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Best RC deal of your life?

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If you've been doing RC long enough, you've had good deals and bad deals.  

What's your most memorable "good deal" that still makes you smile?

 

 

 

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Original Bigwig hardly used and Grb Celica hardly used with period radio gear and perfect boxes all for £80 Both in my showroom B)

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1:16 Tiger tank complete and in very good condition for the equivalent of $65. A week later I sold the Futaba receiver that was inside that tank for $27. I don't think I can beat such purchase in the future.

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1. About 15 years ago, a local thrift store was selling a Blackfoot that included Wild Willy Body in average shape.  This was before the re-re's and vintage stuff was at a premium.  Got both for 20 bucks.  Ended up posting the Willy body on eBay, (back when it was actually an auction site) and two guys got in a bidding war and it sold for about $200.00 USD.  Also the Blackfoot included some cool vintage electronics, including a  Novak Receiver and servo.

2. Decals: Found an original, unused Sand Scorcher decal set in a pile of stickers at a swap meet for only $1.00. There was also a toy store in an outlet mall that used to sell random rc parts.  They got a bunch of decals in one day and I picked up a few Monster Beetles, a few Grasshoppers and one Clod Buster (Chevy) for a buck each.

3. Best one however, was finding a built but never run F150 Ranger SRB  at another thrift shop.  It even included the original box. It was priced at $50.00 but they had a canned food drive and gave you a 50% discount if you donated something which I did and walked out with the car for $25.00! 

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Not as spectacular as the above, but I am still smiling about my £50 XB Suzuki Swift from Tamico...

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I found lots of good deals over the years. One of the best was a batch of 3 buggys for 35€. An original Avante which was only run a couple of times, a new built PB Mini Mustang and a new built Optima Mid custom Special. Unfortunately without original boxes :D

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My wife's friend's husband gave me a vintage Traxxas TRX-10 Bullet for free.  It was in great condition and it would have been an easy project to make it perfect.  At the time I didn't have any love for it, though, so I gave it away for free to someone else across the country.

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I found a used nitro powered long hull rc boat on the side of the road next to somebodies trash.  I sold the O.Z. motor for 50 bucks on ebay and kept the two Futaba servos.  the hull was pretty trashed so i tossed it.

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Good topic! Lets see...about 5 years ago now, a fellow on Craigslist was selling a Clod and a couple of RC10s. I met the guy midway at a shopping mall. In addition to the Clod Buster (with Bowtie grill, no less) and a nice RC10 Champ and original Cadillac RC10, he brought bags and bags (like shopping bags) of parts he just wanted rid of. I found enough parts to built 2 more Clods, most of another RC10, 3 functioning Traxxas EVX2 speed controllers, Trinity motors, spare gearboxes for my Kyosho USA-1, a Hornet in pieces, 2 Futaba FX10s, and many tires and wheels plus a full set of Trinity Clod Buster shocks. It was like a mini treasure find. I just keep digging in those bags and finding more and more stuff. I could probably run a Clod for a lifetime now and never need to buy any spares. 

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Wow, that guy on Graigslist must have "you choose between me and that pile of junk" written all over him.  She must have been pretty hot to get rid of all of that.  

I was thinking along the line of Turnip's £50 XB Suzuki Swift deal.  But seeing the deals you guy's had, I'm starting to think I should hit thrift stores, Craigslist, even keep an eye out for what's on the road!  

I've been looking for a good deal on Montero(Pajero) since the re-release in 2011.  One night last summer, long after midnight and a couple of beers, I found a Florida store selling this for $110.  What?  That's a good deal!  I couldn't click fast enough for fear of other people taking it.  And it turned into $77 by some hidden 30% sale feature they didn't even advertise.  Shipping took $20.  Using PayPal was an additional $10.  I could have gotten it for $97. 

But I just couldn't believe that it was a real deal. I paid using Paypal just in case they didn't deliver.  In the end, it really arrived safe & sound for the total price of $107.  It was one of those initial issues with "Bonus Parts Included" in addition to ESC.  It was eight 1150 bearings.  Pajero actually needs nine 1150 and one 850, but I'll take them!  It's not like King Tiger for $50, but this is something I wanted since the 80s!  It still gives me the warm and fuzzy feeling.  

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My best deal was a FF02 Alfa 156 built and painted never ran and in original box for £65 off Ebay.

I sold the Bodyshell with wheels and box for £50 leaving me with a mint FF02 chassis which is still waiting future plans.

You guys have had some awesome finds!

My worst deal was getting stuck in an EBay bidding war and paying £120 for a childhood car I wanted again, a Boxed vgc Taiyo Nissan Racing Truck which didn’t live up to expectations and I sold for £50 a year later.

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I think all of my cars I have now are cheap bought.

I wasnt into rc for a while from 2015 to 2017. Job opportunity and family.

I wanted to get back and was really excited about bashing in dirt with a buggy. And found at our local club a Tamiya DF02 roller with body, missing bumpers, spur, pinion, motor cover and wind, whose are better of new then used. for 27€, it had all the aluminium GPM parts, except lower arms they were plastic. 

Next car was a F103, the one I have with a brushless setup now, originaly bought for 38€. Also a roller. Ended up buying new parts and ending out having a f103 from spare parts and one new.

after that fiasco. the XB Suzuki Swift was bought from Tamico. originally intended as a electric donor for the f103 made out of spares. He was 80€, not as cheap as 50£ but close. 

And most recently a Xray T1FK05 was bought for 30€, on a rc shop in te uses section, it was described as not functional, but I have seen in the picturea thats crap. It may not be good for pro racing any more, but fir bashing or drifting it is more then good, and also I never watch for the economic side of a build, so a perfect start. 😁

the worst deals were my first RC a Fighter Buggy, paid 110DEM back in the day, +50DEM for a lrp esc and +30DEM for a lrp gt motor, so 90€ for a DT01 chassis NIB. Compared today.

 

and a Carson CH-04 nitro belt driven onroad model. Missing only servos and rx, tx, hump pack, for 135€. Later to be discovered that the engine was worn out. Sort of scammed but the care is rare and handles pretty well once it was done.

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two come to mind.

My second ever RC purchase was in the 80s, a second hand job lot consisting of LB Celica Turbo, A Renault Martini Mk 22, )both in pretty good condition, except the Renault had an awful paint job) and a hornet all for $40 AUD. 

The second purchase was a NIB March 782 BMW which I bought from Israel but had to gift the money to a guy in the US as PayPal won't operate in Israel. The deal also came with a set of NIP tires. Total was $250 AUD shipped about 3 yrs ago. Freight was only two weeks as well.

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Best and most surprising deal for me:

since years I'm on the hunt for a PB Mini Mustang. But they never show up on Ebay Germany, and even if they do internationally, prices are crazy. So, last year, on a Saturday morning, drinking coffee, I just placed an search add with a picture of a PB in the local classifieds. More or less for fun, never expected any result.

2 hours later, my phone rings, a guy is telling me that he has that car in the pic. Of course you do, I thought, and asked for pictures. Expecting to see some toy grade stuff. Pictures arrives and shows a dirty but complete Mini Mustang with a 2 speed, plus a MK 1 Grasshopper with a new Parma body :)

I call the guy back, asking how much he wants for all this... He said, maybe around 30 Euro? I nearly pass out, ask for shipping as well. He doesn't understand at first, why I would like to ship. After all, he lives in a village 3 minutes away from my house and could drive by.

One hour later, I held the old cars in my hand, gave the guy a 50 and sold the Grasshopper off for 60 Euro a week later ;) 

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My first RC car bought around 1992  - Sand Scorcher with radio RTR £10 from a boot sale -

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What an interesting topic! It's good to read members good fortune😃 my fortune was not long ago actually☺ few Months ago I got two used but brilliant condition dynatech 01 and 02 motors with boxes for £20 each of a local guy advertised that my daughter noticed on whatever that local selling website called👍

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Couple of happy purchases I can recall.  I got an almost unused Traxxas Stampede loaded with RPM parts locally for £35, one of my favourite bashing trucks.  On a vintage theme, a couple of years ago I scored a huge lot of NIP Trinity motor spares and parts, enough to build a whole fleet of (what were once) top of the line racing motors and keep them running for decades, for £28 on Ebay. :)

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About 13 or so yrs ago, was looking for some F103 parts. I mis-typed Tamiya in the search and got a listing for 2 used F103. One with a fair bit of use and one with near no use. Auction started at AUD $75 and no-one else put  bid on it. Back then a new F103 would have been about $250-300.

I kept the near new one and gave the other to a good mate as he was keen to have one. Sadly he passed away this year. When I walk through my garage and see my F103 hanging on the wall, it always reminds me of him and how excited he was when he got his own one.

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Was in downstate Illinois a few years back and drove by a small resale shop in a small town.  They had an original bruiser in the window.  I walked in and asked what the lady wanted for it. A couple of minutes later I walked out with a complete bruiser for $25. 

Bought a "collection" from a guy on craigslist. He didn't really know what all was there and just "wanted it all gone".  I believe it was his fathers collection who had just passed away. An hour later I was at his house.  For $500 I picked up 13 cars including an all aluminum E-Maxx, New in the box original Hotshots, HotShot2 and Super HotShot. Best of all was a partially built in the box Yokomo YZ834B.  He also had dozens of original old decal sheets from Tamiya, Associated and Kyosho.

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Sorry in advance.... ~20 years of eBay, plus the years before that...

Some of the fun and games, in AU$ (roughly = to $US, or 3/4 the value of US$, over the years). 5 online and 5 offline examples...

Online

  • Early days of eBay, I bought a complete, used Sand Scorcher for $40 from a guy in Italy (only because I trawled Italian eBay, and found it listed as "vw buggy" with no other details)
  • I remember buying 6 NIP Hotshot speed control sets, for about $40 also. These days they are about $50-$100 each.
  • I once spotted a Spica Road Runner (a 540 powered buggy from 1987 you've probably never heard of, but they're not bad) - boxed, complete and near new with Radio... for $1.
  • A NIB Yokomo YZ-834B Dog Fighter for $400. So, a bit of outlay on this one. But really, it was positioned (both then and now) around $2000 normally. And I nearly had a heart attack when this purchase came together.
  • Bought a used Avante chassis on eBay for $40 once. All because the seller listed it with terrible photos that seemed to be taken with an underwater fisher price camera. After a simple clean up, I sold it the following week for $400 (under bidding)

Offline

  • Went to a market one day, and went home with a complete, working, used Nissan King Cab with Futaba Bionic Gold radio, for $20.
  • Walked into an old wares shop one day, and walked out with a vintage NIB Super Champ w/ NIB Futaba radio, for $60...
  • Went into a hobby shop one day, and spent $400 on vintage parts they just had sitting right there, under the counter - a large box full. The owner was very happy to get rid of them, as they were everything from RC10 parts to Sand Scorcher parts. Many I kept - as in, I still have a lot of that stuff. And yet, I sold maybe half of it. And those sales alone brought in $2000.
  • A lady at work overheard me mention the hobby, and said "I think we have an old R/C car somewhere in the garage - I have no idea what it is.". So she agreed to bring it in. Took a few weeks for her to find it, and I was also thinking to myself that for sure it's going to be some Heng Long chinese rubbish. Of course.... (:blink:) it turned out to be a used, complete, near new original Fox w/radio. She wanted $50 for it. So I passed. (Just kidding). I was thrilled.
  • Was given a whole box of NIP Avante parts by a nice old guy who ran a hobby shop, that I had purchased a fair few things from. He was closing down, and rang me, figuring all the remaining stock might be something I wanted for free. :wacko: I couldn't thank him enough.

Honestly, I have been luckier than I ever dreamed as a kid. And I think a childhood with quite a lot of deprivation from R/C, made me a 'desperado' later.

Much of the above (and many more) were because I either looked, asked, inquired, followed up... and was generally a (polite) pain the backside a lot of the time...just in case someone had something, somewhere, that might be vintage. I'd also dig through boxes, trawl classifieds (pre ebay), trawl all corners of the web (foreign sites), or stay up till 3am sweating on live auction bids... some things came easy, most were sheer effort. I was yelled at a couple of times, and ripped off a few times too. But a lot of strange things happen when you try to create your own luck and try to chase things down. One time I went to an antique shop not 5 mins from home, got talking to the guy there (not expecting in any way whatsoever that this conversation would lead to Tamiya) and 10 mins later was walking out with several vintage Hotshot parts sprues he had in a box. Sometimes just a conversation can lead to an "R/C coincidence"...

On the other hand, there were also many things over the years that I fought for, and paid over the odds for... almost as if the Gods wanted to punish me for trying to get them, or as karma for the good luck elsewhere. Bidding wars where everyone ends up bruised - except the seller...

  • $300 for NIB Mugen Bulldog tyres
  • $400 for a NIP original SRB black bumper
  • $500 for an ultra rare 1980 vintage Nikko R/C catalogue, in a delirious bidding war at 3am. I must have watched this Seinfeld episode.
  • $4k for black bumper Sand Scorcher... :mellow:

Vintage R/C is in the blood :huh:

One day you will see it on the evening news "A long suspected virus has been confirmed...", with footage of me in a sterile, hermetically sealed hospital room clutching a vintage kit of some kind. Some of you fellas might be in the adjacent wards eventually. If so, I will tap the wall with morse-code for the vintage part numbers I still need...

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Boring one but 20 Nikko 9.6v slot-in type chargers. I paid £25 for the lot. I sold them all within a month at £30 each.

Ebay is weird like that. You see entire Nikko cars with charger sell for less than that but I guess it's one of those items kids often lose and then the parents just look specifically for a new charger.

I can't think of any other ones that profitable off the top of my head but there's been a few that were just good buys:

I got a VGC boxed original Boomerang for £20 a few years back, it wasn't listed very well and nobody seemed to even notice it.

An unused Nikko Super Fox for £15, I guess they just didn't understand how to search ebay completed items to get an idea of it's value.

A VGC boxed Nikko Turbo Panther for £5 at a charity shop. Sold that for £145 on ebay. Buyer turned out to live half a mile away from me!

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Hibernaculum said:

$500 for an ultra rare 1980 vintage Nikko R/C catalogue, in a delirious bidding war at 3am.

Wow!

On an unrelated note but because you're about the biggest authority on toy grade I know of, have you any idea if the Shinsei hovercraft and hydrofoil in this advert ever saw production? I know they made the boat but I've ever seen the other two..

 

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@nowinaminute I can honestly say I have never come across either that Shinsei Hydrofoil or Hovercraft. However, that doesn’t really count it out :) Because after all these years, there are still items shown in Nikko and Kyosho catalogues also, that I have never actually seen in the wild and which nobody seems to have...

And then one day, one of them just comes up. And you’re like “Oh, so they DID manufacture it!”. I can think of a couple like this that I have spotted for the first time in just the last couple of years. 

There’s no limits to the mystery of rare Japanese R/C toys and models :)  Also, boat models tended to be low volume sellers, so tracking down rare ones like those two could be a 5-10 year wait. 

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Nothing amazing, but currently on ebay there is a double blaze that has been bid up to £74. After that one was listed another one appeared on a short listing, I bought it for £43, the first one still has some time to run. The one I've bought was also cheaper than a couple of Wild Daggers that were listed a week or two ago.

A week or two ago there was a TA07 chassis with brushless setup, two lipos and a charger. All new and unused for £165 buy it now. I hesitated for a day or two because wasn't sure if I wanted to spend that much and also it appeared to good to be true, in the end someone bought it - I wonder if they did receive it? Bargain if they did.

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12 hours ago, Juggular said:

Wow, that guy on Graigslist must have "you choose between me and that pile of junk" written all over him.  She must have been pretty hot to get rid of all of that.  

Lol, yeah, I kinda wondered if that was the case. I've trolled second hand shops, yard sales and antique stores and have never come across and hobby grade RC, but the big haul from that guy made up for all of it. It was like Christmas.

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