Old Kits: To Build / Rebuild or Not

[StevenGuthmiller]

I believe you're right on both counts!

I could work with that, if I were interested in the basic subject matter, which I don't think I am. What is it under there, some kind of early '60s Mercury? I honestly don't know. 

Believe it or not, it was, at one point, a '63 Mercury Marauder!

 

Steve

[vamach1]

I see the same kits for sale by certain vendors year after year.  Do they really want to sell them?  If they were priced a little more reasonable maybe people would buy them.  If they have 300 kits and sell even 20 expensive kits a show, it will take 15 shows to just sell the inventory nevermind all the expense of going to shows and paying vendor fees.  I just don't get it.

[Tom Geiger]

I see the same kits for sale by certain vendors year after year.  Do they really want to sell them?  If they were priced a little more reasonable maybe people would buy them.  If they have 300 kits and sell even 20 expensive kits a show, it will take 15 shows to just sell the inventory nevermind all the expense of going to shows and paying vendor fees.  I just don't get it.

Let me explain that one...  good old kits are hard to find.  If they priced them "reasonably" they'd sell out 300 kits immediately at lets say $10 a kit profit. That's $3 grand. Then they couldn't replace them. Sell 20 kits at a $100 a kit profit, now you've made $2 grand and you can fill those 20 empty slots before the next show. Per your example that's 15 shows times $2 grand equals $30 grand.

Edited April 8, 2017 by Tom Geiger

[StevenGuthmiller]

I see the same kits for sale by certain vendors year after year.  Do they really want to sell them?  If they were priced a little more reasonable maybe people would buy them.  If they have 300 kits and sell even 20 expensive kits a show, it will take 15 shows to just sell the inventory nevermind all the expense of going to shows and paying vendor fees.  I just don't get it.

It's not just vendors at shows.

I've been stumbling across this one on ebay for at least the last couple of years.

You would think that by now the seller would get it through his head that he's not going to sell a "rebuilder" '61 Pontiac for $155.00!

If he was holding his breath until he sold it, he would have been dead in 2014!!

 

Steve

 

[vamach1]

Let me explain that one...  good old kits are hard to find.  If they priced them "reasonably" they'd sell out 300 kits immediately at lets say $10 a kit profit. That's $3 grand. Then they couldn't replace them. Sell 20 kits at a $100 a kit profit, now you've made $2 grand and you can fill those 20 empty slots before the next show. Per your example that's 15 shows times $2 grand equals $30 grand.

$100 profit???  Over how many decades did it take to make that much?  Or did the vendor find a great deal tha no one else could.  My only guess if they buy up old collections for as little as possible and then sell them for as much as possible.  I am all for capitalism and supply and demand but that is a pretty slow inventory turnover.

[StevenGuthmiller]

$100 profit???  Over how many decades did it take to make that much?  Or did the vendor find a great deal tha no one else could.  My only guess if they buy up old collections for as little as possible and then sell them for as much as possible.  I am all for capitalism and supply and demand but that is a pretty slow inventory turnover.

I kind of agree.

If the guy with the '61 Pontiac on ebay that I posted above, bought the kit for even $5.00 & is planning on a $150.00 profit in 3 years.........Well lets just say that I could have made that much picking change out of my sofa over that period of time!

 

Steve

[Pete J.]

There is no "right" or "wrong" answer.  We have enough museums and high end collectors that although there are "rare" kits, they are not a national resource that if it is gone, it is gone for good.  Don't be guided by others.  

What you have to decide is this.  Are you a builder or a collector?  If you are a builder, then build.  If you are a collector, then collect.  It is really that simple.  

  There is a bit of crossover for builders.  You may wind up with a collection because you may want to build it some day.  That is why I have several hundred kits.  I didn't buy any of them because they could be rare and valuable some day.  I bought them because I want to build them some day and don't want to pay stupid expensive prices to pry one loose from a collector when I am ready to build them.  

So what are you?  You decide and do that.  Your friend, well he can do the same thing.  

[Tom Geiger]

$100 profit???  Over how many decades did it take to make that much?  Or did the vendor find a great deal tha no one else could.  My only guess if they buy up old collections for as little as possible and then sell them for as much as possible.  I am all for capitalism and supply and demand but that is a pretty slow inventory turnover.

Obviously you don't understand.  There is a vendor that does the rounds at shows in my area that does just that.  He has a virtual wall of delights... nearly every old kit you could want. At outrageous prices. When he used to come to NNL East, people would complain to me that 'I needed to make him sell at a reasonable price'.  So I'd ask them what was reasonable.  One guy said $50, another $75 and some $100. Some peoples idea of "reasonable" was on the cheap side. Nope, this guy had stuff priced between $200-300 a kit.  But at the end of every show, there were people walking around with these kits.  A guy in my club bought one and I asked him why.. he said that was his holy grail kit and he finally broke down and paid the $300.  Supply and demand.  If it wasn't working, the vendor would've given it up a long time ago.

It no doubt took this vendor a long time to have the 500 kit display of nearly every old annual. And nice kits.  This stuff isn't growing on trees.  So he could sell them all at one show at a minimal profit, and he wouldn't have any more to sell.  Or sell that 20-30 kits a show at $100-300 profit each.  That gives him the ability to slowly add stock between shows.  I spoke to people he bought kits from and they said he was fair on that end.   Obviously this guy found a niche where he could make money. 

[disabled modeler]

Me... I dont mine having to restore an old glue bomb or one that has been customed to death other than for the fact of trying to find parts for them...99% of my builds/restorations are factory stock.  Trying to find parts for them can take the fun out of it...I have around 100 waiting their turn.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Another thought on this...building from gluebombs works for me because I almost never build stock. If I get a body that has the basic shape I'm after, cheap, it's usually OK if everything else is trash.

If I built stock or "box-stock", I could see where a gluebomb could certainly be a lot more trouble than it would be worth.

That said, I'm currently searching for something I've wanted to do a replica of a particular '60s GM full-size custom, and I just might be willing to pay for the clean unmolested kit I've found.

One more thing comes to mind...I've been inspired several times to build something I had no prior thought of or interest in simply because a gluebomb that arrived on my doorstep as part of a larger mixed parts purchase just seemed to speak to me. Such was the case with this one, which looked so sad...kinda like an abandoned, sick kitten that "everyone" knows will die, and that turns out to be a wonderful cat.

 

Edited April 8, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy

[vamach1]

Like you said - outrageous prices.  Someone is going to inherit a whole lot of old kits someday and they will be auctioned off and we will know what they are really worth.  I guess there isn't a holy grail kit for me so I do not understand the desire to hand over $300 for something I blew up with firecrackers as a kid.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Like you said - outrageous prices.  Someone is going to inherit a whole lot of old kits someday and they will be auctioned off and we will know what they are really worth.  I guess there isn't a holy grail kit for me so I do not understand the desire to hand over $300 for something I blew up with firecrackers as a kid.

And I don't understand blowing models up with firecrackers. I never understood the desire to pay a dollar to hit a fine old running '53 Buick with a sledgehammer (to raise money for my high-school football team), to shoot holes in old cars, smash the windows and instruments in old airplanes, or to deface other folk's property with graffiti, either.

And...anything is "worth" exactly what somebody else is willing to pay on the day. Pretty simple.

[vamach1]

And I don't understand blowing models up with firecrackers. I never understood the desire to pay a dollar to hit a fine old running '53 Buick with a sledgehammer (to raise money for my high-school football team), to shoot holes in old cars, smash the windows and instruments in old airplanes, or to deface other folk's property with graffiti, either.

And...anything is "worth" exactly what somebody else is willing to pay on the day. Pretty simple.

I was a dumb kid and it was mostly tanks and planes.  People hate Ebay but I always check the completed sales to get an idea of what a kit is worth.  Then I see people asking 2-3 times for the same kit and I have to wonder do they think some sucker will eventually buy it - perhaps so but I guess they must be really patient.

[Ace-Garageguy]

... I always check the completed sales to get an idea of what a kit is worth.  Then I see people asking 2-3 times for the same kit and I have to wonder do they think some sucker will eventually buy it - perhaps so but I guess they must be really patient.

I agree completely.   Checking the "sold for" prices and waiting patiently can save you a bunch of money on something "rare" and unusual...which is why I haven't been in a hurry to spring for the $175 for a virgin, almost-perfect-box version of the old kit I'm after at the moment. It's a screw-bottom, and clean built-ups have been moving for well under $100.