Ollie's strike again

[Johnt671]

I'm going to check the Hazleton PA store tomorrow. I went up late last week and found a Lindburg 31 Bugatti Royale Victoria that I picked up. But still no big dump of kits.

[niteowl7710]

Went to the second closest Ollie's today while I was out getting my eyes poked and prodded for my annual contact script and THERE they had most of the good stuff.  Picked up a '48 Ford Custom - because after holding out for a stock roof kit all these years, I'm willing to bury that grudge for $8.  Also a VW Rabbit, because $8 is a much more reasonable price to sacrifice a kit for parts - for my C1 Models Caddy Transkit - than the regular U.S. boxing price or one of the nearly $30 GTi RevellAG kits.

[mikemodeler]

I was at the Ollies in N. Charleston SC yesterday and they had almost all Lindberg models except for some Fink Speedwagons and Dodge VTS pickups from Revell. I stopped in a Hobby Lobby and ironically enough, they had a Speedwagon on their clearance shelf for $14.99, almost twice what the same kit at Ollies was going for.

[FordRodnKustom]

I was at the Ollies in N. Charleston SC yesterday and they had almost all Lindberg models except for some Fink Speedwagons and Dodge VTS pickups from Revell.

Exactly the same deal here. Lots of Lindberg ship kits too.

[Mike999]

I was at the Ollies in N. Charleston SC yesterday and they had almost all Lindberg models except for some Fink Speedwagons and Dodge VTS pickups from Revell...

Ollie's in Greenville, SC on Tues. May 9:  the same. Mostly Lindberg Union Artillery and lots of ships, 1/24 ancient PYRO Bugattis and Mercedes, etc.  This is a very big Ollie's store, housed in a former K-Mart.  So I really expected to see some of the Good Stuff I'm hearing about in here. Nope.   

(Helping cure my disappointment - I was in Greenville for a Steve Winwood concert, which was great.)

[Drag Monster]

I always heard that Ollie's was a good source for discontinued kits but there were none in my area (Rhode Island). The first one in this area opened up on April 5, Well I didn't have to wait too long to find out that what I have heard was true. This is part of my Saturday's score I also got 5 Lindberg Dodge L-700 Tanker Trucks, 5 Ford Mustang 5.0 Police cars & 5 Pro Street 55 Ford Jukebox Kits. I also had a 15% coupon off my entire purchase every thing was under $400.00

[Dave Van]

I'd say your store got the bulk of the really good stuff.......I'd bought one each of those for sure....

[oldnslow]

Man ! i was hoping to find some of those in our stores , but no luck. Good shopping Bill.

[Tom Geiger]

Has anyone discovered the source where Ollies is getting all these kits?

With the first appearance many years ago (along with their questionable explanation that they came from a warehouse fire) most everything  was Lindberg and it was reasoned that L Lloyd had a huge warehouse full of unsold stock and was raising money for their last Lindberg Dodge Charger release.

Now the stock contains multiple manufacturers.. Revell,  Round Two etc.   So where is all of this coming from?  As they have a ton of kits in seemingly all Ollie stores, this is a huge quantity of stuff!    

Would it be from a large hobby distributor like Hobbyco?  I don't think they'd ditch RM kits so not to dilute their market value?  Or is this from the main Hobby Lobby warehouse?  I cannot see the manufacturers being too happy that their stuff is being sold this cheap.

[Dave Van]

Doubt wee will ever know........but the last few kit dumps have included all brands.....the Revell Midgets??? And R2 has had some kits most dumps too. 

Kinda sounds like a big distributor.....maybe like J Loyd wholesale div.......something along those lines.  

[Mark]

I didn't see any Round 2 stuff on this go-round, unless some of the Lindberg items are theirs. 

Not knowing how the business works, I'd still guess that a certain percentage of production going to closeout is "acceptable" to the manufacturers, but too much, and too many times, isn't so great for the long term.  Much as I like a deal every so often, hopefully it's not a trend.

[Dave Toups]

Ollie's always seems to have Lindberg kits in their stores. They only get Round2 (AMT/MPC) and Revell stuff once or twice a year. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which stores get what. Some have a decent selection one time and nothing the next. As for where they get them, it's hard to tell. The stuff they got this time isn't exactly undesirable junk. Who knows, stacks of Revell Model A Coupes may show up there at some point!

 

 

[Tom Geiger]

I'm thinking this has to be coming from a single source, like a hobby distributor or even Hobby Lobby central warehouse.  It doesn't appear any of it had been on store shelves elsewhere before. Ollies doesn't appear to be the type of operation that would see model cars as a category and seek them out from multiple sources for that sale.

[Ace-Garageguy]

The stock varies widely from store to store. I snagged several 1/8 Lindberg kits at one nearby a while back, but another store farther north had none. Yesterday a friend picked up some of the Dodge tanker and Red Wagon-on-a-trailer kits for me at the north store, but the store close by had none of those.

It seems bizarre the manufacturers or distributors would dump recently repopped kits on a distress marketer like Ollies for pennies on the dollar, but apparently that's what's happening. Must be a bean-counter thing that appears to make no sense in actual physical reality. I guess it's cheaper to dump them and take a paper loss, rather than warehouse them for liquidation themselves online.

[niteowl7710]

Has anyone discovered the source where Ollies is getting all these kits?

With the first appearance many years ago (along with their questionable explanation that they came from a warehouse fire) most everything  was Lindberg and it was reasoned that L Lloyd had a huge warehouse full of unsold stock and was raising money for their last Lindberg Dodge Charger release.

Now the stock contains multiple manufacturers.. Revell,  Round Two etc.   So where is all of this coming from?  As they have a ton of kits in seemingly all Ollie stores, this is a huge quantity of stuff!    

Would it be from a large hobby distributor like Hobbyco?  I don't think they'd ditch RM kits so not to dilute their market value?  Or is this from the main Hobby Lobby warehouse?  I cannot see the manufacturers being too happy that their stuff is being sold this cheap.

Several of the cases of Revell products at my local store are being "displayed" in their original from China shipping cases, that have the P.O., Part ID, and Case xxx of xxx labeled on the side. 

Great unintentional insight into Revell's production numbers as things like the Speedwagon and Dodge Ram VTS are in boxes that say xxx of 250.  250 cases by 12 models = Production run of 3,000 pieces.  What is really amusing, or perhaps disturbing was the Porsche Boxters which are in Cases xxx of 834.  That makes those SnapTite kits a run of 10,008!! I know that a lot of the SnapTite kits end up getting shuttled out to those Make n Takes, but TEN THOUSAND (and 8) of them?

[1930fordpickup]

The stores here have extra cases on the top shelf with the ends cut out. There are kits from all manufactures in the same boxes. Tom most of the boxes I see have L Lloyd  on them. 

Why they are pushing all the stuff i want out east? LOL

 

[Snake45]

As I suspected, it was worth another trip back this week. Lots of Revell stuff that wasn't out last week. S&M GTX, 5.0 LX Mustang, Surfite, '55 Ford dragster, etc. I bought a GTX and a Dan Fink Speedwagon, a kit I've never gotten around to owning.

[CapSat 6]

I went to the Ollie's in Bristol, PA last night and they had a pretty good selection of these. They only had two Slingsters left, looks like somebody there really likes that kit. I did pick up a Surfite- for 3 surfboards and Ed Roth figure alone, it was worth the purchase. 

Tonight I went to the Ollie's in Hatboro, PA- they had mostly the same assortment, except that they also had Sox GTX's, Mustang 5.0's, Stone Woods Cook Willys (the old one), '48 Fords and Ram VTS's. I did pick up one Mustang 5.0, as I have a casual interest in this kit, so a casual price is just right. I could have bought a bunch of those GTX's just for the Hemis and 8-3/4's that come with them, but I probably already have enough.

When I brought it up to the counter to pay, the Lady working there said: "you guys must be calling each other up about all of these! Two guys came in and bought two of the cop cars each!". I said: "nope- internet! One guy bought about $400 worth in another store".  She was nice, and I got a kick out of the conversation.  

Here's a tip: check ALL of the toy aisles, and end caps. Both stores had their models split about 50/50 between two different aisles.

Now I just need to find one of those Rabbits...

 

[CapSat 6]

One other thing I'd like to point out: they have a few Revell Wheels Of Fire/ sorta snap kits: a Porsche Boxter and a PT Cruiser. I'm almost almost always looking for inexpensive easy kits for me to build with my kids. If you're inclined to do the same (even for grandchildren, nieces/ nephews, etc.), then $8 a kit is a really good deal for keeping the little ones engaged in the hobby. If the manufacturers are blowing them out anyway, you might as well take the opportunity to try to grow the hobby a little. 

[Tom Geiger]

Several of the cases of Revell products at my local store are being "displayed" in their original from China shipping cases, that have the P.O., Part ID, and Case xxx of xxx labeled on the side. 

Great unintentional insight into Revell's production numbers as things like the Speedwagon and Dodge Ram VTS are in boxes that say xxx of 250.  250 cases by 12 models = Production run of 3,000 pieces.  What is really amusing, or perhaps disturbing was the Porsche Boxters which are in Cases xxx of 834.  That makes those SnapTite kits a run of 10,008!! I know that a lot of the SnapTite kits end up getting shuttled out to those Make n Takes, but TEN THOUSAND (and 8) of them?

Interesting if correct.  That could also be the case count going to a single buyer, a large distributor.  Alan Bass and Brett of Stephens have been on the board lately.  May be one of them could confirm this either way.

The order I received of the NNL East Goody Bags were marked this way. We bought 1200 and the printed product was shipped to us in it's original boxes.  Each had all that same data and the case count appeared to be what was shipped to the printer.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Tom Geiger

[niteowl7710]

Interesting if correct.  That could also be the case count going to a single buyer, a large distributor.  Alan Bass and Brett of Stephens have been on the board lately.  May be one of them could confirm this either way.

The order I received of the NNL East Goody Bags were marked this way. We bought 1200 and the printed product was shipped to us in it's original boxes.  Each had all that same data and the case count appeared to be what was shipped to the printer.

The J. Lloyd stuff was also in it's cases which had stick on labels with the PO, parts number, and case xxx of xxx, which also work out to what I'd consider to be normal reissue runs.

I could be completely wrong, but I find it hard to believe anyone but Revell themselves would order 10,008 SnapTite Porsche Boxters.  Now I'm not saying that Hobbico is the ones that dumped this stuff, but it has to be some first line distributor that would be getting the cases directly to them without them being broken down into mixed cases in Illinois.

Edited May 14, 2017 by niteowl7710

[mikemodeler]

Stopped by the Ollie's in Matthews NC today and noticed they had restocked some of the model kits. My previous trip I saw only Lindberg kits and today they had some Revell kits out. The Sox & Martin GTX, 99 Mustang, Snap PT Cruiser & Porsche Boxster, 99 Silverado Custom, a couple of dragsters and one other kit that escapes me.

Like others mentioned, keep checking as they seem to get more stock in and are adding to the display.

[Dave Van]

Traveling Thursday....will stop by a Ollies....

[Brett Barrow]

The Revell cases are the same cases they ship from China in. The number is the total run, not what any particular distributor or retailer ordered.  10,000 sounds about right for a snap kit. Regular kits are typically 5,000 or 3,000. Revell has maintained for years that their top selling kits are snappers and I don't see any reason to doubt them. I've personally done summer camp orders that were hundreds of snap kits. And when I did wholesale sales I had several kid/toy stores that bought nothing but snaps. And these are boxed for retail kits, make n takes come in their own cases unboxed I don't think they're included in that case count. I'm surprised they don't invest more in new-tool snaps but I guess they figure they don't need to as a kid's first model is new to them no matter what. . I'll take a pic of a couple a Revell cases tomorrow if I think about it. I'll try to see if any are more than 10,000. 

[Dave Van]

Salem Va......normal  stuff...boats, planes and Bugatti......  and 2 cases of Civil War guns....Ollie's better hope those are made from chocolate. I'd buy one if the go down to $3.....but not $30.