Originally posted by Hanger Rat
As a matter of fact consider this. You go directly to the original manufacturer and have some spares made up. Wings, cowls etc.Lets take cowls as an example. Purchase about 25. My guess is it would cost you about $20 each but probably much less. Figure some will never sell and price the others accordingly at about $30.
There are real-world reasons why this sort of thing can't be done. Manufacturing for small-volume products like our ARFs is generally done in batches. Proper jigs and molds are created and set up in a line, and a batch is turned out. Once a model has been out of production for a while those jigs and molds are scraped. It's not economically feasible to maintain production capabilities for a kit that's out of production.
If a third party makes cowls (for example) they can't be expected to maintain capabilities they don't intend to use in the future. Your example of 25 cowls is somewhat ridiculous from a manufacturing perspective. There are realities of business that you aren't considering. Ann Marie explained the parts warehousing problem well for you.
I don't like ARFs. I've had two now, a TT Fun Tiger which was a hunk of junk, and a H9 Ultra Stick that I'm putting together now. I can build better than the Ultra Stick (it had some minor fuse alignment issues), and the Fun Tiger was just plain poor from the start. I've got 3 kits on the building boards right now that I've been working on for some time. They'll get done soon enough, but I wanted something new to fly this next week.
Time is an issue. Anyone who says it isn't is very fortunate. I work, and I go to school full time in the evenings. In the winter I have other hobbies, such as skiing and socializing. Not everyone enjoys snow or has friends/family I guess. I'd rather have finished one of those kits, but the way in which I prioritize my time doesn't allow it right now.
ARFs do continue to get better. In another 5 years I imagine the build standards will be better than I could do from a kit. Everyone in this hobby seems to have something they lament, be it kits, Futaba Gold radios, or AMA dues increases. Personally I miss sport planes that didn't all look like a Cap. That's just me though, from the way the market seems to be going.
If you can build it better yourself and have the time, hey, more power to ya. If you can do that but can't fabricate a cowl for yourself, well... that's ironic, eh? There are plenty of fiberglass specialty shops that'd be happy to make you a cowl, I'm sure.