When your jaw hits the ground at Michaels

[edicehouse]

I had to pick up a purple testers paint from Michaels, and a set of bushings from Woodcraft this past weekend. Marley went with me, and when I went to get the paint I thought, hey I'll get a model to put together with the girls they may like that. Now its been at least 25 years since I bought one or put one together. I saw the prices for just a normal one at $25 to $30 so I figured it will be another 25 years until I think of doing one again.

What in the world? I remember they were under 10 bucks....

 

[magpens]

Yeah, model kit prices have gone through the roof. . Is it because nobody buys them anymore ? . Kids too busy texting ???

 

[JimB]

My wife goes to AC Moore for any craft items because she gets coupons for up to 50% off. Makes everything much more reasonable.

 

[EBorraga]

I still build models on a regular basis. Prices are a little high at places like Michaels and Hobby Lobby. But remember their coupon and they are not that bad. I mainly buy from a local hobby store. I get most models for around $14.00. There is a wide variety of aftermarket parts available cast in resin or printed with a 3d computer. You can add distributors, carburetors, coils, engines, and anything else you can imagine. That's when the model gets expensive!!

 

[BCnabe]

What's also crazy is that some of them ('57 Chevy, muscle cars, etc) look like they are the same ones I bought as a kid 35 years ago.

 

[rej19]

I saw that myself a couple of weeks ago. I thought they were mismarked or something. Same thing with baseball cards etc. You used to be able to by them for .25 now some of them are several dollars a pack. That's what got my son and I out of collecting years ago.

 

[EBorraga]

What's also crazy is that some of them ('57 Chevy, muscle cars, etc) look like they are the same ones I bought as a kid 35 years ago.

Almost all of the models use the same tooling they used 35 years ago to make the molds. Most are just rereleases that change box art!!

 

[Paul in OKC]

Loved building models. Been about 45 years since the last one, I think.

 

[lyonsacc]

Yep - need to use the 50% coupon to get them!!!

 

[tomtedesco]

Working at a gas station when I was 15 we sold regular for .18 cents a gallon, cleaned windows, checked oil, and gave green stamps. Two dollars filled the tank.

 

[Herb G]

My Dad collected model cars for 40 years. Every one was still factory sealed when he decided to sell them.
He had around 750 total & sold them for a little over $35k. A lot of them were extremely rare all metal models. He had an original metal kit 1956 gull wing Mercedes still sealed in the factory box. That one alone was worth $500 at the time.

Instead of selling them off piece meal, he sold them all at once to a guy who ran a collector store in Indiana. This was back in 1985 or so.
Most of them still had the original price sticker on them for $1.25 or something like that.

I bet they are worth some serious money these days.

 

[TattooedTurner]

I used to be an avid model builder. Tamiya kits can routinely run $50+ but are given the term "Shake & Bake" kits because they go together so well you can throw the box in the air and when it comes down the kit will be assembled. I still build one from time to time but usually only spend $20 or less and scratchbuild anything I need to. I think the companies that have invested a lot into highly accurate molds need to ask a premium to make their money. This still doesn't explain the cost for the bulk of kits being made with old tooling though.

 

[chartle]

Yeah, model kit prices have gone through the roof. . Is it because nobody buys them anymore ? . Kids too busy texting ???

Actually its goes back way further than that when kids spent their allowance one quarter at a time at arcades in the late 70's early 80's.

But everything costs more and I'm assuming you make more then back then, if you had a real job.

I probably have dried up bottles of Testors and Pactra paint in old boxes in the attic that have a 15 cent price printed on their lids but I probably bought my last bottles at around 35 cents. I had the same jaw dropping feeling when I paid what about a buck 80 when I started to paint pen tubes. Over 5 times more than when I bought model kits.

 

[PenPal]

Visited America in 1974 to be a guest of the United States Govt at my expense to attend the 45th Annual Lilac Time Festival in Spokane. The Worlds Fair was in full swing at that time. I was an Alderman in Goulburn and Lilac Festival President as well as 27 committees on the executive of.

Petrol jumped to 40c a gallon, the highway speed to 50.

My dollar was worth around 20 c more than yours, yes the world goes around. Then our new Prime Minister put our currency on the open market.

Peter

 

[jttheclockman]

Working at a gas station when I was 15 we sold regular for .18 cents a gallon, cleaned windows, checked oil, and gave green stamps. Two dollars filled the tank.

]I remember those days

 

[chartle]

Working at a gas station when I was 15 we sold regular for .18 cents a gallon, cleaned windows, checked oil, and gave green stamps. Two dollars filled the tank.

And you made how much an hour?

the problem is that people go wow this stuff cost twice as much as when i was a kid but back then a really good yearly wage was maybe 15 to 20 k. Adjusted for inflation, depending on when this was, we may be paying about the same or even less for gas then at that time.

But then again back then you didn't have to pay for TV*, internet or a phone you carry in your pocket.

* yes I know you don't have to pay for TV but then you only get a few channels.

 

[chartle]

I used to be an avid model builder. Tamiya kits can routinely run $50+ but are given the term "Shake & Bake" kits because they go together so well you can throw the box in the air and when it comes down the kit will be assembled. I still build one from time to time but usually only spend $20 or less and scratchbuild anything I need to. I think the companies that have invested a lot into highly accurate molds need to ask a premium to make their money. This still doesn't explain the cost for the bulk of kits being made with old tooling though.

My gauge on this is the Tamiya Models German 88mm Gun Flak 36.37 Model Kit. I always wanted to make this kit but as I got more money in my life I got more responsibilities and less time.

In the mid to late 80's I would have maybe paid $19 for this and now its around $30. Not that big of a jump.

 

[jttheclockman]

Not sure where this thread went but I will add that I too was into model building. Loved the old metal cars. I also made and collected model trucks. I remember what started it all was a show called. Movin On 1974 starring Claude Akins as Sonny Pruitt and Frank Convese as Will. They drove a 1973 and then a 1974 Kenworth with a sleeper. I made that model truck and tricked it out to the hilt. Working dash lights and all exterior lights. Leather seats speakers inside. Made the doors open. decked the sleeper out with lights too. I used fiber optic cables to do my lights. Fiber optics was just coming into play around that time. I worked on a building where they made the stuff and experimented with it back then. Had all the big rigs and then got into the dump trucks and cranes as they started to catch fire. Ertl made those kits. Every Christmas I would get a few of these models. Never completed many and sold them about 10 years ago for peanuts. I see what they are going for now on ebay I kick myself. That was what started the CB craze too.

I still have that model.

 

[Skie_M]

I think part of what drove prices through the roof were lawsuits dealing with young children swallowing parts from models ...

That plus gas prices (shipping) as well as new insurance costs as model kit makers became liable for lawsuits brought by concerned parents over their children's safety. New lines had to open up for safety inspection, quality checking, ect ... minimum wage increased, thus increasing the base cost for the kits to be manufactured ... new literature had to be printed up and included to cover for liability insurance mandates, ect ...

It became a legal nightmare to provide model kits, in other words. Prices for EVERYTHING across the board have gone up several times over. Gas is just one ...

I remember back in the 90's, going to the gas station to get gas for lawn mowing ... 95 cents a gallon. A few years ago, gas was near 3 dollars a gallon nationwide. The costs to make and transport it had hardly changed, but the world freaking out over the middle east drove costs through the roof.

Think about the price for a gallon of milk over the same time period ... I remember $1.25 a gallon ... now it's near $3.29. Again, the costs to manufacture and transport it haven't changed much, why did the price go up 250%?

They call it "inflation" ... the tendency for costs to increase relative to value of goods received. The nations leaders are mistakenly thinking that increasing minimum wage will solve this issue .... or printing more money will solve that issue .... or making large nationwide chain corporations hire more people by cutting full time hours back to part time only so that more people at least have jobs ....

None of these solve the underlying issue behind it all. The value of the american dollar is falling because we are spending more than we make to make up for it. But nobody in our leadership wants to face that particular lion in the cage ... cutting back on military spending would probably save our finances in the long run, allowing us to pay off our national debt and stabilize prices across the board.


(Sorry if this feels like a political rant, it's just my personal take on things and why they are out of control. I didn't vote for either presidential candidate ... I feel that both of them were a choice of EXTREMELY BAD and WORSE THAN BAD.)