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Buying kits at swap meets


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The automotive swap meets are a mixed bag.  Most times, you'll walk away empty-handed after seeing half a dozen guys trying to resell stuff they picked up at the clearance store, but then again there's that one-in-a-hundred deal that makes you forget the previous 99 trips...

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Once upon a time there was a swap meet dealer who had every Holy Grail kit you could imagine.  All kinds of delights, a wall of kits that dreams are made of!  Then you get close and notice that these kits are $200, $300 and more.  But they are mint fresh in the box old annuals and treasures we all desire. 

Many people get angry and walk away and complain to the show promoters that they must make this guy sell these kits at reasonable prices (of course the prices they wish to pay are often less than reasonable!). It doesn't appear that the guy does much business, but by the end of the show, guys are spotted looking through some of those kits, recently purchased.  When asked the buyers will say,  "I've always wanted this kit, so I bit the bullet and paid the $300."  

And in the end you realize that this seller has a good business strategy.  He has purchased the very best kits for resale and it's said throughout the land that he pays reasonable prices.  If indeed, he sold all those kits cheap, there'd be a stampede and he'd have nothing to sell at the next show. After all, kits of this type and quality don't grow on trees.  So instead of selling 100 kits at a $5 profit each,  he may sell  5 kits at a $100 profit each.  Same profit for the day.  And it's reasonable to think he will be able to find 5 more kits to fill the holes in his wall of kits between each show.  Note that he hasn't done anything wrong at all. He's put clearly marked merchandise up for sale. People buy these at their own free will.  He's happy, the buyers are happy. And that's business folks!

(Note- this is a true story)

 

 

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Tom, I know some vendors like that, and they do sell some stuff, trade too. 

The vendors that baffle me are the ones with same Grail kits, same huge prices, but everyone has a story, flaw(s), and I've watched the boxes get shelf worn over the years. No deals for imperfect kits, boxes that are 6-7/10 at best. I've even tried to buy from a few of these guys for a builder so I can blow off my MIB whatever. No go. 

Stuff is too scruffy for museum display, but that's what their inventory is, a hands on history of kits. Based on some other observations, they'd be better served with the $. 

That said, I've bagged some incredible deals at shows, sold some great deals. Nice to see a grail find as the provider. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Interesting stories, people. Another one I have is the guy selling the Toyota 2000 GT convertible from the Bond movie. MPC or AMT, I forget which. He wanted $80 for it but had no chrome, was a glue bomb too. Same show, I find another in mint condition for my haggled down price of $50. And his started at $75. The other guy is still toting that glu bomb from show to show, each time with one more missing part it seems.

 

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Every seller is a bit different. Some times they have boxes full of the same stuff I have here. All kits 10 bucks. But then as others have stated two rows over and the prices double or are 8 bucks. 

Go 60 miles away to another show three weeks later and nothing is cheap. You just never know until you show up. 

Back when the Toledo Toy show filled 58,646 sq feet for two days the deals were easier to find. http://www.co.lucas.oh.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/986 

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I've quit trying to sell at swap meets. seems like most buyers ( especially the early birds )  just want them to flip anyway

I'll have sealed kits marked at $20,,,everyone wants to buy them at less than $10.

or builders at $5 and they offer $2 ,,,, no thanks . I'll donate them to some kid or something 1st

 

Last time I set up to sell I had some little girl maybe 10 or so wanted a kit I had . When she reached for her money  and all she had was $5  ( it was a ten dollar kit )

I gave her the kit ( on her promise she was going to build it )  and told her to spend her money on paint or glue . Grinning  from ear to ear . and walked right down the isle and did just that .

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I think Swap Meets are the best place to buy kits! Sure, there are some guys who might ask high prices from their kits, but I just simply skip those kits and head to the next table. Many times I find kits that are really cheap. And when I find a kit I'd like to build for a cheap price, it's mine. I've done lots of good deals and found rare kits as well, some of them have been kits I've never seen before.

I have never sold any kits in a Swap Meet, and not really anywhere else either. Only way I've got rid of them has been by trading them with some modeling friends. But if I sold them, I'd keep the prices low as well. The reason is to sell them, right?

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I waited to buy kits at NNL because everyone wanted $20+ for common kits... that are several years old... no way. Once the end of the day started coming around... you simply walk past a kit and eyeball it and they were saying they'd take 5-10 bucks for it... yeah ok I'll bite now. It's crazy how "big" shows really pump the prices up on kits. I spent much of the day buying parts for rebuilders more than anything. I think I bought maybe 1 full new kits, 1 promo, and a bunch of resin parts.... and an RC car that didnt work :(

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  • 3 months later...

Once upon a time there was a swap meet dealer who had every Holy Grail kit you could imagine.  All kinds of delights, a wall of kits that dreams are made of!  Then you get close and notice that these kits are $200, $300 and more.  But they are mint fresh in the box old annuals and treasures we all desire. 

Many people get angry and walk away and complain to the show promoters that they must make this guy sell these kits at reasonable prices (of course the prices they wish to pay are often less than reasonable!). It doesn't appear that the guy does much business, but by the end of the show, guys are spotted looking through some of those kits, recently purchased.  When asked the buyers will say,  "I've always wanted this kit, so I bit the bullet and paid the $300."  

And in the end you realize that this seller has a good business strategy.  He has purchased the very best kits for resale and it's said throughout the land that he pays reasonable prices.  If indeed, he sold all those kits cheap, there'd be a stampede and he'd have nothing to sell at the next show. After all, kits of this type and quality don't grow on trees.  So instead of selling 100 kits at a $5 profit each,  he may sell  5 kits at a $100 profit each.  Same profit for the day.  And it's reasonable to think he will be able to find 5 more kits to fill the holes in his wall of kits between each show.  Note that he hasn't done anything wrong at all. He's put clearly marked merchandise up for sale. People buy these at their own free will.  He's happy, the buyers are happy. And that's business folks!

(Note- this is a true story)

 

 

As in all things, be they real estate, 1:1 cars, artwork, or model car kits--in the end the value of each is simply that which a willing seller and a willing buyer come together on. Pretty simple concept, really.

That said, whenever I've bought an old kit at a swap meet, a model car show, wherever, I've decided that it's worth the agreed-on price to me, and that's what matters.  (I've walked away from more kits at shows over the last 40 years than I can count--but I still am comfortable realizing that with most any plastic model car kit, at minimum there were 10's of thousands molded up (in some cases, hundred's of thousands of them over the years) so no matter the kit I am looking at, mulling over, there likely will be a "next time".

Art

Edited by Art Anderson
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We've got a great swap meet comin' up next Sunday and another one two weeks later. While I don't need (want) much, I do enjoy walking around and seeing all the modelers I have met and known for many years. Since I have plenty to build, it's not unusual for me to walk out of a swap meet empty handed. There are a couple of kits that I'd like to find, and if I don't that's okay too as I usually go out to lunch afterwards with the guys I attend the swap meet with. Usually at a sports bar like Hooters or the Tilted Kilt.

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Timing, eh :) This morning I wrote a small article explaining what it takes for me to get kits, from a vendor's point of view. This may not be true for all kits and all vendors but it is true for many :)

 

I have been selling used/second hand model kits at shows for many years. I started my own small business two years ago so that I could sell new kits as well. Many people complain prices are too high and they want ‘a deal’. For those who think selling model kits is easy, here is what happens behind the scenes that you may not see.

Two years ago I found a small collection for sale in Keswick. After several emails, I set a time to go see the kits. Keswick is a 60 kilometer drive from home, not too far. 45 minutes to Keswick brought me to the house. It took about 30 minutes to look at the kits. I had only wanted to buy 5 of them but they said I had to buy them all or nothing. That left me with an extra 24 kits. Good thing the bank machine was near. Then the 45 minute drive home.  It took me another two hours to go through each kit carefully and make sure they were complete and ready to build, can’t sell an incomplete kit :)  My total outlay was 4 hours of my time, 120 kilometers of driving and a few hundred dollars for the kits. And you thought they were free :) 

Now that I had the kits, I had to sell them. Finding a swap meet is one way, so I rented a table at a local show, another expense ranging from $30 to $125 a table, depending on the show! Now comes more expense :(  I had to pay for the table about two months in advance to make sure I had a place to sell my kits. The day before the show, I had to load up the kits, about an hour of work. The day of the show I arrived before 8AM to set up, a thirty minute drive from home. The show opened at 9AM and went to about 3PM. After the show, another thirty minutes to pack up, 30 more to drive home, another thirty to unpack the car and finally, I was done, a nine hour work day. I did sell the kits and at the end of it all, I made a few dollars profit, not a lot of money :( 

Now stop and think, is it profitable to buy and sell used kits? Sometimes, if you get the right kits and can sell them quickly enough to get your money back.

Well, why not sell new kits? Good idea! I set up an account with a local distributor. I can pre-order the kits or I can walk the shelves and see what is in stock. The stock is never what I want or what you want so too often I leave with only half of what I want. The warehouse is thirty minutes from home, another thirty or more in the warehouse and thirty more to drive home...and I have to pay for the kits before I take them out of the warehouse.  Can you see where this is going? Buying new kits is different than buying used kits but the expenses are similar. And the profit is still not that great.

To try to increase my sales and profit, I decided to add some lines of aftermarket parts. It took some time but I managed to find some lines of parts that are not common in Canada. To get these parts, I had to set up an account with each company. Two companies wanted to meet me in person to make sure they knew who I was. That required a trip to the U.S. to meet them. I do get a wholesale price but I also have a minimum order requirement, meaning I can’t order just one part, I have to order a few hundred dollars worth at a time. As these parts are coming from the U.S., the dollar exchange is very important.  Again, I have to pay for the products in advance and with small cottage industry companies, the lead time can be great. I sometimes wait two months to get an order that I paid for in advance. Now that I have the parts, I have to sell them. Back to the show. And it starts again :) 

So, the next time you are at a show and the kit price is $15, there is a reason. I didn’t make up the price to become rich, I just want to get my money back and a little something for my time. When all is said and done, I might make minimum wage or a little more but I am not going to buy a new Corvette on the profit from the kits you just bought  :) 

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Timing, eh :) This morning I wrote a small article explaining what it takes for me to get kits, from a vendor's point of view. This may not be true for all kits and all vendors but it is true for many :)

 

I have been selling used/second hand model kits at shows for many years. I started my own small business two years ago so that I could sell new kits as well. Many people complain prices are too high and they want ‘a deal’. For those who think selling model kits is easy, here is what happens behind the scenes that you may not see.

Two years ago I found a small collection for sale in Keswick. After several emails, I set a time to go see the kits. Keswick is a 60 kilometer drive from home, not too far. 45 minutes to Keswick brought me to the house. It took about 30 minutes to look at the kits. I had only wanted to buy 5 of them but they said I had to buy them all or nothing. That left me with an extra 24 kits. Good thing the bank machine was near. Then the 45 minute drive home.  It took me another two hours to go through each kit carefully and make sure they were complete and ready to build, can’t sell an incomplete kit :)  My total outlay was 4 hours of my time, 120 kilometers of driving and a few hundred dollars for the kits. And you thought they were free :) 

Now that I had the kits, I had to sell them. Finding a swap meet is one way, so I rented a table at a local show, another expense ranging from $30 to $125 a table, depending on the show! Now comes more expense :(  I had to pay for the table about two months in advance to make sure I had a place to sell my kits. The day before the show, I had to load up the kits, about an hour of work. The day of the show I arrived before 8AM to set up, a thirty minute drive from home. The show opened at 9AM and went to about 3PM. After the show, another thirty minutes to pack up, 30 more to drive home, another thirty to unpack the car and finally, I was done, a nine hour work day. I did sell the kits and at the end of it all, I made a few dollars profit, not a lot of money :( 

Now stop and think, is it profitable to buy and sell used kits? Sometimes, if you get the right kits and can sell them quickly enough to get your money back.

Well, why not sell new kits? Good idea! I set up an account with a local distributor. I can pre-order the kits or I can walk the shelves and see what is in stock. The stock is never what I want or what you want so too often I leave with only half of what I want. The warehouse is thirty minutes from home, another thirty or more in the warehouse and thirty more to drive home...and I have to pay for the kits before I take them out of the warehouse.  Can you see where this is going? Buying new kits is different than buying used kits but the expenses are similar. And the profit is still not that great.

To try to increase my sales and profit, I decided to add some lines of aftermarket parts. It took some time but I managed to find some lines of parts that are not common in Canada. To get these parts, I had to set up an account with each company. Two companies wanted to meet me in person to make sure they knew who I was. That required a trip to the U.S. to meet them. I do get a wholesale price but I also have a minimum order requirement, meaning I can’t order just one part, I have to order a few hundred dollars worth at a time. As these parts are coming from the U.S., the dollar exchange is very important.  Again, I have to pay for the products in advance and with small cottage industry companies, the lead time can be great. I sometimes wait two months to get an order that I paid for in advance. Now that I have the parts, I have to sell them. Back to the show. And it starts again :) 

So, the next time you are at a show and the kit price is $15, there is a reason. I didn’t make up the price to become rich, I just want to get my money back and a little something for my time. When all is said and done, I might make minimum wage or a little more but I am not going to buy a new Corvette on the profit from the kits you just bought  :) 

Thanks Howard, I think that you explained it perfectly. My hat is off to all of you who bring us these kits. I have never been to a swap meet but I have been to a flea market so I imagine that it is basically the same atmosphere as in what it takes to get set up and selling and it always to me looked like a lot of work, time and effort so I definitely agree with what you have said about what goes into the business side of the hobby. Without you guys and gals putting in a lot of your time,money and effort this wonderful hobby of ours would be a lot smaller so I Thank all of you.     Jeff 

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Thanks Howard, I think that you explained it perfectly. My hat is off to all of you who bring us these kits. I have never been to a swap meet but I have been to a flea market so I imagine that it is basically the same atmosphere as in what it takes to get set up and selling and it always to me looked like a lot of work, time and effort so I definitely agree with what you have said about what goes into the business side of the hobby. Without you guys and gals putting in a lot of your time,money and effort this wonderful hobby of ours would be a lot smaller so I Thank all of you.     Jeff 

Thanks from me too Howard, after setting up at shows throughout the Midwest And now in Arizona for many years, You explained my Thoughts perfectly. Those of you in Arizona, I'll be set-up at the TUCSON show 3/6 and later on back in Phoenix in April.

 

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Timing, eh :) This morning I wrote a small article explaining what it takes for me to get kits, from a vendor's point of view. This may not be true for all kits and all vendors but it is true for many :)

 

I have been selling used/second hand model kits at shows for many years. I started my own small business two years ago so that I could sell new kits as well. Many people complain prices are too high and they want ‘a deal’. For those who think selling model kits is easy, here is what happens behind the scenes that you may not see.

I agree 100% with what Howard said. The other half of this is that for a new kit you can usually go down to your local store and buy it if you need it. For a collection of old kits or an estate sale it is quite often a case of being in the right place at the right time. And that is not always easy to do.

When buying a collection from someone you also have to overcome their personal attachment to that collection. I actually just today went and looked at buying a gentleman's collection. 480 built kits. Pretty much all fairly nicely built, no glue bombs in the lot and most of them painted and decaled very nice. nothing extremely old, mostly kits from the last 25 to 30 years. a little bit of everything, rally cars, f1 cars, Ferrari's, Lamborghinis, Porsches, hot rods, customs a couple of big rigs and some 30's classics. The gentleman said he would only sell them as one lot altogether he didn't want to sell them bit by bit. This seemed reasonable to me as I was going to buy them, take maybe a dozen for my own collection and resell the rest to hopefully make a little bit of money to be able to buy more kits that I would want. When I asked him what he would need to have for the whole collection he responded that he would be willing to let them go for $20 per model. That is $9600 for built models. I then explained to him that we were way too far apart on price and that I wasn't even going to make him an offer. He pressed me to make an offer on the models to see what I would pay for them and I told him I was willing to pay 2 to $3 per model. He responded that there was no way he'd even think about letting them go for that type of price and that they had to be worth a minimum of $10 per model.

I tried to explain that for some of them I would be able to sell them for $10 per model and for a lot of them I would on average get between five and eight dollars apiece for them. I tried to explain to him that I wasn't trying to insult him but that I was making an offer based on what I felt comfortable paying to be able to resell and get my money back and make a little bit for my own pocket. As Howard stated, as a seller, my time and my effort are worth a little something as well. In this case, the gentleman still has all of his models, I still have my money, & I am still on the lookout for a collection that needs a new home.

There is lots of legwork to keeping the table full when I go to swap meets. I have looked at or just missed 20 or so collections and I have bought 3. Many more misses than hits.

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I have been involved in many different swap meets for many different hobbies, but they are all very similar in that the prices the vendors ask for their pieces are always all over the board. Before I head off to any swap meet I always decide what I'm willing to pay for an item regardless of what some "price guide" says it is "worth", I am always willing to pay a little more for the ability to actually look at an item before I buy it, and to carry it home with me that day, rather than have to take the time to go through the process of ordering something, waiting for the order to be processed and delivered, and hoping that the vendor's description of it's condition is close to mine. While I am there I try to do a dry run around the show to see who has anything I might be interested in at the best price. If the vendor's asking price and my willing to pay price are too far apart I just keep going, but if they are close, then the vendor's attitude plays a huge role! If I try to negotiate a price and he growls back at me "NO, where are you going to find it any cheaper?!" I actually have an advantage, because with a few taps on my smart phone I can usually come back with "I just did!!", and go on my way! Anyways, in the end with a strategy and a little patience, I can almost always find items I am looking for at, or below, what I am willing to pay!

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