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Kit Prices


KingDavid

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Hello to all

Not that topic again!! but yes unfortunately

 

have you noticed the sharp raise in the kit prices of Caldercraft that happened in last week or so? (taking my information from http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/ )

 

What do you make of that? what do you think? will the prices  stay like that from now on? why all the price 'updating' are on the increase? what about other companies?

 

Is there anyway to change this? this is a major block in buying new models..

 

David

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It is the nature of the Beast on which we live, and in most cases try and encourage, "Free Trade". Driven by profit which pays share holders premiums and then things like pensions 

I am not saying small model companies making the things we relay on to do our ART are these massive Share holding companies BUT they work on the same principle They have to pay the wages of there employees and other business costs then hopefully make a little profit to make the whole endeavor worth while. (I gave up working for free 45 years ago) There is a long list of companies that are banned from this forum for stealing peoples hard work and paying there workers RICE money so they can produce very very low quality kits. Other people make there clothing lines abroad using Rice money then bring the product back to where they live and sell for a fortune 

I can not always afford to buy Filet Mignon, but how ever hungry I am I will never buy Horse meat (Sorry French and Belgium's) 

Andy

Current Build

HM Granado CC

Past builds

 HMS Chatham CC, HM Convulsion CC,  Duke William German Kit, Fair American LSS, The Wright Flyer MS

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I do not mind paying more for a Kit.  As long as the QUALITY is still there.  The last two I have bought, the quality was not there. The wood was poor. Parts easily broke. 

Starting the Model Shipways U.S. Brig Syren

Working on the Caldercraft HMS Snake

Completed Scratch Built of Russian Armed Merchant Ship Neva 1801-1805

Scratch Commercial Fishing Vessels

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Andy is right and also, take a look at the exchanges rates against the Pound.  Seems the BREXIT vote is causing all sorts of issues and the value of the Pound is just one of them.

Mark
"The shipwright is slow, but the wood is patient." - me

Current Build:                                                                                             
Past Builds:
 La Belle Poule 1765 - French Frigate from ANCRE plans - ON HOLD           Triton Cross-Section   

 NRG Hallf Hull Planking Kit                                                                            HMS Sphinx 1775 - Vanguard Models - 1:64               

 

Non-Ship Model:                                                                                         On hold, maybe forever:           

CH-53 Sikorsky - 1:48 - Revell - Completed                                                   Licorne - 1755 from Hahn Plans (Scratch) Version 2.0 (Abandoned)         

         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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  • 2 weeks later...

Back in 1968 or so Model Shipway's Essex was $35 at James Bliss in Boston.  That was way beyond my means as a graduate student.  I eventually managed to save enough to purchase the kit and I spent the next 40 years or so working on it--with lots of breaks.  My point is, to some of us model kits have always been expensive.  There is nothing new under the sun.

 

Ron

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Despite the low inflation numbers put out by the government some things have become much more expensive.  Labor in eastern Europe and Asia is become much more expensive than it was a few years ago.  Some materials like tropical woods have become significantly more expensive.  New technology while making production faster and cutting down on some labor costs has high startup costs that must be amortized.  Add to that that there is a small number of companies making models so that competition does not have as large effect on keeping costs down as in other industries and increase in prices becomes understandable.

My advice and comments are always worth what you paid for them.

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Hi, first of all I live in Victoria, Australia. About 2 weeks ago I bought the Sergal 1:50 Mississippi Riverboat kit from Cornwall Modelboats in England. I purchased it online at about 5pm on the Friday evening and it was on my doorstep at 10am the following Wednesday! With exchange rates the total cost including postage was $612 AUD. The EXACT same kit, had I purchased it from a prominent vendor in NSW Australia, a mere 8 hours away by road, would have cost me $997 AUD for the kit alone! The service I received from Cornwall Modelboats was second to none! Not to mention the $400 odd dollars I saved.

 

It pays to shop around!

 

Chris

 

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I remember being a kid in the 50's, going to one of the local drug stores that sold plastic model kits, and looking at the pictures

on the boxes. Particularly the small Constitution & Bounty.  The $3.98 price tag was beyond my means at that time, but a

passion was born.

Luck is just another word for good preparation.

—MICHAEL ROSE

Current builds:    Rattlesnake (Scratch From MS Plans 

On Hold:  HMS Resolution ( AKA Ferrett )

In the Gallery: Yacht Mary,  Gretel, French Cannon

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Regardless as to the pound price the pounds instability actually makes caldercraft kits much better value to anyone who is not in the UK (less so for the US). Its dropped, what, from 1.41 to the dollar and 1.31 to the euro in 2016 to 1.32 to the dollar and 1.12 to the euro so a £1,000 kit would have cost $1,410 and 1,310 euros would now cost $1,323 and 1,120 euros so the price would have to increase 10% to counteract the fall in the pound. Saying that I expect the pound to remain low for a couple of years and then start increasing again (though not to 2016 levels) I would be unsurprised at it increasing 5%.

 

Thats involving lots of guesswork and factors involving things the site does not permit discussion of though...

...

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Shops sometimes hold stock and the prices usually reflect the cost to purchase when the stock was purchased (companies also can discount to break into a territory or compete or just because the locals in the region are more money concious than other regions) so a safe option is to check local prices before looking at cost to buy direct where exchange rates absolutely do matter.

i.e

 

in 2015 30th June the Aus dollar exchange rate was average of 2.0446 making a kit costing 871.5 including shipping cost 1781.88 dollars

in 2016 just before the referendum is was 1.7713 so the kit would now cost 1543 dollars

now it is 1.6566 so that same kit would cost 1443 dollars

 

if a shop in Australia had purchased 10 victorys for re-sale in 2010 and these were priced at 1200 dollars then they may well still be 1200 dollars 7 years later (or less if the shop wanted to shift them faster) or if the producer had determined that people in that region wont pay 1500 for a kit but would pay 1200 and still make them a profit.  That does not mean that prices have not changed that much.

 

 

...

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On 7/31/2017 at 6:43 PM, Gregory said:

I remember being a kid in the 50's, going to one of the local drug stores that sold plastic model kits, and looking at the pictures

on the boxes. Particularly the small Constitution & Bounty.  The $3.98 price tag was beyond my means at that time, but a

passion was born.

 

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Me too. At that time I was really into planes. My $1 allowance a week let me buy a plastic model plane. Had them hanging from my bedroom ceiling. Think this started my love of aviation. Wound up fling as an Naval Flight Officer in the Navy. Guess building models as a kid had a positive effect on my life!

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