Where is it going to end? I don’t mind when someone reboxes a kit and adds something to it Revell’s M88 and Scorpion and Italeri’s Loach for example. Revell usually add one or two new sprues of their own plus some PE or an aluminium barrel to boot and the kit is sold cheaper than the original.

The point is that I recently bought (eBay) a Matchbox Sherman M4A1 76mm. On opening it I found Revell’s instructions with Italeri’s M4A1 sprues. I paid £4.00, and on checking up on prices I found the Retail price is almost twice that of the Italeri kit!

What do you guys think of this? Rip-off or fair trade?

Savage,
I don't like it any more than you do, but you know what they say- caveat emptor (buyer beware)!
As long as people (unsuspecting or not) buy it, they are gonna continue to put the "crap" out there.

ripoffs

Ouch Phantom! I'm not complaining about the price I paid, just the retail price someone is going to pay for .... lets say a present to a modeler or a young modeler just starting out.

The thing with re-boxed kits is if its something you´ve been after for a long time, then its a Gods send! But when you´ve felt you´ve been ripped off ... not so nice.
For me, and probably others, that are still fairly new to this game, that might be the only chance we have of getting some of these older kits. Its just a pity there are so many crappy rebox sets instead of some of the older decent kits (there have actually been a few oldies but goodies released recently).
Im sure there are sites that have reviews of a lot of these older kits thats worth checking out first ... or Ive even seen a lot of folks ask here for a quickie review from anybody that has built it. When items are going so cheap on the likes of E-bay..... it may be worth checking out first if your attracted by the bargain. But if its the something you´ve been looking for, for a while....... I would be happy enough!!

I got caught with the same 1/72 scale M4A1 Sherman kits, just one was in the Matchbox box and the other in a Monogram box. Exact same kits, the MB Battle of the Bulge kit was molded in white and the Monogram kit was in OD. This was about 5 years ago when the new Sherman first hit the market.

It is getting difficult to figure out what kit is in which box. When Italeri issued an M1A2 Abrams kit, there was speculation that was a reboxed DML kit (I figured this) and one person even stated it was the old Esci kit. Instead it was an entirely new kit. Now Revell of Germany has issued it as well.

Take a look at the Italeri LVT Alligator. It came out at the same time as the Revell of Germany LVT Alligator. In my local shop, the only difference was the decals, color plastic and the price.

Try to figure out why Italeri reissues the old Esci M60A1 kit for $24.99 and Revell of Germany reissues the old Esci M60A3TTS kit for $32. They are both basically the exact same kit, just a couple of minor mold swap parts. Since both kits went for $20 in 1993 (according to my 1993 Squadron Mail Order catalog), the Italeri price is a bargin, but the RoG price is a little steep for a 14 year old kit that most likely recouped all production costs in the early 90s.