57AU for an exhaust.. same
$31.65AU for aces decals.. ditto
$36.95AU for a cockpit....... ditto
$87.17AU Total, not including the bloody kit!
My kit, $208.86AU OBO, postage $26.45AU from Japan!
Jeeeeeeee*s Cheeeeer**t!!!!!!

I just might be going back to a couple of my start to finish threads.
1/32nd P-51 Merlin's magic
out of the lake 1/48 Brewster Buffalo, unofficial GB
6 Davidson planes 1/48, underway
1/32nd P-51D in stash, CA Air Nat Guard

That makes 7@1/48th's
2@1/32nd, should keep me occupied.

 

[Donivanp]

I hear you man, I just dropped $68 on three sets of Vallejo 8 bottle paint sets. $17 on a set of decals. I can still recall $1.50 for a MPC 1/72 scale kit at the local drug store. I could afford to build models and read books about the guys who flew and maintained the aircraft.

 

[Graeme]

My kit, $208.86AU OBO, postage $26.45AU from Japan!

Hi Bill.
Growing up in a small country town I remember buying Airfix kits for 79 cents (dunno what the weekly wage was back then). Oddly, the three places that sold them in town were a men's clothes store, a bicycle shop and the local newsagent. I was a hopeless modeler and we usually ended their suffering by shooting them with a slug gun while they were rotating on a Hills Hoist attached by a piece of string.

Those sorts of prices for models today, would make for very expensive targets.

 

[pbehn]

Modellers of the world could easily unite to have their own communal P-51 Spitfire and Fw 109 at those prices.

 

[Builder 2010]

I was just looking over piles of Detail Associates 1:24 model car extras thinking about using them on the Saber engine in the Typhoon. I commented to Brian Bunger, the hobby store proprietor, that you could spend a fortune on detailing a model car. He said sheepishly, "I know." I commented, Of course you do. That's why you own a hobby shop." Many small shops in the USA are gone, and I do whatever I can to keep him prospering. It is a spectacular hobby shop, one of the best I've ever been in. And he, personally, is a terrific modeler, having a number of kit's he's built on display, along with many other including mine. He was one of the founders of the Military Modelers Club of Louisville, KY 43 years ago, which is still going strong today. In fact, membership is at an all-time high. I joined last year per his invitation and have been loving it. So, yes, aftermarket stuff cost a lot, but otherwise it's impossible to make a cottage industry sustainable.

 

[Donivanp]

I was just looking over piles of Detail Associates 1:24 model car extras thinking about using them on the Saber engine in the Typhoon. I commented to Brian Bunger, the hobby store proprietor, that you could spend a fortune on detailing a model car. He said sheepishly, "I know." I commented, Of course you do. That's why you own a hobby shop." Many small shops in the USA are gone, and I do whatever I can to keep him prospering. It is a spectacular hobby shop, one of the best I've ever been in. And he, personally, is a terrific modeler, having a number of kit's he's built on display, along with many other including mine. He was one of the founders of the Military Modelers Club of Louisville, KY 43 years ago, which is still going strong today. In fact, membership is at an all-time high. I joined last year per his invitation and have been loving it. So, yes, aftermarket stuff cost a lot, but otherwise it's impossible to make a cottage industry sustainable.

It does cost a lot to produce resins. It ain't cheap nor is it entirely easy. Especially if you're making an original mold. But, the cost of the injected molded kits, not just the after market items has gone insane. It wouldn't be as bad if for that price you didn't have to go back and get the aftermarket items to fix what the original manufacturer got wrong. $80, $90, $220 for a kit and it's wrong and the manufacturer won't fix it, but it's the only game in town, so if you want the subject bad enough....

 

[WARSPITER]

The problem in Australia is that nearly everything is imported and goes through distributors - manufacturers price plus freight to distributors price plus freight to retailer price plus
freight.

makes it difficult for beginners especially as prices seem to have jumped in the last year. My main interest is gaming and because of Airfix back in the day 1/76 - 1/72 is what
I have stuck with. Grabbing and building a tank for $12 to $15 wasn't a problem but now it's $25 to $40 for the same make.

I would like a 1/32 Tamiya Mosquito but $260 plus freight is maybe something for retirement now.

 

[Drifter]

Close to AUD1000 for a 1/72 kit.

 

[WARSPITER]

 

[mozit]

Yeah, prices are getting out of hand.
I think the manufacturers realise that the modelling world is dying. Those most interested are now retired or close to it, and the grab for their/our super and pension money is there.
Maybe they're just not selling the same volumes as they used to in my youth.
Once we are gone, who will continue? Not many under 40 or even 50 year olds in model shops nowadays .............
Are there any youngs guys out there who would be interested in buying my stash when I can't see well enough to build them? Come on, let's hear from you!

 

[Crimea_River]

That makes no sense. Demand decreases so raise prices?

Somebody is buying this stuff at those prices otherwise they would come down.

 

[mozit]

Yes, Crimea, someone is buying them at those prices. A much smaller number than if it were half the price. The classic example of this at work is bargain sales. How much busier, even overwhelmed, do stores get when they have bargain slaes? Tha's because the lower price attracts a much wider market.
But if the market is dwindling, then to get the return on your investment you need to charge more or quit before you go broke. Which is why you now see limited production runs, and kits appearing once then never again. And with clever "limited availability only xx produced' marketing to entice buyers.
For example, the Welsh Models 1/72 P-8A poseidon kit would cost me $267 to buy. At that price, I won't buy it, as wouldn't many others. They are a small organisation which probably couldn't cope with large volumes anyway, so their price targets a particular demographic. Now, if the kit sold for $150, I along with many more others I suspect, would buy it. But how many? Ignore for the moment the probability that Welsh would not be able to produce and sell higher volumes anyway. The question would be - how many could they sell at $150 rather than $267. Is the market for a higher volume there? If not, then continue to sell at $267 to a smaller audience. No point in flooding a dead market with cheaper product you can't sell.

 

[taly01]

I noticed Tamiya is still selling their 1970's-80's 1/35 armour kits for ~$20. This must go close to losing money for them but is good promotion to bring in kids to the hobby.

The new superdetail kits can't really be compared to ye olden days kits, and all the etch stuff also, these though are the reasons I got back into modelling after a long break from it (like 25 years!)

 

[WARSPITER]

I thought it would be fair to look at this in terms of value for money and inflation over time.

Value for money - if I fork out $250 for a large scale Mosquito and spend a couple of hundred hours on it then that is less than $1.50 per hour. Compared
to most other hobbies that is really cheap (adding extra for paints, glue, band aids after craft knife malfunctions).

Inflation over time - 1977 - a 1/72 scale kit cost me $2.50. With inflation that makes the current equivalent $26.40 so most kits of that type are still the
same price. Maybe I have been getting a good deal all along as this type of kit is only getting to that range in the last year or so.