Hoarding multiple examples of the same new in box car...

[Snakehands 124]

...is ruining the hobby.

Prove me wrong.

I saw a picture posted on Facebook by a collector showing he had, for example, six boxed Wild Ones. 

[alvinlwh 5894]

Actually there are plenty to go around, it is the manufacturers that have "limited" release that pushes the price up leading to lack of supply for everyone that is ruining things. 

[Willy iine 18805]

@Snakehands Isn't that what collectors do as their hobby and interests?  

I don't know, we all play this hobby differently as with any hobby and the purpose is to enjoy it..whether it be building and running our RC's or just collecting them.. (?)

If you're talking about access to say an original WO, there was a NIB going for sale on ebay for $500 or something for a while.  It's the price to pay if you want one that bad.. it's out of print so there is a premium.  Collectors buy these kits as investments so it's how they enjoy their collection hobby.

On the flip side, if all collectors stopped buying bulk quantities Tamiya may not sell enough and possibly stop manufacturing them seeing it as low demand..so in a way they are helping us keep the industry going.

I don't know just thought I'd put that out there.

[simalarion 2196]

Yes, this is a collectors «thing», they like limited ed stuff and their goal is to keep them Mint condition or nib as we say in this forum. And the more Rare it is the better, and as i also ser in this forum it is deff a thing with Tamiya kits.

I am in a band Fan club, they have limited Vinyl offers and to avoid this its a limit on 1 order each. But everytime these Vinyl releases is on Ebay week after release x5 times higher than trough the fan club (wich is 25-50$ each Vinyl)

[simalarion 2196]

1 example, checked Ebay now and they want ca 250 $ for it. This one i bought for 30$ For the purpose listening to it as im not a collector and deff not the cind off collector that main goal is to sell for profit.

Exampel Vinyl through the fan club:

A signed version is on Ebay for 650$, i would never pay such money. I know the band itself hate that this happens

[topforcein 1764]

well on a diff note i do collect nip cassette tapes and i try to make each item a minimum of 2 but if some do turn up cheap i will try and buy it but even these days they sell for stupid amounts of money take for instance a tdk max-g or ma-r sell new for anything up to £200 each so when you look at a kit ....lets say the 45th aniversary porschce kit sells for retail just under £300 and at the mo on ebay they are asking anything upto £600 a absolute p... take if you ask me  that makes it undoable to most collectors but to some money isn't a issuse so i say go for it if you can afford it.

it's always gonna be the same with a vintage kits with the prices be high  a collector will buy any amount they see fit for their collection 

i do collect tamiya but i just keep to the one of each simply cause i am lucky i can do that 

 

[El Gecko 1343]

Well our society is organized around the acquisition of money, so it stands to reason that greed would infiltrate every aspect of life.

They use the word "collect" to make it seem legit, but it's really just textbook speculation: the idea that they will be able to sell in the future at a profit. Not unlike gambling or investing in the stock market.

These greedy collectors/flippers are ruining every hobby at the moment. For some, it's their full-time job. They sign up for all the early notifications and have funds ready to buy multiples at once when they drop. Posting on social media helps them turn over their inventory.

These guys are the reason everything is sold out all the time.

[alvinlwh 5894]

I have a NIB 1991 Monogram 1/48 B-29 that is going for over £100 at the moment, well over the price I paid for it. Am I hording it? Not quite, just that I cannot build it as a 1/48 scale B-29 is nearly 1m wide and I have no where of placing it. Now is that kit worth the going price for it now? Definitely not! It was a rebox of a 1977 kit and it's quality sucks compared to modern kit. Will I sell it at its current price? Probably not as I am hoping that one day, I will have somewhere of displaying this massive model. I still enjoy opening up the box every now and then to look at the unbuilt kit just dreaming of the day I can build it. 

You mention the collector is showing a picture, but is he selling them or just showing them? Maybe he has a fetish for Wild One? 

[markbt73 5315]

3 hours ago, Snakehands said:

...is ruining the hobby.

Prove me wrong.

I saw a picture posted on Facebook by a collector showing he had, for example, six boxed Wild Ones. 

I tend to agree with you, but the last time I brought it up, I got shouted down...

People can do whatever they want with their own money. We'll start there. You want to order six identical things, and let them waste away in their packages, hey, you do you. You feel like taking advantage of the manufacturer's poor parts support and breaking kits to sell for pieces? I can't stop you. And in a pinch, I may even need to buy something from you.

But all that only applies to new/re-re models. What upsets me is when people do that with actual vintage models. When I see a rare model go on eBay for a decent buy-it-now price, and two weeks later a glut of listings for parts for that model, I know some chicanery is afoot. Even worse, those parts never sell; one or two things go right away and the rest languishes in the listings forever, a reminder that someone took away a legitimate collector's chance of having one decent example of something, in the hopes they could turn a profit. It's disrespectful to the hobby, and to other collectors.

Speaking of disrespect... there is an (in)famous photo somehwere in the showrooms (from long before the re-re) of a tower of stacked 3-speed trucks, mostly Bruisers, but some Hiluxes and Blazers as well, casually and carelessly stacked up on a table. Probably 10-12 trucks in all. Any one of them would be a prized possession to most collectors, and to see them treated with such disregard really upset me.

Photos of nicely-arranged NIB kits, obviously being stored carefully, don't upset me. They make me jealous, obviously, and they make me wish I had turned my attention to the vintage side of the hobby five or ten years earlier than I did, but I can see the care and respect that the owners of those kits have for them. Same with restored shelfers. You "need" eight Sand Scorchers? Cool! Thanks for sharing photos of them with us. Just don't toss them in a heap on a table.

But I'm afraid that those who own a lot of kits, whether they are multiples of the same or (like me) no two alike, are not "ruining" the hobby; they ARE the hobby. Much more so than the Traxxas/Arrma bros will ever be.

My only advice is to choose wisely what to spend money on. Don't buy two things that you're lukewarm about, if there's one that you really want that costs the same. Pony up for the things that really matter to you, instead of just buying something because it's there.

And yeah, some things are going to cost you an arm and a leg, if you really want them, because if you don't pay that much, then someone else will. It's just how it works. But if and when you CAN get your hands on "the one," it's worth every penny.

[KEV THE REV 2310]

Back in the day Tamiya and other RC's were models to build and play with , some might have had an eye on the future and collected nib's , and thanks goodness for that . These days everyone wants to collect - not just RC but all sorts of things thinking they will make their fortune in no time . Problem with that is ,  if everyone is a collector of products then in 30 years there will still be a lot of them about and no fortunes made  . Vintage NIB Tamiyas for example are hard to find because it wasn't neccessarily a collectors first choice of product to 'invest' in b.i.t.d.and most were played with broken and lost  .The buy to part out brigade have an eye to make money , same as any other business , can't argue with that as it supplies parts for repair spares etc . Vintage kit part outs should be avoided as it is part of RC heritage never to be repeated in its purist form - or smell   .

[silvertriple 3557]

I don't know. I saw as well some of those, sometimes with a comment that indicates it's a hobby shop still having stock. And for those only buying those kits for storing them and resell later on, I don't have my mind made about them.

• For the  WO Blockhead Motorsport edition, it's just laughable : 58xxx means unlimited in Tamiya numbering range. They'll be multiple batches of those ones, and that even while the some shops are announcing the opposite. For those storing them now, good luck to sell them later on...
• For the Porsche 45th Anniversary, 47xxx limited series. I don't like it, but unless Tamiya takes the preorder directly and ensure that the kit are limited to 1 or 2 per person, there is no way this is not happening, unfortunately...

On my side, I buy my kits to build them and ru(i)n them. And my dealer knows, and he was pretty happy to sell me his last WO BM available. And I'm no exception among his usual customers. And most of the kits he have sold are going to be for building and running... And in any case, for people like me, it's just difficult to see this speculation on some kits you may want to build and run...

And for Vintage kits, there is even worse than people parting out NIP vintage kits. There is people collecting vintage parts... And this may prevent some of us to run our vintage car again. Only way to get the price down would be to get/identify alternatives for replacement or to make stl files available, for little cost as possible : that is the only way to make those parts less interesting, and therefore price going down... And prices will go down at some point.

[simalarion 2196]

« ru(i)n them» nicely done @silvertriple 

[BelknapCrater 179]

This does not directly affect me. I've no interest in NIB or rerelease  Tamiya models. At the most, I want to build one (Avante or Egress), but then I would likely just sell it, as the lack of parts is just a bummer. If the VQS is still around by summer (and on sale), I might buy one and putter around with it to give the TD4 a rest.  Likewise, Kyosho seems to be on the wane with legacy kit releases. I'd love to build another Mid like the one I raced as a kid, but I don't expect it.  I might get an Ultima for a rear motor 2WD, but when I break it, I'll bin it rather than play the inflated parts market game.

*EDIT-Apparently, there's an Optima Mid coming in March 2022?*

It's the TD chassis series that I'm invested in. It looks like it's going to have a long lifespan and good parts support. Why should I make my hobby difficult by chasing rare parts and paying more than retail?

[BelknapCrater 179]

1 hour ago, silvertriple said:

• For the  WO Blockhead Motorsport edition, it's just laughable : 58xxx means unlimited in Tamiya numbering range. They'll be multiple batches of those ones, and that even while the some shops are announcing the opposite. For those storing them now, good luck to sell them later on...
• For the Porsche 45th Anniversary, 47xxx limited series. I don't like it, but unless Tamiya takes the preorder directly and ensure that the kit are limited to 1 or 2 per person, there is no way this is not happening, unfortunately...

I did not know this. Thank you

[Snakehands 124]

Some interesting view but  old men owning multiple NIB models is ruining the hobby. Every hoarded box is one less box in the hands of an excited kid who represents the next generation. Hoarding ain't collecting. 

[KEV THE REV 2310]

2 hours ago, silvertriple said:

For the  WO Blockhead Motorsport edition, it's just laughable : 58xxx means unlimited in Tamiya numbering range. They'll be multiple batches of those ones

the BH W/O isn't a totally unique model to begin with - see here :-

I guess the BH tag is the draw

[toyolien 4678]

Very interesting topic. When I first got back into Tamiya about 6 years ago I started buying some kits to keep in the boxes. Mostly Lunchboxes, Pumkpins, and a few buggies. But as the years went on it dawned on me that everyone is doing it, and when I come to sell them, there'll be loads for sale still. So, I've since sold them all off. Now I'll only buy kits that I want to drive. Most I keep, but a few I sell on after using them and deciding they're not for me. As it stands I currently have about 8-10 vehicles that all get used. And, I've now got a TD-4 and a Blockhead Wild One to build up after Christmas.

For me the fun is in choosing a kit, sourcing a few hop ups, building and running. I try to choose kits with good spares back up or like the TD-4, kits that will be around for a good while.

Each to their own I suppose. 

 

[Grumpy pants 4474]

I don’t mind what anyone does TBH, I don’t believe in the whole scheme of things it makes any real difference.

However if hoarders encourage Tamiya to produce more kits then that’s great and if the kit I wanted for some reason didn’t represent good value to me then I’d buy something else and wait for the prices to ease off. 
 

Personally I have vintage Tamiya for the shelf and lower cost modern Tamiya for running. 

[BelknapCrater 179]

46 minutes ago, Snakehands said:

Every hoarded box is one less box in the hands of an excited kid who represents the next generation.

Dunno about the UK, but over here, Traxxas has a lock on the excited kid market, unfortunately. Second place is Arrma. Parents love RTR. Assembly kits are the exception, not the rule.

[Blista 1519]

People are free to do as they please, in my opinion.  Some people just like owning them.  Others are trying to make money.  You can argue that people building RC cars only to display them as shelf queens are wasting time and resources.  They're toy cars and not terribly important in the grand scheme of things.

However, if you hoard kits there's no guarantees on value and the buyers of them are getting older every day.  A lot of people put things aside figuring they'll be valuable in the future and then end up disappointed.  My advice is that anyone with a NIB Kingcab should send it to me immediately.  Free yourself from the burden of looking after it. 

[SupraChrgd82 1425]

They’re supporting the hobby.  From the manufacturer’s perspective, units are being sold and demand is present, thus preventing bankruptcy.  There’s nothing more disappointing than seeing a long-time manufacturer go belly up.

In the case of limited release items, it is frustrating when those with “inside connections” purchase multiple units for the purpose of inflated resale. But such is the way of the world.  The rest of us just have to be on our toes and commit to pre-orders.

[silvertriple 3557]

3 hours ago, simalarion said:

« ru(i)n them» nicely done @silvertriple 

Thanks, that's my way

[GeeWings 2830]

1 hour ago, KEV THE REV said:

the BH W/O isn't a totally unique model to begin with - see here :-

I guess the BH tag is the draw

If I remember correctly (very possible I don't) this was put together after the first Blockhead Motors version started appearing. 

As for collecting... Clearly many people have their favourite kits and I can see why they collect multiple of them in different variations or colour schemes. However, those people that just but loads and keep them in boxes? There are better way to invest your money. 

[J@mes 2326]

A person who ‘shows off’ 6 NIB kits of 1 model on Facebook has probably got over the initial pleasure of the acquisition & is subsequently looking for the next emotional high by sharing, or possibly bragging. It won’t ruin the hobby, in my opinion.

 

When I collected a new built kit I purchased on ebay & had a discussion with the seller they said Tamiya had ruined the hobby for them with the rereleases. He’d made a hobby out of buying & parting out vintage models. Ironically rereleases ruined it for him but (re)made it for me, and Tamiya no doubt.

[Snakehands 124]

19 hours ago, Blista said:

People are free to do as they please, in my opinion. 

There are plenty of things I can do but I don't because I consider them to be selfish.