Someone paid $600 for a '68 Coronet Yikes!

[ChrisBcritter]

6 hours ago, OldTrucker said:

Saw a guy at a swap meet pay something like 275 dollars for a kit and then stood there and tore off the shrink wrap! The guy that sold it to him about had a coronary right on the spot when the guy said he was going to build it!?

Just hope he was a very good builder. 

"Yep - Me and my kid are gonna build it! Now we'll go down to the dime store for some paint and glue!" (seller flatlines) 

[john sharisky]

6 hours ago, kelson said:

I myself have a couple factory sealed old vintage kits and sometimes wonder whats in there,i will open them one day when their next on the build list.but those prices are to crazy for me!!

 

I once won a factory sealed AMT '75 AMC Matador kit on eBay.

No chrome tree.

Oh well...

John

 

[Bucky]

37 minutes ago, john sharisky said:

 

I once won a factory sealed AMT '75 AMC Matador kit on eBay.

No chrome tree.

Oh well...

John

 

It must happen more than we think. I purchased a factory sealed AMT 1992 Ford Flareside pickup kit at a hobby shop when those kits first came out, and the chrome was missing from that one, too.

[Tom Geiger]

14 hours ago, Jordan White said:

To be fair, it started out at only $9.99!

Yup, seller let the market decide.  Can't fault him, good for him!  

For some folks, spending $600 is like you or I spending $6.  All depends on where you are financially. 

And for those whining or calling the seller names.... jealousy!  Not one of you with "morals" would turn down the money if it was offered to you!  I have a lot of good kits and when I decide to sell a few on eBay I hope I'm that fortunate.  And no I wouldn't have any problem selling them for big money to a willing buyer!

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

22 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

Yup, seller let the market decide.  Can't fault him, good for him!  

For some folks, spending $600 is like you or I spending $6.  All depends on where you are financially. 

And for those whining or calling the seller names.... jealousy!  Not one of you with "morals" would turn down the money if it was offered to you!  I have a lot of good kits and when I decide to sell a few on eBay I hope I'm that fortunate.  And no I wouldn't have any problem selling them for big money to a willing buyer!

 

Preach it brother!

 

 

Steve

[Daddyfink]

The starting bid was $9.99, he wasn't trying to gouge anyone. He set an opening bid and the "Collectors" did the rest. 

 

[Richard Bartrop]

This flip side is , if I have opportunity to get a kit for next to nothing, you can be sure I'm going to take it, and if it's an auction, the seller can't be faulted if people want to shove fistfuls of money at him.

I try to got for sealed kits, but then the ones I go for tend not to go for kits that are valuable enough to warrant that level of skullduggery.

I do wonder about the kits that end up being considered too valuable to build, how many times some of those boxes end up changing hands before someone finally notices the scam?

[iamsuperdan]

16 hours ago, OldTrucker said:

Saw a guy at a swap meet pay something like 275 dollars for a kit and then stood there and tore off the shrink wrap! The guy that sold it to him about had a coronary right on the spot when the guy said he was going to build it!?

I'd probably do the same. I buy kits to build, not to put the box on a shelf. Cost be darned, I'm going to have fun and build everything!

 

One of the rarer kits I've found was an original factory sealed AMT Matador. As soon as it arrived, the shrink wrap came off so I could check it out.

Come to think of it, other than an AMT Christine I was gifted, I have removed the shrink wrap on every kit I've ever bought or traded for.

[DukeE]

People buy multiples/cases of new issues at say, $15-20 each. Retail is $30. So original Coronet for price of 20-30 new kits, or a few cases of new kits is ok deal. Add in the hours spent hunting, which is fun, but many people can't do that. Figure $5/hour to hunt? So, if you can bypass that, don't enjoy the hunt, have the $, fine. 

Time isn't replaceable. Lots of us enjoy the hunt. I've got 68 and 69 Coronet ht and cv minty builders that took years and luck to get. I haven't bought a lot off eBay, don't really need much. Most I've paid for kit is $400 or so for rare resin kit. 

Glad the guy made money. Consider if that's his only job, he has to pay bills like everyone. 

LOL. I was trying to remember a kit I have with shrink wrap on it. One. Kenworth Challenge Mixer, bought new, above my pay grade but too cool to pass up. Maybe a couple of "Why did I buy thats" and a couple parts kits, but I agree, they're to be built. 

 

[MrObsessive]

3 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

Yup, seller let the market decide.  Can't fault him, good for him!  

For some folks, spending $600 is like you or I spending $6.  All depends on where you are financially. 

And for those whining or calling the seller names.... jealousy!  Not one of you with "morals" would turn down the money if it was offered to you!  I have a lot of good kits and when I decide to sell a few on eBay I hope I'm that fortunate.  And no I wouldn't have any problem selling them for big money to a willing buyer!

 

I hear you Tom! I can about guarantee that I have kits in my stash that will fetch that much and then some. ESPECIALLY the resin foreign kits that I have.

There will come a point where I'll let them go..........too much to build now and as we always say, we'd have to live three or four lifetimes to finish them all!

[vamach1]

17 hours ago, kelson said:

I myself have a couple factory sealed old vintage kits and sometimes wonder whats in there,i will open them one day when their next on the build list.but those prices are to crazy for me!!

You might be disappointed.  I've sold a few builtups for what I thought was  good return given what I paid and what condition they were in.  The value is directly related to how much an unbuilt kit is worth.  I think it's the best of both in that you are not really devaluing an unbuilt kit and not worrying about lowering the value by building it.  I find these older kits are usually pretty basic but the bodies end to be pretty accurate are lacking with respect chassis and engine realism.  Assuming the old molds are gone forever the supply will always be low so until the demand drops these collector  prices will continue high.  In fifteen years it may be a different story with collections being sold more frequently.

Edited December 23, 2019 by vamach1

[MrObsessive]

5 minutes ago, vamach1 said:

 In fifteen years i may be a different story with collections being sold more frequently.

Exactly Rex. Let's face it------none of us are getting any younger and there will come a point where these kits that are now getting big bucks, the generation of us that remember them will no longer be here. That's how life goes.......all of us at some point will 'move on'.

[SfanGoch]

4 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

Not one of you with "morals" would turn down the money if it was offered to you!

Fortunately, I'm not impaired with a character flaw like morals. Money talks.

[Ace-Garageguy]

23 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

Fortunately, I'm not impaired with a character flaw like morals. Money talks.

Contrary to what a certain element is trying to shove down our throats these days, "morals" and "profit" are not mutually exclusive.

The only thing that shouldn't be for sale at any cost is personal honor.

But sadly, it's often traded for peanuts.

Edited December 23, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[Chuck Most]

And now you know why I prefer buying long-OOP oldies in glue bomb form.  

[Mike999]

A "sealed kit" story...

Does anybody here remember the big George Barris model car auction back in 1986 (IIRC)?  I lived pretty close to his shop at the time, in North Hollywood CA, and went to it.

Barris had collected case lots of kits from the model manufacturers for years, and many of those fetched big bucks at the auction. 

But...Barris stored all those kits in the attic of his shop.  So some people bid big bucks for their Holy Grail kit. Then opened the box and found that the tires had melted thru the windshield or parts were very warped.

[ChrisBcritter]

And two for us fans of the very old stuff (note the usual price difference between hardtop and convertible):

[Richard Bartrop]

Morals are great.  They're what keep society from falling into chaos.  But we aren't talking about jacking up the price of something like insulin here.  Nobody is going to die from the lack of a so-so promo kit of a pretty generic intermediate from the 60s, so go nuts.  It's like the fuss about the Uncertain T.  People want it because someone said they can't have it.

[gtx6970]

I personally paid $500 for a dead mint sealed 1968 Color Me Gone Charger funny car. Then opened it right in front of the seller. I thought he was gonna have a coronary. Kit itself was perfect but had a tire burn on the decal sheet.  Ended up doing some trading a year or so later and found a dead mint decal sheet for it . then sold it a couple years later , even made a little money on it.

maybe 10 years ago, I bought a factory sealed Barry Setzer vega funnycar on ebay. Once it arrived it sat here for a few months sealed but I finally gave in and opened it. Kit and sheet were perfect, and I still have it today.

 

Sealed vintage kits have a different following than open kits or builders.  its been a few years but there for a while there were maybe 2 or 3 guys bidding against one another and paying some serious change for sealed kits.  I watched one guy in the course of a few weeks grab ( all factory sealed ) Multiple MPC  Mopar kits. and NONE were under $500 , most were in the $7-800 range. He got a sealed 1970 Challenger for over $1000.

 

And as for comparing MPC 1969 Coronet RT promos to kits ,,,isnt even close.

I saw , bid and lost out on  all 3 of the 1969 Coronet RT conv promos. Between the 3 of them they topped out at over $8,000 . That one is the holy grail in the Mopar promo world

 

 

[mk11]

My introduction to the world of rewrapped kits fortunately didn't turn out to be an expensive one. Some older kits had shown up at a hobby shop under consignment from a collector. Bought a couple without realizing the rewrap. One was missing slicks and had wear on box that I hadn't noticed but otherwise nothing wrong.

Keep your eyes open 

[Tom Geiger]

I get a chuckle sometimes...  I do have some expensive kits but my real passion is in my stamp collection.....

United States, second stamp ever issued, 1840. Properly used on "cover",  ten cents was double rate for distance,  with authentication certificate... $1200-2400 all day long!  And nobody is going to find the mold!

[Richard Bartrop]

And of course, you're all strictly small timers compered to the art conoisseurs who shelled out six figures for this masterpiece  https://www.cnn.com/style/article/david-datuna-banana-art-basel-trnd/index.html

[DukeE]

Does Art Basel have 40% coupons?? I'm waiting for Cattelan's commode re-issue in platinum. Way better than a tiny box, new decals, and blue glass. Or a banana.

[slusher]

9 hours ago, Mike999 said:

A "sealed kit" story...

Does anybody here remember the big George Barris model car auction back in 1986 (IIRC)?  I lived pretty close to his shop at the time, in North Hollywood CA, and went to it.

Barris had collected case lots of kits from the model manufacturers for years, and many of those fetched big bucks at the auction. 

But...Barris stored all those kits in the attic of his shop.  So some people bid big bucks for their Holy Grail kit. Then opened the box and found that the tires had melted thru the windshield or parts were very warped.

That’s always a chance on a sealed kit, you don’t know how it’s stored. You do have eBay to back you up on their site...

[MrObsessive]

2 hours ago, slusher said:

That’s always a chance on a sealed kit, you don’t know how it’s stored. You do have eBay to back you up on their site...

Ha! You ain't kiddin'! I learnt my lesson loooong ago in the mid '80's on sealed kits! Long before eBay, in SA(E) someone in the classified section was selling a sealed AMT Golden Classics '53 Studebaker. Cost was $20.00 + shipping which in 1985-'86 was a good chunk of change considering.

The kit shows up about a week or so after I sent the money order and much to my chagrin, the body was bent over on one side. Almost as if it was set on a heater grate too long and it warped the body. Everything else was fine.......straight floor/frame, straight hood, etc. Just the body that was bad. Perhaps it was pulled out of the mold too soon and it cooled that way?

I dunno, but I never trusted a sealed old kit again after that.