Absolutely VV, spot on. This is one of the (many) reasons I am put off the new toolings and prefer older, simpler kits. A big hike in price (along with the added and sometimes unnecessary complexity) keep me favouring the older kits, particularly the re-releases because, as you rightly say, they still offer reasonable value even today.VickersVandal wrote:I think kit manufacturers have responded to market demands in making more complex, detailed kits and therefore the prices have gone up. For some of the older, more basic Revell and Airfix kits the prices are still around the same level they always were, adjusting for inflation. Airfix new tool kits are often significantly more costly than their older brethren.
A good example of this is the new tool Airfix 1/72 Supermarine Swift. The Swift is not a big aeroplane and if Airfix had tooled it back in the good old days of the 60s and 70s it would probably have been a Series 1 or 2 kit and if re-released today would be typically around £5 - £7. Yes, of course I realise it would have been a lot more basic, more crude and a lot less detailed but with a good paint job it still would have looked like a Swift.
But the last time I looked the new-tool Swift in my local hobby store it was around £15, that's nearly three times the cost for what is quite a small plane. Yes, I appreciate it will be far better engineered, far more detailed and probably more accurate, but that is still quite a big jump in price.
There are many examples of this sort of jump. The '79/'80 tolling of the Lancaster was about £16 until it's deletion, and it was a nice kit and built up well. The replacement new-tool is around £31 rrp. So that's nearly twice the price for effectively the same aeroplane. Again, I appreciate that it will offer more detail and accuracy etc. etc. but it's still a jump in price that's too steep for my taste.
And don't get me started on the price of the Shakleton... I'm sure it's a lovely kit but £45, seriously?
But Airfix are in business, and they are not stupid, they know that the hobby has moved away from youngsters with pocket money and onto middle aged people with a much larger disposable income and they are prepared to pay it.
As for the price of second hand kits, yes, these too are going up in price. Every year since 2009 I have been going to the Southern Expo in March. Every year I grab a few old CBKs from the dealers to keep me building for the next 12 months, but this year I noticed a big jump up in prices from some of these dealers, and I challenged a few of them about it. They quoted things like increasing rarity, condition etc. etc. to justify the jump, but some of these price hikes were quite staggering. For example, a few years back I could pick up old, small Frog kits for £5 or £6 but this year the same dealer had the same kits labelled up at £20 - £22! That's a big jump when the only justification is that they a bit rarer nowadays......
Thankfully, if you wait until the show's about to close you can do some, erm, 'negotiation'.
So, in answer to your question Stamford, yes!
I can't comment about Ebay as I never use it.
Zee28