Really?!?

[Superpeterbilt]

I know this topic has been brought up before in the off topic section about people parting out kits on ebay and charging rediculous prices per sprue. I say, to each his own, theres a sucker born every minute( if you desperately need the parts and it justifies the price thats different). What I want to rant about, is I just saw someone parting out a Pete snap kit with just the battery boxes listed for $9.99, the fuel tanks listed for $9.99, and just the cab listed for $12.00. To part out a kit that is only worth about $15.00 at best to start off with is just insane. I guess if they get a fish on the line then its fair game but, cmon guys! Sorry, I just had to get that out.

[Petetrucker07]

I here ya Terry. For those prices your better off, in some cases, just buying another kit. Then you have extra parts. I know ive done it if a forum member couldnt help the situation.

[disabled modeler]

There called profiteers among s other things...bad part is some people fall for it or just are that desperate and that is what there banking on. I hate it when someone takes advantage of someone knowing they are doing it to them...how do they sleep with it on their conscious? Id rather give something to help someone if it helps...I have many times when I could. Another thing to consider here is not all people are aware of what is available out there.

[guitarsam326]

I myself sell some parts on ebay, but usually the stuff I sell are odds and ends from not so common kits and I totally agree that its ridiculous what some people try to sell this stuff for!

[disabled modeler]

I myself sell some parts on ebay, but usually the stuff I sell are odds and ends from not so common kits and I totally agree that its ridiculous what some people try to sell this stuff for!

I can see doing that your providing a service for parts that might be hard to find and out of production. I have seen resent kits taillights and the asking price is what or more than the kit cost...no clue what they were thinking was right or 1/2 way fair?

[LDO]

No one is being forced to buy any of it.

[Joe Handley]

Was this eBay seller going by the name RC Recycler by chance?

He's got an entire thread dedicated to his random acts of pricing insanity on rc stuff, especially crawler related, over on RCCrawler.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Joe Handley

[Harry P.]

No one is being forced to buy any of it.

Exactly.

Don't like the price? Don't buy it. Problem solved.

[southpier]

the other side of the coin.... if you're three quarters through a build and mess up, do you want to buy another kit to get the part, beg the forums and hope someone has it and you've got something he wants in trade, put the whole mess in the bin, or spend ten bucks on a part?

it's all about choices. 28 flavors and all that.

[Superpeterbilt]

As I said in my original post, If you need the parts and it justifies the cost then Im not talking about you. Let me clarify, its not a rare kit, its not a hard to find kit, its not worth what they are trying to charge. This is just another example of these sellers trying to drive the price of a kit up. I realize that I dont have to buy it. I wouldnt buy the snap kit anyway. Its a snap kit. I figured I was allowed to point out something that I feel is rediculous. I know the cool guys like to troll around and say things like " just ignore it" "dont buy it". FYI, this is just a discussion. I posted this in the TRUCK STOP because it a TRUCK topic. If you dont know anything about the truck kits, then you dont know what Im talking about and your opinion is irrelevant.

[Casey]

As I said in my original post, If you need the parts and it justifies the cost then Im not talking about you. Let me clarify, its not a rare kit, its not a hard to find kit, its not worth what they are trying to charge. This is just another example of these sellers trying to drive the price of a kit up. I realize that I dont have to buy it. I wouldnt buy the snap kit anyway. Its a snap kit. I figured I was allowed to point out something that I feel is rediculous. I know the cool guys like to troll around and say things like " just ignore it" "dont buy it". FYI, this is just a discussion. I posted this in the TRUCK STOP because it a TRUCK topic. If you dont know anything about the truck kits, then you dont know what Im talking about and your opinion is irrelevant.

Terry, you are sharing your opinion regarding sellers on eBay who charge what you think is an unfair price for kit parts. That's fine, but it's not a truck specific topic, since it happens with all kits, not just truck kits. The same topic comes up every few months, and usually one particular seller is mentioned, too.

"its not worth what they are trying to charge."

This is why eBay is so great-- the market and buyer decides if the price if fair based on whether or not s/he purchases the item at the stated price. You may think it's not worth the asking price, but someone else might, so each person determines the part's value for themselves.

"This is just another example of these sellers trying to drive the price of a kit up"

How does it drive up the price of kits when a seller parts out a common, easy to find it?

[chunkypeanutbutter]

"How does it drive up the price of kits when a seller parts out a common, easy to find kit?"

Simple: the blind leading the blind.

One idiot makes his decision on a kit price, then more idiots come around thinking theirs is worth the same or more....

[Joe Handley]

"How does it drive up the price of kits when a seller parts out a common, easy to find kit?"

Simple: the blind leading the blind.

One idiot makes his decision on a kit price, then more idiots come around thinking theirs is worth the same or more....

This, and it's been discussed here some for 1:1 scale stuff as "The Barrett-Jackson Effect"........somebody sells a Hemi Cuda Convertable for better than $1m US at one of B-J's televised auctions, and now that rustbucket /6 coupe that's only good for a VIN tag (and barely at that) is now "worth" a bargain price of $15k US.

[unclescott58]

No one is being forced to buy any of it.

They may not be forcing me to buy, but they're forcing me to look at a lot of stuff I don't need to. Wasting my time. And my time does have some value too me.

Scott

[highway]

"How does it drive up the price of kits when a seller parts out a common, easy to find kit?"

Simple: the blind leading the blind.

One idiot makes his decision on a kit price, then more idiots come around thinking theirs is worth the same or more....

Gee, I must be looking at another eBay then!?!? I've seen probably this same seller with parts for other kits and then scroll down and find THE WHOLE COMPLETE KIT for less than the price of a couple of the separate parts! It's just like the example here, two separate listings = $20, but the ENTIRE KIT, sometimes even STILL SEALED, have "buy it now" prices of $20 or less! You can even get this kit at Walmart for $20, so consider your THEORY BLOWED UP!!!!

[chunkypeanutbutter]

*blown...

I'm not saying it always happens, but it does when idiots are involved...

[webestang]

How about this.......I saw a 1/43 scale VW Bug kit made by Heller for sale on EB....$250.00!!!! I found the same kit at an antique mall for $8.............LOL

[Tom Geiger]

These guys are providing a service, they have done nothing illegal. I cannot fault anyone from trying to earn a living. And people do buy this stuff. When I looked, the high price guys had all positive glowing feedback!

When I see interesting business angles on eBay, I investigate them to see if there's a strategy I could learn. First thing I do is see how many current items the seller is running. Then I take a look at their closed auctions, as far back as eBay will allow. Then you figure out how much work this guy does to get all those auctions in print, the cost of doing so, and what his return was on this investment. Then you can judge how much he really made.

I've figured that for every sale on eBay, you have an hour or two invested. That's from deciding what to sell and pulling it out. Then you need to photograph it and upload / edit the photos. You write the description, make sure the auction reads well and post it. Then you have to manage it. If it doesn't sell, you need to go through those ads and decide which ones to renew and which ones to ditch. Those are ones you have wasted your time on completely. Once something sells, you have to manage the sale and ship it. That includes finding / buying shipping materials, packing it up and getting it to the buyer. That's a fair amount of work. So how much would you want to make per hour? $10, $20? Then you'd have $20-40 in labor tied up in each auction.

Sell through rate on eBay is at an all time low. Decent sellers only sell 10-20% of their listings in each run through the system. And I've looked at the parts business guys. There are guys selling parts for $2 or $3 and there are those selling theirs for $10 to $20. Funny thing? The sell through rate is about the same for the guys at both ends of the cost spectrum. So you might as well ask top dollar. Even those guys really aren't making any money.

And this isn't a phenomena only in the model car category. It's actually much worse in the collectors stamps and postcard categories. There is one stamp that I watch. It's a stamp that catalogs about 50 cents, but so common that nobody would ever buy it by itself. There is an auction for one for 99 cents. But it's got a big corner missing out of it, damaged and worth nothing. It should just be thrown out. But somehow, this seller has renewed that item over and over for more than three years now.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Tom Geiger