Dumping the originals could be a gamble. Many years ago when AMT still existed, there was an ad hanging in a local hobby shop announcing "soon to released" kits from AMT. One of the kits was the '69 Dodge Coronet R/T. It was probably going to have the new (for that time) chassis that was used on the '68 Roar Runner and '70 Super Bee. I had 2 original MPC '69 Coronet R/T's that had been built but were both unpainted with nice chrome and the original boxes. They would have been very easy restorations. I sold them on Ebay for I think about $75.00 each. AMT went belly up, the Coronets never came out, and I was out 2 very nice originals.
The other side of that is the Revell '30 Model A Coupe. The tooling was damaged and it was unknown if the kit would ever be seen again. Originals were showing up on Ebay for over $100.00 each. Then there was talk that the tooling was going to be repaired. I gambled and sold my 2 unbuilts on Ebay and did quite well.