Kit value

[Ace-Garageguy]

Another factor is that there are a lot of idiot bidders on ebay who don't search for comparable items before bidding, get caught up in the bidding-hysteria for what they seem to think is OMG THE ONLY ONE !!! and pay WAY too much. This is another GOOD reason to take Harry's advice and look at many completed sales and then average the prices.

[Tom Geiger]

That's why you have to look at several sales and take an average. You can't look at one sale and say that's the value, because one may have sold for an unusually high (or low) price. You have to take the selling price from several sales and figure out the average selling price to get a more accurate estimate of "value."

And even then, the number you come up with is not some value that's set in stone. Selling prices fluctuate over time. The best you can do is get a fairly good estimate of what any particular kit is "worth" on the open market, based on what that kit has been selling for recently.

Very true. When a seldom seen kit appears on eBay, it results in a bidding war and sells for a high price. Several other people see this sale and decide to cash in and sell their own copies. In the next week or so several of this same kit show up for sale, and since the original excitement has been satisfied, they sell for much less. So if you take those prices and average them, you may have a realistic value.

[Art Anderson]

Oh, so true! I checked on the sold prices of the kit in question; it's all over the board, from down around $10 to up around $80. Most examples are somewhere in the $20-$30 range. Not sure that I'd pay that but then I'm not a huge fan of Hubley metal kits.

Bear in mind that while not often seen today, Hubley's 1930 Model A Ford kits are not exactly scarce or rare. The 1930 Model A Ford kits (coupe, 4dr Town Sedan, pickup and Station Wagon) were first introduced in 1959-60 by Hubley (then the largest maker of diecast Zamak toys, known for their "action" WW-II fighter planes and myriad cap pistol toys) and were produced virtually every year from then until about 1980 by Hubley. After the demise of Hubley, Gabriel Industries picked up the tooling and reissued them for several years in the 1980's, after which Joseph L. Ertl III bought the tooling, moved to Dyersville IA, and reissued several of hte old Hubley screwdriver-assembly diecast model car kits will into the 1990's under the JLE Scale Models brand.

Of all the Hubley metal kits, the Model A Fords are the most crude (several other Hubley metal car kits are actually reasonably nice).

Art

[W-Machine]

By trade, I am a tax assessor in the state of New Jersey. We grapple with similar issues every day. The question of a property value, like that of a model kit or just about anything else can easily be determined if certain parameters are met. Is the transaction between the parties involved an "arm's length transaction"? Are both the willing buyer and knowledgeable seller free of any sort of distress to either buy or sell? Can you find recent sales and prices for that item or a similar item? Always disregard the anomalous (either ridiculously high or low sales prices) as they are never a true indicator of what the market is willing to bear. Of course, no two sales will likely ever be exactly alike, so using these questions as a guideline for at least three comparable sales can, at the very least, give you a range of value. I could probably write about two hundred pages on the subject of market value and how one might arrive at it, but there's a lot of plastic out there that requires attention. Oh yeah, and it would bore the hell out of all of you.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Strictly speaking what the "winning" bidder pays for an item in an e-bay auction is not what they think it is worth, it is one bid more than what the second highest bidder thinks it is worth.

LOL, love it, very true. It may have been worth MUCH more to the winning buyer, he just got lucky enough to pay a bit more than the next guy was willing to.

[gtx6970]

Very true. When a seldom seen kit appears on eBay, it results in a bidding war and sells for a high price. Several other people see this sale and decide to cash in and sell their own copies. In the next week or so several of this same kit show up for sale, and since the original excitement has been satisfied, they sell for much less. So if you take those prices and average them, you may have a realistic value.

Agreed, a few years ago a mint unbuilt MPC 1968 Color Me Gone Charger funnycar kit sold for nearly $1000, over the next few weeks several more came out of the woodwork and sold anywhere from $300 to $800 . Prior to that 1st one you rarely ever saw this kit unbuilt

The one who determines Ebay sold prices is the 1st looser. I've won seveal kits lately and I would have paid considerably more than my winning bid, thankfully the 2nd highest bidder wasn't.