Expensive....

[Hubert Boillot]

What used to save me was when I looked at my ex-wife's stash of shoe-boxes   She was up there with the top of the Premiere League, and I could feel I was just in the bottom of the local county championship with my kit-stash ...

 

Not  so much so with my new beloved wife. She probably has far less shoes than me, so looking at the kit-stash is in entering a danger zone akin to trawling bare in the center of  reactor #3 at Fukushima   ....

 

On the other end, her being very rasonable, spares a lot of cash for those bits of plastic and resin . Food for thought here ... ....

 

Hubert.

[Guest Peterpools]

No matter what, just try selling one or two kits and see how hard it really is unless you practically give it away. Don't look at what someone is trying to sell it for on eBay but rather what it actually sold for. Except for the rare or maybe limited run kit, most likely you will have no buyers. Old kits, compared to what we have today are worth very little. Now lets take our quick trip into the future, lets say 15 years or so and it's 2028. Do you really think kits will be what we have today? I don't think so and what does that make our old, out of date, poorly detailed kits compared with the new kits of 2028, pretty much worthless. Of course, I'm assuming kits are still made form plastic or maybe with 3D modeling, it's a whole new ballgame and you're now trying to sell ancient kits that no one wants. Who knows, maybe by then, kits will be built on a computer and through 3D printing/modeling a finished model, painted and weathered to your keyboard or voice commands is produced! Might sound like science fiction but I'm willing to bet, it's the future. While we're thinking about it, crank up those old record players, listen to your 45 and 78 records or maybe turn up your transistor radio or perhaps your brand new Dupont or RCA B&W TV. Times and technology move on and so will how models be made. Maybe by then, we'll be running out of oil and new materials in be in vogue.

How many of us look to 'score' a kit on eBay produced in the 1950's, 60's or 70's?

It's a hobby and maybe we should just stop trying to justify buying kits. As Ron said, it's our collection of maybe some day' I'll get around to building kits and surely not an investment.

Peter

[Tony T]

Most of the comments, including mine, are really tongue-in-cheek justification for the amount we spent and the unbuilt stash.

 

When I was upgrading my camera gear from vintage film to modern digital I spent a fortune by comparison, so the kit hobby has been relatively cheap. I'm just not stashing AM much these days - it's now mostly buy-to-build, and I'm getting increasingly discriminating about new purchases in general.  

 

I do think that Peter's right about the future: 3D printing at the local DIY or Model shop after you've paid for a downloaded CAD/CAM file, possibly at the local DIY store or model shop which is hooked up to the designers. That would also be really good for sourcing spare parts and conversion bits and pieces too.

 

Tony T

[Royboy]

Hmm, I have a disgracefully large stash of kits and I daren't even think about how much I've spent on the decal collection alone! 

Someone will prosper well from my demise I'm sure, but isn't it lovely just to delve into all of those fabulous kits occasionally?

Do a swan dive into them and roll around (carefully of course) amongst that beautifully designed plastic and sigh with satisfaction.

We modellers might not make them all in a lifetime but it's fun giving it a go!!

Regarding being totally mad.......................... yes, I think I qualify.

Now, when is that HK Lancaster due?       

[MikeMaben]

Do a swan dive into them and roll around (carefully of course) amongst that beautifully designed plastic and sigh with satisfaction.

We modellers might not make them all in a lifetime but it's fun giving it a go!!

 

RIGHT ON ROY !!!

 

Edited December 13, 2013 by MikeMaben

[Guest Nigelr32]

RIGHT ON ROY !!!

 

 

+1!!

[ssculptor]

A lot of you guys just do not get it, do you?

You are taking this "investment business" just too seriously. I apologize for misleading you as I spoke facetiously.

The purpose of me posing the value of our kits as investments, as well as all the other excuses was to give us modelers good (?) excuses for buying all the kits we want and thus need. 

The term is RATIONALIZATION. We invent excuses and rational reasons to justify our irrational behavior.

As much as we try to deny it, most of our human decisions are based on our perceived desires. We want to make models so therefore we need to make models. Why? Probably because it makes us feel good. Just as many of us accumulate all the kits and then uttering the excuse that we intend to build these boxes of parts. Many of us hooman beans accumulate items related to our hobby. It is a widespread behavior. These urges to amass things exists in every hobby. Go into a sports nut's man-cave and you will find it filled with all sorts of souvenirs of his sport and his favorite team.

Then we make up supposedly rational excuses to justify our behavior. 

Psychiatrists and psychologists are still arguing about the operations of our minds that make us have these irrational behaviors. It is like druggies, drunks, gamblers, sexoholics (that one is fun), etc. We who accumulate, or hoard if our behavior is extreme, can be called acquisitionists (my term). Back in the late '60's when I had left modeling and got involved in collecting picture postcards. I remember one club member wandering around in a postcard show saying, plaintively, "I gotta collecting something."

 

Thus we often find ourselves accumulating things related to our hobby. Is it normal or sick? Well, who cares? We are humans and we behave like humans do. So what?

 

I have a friend who has her masters degree in clinical psychology. One day she visited and saw my back yard filled with a variety of old automobiles and parts and miscellany. Ever watch the TV series, The Pickers"? Well you get the idea.

She was aghast when she saw it. So she got on her high horse and started scolding me about the mess. I responded that I like it. It is a form of horror vacuii and I am very comfortable with it. She then asked what happens when I die and leave my wife and children to clean up the mess. I responded, "What the hell do I care? I'll be dead and beyond feeling."  That reply left her sputtering and me smiling from ear to ear. Silly twit.

 

Thus gentlemen, I suggest you stop worrying about your irrational stashes. Just lie back and enjoy yours.

 

Sir Stephen, Lord of the Stash

[mattlow]

Stephen/Lord of the Stash

 

While you may be correct in inferring that the causation of the 'stash' is a form of horror vacuii, you cannot escape the basic rules of Newtonian physics which dictate that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In our cases, the vacuum filling stash results in the creation of a new and frightening vacuum in our wallets... 

 

My partner is very understanding of my stash... I tell her it is Schrodinger's Stash... when I close the door... it ceases to exist...

 

Matt

[ericg]

The whole issue of expense comes up regularly when talking with other folks in the hobby. I have been involved with organising swap meets and it is amazing the number of folks that contacted us after the event along the lines of ' I saw this kit for sale with one of the traders but didn't get it at the time because of the wife might find out/ it was $5 more than I had etc etc, can you find out who had it and put me in touch?' Basically expecting me to spend my time better spent on modelling organising the sale for them. Similarly guys agonising over a $5 kit and then getting distraught when someone else buys it first.

 

I realize that not every one is in a financial position to splurge on kits but we have a very cheap hobby and should take advantage of it. I have a modest stash of about 100 kits, all 1/32 scale. I am tipping the balance of the kits toward limited run stuff that may be more expensive initially but aren't as easy to get. I am fortunate enough to have a large disposable income but can honestly say that my hobby doesn't cost a thing. Most of my stash has been gained by buying up kits from stash sales, keeping the ones I want and selling the rest at a profit. There is much to be said from accessing the discounts that can be had by buying multiple kits.

 

If I could modify a Nike ad slightly, 'just buy it!'

 

Eric

[Guest Peterpools]

My point exactly ... you were able to buy kits at great prices from stash sales. Your gain was their loss. All I was saying is there is nothing wrong with accumulating a stash of any size and for whatever the cost. But to rationalize it as an investment over time is foolish at best. I do know a few people who actually feel a stash is an investment and they can liquidate it when cash is needed. I'm still waiting for them to try and find out the hard way, your money would be better kept under the mattress - while you do loose buying power to inflation, cash is cash and oh how lovely. But plastic is plastic and in the long run worth a lot less then what you paid for it.

Stephen is quite correct, we rationalize out purchases. It's a hobby ... buy and enjoy.

Peter

[Propwash]

Interesting philosophical discussion here, all of which has prompted me to inter into a bit of introspection on my own motivation for buying kits and, occasionally, even managing to complete a finished model.  

 

Seems to me that life would be pretty meaningless without our little preoccupations and obsessions, whether it's gardening, collecting matchbook covers, bird watching or free-fall skydiving.  It's good to have something you're passionate about.  Keeps the mind active and the body young (in spirit, at least).  Some people of my acquaintance don't seem to do much of anything except eat, drink beer and watch mindless drivel on the tube.  If they didn't get up to go to the bathroom now and then, you wouldn't know they were alive.  Sadly, the majority of them die of boredom and inactivity before their time, leaving as their legacy nothing more than a name on a weathered headstone in a remote corner of some cemetery.

 

At least we modelers can take comfort in the knowledge that we're passionate about something that gives meaning to our lives, and, hopefully, will keep us ticking along full of enthusiasm into a ripe old age.  And when we finally do pack our bags for the Big Adios, our only regret will be the kits we couldn't find time to build, which is probably more than most human beings can say.

 

Jerry Peterson

[Guest]

Jerry, well said, my friend.Keeping the brain stimulated at our(me) age is very important  point in keeping the brain functioning. As far as the stash goes, I buy what I like and sometimes I get the kits for trade bait, knowing I wont build it but there still some interest in the kit. My stash is around 35 to 40. Most are stored in boxes , and won't be unpacked till we move (again) sometime this spring.My wife has been very good about it. I never buy anything with "our" money. Unfortunatly MY money is gone for now and hopefully get more next yearr. So inbetween then and now, I'll look around and if I can trade something I will..........Harv

Edited December 15, 2013 by Guest

[Guest Dekenba]

It says something about the size of stashes when a 100 1/32 kit stash is described as "modest"!

 

Mine is around that number and I think it's indefensible consumerism gone mad, with no basis in logic whatsoever other than a need to fulfil the desire to keep buying stuff.

[Roy vd M.]

My stash consists of a Heinkel 111 (Revell), Big Ed set for the 111, Pitot tube for the 111, Tail bay for the 111, Power supply cart for the 111, (...) and finally (...) for the 111. Only this, as it is a project I'll live with for the next year or two / three. I have simply told myself "okay you can do this hobby but only one model at a time!" 

 

I think the only exception would be when I saw something one-of-a-kind and rare, for example low production numbers, that I really wanted to have. 

 

That having said, I collect(ed) other things so I know perfectly well what the luring powers of all those great models and boxes are. 

 

THAT having said, I cannot but agree with Peter. Collecting is great but see it as collecting, not as (perhaps slightly cognitive dissonant) investing. I need only refer to all the aspects he mentioned.

[ssculptor]

I was once discussing this with a psychiatrist I know. He said of all man 's distractions and hobbies like the ones like we have are the most positive in that when we are done collecting or stashing, we have items of some value left and we can sell them and get some of our money back. If we drink or gamble or go a whoring we end up with nothing but memories later all is said and done. We might also succeed is ridding ourselves of our spouse and children but that is just a side effect.

The idea is we get our pleasure now and later we can get some money back. So we should stop flagellating ourselves about our activities and  just enjoy what we are dong.

As to the other argument, I buy almost everything at less than MSRP. When a new kit appeared and I wanted it I would hold off buying it  because I knew that eventually it would be offered by one dealer or another at a lower cost on a sale day. That is when I buy the kit.

This does not apply to resin stuff, by the way, and kits by WNW.

There are buyers who insist on buying the goodies as soon as they appear at full price. OK, wait 20 years and then sell them for a profit or for at least the price you paid. You can make a profit or break even. These are long time investments. If you buy a kit at full price and then only a few years later try to sell  it you will lose money. 

As to the quality of the models accept the fact that there are a hell of a lot of modelers who are not Fine Scale Fanatics and will buy a lesser kit of the airplane and be quite happy with it. I once bought a number of Tamiya 1/32 scale kits in mint condition for aboiut  $40 to $50 each. A few years later I sold them because I had bought lesser quality kits at a lower cost and I made a profit. Which I then used to buy other kits.

Yes, there are a lot better things to invest in if you are looking to make a profit some years later. But the models give me, and a lot of others pleasure when we buy and have them. Stock certificates have as much interest to me as toilet paper so I will continue to buy model kits for the fun of it. Do I build them? Well, I have so many partial kits that I bought  at very low prices at eBay and at sales and auctions and model meets that I can combine a couple like kits and make the model I want and still have the investment of the expensive kit.

Anyone who buys an expensive kit at retail and expects to resell it a few years later at a profit please contact me as I have a bridge for sale.    

Stephen

Edited December 15, 2013 by ssculptor