ORIGINAL: nitro wing
All planes are a bargain,even the brand name big boys are selling us unlimited 50cc 3D machines with hardware for 550-650.Not many people that I have met,can duplicate the quality build and covering on these planes
Quality 60 size warbirds with (usable)retracts for 260 bucks
100cc Aerobats for 1000
When I built alot in the 90's ,
kits for .60-.90 glow were about 180-270$
Got a TopFlight Corsair for 240$ and a Great Planes Skybolt and many others for about the same.These were chunky Diecut plywood monsters and were tedious and expensive to finish and were heavy.Todays ARF,with some exceptions are good deals,even if the price bounces up and down a bit.Around here,planes are costing less and less each year,somewhat related to the near par currency lately.
All the comments about rising prices and the effects on the pocketbook are legitimate, but I agree with nitro. Although there are many reasons prices of everything will, in general, continue to rise forever (I'm not an economist, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night - actually, I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn, but I'm still not an economist), but I have a "build" thread going on an ARF. I've been building models for about 35 years, and during my re cover and re paint of this ARF I was thinking "man, I would charge
at least $1,000 to do this job for somebody else." And that's just the re finish and setup, not the building part (since it's an ARF). When you think about the labor , materials (wood, hardware, covering) and shipping costs, it really is just about a miracle they can put out these models for the prices they do.
I speculate that as the standard of living in China gets better, workers will get a taste of "the good life" and demand more until prices rise enough that another cheap source is found.
Or, I'm an idiot and don't know what I'm talking about. [sm=bananahead.gif]