What do you folks thing about the price of models? Like many here I was into models back in the early 70s. The only kit I can remember the price on was the Tamiya 88 AT/AA Gun which I'm pretty sure was about $25. To put that into perspective at that time you could go to the movies for maybe $2.50 and gas was probably .75 cents. I recently bought the same kit at Hobby Lobby, when it was on sale, but the retail price they listed it for was the same $25. This is when it cost me $7.50 to see Master and Commander and gas is $1.32 right now. Seems to me that model prices themselves, not the aftermarket options, have really stayed pretty constant. With all the inflation that has occurred since the 70s that doesn't seem too bad. Do you think that by and large kit prices really aren't that bad, or do you think we're being ripped off to feed our platic adiction?

Tooling and Research are the two Largest Expenses in the Making of Kits. I've seen a thread here (or somewhere else) on this subject.

Al in all, I dont feel plastic prices are high. If you look at the time spent putting it together ( start to finish) even factoring in the cost of paint, glue etc. It can take me 20 hours plus to complete. Where else can you derive such enjoyment for 2.00 to 3.00 an hour??? Works for me!

That is a really good Point!! Never thought of it like that #:-) #:-) #:-)

Hi there

I remember Accurate Miniatures saying that every part in a kit cost $1000 to design and produce... this was a few years ago.

My gripe is with the mark-up that importers put on kits; I can buy a Tamiya kit from Hobby Link Japan for about 1/2 the price it is in the UK (including P&P).

Even so, I still reckon modelling is great value for money; when you compare the cost against the hours of pleasure it gives, it seems like money well spent. :-)

All the best

Rowan

Hi. Don't think the models are out of line, as I get real good deals at the local hobby shop I noramally go to. Picked up the latest Tamiya OIF Bradley there for I think something like $26. So I can't complain. Saw this exact same kit at another hobby shop just up the road from home and it was $47 there. So I think somebody is sticking it to somebody there.

I do believe that it's the aftermarket items that tend to run up the bill. Not that they are out of line or anything like that, it's just that there are so many of them for each particular model out now. You can buy a model kit for, say, $15 to $25 and without a whole heck of a lot of trouble add $75 to $100, minimum, to it, by just glancing through the lastest on any number of web sites or an issue of MMiR or Fine Scale Modeler, or any other of a number of modeling mags currently printed and sold. To me that's where the proverbial 'catch' in this hobby is. And this doesn't count paints glues, tools, etc. , whose cost, in the long run, still has to be figured in to the overall way of things.

One thing's for sure, it's not the cheap hobby it once was if you wish to do something other than straight OOTB kits all the time. And that tends to get a tad bit boring after a while.

Still I can think of a heck of a lot of other people out there who tend to throw their money away on other things and in the end, have absolutely nothing whatsoever to show for it, either in material gain to better their life or the lives of the families or the personal self- satisfaction of creating something meaningful out of just a box full of parts.

Take care, sgirty

The cost of kits also varies from store to store. I live in Peterborough (2 hours NE from Toronto) and there's only one hobby store in town. The owner has the control over prices, such as $27 CDN for the old Tamiya Stuart from the 70's, while the new T-55 is $75 CDN.

hi numpty is that peterborough near lakeview on the severn trent river system ?? if it is next time i,m over for a fishing hol ,we will have to meet in the local bar for a drink and chat even though it may some time off before i can get over there again

I agree on the fact that the money spent on the models is worth it if you look on the time spent on them ( the enjoyment you get...)
I do however dislike the fact that a model wich got upgraded with assecoires and stuff (OIF assecoires costs €9,50 a set) suddenly is €50,- as were it used to be €25,-... But then again this could be just a mean trick from my hobbyshop-keeper.
Key-fact is that a good browse on the net could save you a lot of money... (if it wasn't for those horrible shippingcosts... )

You would be surprized by the amount of overhead that an importer would have. Marine insurance, storage, transportation, labor (breaking the bulk packages and reboxing to send out to various wholesalers/retailers). Third party logistics is where the money is.

Sabot is 100% correct on the container freight. The problem with plastic models isn't the weight, it is the space they take up. Most of the stuff shipped to the States from overseas is shipped in "container" quantities. You have to figure that a Tamiya Pershing kit in the box is about the same size as say, a DVD player. The margins on shipping cost get pretty skinny trying to spread them out over a container full of models.

I hope this made some sense.

Shaun

PS. I think overall, after the intial investment in tools, modeling is pretty cheap. I have spend about 5 nights working on my Mobelwagon, out of the box. It isn't nearly finished. Dollars per hour, I think this is a pretty cheap hobby.

I also think that most prices for the main kits are ok , probably a lil cheap for the accuracy they give (especially the last issued kits) and all the research and the effort that the companie has made. On the other hand here in Greece we dont have many HS so there is no much competition there are not any Hobby Lobby Sales like u have in your countries and no cheap bargains , so in the whole year the prices remain the same and we dont have the pleasure to say " hey i bought this half price" wich os a lil bad thing. I think what is much expensive is the AM parts , the specialised companies stuff, like Verlinden, and also some material and tools if you consider them with similiar everyday materials. I mean when a whole 1 kgr tin of paint for house use costs 3-5 $ is expensive to pay 1-1.5 $ for 22 ml of modelling paint after all !!!!. Any way is a cheap hobby compared to other stuff and the main thing is that it offers you the possibilitie to arrange how many hours you will spent on each investment (kit). On the contrary if you pay 25 $ to buy a new dvd movie you see it 1-2-3 times and thats it. If you pay 25 $ to buy a tank and depending on your scratch skills, you can spend about 2-3 months to finish it, and then take it to a competition, or use it in a dio after 5-6 months, so is an extended pleasure after all. (:-)

I think the mainline kits are cheap and well worth buying. Of course, I also like many of the limited run kits available. I accept the fact that it will cost 5 times as much as a regular kit. To me, our hobby is one of the least expensive hobbies available that feeds our constructive creativity.
capnjock

Arh, I love this thread.

Now this is import/export 101, this is what I do as a merchandising executive. say you have a kit the size of um... a Tamiya Pz IV ausf H. there are what? 5 trees of parts? 2 rubber tracks? a decal sheet? instruction black and white, a gift box. The following is the break down.

Research, assuming employ 3 people doing research, send them to russia that mesuem they got their and stay there for 15 days, and freeze their arse off. let's say 1000 bucks for man/day, that's 45000 bucks.

Tool drawing, most likely take place in japan/taiwan/ or even China, that project, I will put in another 50,000 bucks.

that's an overhead of 100 grand, assume that I will make 50,000 boxes based on this research, that's 2 bucks per kit. Now write this down. TWO DOLLARS.

Tooling, for that 5 trees, each is about 30,000 bucks top for the toolings, that's 150,000 bucks, and the rubber tracks, that's abother 5,000 for tooling. so let's call it 160,000 bucks. also 50,000 boxes, that's 3.20. Write this down. THREE DOLLARS and TWENTY.

Plastics for the kit, now this is peanut, most kits are made of PS, which is like 0.80 cents per POUND, this is what you do , you take all the trees and weight them. say it's totalled one pound which I doubt so, there is your 80 cents. plus, injection wachine depreciation, labour, electricity, add say 25% on top of it, the PS part is 1.00. So we Have ONE dollar HERE.

Throw in another fifty cents for the rubber tracks, I am being genourous here.

Decal, mass printing of decal sheet that is top 3 to 4 colors, you will max out about one buck. That's ONE.

Instruction, black and white on 80 gsm paper, single PMS color, rest Black and White, that's what? 20 cents.

Box, corrugated bottom with offset printed top, 80 cents

Now, we have a raw cost of the kit of 8.70. I am very accurate in costing, I will say I have a costing error of 10%. Now factory usually makes a ideal 20% to cover cost and profit, sometimes even not that. so it makes the FOB price of the unit to be 10.88. let's say 11.

Now here is the cost to transport to N.America, usually kits won't be shipped per container, at least not a single kit, I don't see how it be the case. it will ship LCL, less than container load, the cost is calculated based on CBM, per Cubic Meter, one CBM from far east to states, range from 40 to 80 dollars, sometimes highest 110. let's say 110 disembark at Long Island, NY. each CBM will have at my estimation 100 to 120 kits, that's one dollar per kit.

So we have 12 dollars now.

kits's tariff is maybe 3924.10.5500. under general plastic, that has an import duty of 3.4% , so we add another 30 to 40 cents on top of it. Now we have 12.50

All other warehouse handling, deconsolidation, etc, adds up no more than one buck, or the distributor need to be fired for doing a lousy job.

That add to a distributor cost of about 13.50. I will assume an importor would like to make another 20% profit. that'd be like 16.90 for kit when it hits the store. The 20% included all the cost to ship to the store.

A store will normally make about 80 to 100% mark up on any goods, be it a DVD player, a tooth pick or a kit, so that makes the kit about 30 to 34 bucks. Some small shop might have higher cost in buying the kits from distributor , so it will reflects to the kit price.

So 30 to 34 bucks, that's about right.

Gentlemen, welcome to the world of corporate profit.

Plastic kits are, in my view, quite expensive. Just to give an example making an industrial mould for a 1/35th tank,here in Italy ranges between 50000 and 75000 euros. The styrene used to make it costs something like 1 euro per kg. If you add boxing and packaging you get another 0.5 euros. These data come out from the model industry itself and are comprehensive of the manpower involved in the whole process.
So the production cost of such a kit once the mould has been payed back it's less than a euro. The industry claims that the average sales per kit per year of production is around 4000 and 5000 kits per year. If you consider an out of the factory selling price of 30% of the retail price of the kit this means that per kit they get 10 euros they pay back the moulds in one to two years and from that point on the business returns something like 90% in profits prices could also drop a bit instead of growing continuously.
Ciao

The killer in kit prices is not in the basic unit cost. The real price, when it gets into the hobby-shop is the 'cut' that each distributor skims off the top. Here in Spain, the prices charged for example Tamiya (the worst offender) are obscene. The Cromwell (for example) is around the €45 mark (around $40) and I have seen it as high as €50... Every month or so, the prices are put up by just another notch, whether new stock or old, it makes little difference..
Another problem here is that because of govt. interference, discounts are virtually unheard of. The worst is in DVDs, Videos and computer software.... Maximum of 5% discount permitted.. BY LAW Guess who spends a lot of money buying from Amazon? Pity Amazon didn't start selling kits as well...Jim

But what we must remember is at the end of the day we pay for it. There was a case a while back when the figure company Pegaso started producing what they called theit 'Gold Box' series. Now they were charging about £4-5 more for an extra head and differrent weapon. People didn't like it but still bought them. So what i'm saying is if you don'tlike it don't buy. For example there are lots of Resin kits i would like but simply cannot afford therefore i will wait. We are just as bad as the importers and manufacturers. By buying the kits at that price they realise they can keep the prices that high. But at the end of the day if there is a must have kit we will all buy it.

Hi,

This is Sealhead and I am amazed at you all. First of all, some of you have been as thorough at anaylsing the costs that go into a model as you are in your model research. Some realize the fun per dollar per hour. Some, who obviously are not in a business for themselves, don't see all the costs that go into a business. But, the bottom line, is this hobby found us or we wouldn't be doing it. So, cheap or expensive, we're as hooked as a junkie, because nobody is forcing us to do what we do.
OOB = inexpensive
Add the P/E stuff, paint, glue, research books, etc.= not so inexpensive
Build a room, with cabinets, countertops, and stuff it with every model related thingie know to man (or modeling woman) like almost everything out of Micro-Mark, Woodland Scenics, artist pastes, mediums, etc, scenery supplies from tumbleweed, to sagebrush to rubberized horsehair, lights, music, mini-refrigerator...you get the picture=nuts. That may explain why my door can be locked from the outside with bars in the windows. All this for something that, when I'm doner will sit in the basement. This boy needs help!

Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower)

P.s. A retailer that has very high prices has two explanations. One, the free market allows them to sell for what the market will bear, but also allows you, or drives you, to find alternatives from mail order to the Internet, to buying overseas. Secondly, businesses don't live on the gross sales or the gross profit, or even the net profit. They live on cash. And if the business is either not run well, or it is run well, but expenses exceed income, then no more business. Are you aware that 85% of the businesses that go under in the USA are profitable? It's CASH they run out of and can't get more of.

I can remember buying the Japanese 1/700 kits back in mid 70's a BB and A/C kit cost $4 a cruiser was $2 and a DD and sub were a buck. Now that very same BB costs $26 the cruisers $16.50 and the DD's are in at $9. All from squadron. Surprsingly, the Figure sets I bought in the 70's from Tamiya when they first came out are cheaper at Squadron then when I initially bought them. Tank prices. well that isn't fair...they've tripled, but then the quality has also done the same. I also remember buying Monogram planes for a buck a pop and those sell for a 10 spot now...same kits!

Yes, it is the Peterborough on the Trent system. I live in Ennismore, which is about 20 minutes away. I used to fish, then got into biking because the concession roads go on forever. Next time you drop by send me a PM or e-mail me.

Hey that was the first time I used a quote. That was fun, I might have to do that again. :-)

yes the prics has jumped,
even from 5 years ago. when iwas building,
but i have an old model magzine.
from 19 73 and the prices will make u sick.
the tamyia 88 was just 7 dollars,
and the panzer was 2 dollars and 50 .cents
and the figues where 2.25

I was in the local hobby store today and I saw the Academy M10 for $67 CDN. It's probably cheaper for me to drive to the bigger shops in Toronto and buy items from there. I buy supplies or may some figures or accesories but for a whole kit forget about it. Last time I did it was Tamiya's M1025 for $60 at the beginning of the summer.

Tazz.. Its all relative...1973; gallon of gas .35 today 1.50
Pack of smokes .35 today 6.50
In 1979 my first apartment was $125.00 and I made $25.00 a day!
Now my mortgage is $1900.00 and I make a minimum of $250.00 a day! Sometimes twice that and sometimes nothing. So all and all prices are not that bad!

BTW. If I recall in 1973 the minimum wage , what I was paid to weed gardens and such was .65 an hour. Which means if I wanted that 88 I would need to work 12 hours to afford it!!!

BTW. If I recall in 1973 the minimum wage , what I was paid to weed gardens and such was .65 an hour. Which means if I wanted that 88 I would need to work 12 hours to afford it!!!


No.minimum was $1.40 an hour. That's what I got paid to work at a golf course that summer. I think shortly after it raised to a whopping $2.25, then gas jumped to a horrifying 55 cents a gallon.

In 1973, I worked for nothing, and got paid for nothing, I was not even born. Damn ya people are old....