Republic Star Destroyer Kit

That price may not be far out of line:

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/cfstore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=22

No its not!
I can get them in my local shop for 32 euros I think, thats about 40 dollars, and then you'd have to add shipping to the USA! I'd be willing to ship it over to anyone who wants one. It may still be cheaper to just buy from ssm though.
Of course I can also get the smaller kits and I have built all of them except the walker (which I think is crap) but the ships are really nice.
I was thinking about listing them on ebay myself but the profit margin would be pretty thin and probably not worthwhile.

However, as I'm starting to build again after a good ten year absence I'm hoping to open up trade routes (info and kits) with you lot over there!

Thoughts please?

Wow... $50? I like the design, but not $50 much...

i found it for 35 dollars on great models heres the link
http://www.greatmodels.com/~smartcart/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=RMG4860

The kit weighs 3.3 lbs boxed, and it's a big box. The cost of shipping just one of these from the US to the UK is $28. Postage from the UK to the US is similar. So if you buy one at 32 Euros, as the previous poster stated, that's about $40. You can probably find one for maybe $35 + shipping if you look around. Add the $28 postage and the kit now costs $63 if you buy it from a UK source.

Starship Modeler buys these from a hobby shop in the UK in bulk at wholesale prices. Shipping is also cheaper because we buy them in quantities of 18 or so at a time, but we still get hit with shipping (and customs) charges of $300 - $400 or so on each order. This was the cheapest avenue we could find for importing these kits.

So the next question is always "why can't they sell these kits in the US just like other kits?" Because the Star Wars franchise granted Revell Germany an exclusive license to sell these ktis only in Europe. AMT/Ertl has the license to sell their kits only in the US. Fine Molds can sell theirs only in Japan. That's the way the licensing deals work.

So if we (meaning Starship Modeler) want to sell the Revell Germany or Fine Molds kits in the US, we have to find someone in an approved country that will sell them to us. We can't get them directly from the manufacturer or through other large distributors. They aren't allowed to sell to us. Believe me, I've asked.

I'm not lying when I say that $50 is the lowest reasonable price for us to sell the Star Destroyer. John (my husband and the owner of Starship Modeler) is a modeler himself and started the store with the idea of bringing kits to sci-fi modelers at prices that he would be willing to pay himself for a kit.

I've heard of a few places here and there that have had them for less from time to time, but they seem to be places that don't specialize in sci-fi models and they either run out of stock a lot, or they just don't do a good job of processing the orders timely.

Anyway, that's the whole story on why the Revell Germany kits are more expensive. And our European customers have had this problem for years. We sell a lot of the AMT kits to people in Europe because they can't find them there. And often times a $12 kit will cost $13 to ship it there for a total price of $25. Seems like a lot, but that's the only option for them.

Hope that helps,

Linda
Starship Modeler

Yup,
What Linda said!
Anyway, my intention is to keep an eye out for shops selling them cheaper, like in a sale, then snap them up and hopefully use them to barter with you lot across the pond.

P.S. May I take this opportunity to wholeheartedly reccomend Linda's store at SSM, for those of you who havent yet dealt with them, do it now, or else!

And for anyone who wants the star destroyer (or any of the other kits) posted to them send me a pm.

I think for a 20" long rendition, and if the details are comparable to the photos, $35 to $50 price range is definitely worth the end product. Think of all the fun you can have with the paint details, adding some lighting from a fiber optics kit and mini-bulbs, etc. Am starting to think I want one of these myself! Especially now that all the movies are officially available to buy.

I thought George Lucas was supposed to be pretty good at this licensing stuff. I can't imagine why he would limit his potential profits by only allowing certain items in certain markets, especially when it comes to models, whose appeal isn't geographically limited.

lol i have all 6 movies on DVD my friends and i are getting together to marathon it this weekend on my friends BIG screen

QUOTE: Originally posted by overkillphil I thought George Lucas was supposed to be pretty good at this licensing stuff. I can't imagine why he would limit his potential profits by only allowing certain items in certain markets, especially when it comes to models, whose appeal isn't geographically limited.

Not really, licensing can get kind of tricky. Here in the States AMT/RC2 already has licensing for the third movie kits. Alot of time the licensing is exclusive so only one company can produce in a given market. At least there are some good sources for the RG Star Wars kits here.

Thanks for all the replies, nice to know the modeling community is alive and well :)

Linda, In response to your comment about the kit going for a less expensive price in some areas of the market, etc... Yes that IS true. 

I can personally attest that I was able to very fortunately find that republic star destroyer kit for the very lucky price of only $28 dollars,and for a very limited time at a local retailer here in town (Spokane) that doesn't even specialize in sci-fi kits at all. Actually more of an everything from camping,hunting to toys and puzzles shop.

As you also said, it was a very limited amount of time. They only had a few,and once they were sold, they haven't gotten anymore in since then.

At the time I was seeing that kit in Hobbytown for 45$ plus. I got lucky and I know it.

This same store also had a limited number of the 1/144 scale C-17 Globemaster II,by Revell Germany that was selling for upwards of 50$-60$, for the same awesome price of 28$.....and once gone....haven't returned.

One last thing. I am very grateful for Starship Modelers ongoing sci-fi modelling provisions. Thank you.

Got mine for $44 at my LHS.

Great kit with minor fit issues, and loads of room for wiring, lights, etc.

overkillphil

I thought George Lucas was supposed to be pretty good at this licensing stuff. I can't imagine why he would limit his potential profits by only allowing certain items in certain markets, especially when it comes to models, whose appeal isn't geographically limited.

He was very smart. Sell one license to a model company in the US (AMT/Ertl) and one to Europe (Revell of Germany) and a third to Japan (Fine Molds). Pure financial genius!

To make things fair to the model makers, they must limit their sales to their home markets, but we all know they will sell to basically anyone with a buck.

Die hard modelers know how to get their hands on any kit in tody's global market.

Many of the formerly "Europe only" Revell of Germany Star Wars kits are now sold by Revell-Monogram at places like Hobby Lobby, Kmart and the like.

I know Target was selling the Fine Molds kits online as "Japanese Collectibles" for a song a while back. I misssed out of the Falcon, but got both Slave 1s for a bargin; easily half what they would cost off the shelf.

The only company that really lost was AMT/Ertl. Their kits were often subpar by US standards and completely out of their league compared to the Fine Molds kits. I will say that AMT/Ertl's Episode 3 Jedi Fighters were pretty decent kits.

www.plastic-models.com has them for $35.99. They are a branch of Towerhobbies (an RC store) out of Illinois.

-Stephen

MegaHobby and SSM have the model for a very good price.  I have this model, just waiting to build it.  I believe I paid close to $40.00 for it and I can say it is worth the price, even for an out of box build.

Squadron has them for $21.99 this month!