So, I'm in Victoria, BC for the weekend and decided to pop into a well known hobby shop to check the latest offerings. My brother served on Leo 1 tanks with the Canadian military in the early 80's, so I thought I'd honour him, add to the collection and look at the latest offerings for Leo 1 tanks.
I found the new Meng 1A3 immediately, looked at the price sticker, and immediately soiled my shorts. The model was listed at $89 (Canadian)!!! Tax not included, which would push the price close to $100.
Really? Is this the new price for a quality (more in a minute) model. How is anyone supposed to afford our hobby now? For the price of 4 of these models I can put an awesome new bumper on my Jeep.
As for the quality, I keep reading about people buying the latest, greatest high-tech model, and it having blatant obvious mistakes in it. People are buying upgrade kits that replace the ENTIRE turret, upper hull, plus gun, wheels, various doo dads, etc for tens or dozens of dollars. I normally build for my own pleasure and have never entered a model in a contest, but I like for a model to at least be fairly accurate. I hate the idea of paying a days wages for a model that is no-where near accurate.
I recently picked up a Merkava MKII that I later found out was almost toylike in it's accuracy. I paid almost $40 for it.
After shaking the stars out of my eyes, I decided to maybe pick up a Trumpeter Cougar or Grizzly to add to my Canadian armour stash. Even these were listed at over $40. I have read these have very obvious mistakes in them. I then went looking for the latest and greatest Russian cold war armour (how many variants of the T-72 or T-62 do we need?), and there were several by various companies, some running into the $74 range. And again, I read some of these had glaring errors.
I wish Trumpeter (and other companies) would release a BASE T-72 model, then you buy a $10 or $20 accessory set that would give you the model you want, instead of having to buy entire new models to get a various variant you want.
I ended up leaving the shop only with a small accessory piece and some spare parts for my airbrush.
FYI, I found the same Leo 1A3 model for sale online in the US for $55 US. Even with the exchange rater and shipping, I will be well ahead.
Anybody have similar disappointing experiences?

Unfortunately, and not the fault of the Hobby Store, the cost of distribution and shipping is high in some cases. I have seen some hobby stores in Canada jacking the price of Canadian themed items.

It is much better to find some of the new releases online else where. A few examples of online prices is the Meng Leopard can be bought overseas for about $45. As for the Cougars, etc, I did buy them at a local hobby store, with a price around $30-$35.

I feel bad with for the local hobby stores due to the cost of distribution, shipping, etc, but those hobby stores that jack prices just because it is Canadian content, well they can keep it on the shelf, I will find it else where.

I haven't bought a new kit in years. Reading the reviews I've noted the price increase overall and as a casual builder there's a bit of sticker shock, but I expect it after so many years. I was going to liquidate my stash and get new kits but now I'm holding on to those older (and paid for) kits, but I'll probably end up getting some aftermarket bits to fix some things, like tracks that are breaking down to dust!

I tried to order something from my hobby store, only to have the shop owner tell me "nope"...He only sells what's on the shelves, and refuses to get stuck with some weird accessory that would only gather dust...He knows that he can't compete with craigslist/EBay/Squadron, and I guess I don't blame him...He's gotta eat, too...