I do not build models for money ( I have given my work away from time to time) so I have no clue if this is the going price for something like this but IMO that’s a little high for what it is and this is the starting bid. I just built this same kit so I still have my supplies and time spent fresh in my head.
My question is with the sellers results and the time he has in it are you commision modelers able to get 150+ dollars for a 1/48 scale hasegawa 109 basically out of box? Or is my feeling right and this item is priced on the high side.
I ask becasue if so I have well over a thousand dollars sitting on one shelf[}:)] the big difference is most of my examples have alot more detail and most have actually place in shows.
Well I have only done a few commision builds so im no expert. However The ones i have done all went for more than $150 and the buyers were happy to pay it. They were not OOB either so I guess that has something to do with it. Anyway after adding up the hours I put in them I didnt even make $10 an hour. So Im not going into the model building business anytime soon. I can make twice that at “work”. Im sure others with more experience will have more to add. Just my 2 cents.
I do not know Stan. I am in no position to judge anyone elseswork but I’ve always wondered about the buying and selling of built models on eBay. its just not something i think i will ever understand. i know you can not tell from my avatar but i live in Norwalk Connecticut where the seller lives. Makes me very curios that thier is someone else in my town hoarding Me 109 kits! I am almost tempted to email him to find out who it is! i am going to put this one on my watch list also lets see what happens. i say NO SALE.
$150 is not an unfair price for a well-constructed and finished SOB build of a single-engine prop job… although, personally speaking, that’s a bit low for me. I would ask no less than $200 for a straight SOB build of good quality.
Looking at your 109, I’d say you could easily fetch $200 on epay, perhaps a bit more… depending on the current trends. Looking at the seller’s 109, I’ll be polite and say that I wouldn’t give $10 for it…
I sell built models on E-Bay constantly to suppliment my income. Most of mine sell for between $75.00 to $100.00 so its not a living, just helps with car gas, groceries,ect. In my opinion $150.00 for an OOB build is too much, but I have been surprised by recieving high bids for work that I considered just average builds, and have detailed models that I KNEW would get a large price then recieve no bids, so E-Bay is very unpredictable. It can be a fun way to make some extra pocket money, but to make a “living” with models on E-Bay is not the way to go.
Blackwolf is right. You do a nice work, and the seller doesn’t. I am no expert on models, but I have found these things rarely pay well. I have had this experience with custom fly rods. I still make and sell them, but only because I love doing it. I assume it would be the same with your models if you decided to sell them, but if you add the hours put in to a project it’s probably won’t pay well. Nice job on the 109 :).
What it boils down to is demand. Do people want the product?
Look at the sellers back log, it will tell the stroy. If he’s a good builder and has a clean ebay record plius he ships his items safely; he could very well build his reputation as a go to seller for this type of work. I’ve seen built kits sell for close to 300.00. Is their demand for his product?
Stan,
Your stuff would sell easily - take my word for it. I build contract builds almost exclusively - and $150-200 for a well built 1/144 airliner or 1/48th fighter is pretty standard…but you just have to be lucky enough to identify and access your target audience/purchaser.
Your models are much better than the industry standard - and seeing as you put so much TLC into them, would you EVER be happy with $150 for a 1/48th 109? That’s the rub - you gotta build for your clientele, not yourself…
But I always build the models I sell to my own standards…not my clients…and because of that, they’re always happy - my standards are higher than theirs.
Word of mouth works pretty well - I get calls from people I don’t even know wanting stuff built - I’ve got enough contract builds to keep me occupied for the next 5 years…and my own stash never seems to get any smaller…if you sell a few, I’d be surprised if you didn’t sell more.
Good luck - your work would certainly be well recieved.
A friend of mine who lives in Alabama builds professionaly and has done so for several years. His 1/48th scale a/c start at $400 and go up from there (he has no shortage of clients). He builds full-time and does make a living from it…almost all of his work has AM products in them so they are not OOB…that a/c, in my opinion, would be a “steal” at $150 for a serious collector…
Thanks for all the info guys. I don’t think I would build for others like many of you do. But I do have a shelf of built models many I wouldn’t mind selling off to make room. My thought was just to post them to a friend web page and if someone seen something they liked make me an offer. Since I wouldn’t be doing it for profit or custome building it for a person I wouldn’t care or need to ask for large sum but rather cover the cost of the kit, parts used, and supplies. What I didn’t want to do was go through the trouble of doing it and not cover the cost of supplies. I would rather donate them at this point. I hadn’t done this becasue I was unsure if anyone would pay between 60 and 100$ for a built model even if it was very well done. Most all of my builds have after market goodies and some scratchbuilding done to them. I saw this model at a 150$ and had to ask about it.
If I had to do it for profit and still output the same level of detail and quality I do now there’s no doubt I would have to sell them for about 300 or more to make it worth while. I just didn’t think anyone would shell out that kind of money for a plastic model. I know a guy who does do this more or less as his job, but never asked how much he was getting for his builds. you guys are saying this is actually a good deal. I may have to attempt to sell a few of my less wanted builds off. Thanks again for the info.
You may also consider taking pictures of your build process and writing an article to submit to modelling magazines, like FSM. I’ve done this, its fun and the extra money makes the hobby self-sustaining - well ‘almost’.
I build commission models on a regular basis, I am currently booked up through the rest of the year. For a 1/48 Bf-109 built out of box I would charge $150.00. If the customer wanted extra items such as PE, resin details or custom decals the price would go up accordingly. I just completed a 1/48 P.11 out of box for $150.00. I generally charge $150 per engine for any 1/48 injection molded kit which means a B-17 or B-24 would cost someone $600.00. A four engine vac kit would go for over $1000 and I have no lack of customers at this price range. Sometimes I do place built kits on ebay and usually they bring less but then they are not built to spec for a particular person. Sometimes they go for more than expected especially if they are unusual subjects. I do build and give away some kits like WW2 P-51 pilot Col. Smart and current USAF Base commander in Germany Col. Manning – those guys got them for free but then they also put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms so it’s the least I can do for them. One thing that does impact your selling prices is reputation - if you are published or known through the web you tend to get a little more for your work.
I see he has no takers for either the Nakajima or his 109 G-6 he has for sale as well. Honestly, I see better-built models on this forum every week, and yours is one of them !
EDIT: I thought that the 109 pic was the one on ebay! That’s the one you did—I get it now. I honestly think the right collector would easily pay $300-500 for yours…as I stated, a friend of mine has no shortage of clients in selling his builds at that price…the trick is to build a reputation and a client base…most of the folks I know who build professionaly have a core group of repeat buyers—maybe a dozen or so, who may buy one model every month or so…
EDIT: I thought that the 109 pic was the one on ebay! That’s the one you did—I get it now. I honestly think the right collector would easily pay $300-500 for yours…as I stated, a friend of mine has no shortage of clients in selling his builds at that price…the trick is to build a reputation and a client base…most of the folks I know who build professionaly have a core group of repeat buyers—maybe a dozen or so, who may buy one model every month or so…
Many regular contributors to this forum build models of at least as high a standard as the one being advertised, and lack adequate display space. Therefore, I say, after you’ve built something, and photographed the heck out of it, why not offer it for sale?
That said, it seems that very few people can make a living out of building and selling models. I’m about 3/4 the way through a review build of a large, newly-released, 1/72 military vehicle (well, sorta…) kit produced by a subsidairy of a well-known - some would say notorious - Chinese kit manufacturer. I’ve been working on it for the last six weeks, at an average of maybe two hours per day - so call that 80 hours. It’s at least as well-built as the model referred to above. To earn as much as I could stacking shelves at the supermarket over the road, I’d have to charge about £600, plus the cost of the kit itself, and materials used. Not gonna happen.
Plus - and this is a point raised in earlier discussions on this topic - you gotta want to build the model in the first place. Just how many 1/48 P-51D, P-47s, Bf.109s and Spitfires can you build before it all starts to pall? I had great fun last September building a 1/32 Type ‘B’ Omnibus. How big do you think the market is for those, given that I’d have had to charge £400, at least, for it, to pass the shelf-stacker test.
Finally, packing models so that they’ll withstand the rigours of the postal service, in the UK at least, isn’t that hard. I used to build the occasional model for Airfix, for them to display on their stands at trade fairs. packed in poly chips insie a hard plastic box, surrounded by layers of bubble wrap, I never had one not arrive at its destination intact.
