Are you talking about just the plastic for the kit and cardboard for the box or do you mean the research, CAD design, mold making, testing, advertisement, etc that goes into making a kit?  Making a kit is more involved than some may realize.

I mean when the end total cost per unit once everything is done.

For example is the unit cost of a particular kit is $20 and they are selling for $40 that is 100% mark up. (I think.)

Scott

I once read somewhere that the molds cost about 8-10 grand per sprue to machine. With the detail and delicacy of the parts in the newer kits I'd not be surprised if there was some EDM machining done also, which is very time consuming and, accordingly, very expensive. It's possible that the $40 kit has a set of molds that cost fiffty grand to make.

The discussion five-to-seven years ago was that the tooling costs for the mold die, averaged over the whole kit was about 1000 USD per part.   Using the die you are able to produce thousands, if not millions of sets before the tool begins to show signs of wear.

The material costs are quite cheap.   Styrene is less than 1 dollar a pound (in rail car lot quantities).  Paper and cardboard also inexpensive.   The expensive things are the resin and photoetch add-ins.    Resin and RTV run 20 to 25 dollars a pound.     The RTV used in the production of resin castings have an effective life of 30 to 50 copies - then its time to make a new one.

Don't blame price markups soley on the manufacturer.  Each time the product changes hands someone will add a bit to the price to cover their profit.  Manfacturer to shipper to distributer to wholesaler to retailer to you.   Each step adds $$

M1 A1 A2 Tanker

I mean when the end total cost per unit once everything is done.

 

For example is the unit cost of a particular kit is $20 and they are selling for $40 that is 100% mark up. (I think.)

 

Scott

Cost per kit varies depending on how many you reproduce. Once the initial research, tooling, materials, production, etc. is accounted for, price per unit drops as you make more product. For instance, producing 1000 kits will have one price, but producing 4000 will drop the overall price per unit.

I'd like to know why some manufacturers like Dragon, seem to have so many limited runs per say. It's generally difficult to get some of the bigger cats, which tend to be popular, but also some of the more obscure subjects are hard to find and thus pricey on the secondary market. Are modelers hoarding these kits?

Just to start with tooling and die are gonna begin at $100,000 to $150,000 for a new kit and it goes up from there.

Every new kit is going to have different unit cost.

Thad

I assume most everything they pop are limited runs. It just depends on the subject's popularity as to whether or not it becomes hard to find. Now Cyber Hobby releases are a different matter; they normally charge a premium, make them available mainly online and produce them purposefully in limited quantities. Of course, some CH releases end up going for a lot, some you can't give away (the Sherman Beute Panzer was available at rock bottom prices).

Heard one of the suits from Revell/Monogram tell that it costs the same for the molds whether they re-tooled old ones or making new ones for entirely new kits... It was in response to a question of why Revell/Monogram didn't re-tool their old kits to add recessed panel lines... They preferred to release all-new kits at affordable prices to re-tooling old ones...

In 1977 I worked for a large hobby distributor. When we purchased kits from the manufacturer, When we sold a kit it cost the LHS or chain store (Woolworth’s) 50 % of the list price, If they were a good customer they would get an additional 10 % and sometimes-another 10 %off.

When a large customer ordered too many kits they were returned for credit, we collected these returns, and tore the box ends from the kits, trashed the kits and sent the box ends to the manufacturer for full credit. The actual kits were worthless and not worth shipping back to the manufacturer.