THE HIGH COSTS OF LIVING!!!!!!!

Look on ebay! I bought Tamiya kits at my hobby store for a year or so and payed over $30 for most of them. I can get the newest Tamiya kits for $6 from people in Japan! Then you have the choice in shipping. Pay $8 for ground and wait a month or three. Or pay $11 and get it in a week. $19 is still a deal, not to mention it comes to my door, so no driving to the hobby shop.

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I paid in the $60 - $70 range for my Trumpeter A-10. Don't do many 1/32 planes but I like A-10's. Anyway, by the time I bought all the aftermarket stuff (a cockpit set is a MUST for this kit), my cash outlay for this model will be over $120. I'd love to have one of the Thud kits, but as I said, don't do many 1/32 and at the price they're going to ask I'll have to pass on that one. I guess it's all a matter of your priorities In my favorite 1/72 scale, the Tu-95 Bear is another $100+ kit. I've waited way too many years for this model and will definately buy one. Some kits I can wait on until they've been out a while then I can get 'em on sale at Squadron or somewhere else like that. I recently saw Trumpeter MiG-19's on sale for about 50% off retail. As for jcarlberg's comments above, I will back you on that as far as the law of mass production. I read somewhere many years (20+) ago the tooling for the average kit (what "average" is I don't know) cost something like $500,000. Kit quality has improved drastically since I read that and I wonder if that extra quality raised the costs of tooling. I also have to wonder if the gains in technology over all those years could have made tooling new kits cheaper. You figure that if the 1/32 F-105 molds cost $750,000 to produce, how many kits will you need to sell (at what price) to break even? Maybe someone with more insight can contribute to this discussion?

Regards,

Pat

I am sorry but I disagree jcarlberg. For example, the trumpeter, 1/32 scale A10 could be picked up for around $60.00. Now they are charging $101.00 for 1/24 scale P51. They are also charging over a $100.00 for 1/32 scale "Thud". How do you explain double the price of the first kit they issued? Trupeter is not the only company that does this Tamya. I can speak from experience since I worked for a model manufacturer in California.

Imported kits are subject to various taxes and duties, and then there is the cost of shipping. Also it is a law of mass production that the more units produced the less the sunk capital cost as a percentage of the unit cost. The wide variety of kits available today, as well as the broad range of modelling interests, and the apparently dwindling number of modellers, mean that there are no "million-plus" runs of any one kit. The manufacturers will therefore charge more so as to recover their costs.

It's true....I finally see a 1:48 scale Avro Lancaster and groaned when I see the price tag-- over $100!! It was the Grand Slam version and had motors for the props......heck-- give me one w/o motors for cheap! :)

"Sending kits by post is fairly safe, and other than the cost of postage, custom fees do not enter in your total price since they can be sent as 'presents'..."

I've made friends in the Philipenes, Japan & Hong Kong.
I'm working on "Trades" with most of them (they can't ge Future) so I trade it & other supplies/Kits for Kits from them.

QUOTE: Originally posted by djmodels1999 Sending kits by post is fairly safe, and other than the cost of postage, custom fees do not enter in your total price since they can be sent as 'presents'...

Yeah, I've shipped a lot of stuff overseas (primarily books and gaming stuff), but never really had any problems. And yes, you have to love the "presents" option.

Actualy, Berny13, this kind of forum provides you with countless opportunities to win. I mean by setting up friendships all over the world and starting exchanging bits, you may end up with rare or expensive kits (in your country) that would be plentiful and cheap in other countries. Sending kits by post is fairly safe, and other than the cost of postage, custom fees do not enter in your total price since they can be sent as 'presents'...

When I was stationed in Japan, you could get the Japanise kits very cheap. An American made kit, such as Monogram cost four to five times as much as the Japanise kits. It all depends on where you are located. With inport fees inposed on a lot of items, at times I wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper to go to that country and buy. But then after arriving back home customs would slap a fee on what you bring back. There is no way to win.

The best way is gonna be to get kids into the market via cars.

Alot cheaper for them to get into...and I remember well once I turned about 12 thinking about nothing but cars..until i was like 15...then it was cars and women..and how to get women with cars...and all that...

then again...it's 3:45 in teh am...and I can't sleep...so this is one of those insanity posts..

Yeah, I find it hard to spend over $30 on a single kit... It's probably one of the reasons I stick to smaller scales. But kits are one thing and aftermarket bits are another... You could easily spend double the money you pay on a kit just buying etched sets to make it look better! Let's not go into resin bits, extra decals, new gun barrels, tracks, conversion this, conversion that... This hobby can seriously damage your bank account! (Ha!) and this could be a reason why fewer and fewer kids get into it... What do you think?