EXCESSIVE PRICE INCREASES.

[E St. Kruiser50]

Hey all

How's everyone??

Well here I go sticking my neck out on this , but haven't heard a thing from anyone here on this topic, of EXCESSIVE KIT AND SUPPLIES price increase's which surprises me.

Either you're afraid to say something or you agree with the increase's

I'd like to begin by qualifying my Title and Description, and my posting here on this topic, as not being a RANT or RAVE, and being in the wrong posting section.

I'll be expressing an opinion here, as respectfully as I can, as I have appreciated and supported the manufacturers and suppliers of hobby kit's and supplies for nearly 60 years, both in my money, activities, time, and my career, and thus feel I have a right, and a responsibility, to express my opinions here, either positive or critical on this topic, to help keep this hobby alive, positive and affordable.

To begin with IMHO, I believe these price increases are unprecedented, excessive, uncalled for, and realistically unjustifiable, especially with the economy in turbulant chaos. To me, this just adds in it's own small way, to the slow economic recovery, because of blatant greed IMHO, in what I see as a rather healthy small hobby community, and so to me any excusses from anyone here who is a part of the manufacturing community, who monitors these sites, and post rarely except to defend their posistion, wont be accepted as anything but excusses and defenses for companies who have sent all these molds to "China", and have taken all those jobs from this country that could have stayed here, and then somehow claim that oil prices have skyrocketted, and that shipping prices have gone threw the roof, when manufacturing and jobs could have stayed here, and shipping prices that are much lower here could have more than off-set these costs, that they now want us to subsidise by excessive price incresse's . Go figure!!

Our own new president, whether you like him or not, said we all need to sacrifice somewhat to help the recovery.

I myself have agreed with this mind-set, and have stepped up and spent more than usual, in several area's of my life to do my small part, especially now when I see noticible DECREASES in the prices of certain basic necessisities, like gas, clothing, and food, at least in my area.

I have begun my own personal boycott of these 28 - 32% price increase in model kit's and will not buy any new kit releases in the forseeable future. In several articles, just recently, we were reassured, because of concerns, that the new release kit prices would be kept reasonable and not approach the MODEL KING atmospher. Well, here we are folks!!

To me, it seems that someone thinks we have a short memory, and that we see these kit's as a basic need such as food and so forth, and the kits and supplies can't be done without - for me WRONG.

It's not just the $$$$$, but the SLAP IN THE FACE .

Now I realize that a few "LONG-WINDERS" who post here regularly, will go on and on (Like I have here ), and PROBOSQUILATE, and try to impress us with their reteric, on the "Values" of supporting the hobby, by being "RESCUER'S and "ENABLERS" with our $$$$$'s, supporting a manufacturing community that has betrayed us, and our economy, IMHO, and expected us to stay in DENIAL, as jobs dissappear, and so do our $$$$ to another country. PLEASE DON'T BUY IT.

Thanks for reading, and any respectfull response and critisism's gratefully accepted - dave

Edited February 19, 2009 by Treehugger Dave

[Fisher61]

I agree with you Dave! I was shocked the last time I was in the hobby shop and seen the prices on the new Revell releases! I stayed away from the Model King kits because of the price, now I guess everything is off limits now! And I am the type of guy that would buy multiples of the same kit if I was impressed by it enough! It looks like those days are over!

[Rob Hall]

Hasn't this been hashed to death on here and every other forum over the last couple of months? It is what it is...complaining isn't going to bring the prices down.

[Guest Gramps-xrds]

Well Dave, I have never been in favor of the price increases I've had to put up w/ over the yrs. When I started building I payed maybe a 1.25 or 1.50 back in the late 50s. It really jerked my chain when AMT moved to Mexico then to China to cut production costs (so they said ) but the price just kept going up and up. The fact is, I haven't bought a model in a lot of yrs, ( been just building outa the stash I got ) so I don't know what their charging for them now, but I probably wouldn't like it.

[Helipilot16]

I agree wholeheartely. I have already begun my own boycott when two kits I ordered from my favorite supplier went up $8.00 apiece. That is truly excessive, but not the fault of my supplier. He gives me the wholesale price of kits from Great Planes.

I didn't cancel my order when the price went up because my supplier had already taken delivery. The rest of my purchases will be made on Ebay, where I can still get used kit prices. I have no sympathy with mfrs who shipped jobs overseas in the interest of greed. They are truly hurting now, and the hurt is actually going all the way through to China. The word is that manufacturing is way down in China.

I am trying to buy made in U.S. only now, but it's difficult at best.

[Helipilot16]

Hasn't this been hashed to death on here and every other forum over the last couple of months? It is what it is...complaining isn't going to bring the prices down.

Actually it just might, if they hear from us enough.

[Guest Davkin]

I guess I'll be the devil's advocate on this one then. It seems to me model car kit prices have been more or less stagnant for a long time. I beleive the price increase may just an adjustment due to that. Instead of getting a 5% steady increase every year we got a 25% or more jump all at once therefore it seems rather abrupt and shocking but it may be justified. RC2 went under while dumping kits on us at dirt cheap prices, that business model didn't work even with Walmart's help so why would continuing that pricing structure with a significantly decreased product exposure work? I beleive it's just time to face reality, we've been paying too little for too long and Hobbico realizes that for them to profit off Revell the prices just need to be higher. Maybe Hobbico is making more than a comfortable profit margin now, if that's the case I'm guessing the reduced sales will require them to lower the price a bit, but I don't think you'll ever see $15-$16 SRP on model car kits again. A better strategy for Hobbico would have been to raise the prices more gradually. Even at current prices model car builders are getting a screaming deal compared to armor and airplane modelers even a year or more ago.

David

[Aaronw]

Yeah, I've been a bit shocked at some of the increases. Tower had a lot of the Revell kits for $11.99 the past couple years, now many have jumped to $20.99 which seems just a tad excessive.

I'm not exactly on a boycott, but am definately shopping more carefully and it makes me happy to have 500-600 kits in the stash.

[MikeMc]

It's due to HIGH OIL prices....so they said....Oil has dropped 45% + so why not kit prices???

We all know the supply /demand thing...and unless the mfgrs HEAR US nothing will change!

[gasman]

lets not forget the auto manufactures want more $$$$ from licensing. also more technology is going into producing these kits and they are better then ever. I paid $19 for the Revell 68 Mustang, and honestly, I don't think there all that expensive at all. I was in Micheals on Monday and there was a group of kids (ages 10-15 I guess) who where deciding what kits they wanted next. lets face it $20 for a model kit, is still cheaper then $60 for a video game. not including the $400 needed for just the system too play them.

also kits aren't being sold in the amount they used too be. with no big box stores carrying kits anymore its make them harder and harder too sell. The reason why Model King kits where expensive was because of the small numbers that where being done. well. the kit manufactures are doing the same now so there will be an increase in price. I'm gonna continue buying, price increases aren't going too stop me from buying, it only makes me enjoy this hobby more becouse since i'm putting more money into the hobby it will force me to become a better modeler.

[CAL]

Donno but I get cheap kits out of Japan.

Fujimi 250 GTO $24 $30 shipped LHS $62

Tamiya new C9 $20 $27 shipped LHS $49

Tamiya FXX $49 $55 shipped LHS $79

You get the idea so I am not typing them all out. However, generally a Japanese kit orded for Japan, or HK is 1/2 the LHS price.

Yeah I am not paying $30-$40 for a Revell kit that was under $20 last year. The Revell Nova was the most I ever paid for a 24/25 scale domestic.

[Aaronw]

Let's face it Hobbico/Revell has a strangle hold on the market now. They can do basically anything they want without retribution.

You might have heard of AMT, Lindberg, Tamiya, Revell of Germany, Hasegawa, Italeri, Fujimi etc, there are a few other model kit makers besides Revell.

I've seen the comment about the auto manufacturers wanting more for licensing, that may be possible for new kits but what about those already available. Two of the kits I noticed increases on were the '50 Ford Pickup and '41 Chevy pickup, why repops of long paid for, license negotiated for kits jumps 80% in one year doesn't seem reasonable to me.

[James Flowers]

I look at it this way. The Model companies have done very little advertising. They put all their eggs in the big box stores and lost. Why did they not sell them anywhere but the big box stores and hobby stores? I walk in to a parts store , hardware store, gas station, Dollar stores and so on and what do I see Diecast everywhere. The Model companies limited their own market. Why? Seems too me they have caused their own problems. The corporate greed is still alive in America.

[James Flowers]

Whats up with this? I make a comment on this post and it dies. Why is that?

[DR Dubois]

Yes we have all heard the excuses but the fact remains these price increases were due. Here in Canada we've been paying $22 to $30 for Revell/AMT kits at the LHS for awhile now.

Luckily for me I also have a large stash of kits that I've been buying for years now so I won't need to buy anything new for a long time. When I do decide to buy more I'll wait for the kits to go on sale because if a lot of us stop buying, they'll have to reduce prices to get us to come back!

[Jeff Johnston]

If I could find any new Revell kit for 19 buck's I'd not be complaining. It's the 24.95 that I complain about. The Revell 68 Mustang, and every other newer release is $24.95 where i am.

I have not boycotted (its silly to think that's even possible for me). But it has meant that I haven't bought at least 4 kits, just because I had to ask myself... "at 25 bucks, do I really need that"....the answer was no.

68 Stang. I already have an AMT 67 unbuilt.

70 Challenger. I already have an old AMT 70 Challenger convertible

New GT 500. The boxart lost me before the price. But i already have a couple 06 Stangs, and parts to build a Parnelli.

Hurtz Shelby. Same

So I will be more picky. 2 years ago we were paying 17 bucks...and $25 is just about 5 over my mental line of an impulse buy.

[lordairgtar]

It's due to HIGH OIL prices....so they said....Oil has dropped 45% + so why not kit prices???

We all know the supply /demand thing...and unless the mfgrs HEAR US nothing will change!

It's also due to the falling value of the dollar. Those oh so vaulted oil prices we see in the news is usually midland medium crude from Texas. Other sources of oil can be higher. I'm thinking my stash of over a thousand unbuilt kits has increased in value now. The store is now open.

Edited February 22, 2009 by lordairgtar

[Pete J.]

Just a couple of thoughts: I haven't heard of any plastic model company rocking the the world of finance with "oil company" level profits. Greedy? Maybe but I kind of doubt it. They know as well as anyone what they can get out of a kit. P&L statements are watched very carefully. These boys are as smart as any business men. They know cost levels and how much they need to get to keep the doors open. They are also very tuned in on their customers. No business intentionally moves away from their costumers. To do so is suicide.

Let me ask this. How many model companies have closed their doors in the last 5 years? How many have tried to be resurrected? How many have shrunk incredibly? How few new companies are there compared to what use to be out there? No, I don't think these guys are getting rich on our purchase of kits. Some are making a living but most live on the edge. Want to kill another company? Boycott the industry! Just my opinion.

[Bernard Kron]

This is a great thread. I think, in one form or another, just about everything has been covered, so here's my sort of sum up of the highlights.

If you look carefully through all this you'll see a picture of a small industry struggling to find its footing. The hobby has shrunk over the years, outlets for the manufacturer's products have become more limited, and costs of production have been rising for a very long time (not just during the recent commodities bubble, but in the form of a steady generalized price inflation in everything from real estate to food to health costs, etc.). Manufacturers have tried everything to work their way through this, whether through mergers, outsourcing to developing world labor pools, or mass retailer distribution (a ploy which almost never results in increased profits for the manufacturer, but which was very fashionable during the boom years). The recent increase in price points of model kits and supplies has indeed been sudden and large, but it is, more than anything, a "contrast effect" with consumers (us) probably forgetting all the discounted and clearanced items that characterized recent times. I am amazed at the number of "limited production" kits still in the pipeline many years after their initial release, whether at hobby shows, through e-bay, even on the shelves of my LHS.

I would be less than honest if I didn't admit that these new prices, not just for kits, but for paint, filler, tools, etc. when they are "hobby" items really make me mad. But I find that I have alternatives and I exploit them wherever I can. I only hope we find some sort of equilibrium point that will result in more companies than just Revell mass producing new creations at a price point that we will eventually find acceptable. Right now those price points are definitely not acceptable, but what we are experiencing is just another manifestation of a more general increase in prices. Eventually these are offset by increases in money wages as well, but getting there is never, ever, less that a terrible, unpleasant process.

In the meantime, one choice is to boycott purchasing at these prices, look for alternatives through trading, auctioning, buying supplies outside the hobby outlets, etc. , hoping that prices eventually adjust downwards. Another is to accept them as "reality" and try to spend at least some money at the LHS hoping the hobby will continue in some form resembling what we have had. The balance between these two will define our hobby as we move forward. I have two worries. The first is the potential demise of new tooling. The other is that modelers will not be able to afford this great hobby. Not only the experienced and talented builders who find they have been priced out of the hobby they love, but most particularly those who are new to the hobby (especially the young) or returning to it as I am. These builders simply don't have the huge stashes of kits that will carry them during this adjustment. The loss of either new toolings and creations, or new builders would indeed be a tragedy.

Just my opinion...

Edited February 23, 2009 by gbk1