We all have had them. Tell us about the awesome deal/deals you got on getting models. Estate sales that no one knew about, on-line purchases that were too good to pass up, yard sales where you found boxes of kits for next to nothing....you get the point. I'll start off with my favorite incident:
Back in '97, while stationed at Eglin AFB, Fla, I was invited to a model club meeting by a friend in my shop. I hadn't been putting any models together since my first PCS move and I learned how TMO was going to "handle" my models. I kept on buying models just never built any. I accepted just for something to do. Meeting was alright, met some really cool people, saw some really great builds! As we were walking out after the meeting, one of the members (another A.F. guy), handed out these 3-4 page lists of models he was going to sell. He was PCSing to Korea and decided to get rid of his stash and start over buying the good stuff in Korea (that's what he said!). So I took one and really didn't think anything about it. So I got back to work (working swings) and sat down to run my F-15 antenna. Got to a point were the baby ran on its own for a while and started to look at the list. I put little tick marks next to the ones I wanted to ask about. One of my friends walks up and asks what I was looking at. I told him and he said he liked models and would like to check out the list. Oddly enough I had picked about 1/3 of the list, and my friend had found another 1/3 he was interested in. We figured he would give us a good deal for as many as we wanted. Well, another friend pops in and asks what we were doing. We show him the list and you guessed it, he was interested in the remaining 1/3. Now the total amount of models we are talking about was around 100-105 kits. They varied from aircraft to armor, to sci-fi, some boats, and figures. Type of models you ask, well, a very good selection I would say....for example Tamiya's 1/48 Lancaster, 3 1/32 F-4's, 2 1/32 F-16's, 1/48 B-17's, B-24's, B-29, and the infamous B-36, just to name a few of the aircraft. Panthers, Tigers, Puma's, and infrantry from every country! Just about every Star Trek vessel...o.k., I'll stop now. So, I call this guy up (he lived on base) and asked if he had sold any of the models yet. He had not! So I asked.......How much for all of them? There was silence on the other end of the phone! "uh, you want ALL of them? There are over 100 kits?!" Yea, how much for all of them? I could hear him cover the phone with his hand and tell his wife that we wanted all of them. Even with the phone covered I could hear her joyful scream! He comes back and says "well, we hadn't considered this....how about $300?" Now the silence was on my end! My heart skipped about 3 beats, fluttered, and began to race as the 3.78 seconds it took to realize this guy was asking approximately $3.00/kit! So I was a good citizen and asked if his offer of $300 was correct. It was correct! I told him we would be there in about 30 minutes! We ran to the ATM, each withdrew $100 and proceeded to this guys house. 3 vehicles! It took all 3 of our vehicles to load all the models. It gets better! As we are leaving, this guys wife comes running out to my car with about 15 more models! She opens the passenger side door and piled them in what little space I had left, said thank you, and blew me a kiss! We laughed all the way back to the shop! We unloaded all the kits in the back dock area and sat on the floor like it was Christmas, and I went through the list handing out everyone's models to them! After all was said and done, the guys told me to keep the 15 models the lady brought out and even ended up GIVING me a couple from the own stacks of models! There were a lot of great kits I got that night, but the Lancaster is still my favorite!
Please don't hate me. I only did what any other plastic loving human being would have done!
Now, let's hear some more awesome stories!