Is Our Hobby In A Recession??????

Airbus man · 08-11-2012, 04:52 PM

Hi,

The reason i have started this thread is to ask a question are we stuck in a recession when it comes to Selling Models?.I have noticed myself personally that in a very short period of time that models are taking alot longer to sell on here.Alot of for sale threads have very very big number of views but not alot of models been bought?.I of course could be wrong on this.I of course have been trying to sell alot of models on here and some have gone,but have alot left to go.t.I know alot of that is down to Price and shipping costs aswell but please feel free to leave your view on this.I wasnt sure on which forum to put this so i apologise if i have put it in the wrong one.

Thanks

Haz Baz · 08-11-2012, 06:04 PM

I agree, I think that many people are struggling to sell models. I know I struggle! It could be that buyers have trouble when buying models online and prefer to buy in shops, but there is a lack of model shops that stock them (Where I live, anyway!). I have seen an example of people having difficulties when selling and it leads to the seller getting a bad reputation in the selling area, then nobody will want to buy from that seller. Not the case with you, though!

Airbus man · 08-11-2012, 06:13 PM

Thank u Haz Baz for the feedback and for your kind words

.Yes it is hard to get certain models as like u in my area.Alot of models are hard to get the very good ones.And if u can get them the price wherever it is is crazy.Personally when i sell models i sell them with the intent of not robbing people bascially.But what catches me is shipping and when u tell people the price u lose out on the sale.then if u cant sell them u try to do deals on shipping.and what happens they take advantage on that,so no ,matter what u try u cant win.I dont expect to make a hugh profit on models just that i dont loose money on the models.

cameraman1031 · 08-11-2012, 09:17 PM

This is summertime. People are on vacation and are watching the Olympics. If you had what I was looking for, I would purchase from you right now

).

Jeff

LOT 737-300 · 08-11-2012, 09:44 PM

I can not speak from a retailer's point of view, but from my point of view, I certainly don't have the purchasing power I used to. Various reasons for that, with the major one just being rising prices of the models themselves, but the other half involving other things (you know, gas, going out with friends, other things.)

airport1-600 · 08-11-2012, 09:52 PM

Personally, I'm buying more models than usual because I work now. I spend half, and then invest and save the rest. 90% of the models I buy are previously owned. I could buy a new AC DC-8 new for $37, or wait and get it on eBay for half. Buying new just isn't worth it.

UA-DL-AA-US · 08-11-2012, 10:03 PM

I think that it also depends on what you have for sale. I recently sold 7 models and all of them were gone within a week and a half. However, I do see why it would be difficult to sell models with issues such as trust from the buyer, the economic situation and so on.

And yes, all you have to do is look at the rising prices of models and the lessening amount of people buying them (including members on the forum) to say that the hobby is in a bit of a "recession". However, if you have sought after models to sell as apposed to not so "popular" models your chances of having a buyer quicker is obviously higher.

nathanbennett · 08-12-2012, 12:25 AM

Totally with you on what you say Airbus Man. I have observed over the past 6 or so months that it is certainly harder to shift models on here and eBay. Seems like some of the average values listed next to each model on the W900 database are way off the mark too as the ones I do sell go for a fraction of what it says.

tomek-czarnyszewicz · 08-12-2012, 03:51 AM

And few words from me... after almost 10 years of collecting.

Looking from collector’s point of view nowadays prices are very high and not compensate them by the quality of new released models. Herpa increase them almost double and the number of details and accuracy doesn't follow. Hogan is selling almost all production in Japan (ANA and JAL models) making European and US prices very very high. Sky500 - maker from nowhere - release their model recently, without any further schedule; can disappear any moment from the market. Netmodels, BigBird, StarJets (Schuco), DreamJets, Inflight500, 5Star, Aero le Plane, C&C, Jet-X – they are no more on the market. Lack of competition, making Herpa monopolist is the main reason for higher prices and lower quality (blank of details). AeroClassic after very promising entrance to 1/500 scale, with DC-10 and B773 moulds, also stop production and concentrate on 1/400 scale. We’ll see what could bring to us new maker: Premium500 with new models and how long this company will stay with us – I’m very pessimistic in this case.
On other hand we have financial condition of collectors, with high prices they are more carefully by buying the models. I mean, 2-3 years ago, we have been buying 5-6 models a month while nowadays maybe only 2-3 models.
The third reason is a number of new collectors entering the hobby. As the “old” ones have almost all models they need in their collections, low number of newcomers is the big factor of low sale rates for retailers and forum members. Take a look on statistic and try to discover how many collectors have more than 200 models and how many “only” 50 and less.
I still hope that one a day makers will stop “copying” each other and stealing the ideas of new releases. AeroClassic (Aero500), Sky500, Premium500 and Herpa should concentrate on new moulds and new liveries. Herpa has a lot of models could produce using new moulds – all OG releses could be renew – this will bring a lot of money to the company. I guess many of us will replace OG versions, or at least buy NG version (what I’ll do).

I hope the post isn’t too long.

LOT 737-300 · 08-12-2012, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomek-czarnyszewicz

And few words from me... after almost 10 years of collecting.

Looking from collector’s point of view nowadays prices are very high and not compensate them by the quality of new released models. Herpa increase them almost double and the number of details and accuracy doesn't follow. Hogan is selling almost all production in Japan (ANA and JAL models) making European and US prices very very high. Sky500 - maker from nowhere - release their model recently, without any further schedule; can disappear any moment from the market. Netmodels, BigBird, StarJets (Schuco), DreamJets, Inflight500, 5Star, Aero le Plane, C&C, Jet-X – they are no more on the market. Lack of competition, making Herpa monopolist is the main reason for higher prices and lower quality (blank of details). AeroClassic after very promising entrance to 1/500 scale, with DC-10 and B773 moulds, also stop production and concentrate on 1/400 scale. We’ll see what could bring to us new maker: Premium500 with new models and how long this company will stay with us – I’m very pessimistic in this case.
On other hand we have financial condition of collectors, with high prices they are more carefully by buying the models. I mean, 2-3 years ago, we have been buying 5-6 models a month while nowadays maybe only 2-3 models.
The third reason is a number of new collectors entering the hobby. As the “old” ones have almost all models they need in their collections, low number of newcomers is the big factor of low sale rates for retailers and forum members. Take a look on statistic and try to discover how many collectors have more than 200 models and how many “only” 50 and less.
I still hope that one a day makers will stop “copying” each other and stealing the ideas of new releases. AeroClassic (Aero500), Sky500, Premium500 and Herpa should concentrate on new moulds and new liveries. Herpa has a lot of models could produce using new moulds – all OG releses could be renew – this will bring a lot of money to the company. I guess many of us will replace OG versions, or at least buy NG version (what I’ll do).

I hope the post isn’t too long. J

When did JetX disappear? I know it changed hands around some 6 years ago, and after the new owners tried to release stuff on the BBX moulds like crazy, they did reduce to a trickle of more decent stuff being done every now and then.

As for Dreamjets, if I"m not mistaken, that may have been a "backdoor" brand that was used by GJ/SJ to get stuff they couldn't get the ok for, but had it produced (or wanted to produce.) At least that is how I understood it.

Unless you are referring to just 1:500 scale, then that makes sense. JetX did have a very short dip into 1:500 and got out rather quick.

herpacollectorUK · 08-12-2012, 06:21 AM

I don't know because for me, sales have been extremely good in the past few weeks - which is strange.
I just think sales aren't great on the forum because people have been saving up for holidays rather than spending on models as mentioned before.

MiniRyan · 08-12-2012, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOT 737-300

When did JetX disappear?

I bought the Delta MD-8x by Jet-X that was released several months back.

They are around.

tomek-czarnyszewicz · 08-12-2012, 12:20 PM

My comments are about 1/500 scale, as I collect only this scale.
Sorry if you take it as comment to all scales.

MiniRyan · 08-12-2012, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomek-czarnyszewicz

My comments are about 1/500 scale, as I collect only this scale.
Sorry if you take it as comment to all scales.

Ah so. I couldn't read your post on my iPhone app for some reason. It came though in code rather than text.

I didn't know jet-x produced 1:500. I learn something.

Andrew757 · 08-12-2012, 12:31 PM

I've actually been able to sell large parts of my collection relatively easily over the
last few months. What tends to hinder members sales are that they are charging high prices for their models and the market is just not willing to pay that much.

I tend to sell around 15-20 models at a time, rather than a huge list of around 80 models; this helps with my sales as I'm not overwhelming the market. I have also found that people on eBay seem to be willing to pay higher prices for the models I'm selling and therefore I'm having better success on there.