Chebec, OH MAN!

Gfmorse's explanation makes sense. That figure $294.034 comes from the website of the DMA Company (that's the firm that's selling the model), but maybe there's a mixup there. Perhaps the individual handling the English language version isn't up to speed on the translating of numbers - or the American/British use of commas and periods.

I sent M. Bello an e-mail alerting him to the problem. (His e-mail address was published in Ships in Scale.) I suspect he'll conclude that I'm an idiot for not understanding the punctuation. He's probably correct on that point.

I have no idea what sort of commission the DMA Company takes. Some years ago I had an informal chat about my model of the Hancock with the guy who ran the ship model business at Mystic Seaport. He thought he could get $15,000 for the model. (This was about twenty years ago.) That sounded great till I found out that his standard commission was 40 percent. That would have left me with $9,000. Figuring in addition the chunk the IRS and the state of North Carolina would take, I decided to hang onto the model. My wife and I now look at is as a sort of insurance policy against financial disaster. ("Well, if things get really rough we can always send the Hancock off to Mystic.")

I'd spent something in the neighborhood of a thousand hours on the model. Even by 1984 standards, if I'd sold it for the amount Mystic was talking about I would have been making a little better than minimum wage. This is the sort of thing that keeps me from building models for money. There are too many easier ways to make it - and on those rare occasions when I have done modeling for dollars I haven't had much fun doing it. I'm happiest keeping my hobby and my income separate.

I think 200,000 Euros is, if anything, a rather low price for that Chebec - even if M. Bello gets to keep the whole amount, as I'm sure he won't. It's a masterpiece.

If I'm not mistaken, European custom is to use periods instead of commas. Note hours worked is 5.000 instead of 5,000 (which I believe is the number cited in SIS). That would make the piece 200,000 Euros. Ouch, just a touch pricey for my blood.

There you go, now you sound like my wife!

Oh Thanks, bust my bubble why don't you! ;)

I think that the decimel point is off by about two places.
That would make it 24905.40, which is alot more realistic.
I think!
Jim

Something's wrong here. This is the model that's been featured in a six-part series in Ships In Scale magazine. It's a masterpiece. That price just can't be right. That sort of model usually gets sold in prestigious model brokerage houses or auction houses for at least $25,000 - and even at that rate, after the dealer takes his cut, the builder won't make a profit.

The prices of several other models on that website seem equally ridiculous. I don't know what's going on here, but the site makes me nervous.