Kit Collecting Market Forces

I understand. I do not buy current kits to hold onto in the hopes that they will be collectible in the future. That's not a very good use of my funds. What I do is if I see a kit I know is collectible but is under priced, I will buy it for the sake of selling it on eBay to turn a profit.

For example, my wife likes to shop old antique shops, flea markets and the like. When we were traveling through Texas in the mid 90s we stopped at a shop that had 4-5 of the old Bandai 1/48 scale armor kits. I had built a few of them in the 1980s and loved them but they were long OOP by the time I discovered the line.

I bought them for $10 a piece, a more than reasonable price. At the time, eBay didn't exist and I bought two of them to build, but only got around to building one of them (a Sherman). I grabbed the others because I knew they were hard to find, the price was right, I might have built them someday and at the very least, they would have been good trading material at a local show or club meeting.

Then during the eBay heydays the price for these Bandai kits went through the roof. I kept the built Sherman, an unbuilt T-34/76 (because it was the first of the Bandai kits I had ever built) and sold the remaining 2 or 3 kits (they were German armor and not my main interest).

I ended up making around $150 on the kits; although the price of one kit accounted for the lion's share of that amount. Anyway, it was close to triple what the entire lot of the kits cost me.

Could I have built them, sure, but I knew there were guys out there that wanted them more than I did.

BTW Monogram's Heritage Series and Revell's History Maker's Series were just an 80s marketing ploy to sell old kits that were being repopped. Many of the same kits were still fairly available at hobby shops in original or previous boxings. They weren't really collectible

'Rob Grorovius',

I would agree that the original would indeed carry a higher collector value because of it's greater age, but 'Sprue-ce Goose' was referring to kits specifically marketed as "limited" or "collectable" in his original posting.

I share your idea that finding a premium example of any type item that was mass produced with no nod towards collection is far more unique than an item offered specifically for the "collector" market.

It's kind of like the boom that the comic book and baseball card market had some years back. Every schnook and their brother thought they were going to get rich with ANY of these things, including newly produced material, just because some manufacturer marketed them as "special".

Personally, I don't buy kits to sit the unopened box aside hoping that it will appreciate in value, I buy them to build them. I don't have a problem with those who do want to collect, that's their thing and its like any other collector, so good on them. After all, people who do purchase "limited editions" are buying kits and therefore, keeping the manufacturers in business.

Yes, but the Heritage Series are a bunch of reboxes of older Monogram kits and thus not necessarily collectible. The original kit in the original box would most likely run 3-4 times as much as the Heritage edition. This one is pending sale for $175. Which would you rather spend $175 just to build, the Heritage or the original?

the Baron

When I was a younger kid, I cut up those Revell boxes.  I wanted to frame the covers, and I thought that I could collect the pictures on the side panels, like baseball cards.  But my skills and tools weren't up to doing that clean a job of it.  Now I save all the boxes, and I'm worried I'll show up someday on that A&E "Hoarders" show

What a fantastic analogy! My own personal hoard will be of built kits. Well, those and the stash that I have yet to bring to the table. I will consider myself a success if the built kits outnumber the boxed.

And to the thought made by 'Hans von Hammer', right there with you friend. I just purchased the Monogram "Heritage Series" 1/12 scale Wright Cyclone engine and bought it for the express purpose of .........BUILDING IT.

When I was a younger kid, I cut up those Revell boxes.  I wanted to frame the covers, and I thought that I could collect the pictures on the side panels, like baseball cards.  But my skills and tools weren't up to doing that clean a job of it.  Now I save all the boxes, and I'm worried I'll show up someday on that A&E "Hoarders" show

I find I'm more interested in the box art created for the favorite kits I built as a child rather than the kit itself. The 1970s kit boxes are not "collectable" to me due to the lack of artwoirk. Sometimes the instructions are of interest  as companies like AURORA would include box art advertising on the back of the instructions.

If I could collect the box art alone for display along with the kits I currently build I would be satisfied.

The primary benefit I see in the kit collecting field is that the manufacturers will re-release a "collectable" kit for sale to those of us who would rather build a kit as opposed to collecting.

I'm a collector only so far as I'll design a project and start collecting the parts before I'm ready to start building.

Now, with the particular project I'm working on, it does rely on older, "collectable" kits.  I'm building a lineup of Blue Angel birds in 1/72.  Unfortunately, most of the kits are long OOP.  So the ones I do get, are from the 60's and 70's.  And from the prices I've seen on some of them, a lot of them are collectible. But I do fully intend on building them.

-Fred

I don't collect kits as such, though my local modeling buddies and I will call each other that, as we add more kits to our stashes than we actually open and build.

I am a nostalgia builder, though, so I do look for and buy a lot of Monogram/Aurora/Lindberg kits, and older Revell kits from before the merger.  But I don't care too much about the box or packaging.  Having spotted a specific sale, I think about the price first.

Though, having said that, I did just buy 2 Revell F2A kits in 1/72 scale, because I noticed that the box art of a Buffalo flying over one of the Lexingtons did have a variation in the aircraft's markings between boxes sold here in the US, and those sold through Revell's original European office, in the UK.

Maybe I am becoming a kit collector...

No!  I'm with Hammer, what I buy, I do build or intend to build, eventually.

For me coming back to the hobby after 25 years at least , it brought back a flood of memories from my childhood .I bought a Monogram kit and was saving it for a time when I was maybe a little down in spirit ,I was gonna open it just for that monogram plastic scent ,c'mon you know the one, just close your eyes and you'll be 11-12 years old  again........................................... collecting is in the eye (or nose) of the beholder.Who's to say what kit means or is a coolectors item .The 1/32 Revell Raiden is a prime example supposedly rare but available all day long on ebay.I got sucked into the frenzy and now I have 3 off!! Rare? I doubt it.They would be  rare if they were all built not sitting in a closet in a box!

Hans von Hammer

If I ever bought a highly collectable kit, I'd build it just to see how many collectors I could get to vapor-lock..

I put it on eBay, sell it to a Japanese collector for a 1000% profit, use some of the profit to buy kits I am interested in and will build and then bank the rest.

Did that about 2-3 years ago with about $20-30 worth of kits I had purchased over the years. Just a handful of kits that I bought originally for maybe $5-10 a pop. Listed them on eBay and made over $1,000 total.

I'd place my satisfaction at netting almost a grand over giving some dude I care less about getting vapor-lock.

Hans von Hammer

If I ever bought a highly collectable kit, I'd build it just to see how many collectors I could get to vapor-lock..

LOL

Kinda reminds me of this beat up old antique coffee table I had sitting in the garage. I decided to refinish it. My dad said I destroyed any value it may have had (wouldn't have been much anyway). To me, it had no value sitting in the garage collecting dust, much more "valuable" sitting, nicely finished in my livingroom. Aside from sentimental value, what value can a kit really have, if it's just sitting around, no good to anybody. I buy to build!!!

If I ever bought a highly collectable kit, I'd build it just to see how many collectors I could get to vapor-lock..

I've got plenty of kits I bought because they were collectable. Most of them are older and have been surpassed by much better kits of the same subject, but I hang on to them because they have some sentimental value or have an intrinsic value due to the age, rarity, etc.

Why build that highly collectable Uberpanser Mk IV that goes for $100 on eBay when the much better Dragon Uberpanzer Mk IV can be had for $40? Sure you could sell it for $100 on eBay, but it was the first Uberpanzer you built as a kid and that kit has some nostalgic value.

Yes, I know, it was a model and it was made to be built. Just like there are collectable Barbies that were made to be played with. Folks collect them anyway.

It's like why collect stamps or coins if you're not going to use them to mail a letter or buy a pack of gum? Because it is a hobby and it is your money to do with as you see fit.

In my "stash" are a few collectors kits which I will keep whole. Not because of their monetary value but they have sentimental value. There were kits I remember building in my childhood.

Collecting kits is not a money making option, it is a hobby. Ask your wife why she collects shoes.....those values won't go up but I be the answer will be something like....I like them!!!

Rounds Complete!!

I don't buy any kits with an eye to future collectability, but...  if there is a one-time production of something that I truly want then I'll consider grabbing two.  One for the "I might build this next" stash and the other for the distant future.

I've been wanting a DML Tiger I initial/early ever since I got back into modeling a couple of years back, but it is OOP and commands some very stiff prices on Ebay and the like.  Their recent announcement of a new Tiger I initial has me very happy in that I can afford to buy one or two and still have some fun money left over as opposed to dropping $400.00 for one from a collector.

Penny wise, pound foolish.

I think those of us who collect classic kits, do it for the love of the subject matter. If there was no value to preserving what was, there would be no need for museums or archives. I sure hope your prediction of falling values is right I sure would like to save some cash on my hobby.