Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Ok perhaps I'm missing somthig here! A hundred and sixty bucks for a 1/2A kit? The contents alone must have cost twelve bucks or so.

Darren
http://cgi.ebay.com/RC-Royal-BF-109E...QQcmdZViewItem

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

If it is as old as my 48" P 61 Black Widow is, The kits had everything but the engines and paint. EVERYTHING. Piecemeal today, they are a bargin.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Someones view of the Royal kits is somewhat skewed. They had nothing in them but plans wood and spun aluminum cowl if needed. A few plastic parts and thats it. They wern't the best quality kit ever made and seem to have a reputation far in excess of their worth. Something like Sterling and most other out of production kits. I've built at least 12 or so of them so I'm not a stranger to them. Also built Eureka, TMHK, and a bunch of MK kits too.
Point is that collectors have no real sense of value of an item, they just have to have everything. God forbid that someone might buy the thing and actually build it. That gives them absolute fits.
Your better offt buying plans and scratch build anything you want and believe me there is just about everything available. After building your first one your fear of trying to fabricate a kit will disappear and you'll be off and running, no longer a slave to some out of production, heavy, overrated, overpriced kit

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Out of production and vintage kits can bring a higher price.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

i'd buy that kit to just keep on the shelf and look at it while I find more ways to make balsa dust.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

At that price? You can't be serious. It's just a box if you don't build it.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

I think I finally get it. Rarity surely is an issue and though an item be rare, to the "Collector" sensibilities be D****d. I have heard the phrase "An item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it." This has some truth to it...Until the Collector comes along skewing all of our senses by throwing large (to most of us) amounts of money raising the value to new heights usually well beyond normal sensibilites.

Quote by dennis :
"Point is that collectors have no real sense of value of an item, they just have to have everything. God forbid that someone might buy the thing and actually build it. That gives them absolute fits."

Thank you dennis for saying this and letting me see the light. I have tried and tried to understand how the collector thing worked and it just simply escaped me. I finally get it.

Dennis, I also must agree that one can build from plans and come up with, often, a better plane than the kit may have been able to produce. The kit merely provided the convienience of shopping for all the different bits and peices ( music wire, brass tubing, sheet wood, stick wood,etc) plus offering some bonuses like molded parts that not everyone was able to reproduce. Things have changed and I feel that the materials and techniques we have can do a fine job. of having the same model without our wallets suffering and shaking in mortal fear.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

BL: Your partly right, rarity will to a certain extent define the price. It's the old diamonds and water paradox (thank Adam Smith). Water is necessary to sustain life, every living creature must have it, yet it is worthless because it's so common, it literally falls from the sky. Diamonds have absolutly no value yet they are priceless due to they're rarity, except for the bling factor they are quite worthless. You can't eat them, wear them or keep the rain off your head with them.

But there's one other issue that may more closely define the comment at hand - the economy. There are people out there that make enormous sums of money for what they call their wage. I myself don't make a great deal and I am one of those who do have to ask what something costs. But what if I made $100k a year? Do you really think I would have to ponder whether I could afford $160.00 for a kit? How about a $1000? There are people out there for whom $100k is chump change. Don't get into a bidding war with one of these guys. They're more common than you might think. I know several that fly models. When the economy is good, collectors come out of the woodwork; when it's bad you can buy anything you want at a good price if you've got some bucks. Unless there's a Bazzillonare lurking.

Argue all you want that these poeple don't have the good sense that was given to a pizzant, but if they want something they get and you don't.

Regards - Steve B.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

$162.50???

I paid $50 for my Royal Zero kit, maybe I ought to put it on ebay......

Duke

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Quote by burtcs:
"Argue all you want that these poeple don't have the good sense that was given to a pizzant,"

Just to make things a bit more clear on my part. I never implied that these people do not have good sense. I know a few collectors and have been one myself simply from my own tastes. I soon found out that no matter how much I appreciated certain things, ( and there are certain things which I hold valuable to myself) I could not compete with those around me simply because I could not afford to. As fore those I personally know who do some collecting, they are quite intelligent, very lucid and I am glad to say that I know them. I in no way want to seperate myself from them in such a way that makes me feel superior to them intellectually.

I know. Not everyone can have everything one desires. There in lives the yearn that drives us all to set goals for acheivement. Without which we would all dry up inside.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

When I see somthing like this, I want to email the poor bidder and let him know he's getting fleeced, but I suppose it would be easy enough to do one's own research.. (sure start auction at 16 dollars plus healthy shipping when new ones are 7 bucks straight from cox)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cox-049-Motor-Br...QQcmdZViewItem

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Hi Dukester,

Hell I would, Just copy the plan and sell the thing.

Darren

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Don't email someone else's bidder. Ever. Just don't. If someone came into your store, after you paid for advertising and all that to get the guy into the store, and offered one of your customers a TV for less, how would YOU feel about that? Do NOT do this, it's really bad manners, and it's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. It's between the buyer and the seller...not YOU. He's not getting "fleeced", he OFFERED $162 for the kit...and someone ELSE offered $161.

Funny...I just threw out the fuse of my Royal 1/2a 109, and my buddy just started building his! Great little kit. This particular sale is definitely an anomaly, usually the royal 1/2a jobs are $50-90, tops. There are plenty of them lurking around in stores, still.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Must be the old Eureka kit? I have one almost finiished for R/C. You are kidding yourself a little...those kits threw in (sometimes) silk and props, but they were otherwise no more "Complete" than most other kits. They were pretty deluxe, though, with hand-cut parts and all that. They were EXPENSIVE back in the day, but made with very cheap Japanese labor, back when Japanese labor cost what Chinese labor costs today.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

This is pretty much the same as Tim Wiltse's thread about the guy who paid $125~ for a golden bee because he "always wanted one"...who wants what how bad..online auction can be just as frenzied as on site ones....I saw bidding escalate on a vw bus to $17,000!! pretty much just cause there were 4 or 5 guys bidding on it and it turned into an "I'll show you pal" bid match,while the other 200 guys were scratching their heads thinking, what in the hell are you thinking?!!...I'll bet that guy with the golden bee is waaay happier than the guy with the VW bus!!:D...Rog

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Hey Easy, Tiger, I'm not gonna ever email a bidder, in fact, I think it's pretty much impossible now or at least not easy with ebay, thankfully. I sold a telephone I dug out of the garbage as my first auction on ebay and the bidding went to some huge amount I cant even remember. I thought there must be some mistake, but the buyer was so happy to pay nearly three hundred dollars for a non working phone to complete his collection of models produced while he was at whatever factory making them during ww2 that he almost cried with joy. One man's trash!

My link was to an auction for a sure start that was nearing the 20 dollar mark, I wasnt talking about the kit. The kit I can understand more than a sure start at an inflated price. My urge to email (that is only an urge) was to let a fellow 1/2a guy know that the engines are available for way less.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

This is probably what this person did. A friend of mine found and aeromaster bipe at a pawn shop for $50 and sold it on ebay for $200.

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Ahh the insanity on Ebay! It never ceases to amaze me the prices some people on Ebay will pay for things. The funniest is when these knuckleheads pay more for a kit on Ebay, then you can still buy one new from an online hobby shop. Then the $25 shipping charge when the post office charges $5! As far as "collectors" go, IMHO you might as well hang a picture of the plane on the wall then have a kit just sitting in a box unbuilt. I like the old buy 'em, build 'em, fly 'em, crash 'em creedo myself :D You think 1/2a stuff can get overpriced, check out some of the old classic pattern planes from the 70's and 80's! I saw one with an engine go for over $600.[X(] Oh well, I guess to each his own [8D]

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Speaking of surestarts, I wanted to order a few more but they are out of stock at Cox. Anybody know where you can still get them under $10?

Duke

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

My LHS has surestarts for $20.00 I could not help but chuckle as I walked pasted them....

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Dukester, they're starting to ship them again! I've had an order in for over a month, and they just shipped two of the six. Either they messed up my order, or service is improving...

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

You're not talking Ultimate are you?

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

Collecting can be regarded as a seperate hobby all on its own. Consider a coin or stamp collector. They won't be spending their rare coins or possibly mailing those stamps after they are purchased, I'm sure. I keep a few old kits around that I have no intention of ever building, but they certainly come in handy for trading model stuff with other folks.
I'd not be too quick to judge the 'collector', they are doing what many of us do with this hobby; they are having fun.

JC

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

The more you collect, the more you need those last few items to make the collection complete. I bought a Frog diesel NIB for $15 Canadian and I sold it to a collector who had one of each Frog, except the one I had. He OFFERED $125 US, so being the nice guy that I am, I let him have it at that price rather than counter with a higher amount.;)

RE: Wow More Ebay Wierdness
 

I just ordered a Killer Bee and some parts. Tried to order a couple of surestarts also but they show out of stock. I guess I'll just call em tomorrow and see whats what.

On a side note, whats the best prop for a Killer Bee? I'm going to swap it out for the surestart on my DNU.

Duke