Transit on Evilbay!

[Deleted]

It'll be interesting to see what price this eventually reaches ...

cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-24-ESCI-FORD-TRANSIT-VAN-HERTZ-RENTAL_W0QQitemZ220562755615QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ToysGames_ModelKits_ModelKits_JN?hash=item335a90901f

[voyager]

Didn't see that, been watching these

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250584981419&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150416070696&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT


slightly different starting prices!

[Deleted]

I've got the Dakar kit in the workshop, it'll probably be turned into a Fire Service general vehicle maintenance van.

[voyager]

I'd love a Transit but I could't pay the price

[tiggs63]

hi guys
might be able to help out here as one of them is mine
i have been on ebay on and off since it started and i agree with the first post it is a bit of a cash sucking monster but it dose help with getting all the goody's that tucked in lofts back on the bench, as for me i do buy and sell on ebay and have owned my own shop selling s/h and new kits and have to say that it is fun in its own right and helps me to fund my ever increasing money pit of a hobby, geeez £50 for a 1/35 afv now i know they have to make a profit and tooling costs etc but its all getting a bit much don't yah think ? i know we have it good, grate detail, nice decals blah blah but who's going to take the rains up when we are all past it, do you remember when your mum bought you that first kit for 75p from woolys or the corner sweet shop and that got you hooked ? ummmm cant see mum on low wages picking up a 50 smacker kit can you? well i know you can get cheaper but you don't see them on the shelfs like you used too. you might be thinking whats he ranting about well when i buy a collection i sell some on ebay and with my meager profit buy a kit i really want and a decent proportion of kits goes to the school i work at (for abused kids) and OK it might get smashed up or flown in to the wall down the line but seeing them sit and put effort in when they struggle with other more mundane tasks makes it worth it so my point.... ebay .... evil bay yes, for the sellers .
for the buyers it can offer some excellent bargains you just need to look around a bit, and in the mean time ebay, with a little help might just be helping to bring on the next generation of modelers ;D ;D

[Deleted]

I've bought lots of things from ebay over the years. However, the price of the Esci Transit I outlined at the start of the thread was at the time I posted, at the maximum I would pay for that kit. In the early days of ebay, I used to get caught in the bidding frenzy, the dread that someone may just beat me to the prize seconds before the auction ended. I soon learned the hard way, now, I'm older and wiser. £65 for a kit which was once £10 or cheaper, not a chance, someone else can have it if they're that desperate to own it.

[tim]

I confess you have a point there tiger. The only manufacturer trying to keep low prices seems to be Airfix and that has mainly been down to using moulds which are as old as most of us! Prices across the board for all other manufacturers is sky rocketing. I had been collecting a fairly substancial amount of kits for my stash of 1/350th ships but that has now stopped. At more than £100 a kit for a WW2 IJN ship its now far too expensive for me to justify.

You also have to realise that for most beginners this is not mainstream modelling. The manufacturers have made an attempt to draw in the newcomer with beginners kits inc paints and glue but if its anything like the Dr Who kits paints most first time modellers would be scared off by the terible paints supplied and very small quantity of such. As a first time experience not being able to produce anything vaguely resembling the kit box would finish most before they start.

Ebay is like anywhere else though. supply and demand.. how much are you willing to pay for some moulded plastic?

[tiggs63]

good point Tim, the old airfix kits and poor paints are not a good combo for new starters and whilst i appreciate airfix starter kits when a youngster wishes to move on a bit and he buys an older airfix kit it could be possable it will put him off as (some) of them are really only good for firework's night! what with poor fit and poor rendition.
i don't really understand why airfix continue to produce some of the very old and very poor offerings and then produce what i would think of as a half hearted effort 1/48 bf 109 OK it has a few good points but if you think of the nimrod or the Canberra it makes all the others quite poor,the dr who kit being a good exsample of a kit kids would love to make but is really a bit of a let down. i only give the kids kits which they have some chance of completing within reason, as i know that a bad experience would put them off quite quickly. i for one am very keen for new blood to enter the world of plastic as it teaches so much, dexterity, Patience, care, motor skills, how things work just to name a few, so i whole heartedly agree with you . and as you point out kits on ebay are only worth what your willing to pay as there really is always another!.
you and me both southsix1 thats why we don't now make good auction buyers.

[ptcruiser]

This conversation is getting a bit off thread but I'm going to join in anyway

Are old Airfix kits that bad for starter kits? If you've never built a kit before you are in exactly the same position as we were when we built the same kit when it came out the first time. In other words, you have nothing to compare it too. We still built them all those years ago and they must have been just as 'poor' then and it didn't put us off?

It's only when you build something else, something more recent (but the probability is as you're new to the hobby you've no awareness as to how old a kit is) that you are in a position to compare and form an opinion.

The paints are another thing though. They could put someone off. But I seem to recall very early enamels (early 70's that is) in thin tubes, maybe an inch tall with plastic caps, which must have been part of a starter paint set even then. These couldn't have been enough to paint a 1/72 Spit then either...

Rich

[tim]

;D Well a conversation is a conversation. Not sure its going off topic as the topic is really how much will you pay for a kit and does it even depend on quality?

Airfix are a good kit for the price. The price can be kept down simply because the tooling is almost in some cases as old if not older than the median age of IPMS! Where Airfix have invested in new tooling the price reflects this accordingly. The question then arises for all manufacturers that indulge in this practice do starter kits really represent good value for money and a good introduction to the hobby or are they a cynical attempt to raise the price of kits that are 35 years old? Admittedly that cannot be said of the Dr Who kits but the others?

Scanning the lists from Hannants this morning it would appear that our hobby will soon exclude the newcomer anyway. AZ models is not a name I am familiar with so I cannot comment on fit and build but even then £17 for a 1:72nd scale Spitfire is to me WAY overpriced. My own current line of interest has also finished itself in this way. It stops you in your tracks when a capital ship in 1/350th can be had for £60 but a cruiser is now £130! At what point do you start placeing the plastic back on the shelf and looking elsewhere?

[Deleted]

Hmmm! ... the original post was about the price of an Esci Transit on Ebay, after Richard's post this morning (ptcrusier) I was going to bring it to an end because it has sort of gone off topic, but I'll leave it running. I mentioned in a subsequent post that I have a limit I would pay for any kit, not just that one. This hobby can be a money hole, just picking up kits that you may build someday.

There is another side to this. If you're at a model show and you see an old kit you fancy, you either leave it alone or buy it. On line auctions are different, you're bidding with the so called 'collector'. He / she may have a higher price range available in order to grab that kit for the collection. I have a collection of kits, but I have no problem about opening the box, taking bits out of it and using them in a build. That's why I have a limit for anything on Ebay and I stick to it. When I made the original post, I focused on one kit, I had two other kits brought to my attention. How can they vary in price so much? ... let's just say that there are some folks on Ebay who have a rose coloured vision of what their kits are worth, unfortunately, some of the buyers have more money than sense. I don't have a problem with folks selling on Ebay, nor do I have a problem with what they sell for, it's not my money.

Airfix, Esci, Italeri, AMT whatever the brand, age or quality of the kit, it seems that prices will rise far in excess of what this hobby can take, and that's worrying. The comment about the paints or 'creme cheese' as I like to call it being supplied with the Airfix kits, well, that's for a different thread if someone would like to start one? ... Let's keep this thread on line folks please.

[tiggs63]

hi nick
it is still a discussion is it not? it is about price and what your willing to pay, and that encompasses ebay, quality, ect so I'm not sure why you think its off topic? don't take offense but can we only talk about something if it only covers that subject and only the subject with out deviation or is it just not allowed to grow?? sorry but I'm a bit confused

[tiggs63]

ok so maybe i miss understand posting on here so i have started a thred in members chat so i can reply cheers

[Deleted]

The thread I started was about a specific kit on ebay and my thoughts about it. It had nothing to do with Airfix and the type of paint issued with their kits.
As I suggested in the thread when, in my opinion it did get off topic, I suggested that if anyone wanted a discussion about how the price of kits had gone over the top and maybe the quality of specific manufacturers had not been what they should be, then please go ahead and start a discussion. I very rarely lock a thread, and to answer your question about what may be discussed here ... well, anything you like, but hijacking a thread to suit your argument instead of starting another thread to argue a point is not the way to go about it.

[voyager]

Talking about over the top bidding on ebay

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290405970735&ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT

a Rubber Duck Mack for £88! Now I'm with the majority, live and let live, if someone wants a kit badly enough and can afford it, it's their right to pay the price, but the RD Mack isn't even the correct version for the film truck!! So no way has this been bought by someone who wants to build the RD truck from the film, my guess is a collector who will never build the kit, hope I'm wrong