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Modeling in General
General discussions about modeling topics.
double digit price increases for Tamaiya 7-1
Bratushka
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Indiana, United States
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Posted: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 - 09:53 PM UTC
I received an email today from an internet hobby retailer warning their customers that on July 1st to expect at least double digit price increases on Tamiya products. The reasoning is higher cost of transportation and higher cost for plastic.
sgtreef
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Posted: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 - 10:47 PM UTC
Boy that just plain sucks.
I guess a lot of hobby shops will be running around repricing all there Tamiya stuff then after they hear the news to make a few extra dollars.
mj
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Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 05:46 AM UTC
That "higher cost of oil" argument really gets my goat. I understand the cost should increase somewhat. But, how many barrels does it take to pop a Pz.IV.??

Mike

Bratushka
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Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 07:04 AM UTC
"double digit" leaves a lot of room for speculation of how bad it's going to be. at 10% a $40.00 kit will be $44, but 20% to $48 or 30% to $52 WILL suck. looks like kits being sold on eBay will attract new interest.

has anybody else heard anything similar? this information came from internethobbies.com and it was encouraging people to order now.
Plasticbattle
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Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 08:07 AM UTC

Quoted Text

at 10% a $40.00 kit will be $44, but 20% to $48 or 30% to $52 WILL suck.


Was in a small model shop today, near where I work, and the latest tamiya kits are ~460 SEK. Thats $76.14 for the panzer III ausf N or their Opel Blitz.
The "Tamiya price" has been pretty stabile for the last few years .... meaning its been this price for around 4 years.
The last new Tamiya kit I bought was their late Tiger and crew. This was in April 2002. I havenīt and wonīt be buying any others either, until their pricing gets real!!
Dragons new kits are costing 330SEK (or $54.60) locally, so I can put up with their unfavourable marketing, in favour of half-decent prices.
Spades
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Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 08:08 AM UTC
Its going to be industry wide, DRAGON, ICM, ZVEZDA, HASEGAWA, are supposed to up between 7% to 12%.
CReading
#001
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Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 01:46 PM UTC
I guess I have collected enough kits that I won't have to buy any more.....but it does kinda take the fun out of it.
I certainly sympathize with the increased costs involved around the skyrocketing cost of fuel but I'm afraid I can't rationalize paying 70+ USD for a kit........i mean, my fuel costs and everything have increased also (only thing that doesn't increase is my income)
So, time to hit the stash and work up some of those old ideas I've had for the kits i bought way back when........time to hone up on my scratch building techniques.

C.
Bratushka
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Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 09:32 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I guess I have collected enough kits that I won't have to buy any more.....but it does kinda take the fun out of it.
I certainly sympathize with the increased costs involved around the skyrocketing cost of fuel but I'm afraid I can't rationalize paying 70+ USD for a kit........i mean, my fuel costs and everything have increased also (only thing that doesn't increase is my income)
So, time to hit the stash and work up some of those old ideas I've had for the kits i bought way back when........time to hone up on my scratch building techniques.

C.



Agreed. I have a fairly huge stash of unbuilt kits of all flavors. I hate to see how high some of the bigger kits like the Dragon Wagon and FAMOs with trailers end up selling for. Maybe the kit makers will load up on PE and machined parts to offset the value vs. price factor.

This insanity with high oil prices and energy costs is really taking away from what discretionary spending many people have. Hobbies and vacations seem to take the first hit. I just left the grocery store having bought 2 packages of lunch meat, a package of 6 onion rolls, a small block of swiss cheese, and a pound of coffee and spent over $30.00. I don't even want to talk about what topping off my fuel tank on the way home cost. Even last year I could have done both for what the food cost me.
FAUST
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Posted: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 - 09:57 PM UTC
Ola Guys

Another increase of Tamiya... And they were already ludicrously expensive. Even the re re re re releases are just too high. In the end we are only talking about a box of plastic.
Not having much funds for the hobby anyway my resort is to buy second hand. Which is all the better for me since I do a lot of kitbashing and scratchbuilding and I have considerable less problems with cutting up a kit that did cost me 10 to 15 euro instead of a brandnew kit from the 40 to 50 euro range. Haven't bought a new Tamiya kit for years simply because price is too high. Same goes for Dragon (outside the fact that most of the DML range as of lately does not interest me much and their ways of marketing simply Sucks) the price of them also increased here during the years. I don't know how other people do it but I don't have money to buy every new kit on the market. So yeah luckily on several Dutch forums I manage to pick up quite good kits for a nice price.
And next to that on fuelprices.... I'm really sorry but I think you people from accross the pond would be sick if you had to pay the prices we have to pay here in Europe (well most of Europe anyway) 4 dollar a Gallon I believe it is now in the US and that is really not too bad. European prices would get you a gallon for closer around 10 dollar. So I guess it could always be a tad worse.
viper29_ca
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Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2008 - 06:38 AM UTC
As a hobby retailer, I have been warned that prices are going up across the board as more and more manufacturers are claiming alot of things on the increase.

The cost of oil is one thing, and yes it does effect the manufacture of kits, as it takes oil to make styrene....it might not take much to pop out one kit, but then again, these companies are just popping one kit now are they? In reality, since the price of oil has really started to increase (about what??? 3 years?), it has taken this long to reach the plastic industry, so I really wouldn't say that is too bad when they could have claimed an increase right away and blamed it on the price of oil.

Transportation costs factor into it as well, which all comes back to the price of the almighty barrel of oil.

Some companies have already upped their prices, some have yet to do so, I would expect the ones that haven't mentioned it yet, to slowly and quietly increase theirs as well, at least some of the companies out there have the balls to tell you they are doing it and why, where as some just up the prices and give you no explanation.


Quoted Text

Was in a small model shop today, near where I work, and the latest tamiya kits are ~460 SEK. Thats $76.14 for the panzer III ausf N or their Opel Blitz.



They are charging you the same price for both kits??? That is highway robbery. Even with shipping I could get you those kits for less(mind you it would be the snail's pace surface shipping), the Tamiya PZIIIN runs about $57 and the Opel about $35 here.
vanize
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Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2008 - 07:05 AM UTC
I'm not at all surprised - if you calculate the inflation index the way it USED to be calculated when it actually meant something, we are well into double digit inflation right now, no matter how far in the sand the current administration sticks its head.

if it goes up about 14%, that'd be about right from what I can figure.

of course our incomes are going to go up, what, 2.5%

Bratushka
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Posted: Thursday, June 05, 2008 - 07:10 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Ola Guys

And next to that on fuelprices.... I'm really sorry but I think you people from accross the pond would be sick if you had to pay the prices we have to pay here in Europe (well most of Europe anyway) 4 dollar a Gallon I believe it is now in the US and that is really not too bad. European prices would get you a gallon for closer around 10 dollar. So I guess it could always be a tad worse.



I know this is drifting off topic, but I have to comment and then I promise to shut about it in this thread. I and most people over here know and understand high fuel prices in other countries. But isn't much of that added taxes because your populations are smaller so such things generate income for the government to run and provide services? What makes it so much more painful here is that fuel has gone up so much so fast. And everything else along with it. Everthing, especially food, has gone up about 30%; electricity and heating that much and more. It's as if you went to work and your employer started paying you a thrd less on your take home portion of your pay and you still have the same bills that are rising. At the same time many good paying jobs are moving to China and Mexico and nothing is replacing them. There is a Honda assembly plant being built near me. 2000 jobs drew in over 35,000 applications. My place of employment is closing at the end of June sending all the jobs to Mexico and China. In the same area by the beginning of 2009 almost 4000 jobs will be gone and probably double that and then some have gone over the past 10 years. And the last thing, and most important, is the cost of health care. Insurance is beyond affordability for many average working people so they depend on their employers to provide it. There is no safety net unless you are in absolute poverty. It is not an exageration that many retired older people choose between medicine and food or medicine and heating their homes in winter. I have Canadian friends that envy our health care system, but when queried have no idea how expensive it is. It's like fighting hunger by opening thousands of 5 star retautants. It may be great food, but if you can't afford to eat there you're still going to bed hungry. And then the media reports that oil companies are making profits that exceed all historical records for any type of company anywhere at any time. Then it has been recently reported that price of oil per barrel is over twice what is should be and the speculators who trade it operate under a shroud of secrecy with no oversight or any assurances they are operating ethically. Some laws were recently passed to try to make that process more visible, but it seems the government works only for the corporations here anymore so I'm not holding my breath.
Fitz
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Posted: Friday, June 06, 2008 - 12:46 PM UTC
This is nothing. I work in the tire industry. We used to see 1, maybe 2 price increases a year of perhaps 1-2% each at the most. This was just a few (3-4) years ago.

Now we see price increases almost monthly and as much as 5% at a time. We had one in January that was 12%. By the end of this year we expect the average price we pay for our product to increase by as much as 25%! All blamed on fuel and raw materials costs.
Murdo
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Posted: Friday, June 06, 2008 - 01:31 PM UTC
Fair enough.

I just won't buy any more kits.

It's my hobby but not the only one.
Finch
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Posted: Friday, June 06, 2008 - 02:01 PM UTC

Quoted Text

I'm not at all surprised - if you calculate the inflation index the way it USED to be calculated when it actually meant something, we are well into double digit inflation right now, no matter how far in the sand the current administration sticks its head.

if it goes up about 14%, that'd be about right from what I can figure.

of course our incomes are going to go up, what, 2.5%



Precisely so. The last decade or so of economic mismanagement means our currency simply isn't worth anything near what it used to be. Since oil is priced in dollars (for now) the slide in the dollar directly impacts energy costs with a ripple effect almost across the board.
majorchuck
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Posted: Friday, June 06, 2008 - 02:40 PM UTC
gov. allways selfserving higher prices more tax. ca'sa. only one way to fight back do not perchase products that are too pricey i have not perchased taimya for years and i do not miss them
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