When is a kit 'vintage'? A bonkers example

[adt70hk]

Well it is Flea Bay!! Where vintage could be as far off as last week!!!! Personally I don't use the place. Some one on here suggested I find my Wasp on there but I just couldn't bring myself to do it!!! I'm patient - There is bound to be one out there!!

I never take any notice of the titles people put on Ebay lots ( rare, vintage OOP ), and I've given up trying to understand the prices some people put on items. The only explanation I can come up with is that they were stupid enough to have paid that price & and are looking for another idiot to take it off their hands. Same thing with condition - OK, sealed is pretty definite, but saying part started, & not putting a piccy is ridiculous.
Personally I'm looking for those lots that people don't know what it actually is, ( never heard of Scalemates ) or have mislabelled it, or put it in the wrong section. 'Accepts offers' and finishing midweek are also things I check up on. It takes a bit of time & a lot of common sense, but Ebay is worth a browse
Dave

I wouldn’t worry about it too much Andrew. On ebay it’s worth what someone will pay. If they don’t do their homework then it’s their lookout really….

It always amuses me andrew , when you see ‘vintage’ or ‘rare’ on ebay it usually translates to - expensive, overpriced . Whenever I see it in the title I just skip straight over it to the next item . The sellers are just trying it on , hoping some poor mug will fall for it . Plus like you say a lot of the time the items are neither vintage nor rare

I have never got this thinking, just because a boxing or edition is Oop, despite the contents still being available doesn't make it expensive.

But I am a sucker for Ltd editions........

Now, we do quite a bit of stuff on eBay and you do see ludicrous prices for some things. You also see frankly daft postage too. I'm talking UK only here as that's where we sell.
Ball park, we can price something at half- to a third of other people's pricing, and usually, not always get a sale. Look at actual shops to find the genuine asking price, and always search on 'lowest price plus p+p.'
But the maxim is, indeed 'it's worth what someone is willing to pay' NOT 'I can ask silly money and someone will buy it'

As to 'vintage', only if it's last century, AND an older boxing / issue, I'd say. But that's my 'reality'
Always remember, most people selling stuff have no idea of the ACTUAL value or worth - which aren't the same thing

Here's a recent example. The P-38 I just posted here is on eBay mint-in-box for twenty quid. I got mine at a show four years ago for six. We sold the empty box for &12.50, after starting at &2.50, AND we asked the buyer if he realised it was just the box. He did, and was very happy

eBay is weird and many users have no idea

That depends on whether you’re a modeller or a collector (or which hat you have on, if you happen to be both). To someone wanting to build, say, a Tamiya Panzer II it won’t matter if it’s a kit that came out of the factory in 1971 or 2021. To a collector, though, a provably-made-in-1971 kit would probably be worth a lot more than the “same” one made in 2021.

If you are Airfix, vintage is a way to sell models from moulds that were poor when they were brand new, of a scale that really doesn't exist ( i.e. ho/oo ) ( 1/72nd/1/76th) or someone else's old moulds ....... and have your fans say ''you have to expect some fit-issues and inaccuracies.

My daughter was born in 2008, is she vintage?

I saw a 1/48 Tamiya Mosquito with spoiled decals in an antique shop in Cullen last year, the shopkeeper wanted £25 for it!
I spent my money on three decent sized fancy plaster pictures frames instead for £15 - a shop round the corner was asking £60 for a smaller tattier frame.
That says to me that the buyer isn’t always the mug.

Thanks guys for all the thoughts and comments.

Obviously I do treat such listing's with a huge amount of scepticism but I take Jakko's point about Collectors...don't get it myself as a kit's reason for existence is to be built....but that's just me.

But someone paying £12.50 for an empty box....no.....regardless of how good the artwork is. That said, perhaps I should start keeping my empty boxes for posterity's sake and leave them to my kids to sell for a small fortune when I'm gone!

All that said, this one just struck me as totally ridiculous given it only a 2007 new tooling.


Rick - Can I just point out that selling children is illegal and I'll say no more!! :astonished: :smiling5:


ATB

Andrew

[Dave Ward]

But someone paying £12.50 for an empty box....

If a collector has a model with a tatty/damaged box, or no box at all, they might think it worth it. to bring their model back to mint condition ( and increase the value!).
Rather sad, really - you see all those Dinky & Matchbox cars, preserved in their mint original boxes, and think that no-one had any fun playing with them...........I know all mine took part regularly in destruction derbys
Dave

[Guest]

New-in-box toys are usually from lots that got stuck in a warehouse or in a toy shop’s loft or someplace similar, so usually, those specific boxes were never actually on sale, let alone purchased by someone who then didn’t (let their kids) play with them.

[Tim Marlow]

If a collector has a model with a tatty/damaged box, or no box at all, they might think it worth it. to bring their model back to mint condition ( and increase the value!).
Rather sad, really - you see all those Dinky & Matchbox cars, preserved in their mint original boxes, and think that no-one had any fun playing with them...........I know all mine took part regularly in destruction derbys
Dave

That’s the crux of the Stinky Pete character in the Toy Story franchise……never got sold and played with, so he got sad and embittered……
Same in all collecting fields though, condition is everything…..

[Steve-the-Duck]

Dave hit the nail on the head. There are those who make the effort to put a good box with an old kit so they match (I live with one!). As long as it's the correct edition kit with the correct edition box, you can then sell it on as a set. So long as it's listed properly
Which a lot of people don't.

The other thing about the Lightning box as it did have the stand, instructions and, probably unusable transfers. That does make a difference too, if the buyer is a completist

BTW another thing I've seen on eBay is kits being sold 'in original shrinkwrap', which they never had in the first place
But THAT'S a whole 'nother barrell of monkeys...

[colin m]

Rick - Can I just point out that selling children is illegal and I'll say no more!! :astonished: :smiling5:

errrr when was this announced, I think I missed the memo. Just in case the above is incorrect I have a 25 and 20 year old available, one's in architecture the other chemistry. Both with reasonable prospects and might just be able to support you in retirement !
No guarantees offered, caveat emptor, no returns, no backsies.

[Jim R]

US President Abraham Lincoln once said: 'You can fool all people some of the time and some people all the time. But you can never fool all people all the time."
Maybe he was talking about selling vintage, rare, out of production, limited addition kits :rolling:

[adt70hk]

errrr when was this announced, I think I missed the memo. Just in case the above is incorrect I have a 25 and 20 year old available, one's in architecture the other chemistry. Both with reasonable prospects and might just be able to support you in retirement !
No guarantees offered, caveat emptor, no returns, no backsies.

Ok...so maybe not completely banned...but I do know eBay don't allow selling people.....someone tried it once as a bit of a joke....

[The Smythe Meister]

Just seen this...
To me,"VINTAGE" is something made in,at the LATEST , the '70's....
And "RARE" is something that's so rubbish,no one really has/sells them anymore....
... But I am a grumpy old git!!

[Ian M]

If you ask Airfix a kit it tagged Vintage as soon as the tools are so knackered, you could put a melted plastic cup in the box as sell it as a Vintage kit.

[Guest]

US President Abraham Lincoln once said: 'You can fool all people some of the time and some people all the time. But you can never fool all people all the time."

That was when he was a vampire hunter, right?

[KarlW]

That was when he was a vampire hunter, right?

About the same time he said, " Don't trust everything you read on the internet."

[adt70hk]

Thanks all for your thoughts and comments both serious and funny.

So as I said, I tracked the sale of the aforementioned "vintage" Eduard kit from 2007 as I was curious. As I said the listed starting bid price £45.50 + £2.90 p&p, with it ending lunchtime in the UK and guess what?

Not a single bid.....now there was a shock!

ATB

Andrew