A Question about the worth of Startrek kits

I've got a Star Trek VI Enterprise kit that a friend asked me to sell on e-bay for him. I just gave him $5 for it because looking at the prices they sell for there, it wouldn't be worth the effort of listing it. I'd probably lose money on the shipping costs.

I see the AMT figures, particularly the Scotty, for sale all the time at around $5 to $10. I've even seen all the ST figures sold together as a bundle for around $40 recently.

For the moment at least, the newer Star Trek kits are what's hot. Same goes for Star Wars - the Finemolds version of any SW kit goes for a lot more then the older versions.

As a good starting point, I'd go look on e-bay. Watch auctions for kits you have, and see what the final prices are. That should give you an idea where the market on any given kit is right now.

For the most part models aren't really a very good long term investment, financially speaking. The base of the hobby is shrinking, and when you factor in future inflation and increased shipping costs, you are very unlikely to be able to retire by selling your stash in 40 years.

If you really must try this, then rarity is the key. Kits that flooded the market will probably never be worth much, while limited runs will do better. The real thing to look for is something that's very iconic but had a limited production run - especially if the franchise is unlikely to be revisited anytime soon, or if the cost of re-popping is unlikely to recoup investment costs.

Once again depends on the kits and condition.

I'd have a better idea if I knew which kits you have access to.  Just in case anyone considers this too "commercial" for the forum, would it be OK to use the Conversations option?

Wow, thats alot of good info, thanks alot.  I know nothing about startrek really, Im a starwars fan at heart. 

Let me ask, if I purchased them at somewhere between 5 and 10$ do you think I would beable to get any kind of profit on my investment? 

Im not even sure if there the new ones or the old ones, all the enterprises look the same to me.

That depends on the kit and the buyer.  While this is obviously true for any old kit, the Trek kits have some added factors.

First, you have the re-pops that are coming out.  A Vulcan Shuttle kit used to be a rare item and prices were pretty high.  Now that Round 2 had re-released the kit with more features ( magnets instead of the loose cabin section, painting instructions based on the studio mini instead of the colorized on-screen appearance ), sellers find that the $80 or so they used to ask isn't likely to fly anymore.

Then there are the kits that have been outdone by newer kits.  Personally ( as a buyer who'd build ), I see no reason to pay the $70 or more I saw for the AMT kit of the Enterprise-A or more for the one with the "1701" decals to get a kit with annoyingly inaccurate plating detail ( unless paying even more for the rare "smooth" edition ) when the same amount would get me a much more versatile and accurate 1:350 PL version.  Even if the price is more like $20 to $30 for one of the old kits, a lot of people would compromise and take the size of the newer 1:1000 kit  and its more accurate detail over the older kit  at that price.

That leaves the kits with no re-pops or replacements to date, like the Ent-B, Excelsior, Voyager, and Vor'cha.  If I were looking for kits for "investment" purposes, I'd consider these if the price was good.  I'd guess that any other old kits are likely to sell only to collectors who intend to leave things in the box or those who want to build an old kit for nostalgia.