John Baligrodzki

I realize that my request is a very open ended thing. What you can sell your used aircraft certainly depends on several factors including condition, whats included and also how bad the buyer wants the aircraft.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this both as sellers and buyers.

As an example let say you have a .46 sized sport plane with a decent engine on it with 5 servos. All the buyer will need to do is drop in a receiver and battery and go fly. The aircraft has never been crashed and is maybe 4 years old but in above average shape. What would be a fair price and price range for this.

I would also be curious to know if people feel they get less for used sport aircraft as the market is flush with good quality low priced ARF's.

Thanks for your comments.

John B.

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

http://members.aol.com/skylane42a/price.html

Heres a good start. Kits that are unbuilt will bring good prices. Each is different and you can look in the sale forums and competed items on ebay for an idea of prices things are going for. They are cyclical and change. I buy and sell kits all the time.

Built planes on the other hand are totally different. If you find someone that can't live without it, you can get a good price for a used plane, otherwise, you won't get much. Built planes tend to bring about half the price of new, unless they are built badly, then really cheap. I recently paid $50 for a glider that was close to a grand new. I also got an electric glider with folding prop for $80 flown very little with engine and prop, new it is over $500. Sometimes you can't give a built kit away, sometimes they go high, just depends on who is around to buy it. I sell mostly kits. I don't like to sell built planes because they are very hard to make anything on.

AA5BY

I got back into RC a few years ago after a long absense and had some stuff left over but needed a couple additional planes in the hanger. At swap fest, two planes were found. A Fliar - Sopwith Pup with Saito .56, W/all but aileron servos and a Goldberg Cub with Saito .50 W/all servos. Both were well built, clean but not super clean, had no warps in wings, and covered with tex type coverings and other than the two aileron servos in the one, were as you describe... ready for receiver and flying.

Ironically, both were priced at $225 and in both cases after discussion and showing strong interest but not in any hurry to make an offer, the asking price for each was lowered to $200 (a fair price in my opinion) and accepted.

I don't know if these examples are typical or help.

A couple of more point may be helpfull... both were planes that were on a mental short list prior to the swap meets and both qualified the cleaness scale I expected.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Here's a typical conversation between a Buyer and Seller at any given RC Swap Meet:

Buyer: Nice Airplane.

Seller: Thanks, this is a 25% scale reproduction of the Fokker Albatross D-V which was built from plans that I smuggled out of the Fokker factory and painstakingly reduced. I spent 6 years building it to the most exacting specifications. Every detail is perfect right down to the spars which I carved from a Spruce tree that I chopped down in the German forest that grew the trees for the original plane. The covering is a custom weave which is identical to the original covering, but only 1/4 the original thickness and the dope and paint is also the original from the Fokker factory (which I found stored in a back room while I was procuring the plans). This plane is scale in every detail right down to the machine guns which I fabricated myself in my own CNC machine shop and, if you could find bullets small enough, they would actually fire through the home made scale radial engine's propeller. It comes complete with the Engine, and an 8 channel top-of-the-line Computer radio.

Buyer: I'll give you 50 bucks for it.

olstoney

My Feedback: (19)

Oh Mike,
Can do better that that I'll make it seventy five [sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif]

AA5BY

$75.50 [8D]

Flak

My Feedback: (1)

JB,
There is no Blue Book value here. You pay retail, use the stuff for 4 years, then wish to sell it. Set the price high and be willing to negotiate or trade. You can't expect retail prices for used goods. Be fair and honest. Rip someone off and the word will spread like wild fire. keep your name and word in good standing. This will make it much easier to sell used goods in the future. Remember, most guys like to haggle. Come down a little and let them know they a getting a good deal. I have always been fair and honest and it has worked well for me. Good luck. BTW, I would offer you somewhere between 100.00 to 200.00 for your example sport plane if I were in the market for one, providing it was in top condition.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

I've been advertising some giant scale gas airplanes in the marketplace for quite a long time. All it does is make me mad. People make insulting offers and then wonder why I'm pissed off.

One has only 6 flights on it and is in brand new condition. Pristine. All nice coreless JR servos that are new. Nice mh 6V batteries. Perfectly running name brand gas engine with very low time on it. I have close to $2000 invested in the plane and I can't get an offer over $400. [:@]

Another plane is BRAND NEW. I put it together with all brand new components. New JR digital servos, new RX, heavy duty batteries, heavy duty switches, new engine. Everything is brand new and top of the line. I've got $2200 invested in that plane and was asking $1100 for it. Can't get an offer over $700. [:@]

I realize that everyone is looking for a deal. But, when people make offers like that, it's just downright insulting. I've always been the type of person that would pay a fair price for something if it was what I wanted. If a guy has something that I want, and it's in good shape or brand new--I'm more than happy to pay a decent price for it. I'm not the kind of guy who is always looking to steal something. If the guy had a brand new engine thats worth $1000 and he wants $800 for it--I'll pay it. It's worth it. Why be a jerk and offer him $300 or $400 for it?

I am beginning to HATE trying to sell stuff anymore. I usually just sell stuff to clear out the shop or make room for something bigger. It seams like everytime you put something up for sale--every jackass in the world thinks your behind on the mortgage payments and wants to try and take advantage of it. PLEASE -- if I couldn't make my motgage payments--selling airplanes would do little to remedy the situation.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

Thats about the time I want to get out a ball bat and hit the guy in the teeth with it. [:@] Get lost.

NCIS

John,

If someone came up to me and asked what I would sell one of my large scale kit built planes that I truly loved for. Then I would sell it for what the kit cost and everything else purchased plus my time. Very expensive. If the plane is no longer available anywhere it would be priceless and these I don't even fly. They are RTF but are hanger queens. I keep everything I build because I only build scale aircraft and only fly a few. I fly a couple ARF's that I don't have any emotional ties to. I fly the wings off of these.

Gibbs

AA5BY

Gibbs... I hear ya.

An old sailing aquaintance owned a forty two foot Japanese built wood ketch he'd had for more than twenty years. His health waned and the wife wanted him to part with the boat he could no longer sail and tried to get his buds to persuade him to give it up. They persuaded her that the boat was not simply a tool or object without a spirit, that he had a relationship with the boat, a sort of intimacy hard to let go.

While the boat was made of wood, metal and canvas... in a sailors mind existed the vision of a living entity, something that could spring to life and show its character. Whether she fully understood what they were saying, I can't say... there were no more attempts to get him to sell.

XTRA230

My Feedback: (10)

I Am the same as most always looking for a deal BUT!! really I Myself usually make what is a fair and reasonable offer and go from there.But I Guess it come down to It Is Only worth what someone is willing to Pay So it is hard.Been on both ends of the deal And yes sometimes You Would rather belt the Person with bat fist or whatever But I Guess that does defeat the Idea of selling to them HUH!!

NCIS

AA5BY,

I have a 36 foot Trojan Tri-Cabin twin engine and I hear ya. Bad part is I can't afford it anymore so it is up for sale. I'll let that part of my heart go but not the planes because nobody would ever pay my price. LOL By the way you described that perfectly.

Gibbs

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

At some point in your life, you either need to decide weather the plane you are selling is worth anything to you. If it is one that you don't want anymore, then sell it for the best price you can get and forget it. Don't get mad or ticked when people offer you a price. That is what it is worth to them. If it is worth more to you, keep it and fly it. I have a ton of planes. If someone wants one and I like the price, I sell it, if not, I keep it. If they offer me way less than I was asking, I say no. Its not worth getting mad about. If you guys don't like low offers, don't offer to sell planes. Your going to get the low ball offers just like selling anything else in the world.

I once wanted to make a $300,000 offer on a house that was $800,000 because I knew what the guy had in it and I knew he was in trouble. Everyone talked me out of making the offer because they didn't want me to insult him. A week later someone offered him $320,000 and he took it gladly. Now its worth $1.5 million. You never know if you don't ask, thats why they make offers. I never think about it any more when I make a low ball offer. I have gotten many things that way and the seller got rid of them. Most of the time I use it for a period of time and put it back up for sale. Sometimes I make money on it, sometimes I don't. Its part of life. Don't let it get you all ticked off. Its the way the world works

skylane42

My Feedback: (53)

Just my personal guidelines but a built, used plane in good flyable condition without the motor or radio gear is usually worth the cost of the orginal kit. So If you have say a used pica 1/6 waco in good flyable shape I would probably offer aroung $150.00 for just the plane. I never consider the time spent in building because that value is to the original builder and unless it was built just for me, brand new, as in having a "pro" build it, the cost of building is null. No offense to anyone but that is one of the reasons used planes don`t sell for the big bucks. I buy the motor and radio at thier stand-alone value.

Flak

My Feedback: (1)

Hey, I bought a used Pica 1/6th Scale Waco with servos installed, and scale cockpit for $200.00. I installed a Super Tigre 90 2 stroke engine and a receiver. She is a great flying airplane and I would hate to sell her. In fact, she is the only civilian aircraft I own. The rest a Warbirds. A Waco sure does look pretty in the air and on final she is amazingly beautiful! Hmmm, I wonder what she would look like in a military paint scheme...