I just wanted to know if any of you collect models for investments? I know a lot of people do but its not my thing. I buy models to build not for profit (although i have recently bought some from ebay really cheap and found out that there pretty collectable in the States!).
Also, do you tend to buy more models than you could ever possible build? I have enough to keep me busy till i’m 100 years old and i’m only 35! Thing is, i still buy them with the intention that one day i will paint it in such and such a scheme or wait until some obscure decals for some weird air force comes along for it!
I would like to hear your thoughts on the subject [8D]
[#ditto][:D]I buy a lot more kits than I can possibly build before I retire, but not as an investment. Not only that, but I can’t even store the boxes in the appartment anymore, lol. Thing is, there’s always that ‘special offer you can’t refuse’ at the hobby shop, or a brandnew release I want to have, or a re-release of an older kit I didn’t get the first time round. And then there’s the special long-term projects that I have imagined but don’t know how to finish yet (no decals, mega-rebuilding needed etc.)[sigh] In that category there are the 1/48 C-130H stretched version in Dutch Airforce decals, the yet to superdetail 1/48 B-58 Hustler, The milennium Falcon with lights (those work[^]) on a Bespin landing platform (I need a mansion to fit that in [banghead]). Oh, did I mention I build armor too? Lots built, even more still in the box… It’ll all work out when we move and I get a den[8D], but that’s also still in the planning phase!
Anyway, just to let you know you guys are not alone:
I have only bought one model with the intent of re-selling it, all the others I bought with the intention that I would build it some day. Unfortunately the real world hasn’t allowed this, I just don’t have the time to build and I have way too many models. Right now, if I stopped buying, and lived another 30 years, (I’m 41) I would have to build at the rate of about 20 models a year. Ain’t gonna happen ! So I have been selling some models here and there but I wouldn’t call them an investment. An investment is something you hope to get more money for than what you paid, and in most cases, Ain’t gonna happen !
I buy them with the intention of building them… the other day, I walked around the house, counting up all the unbuilt ones, and taking into consideration how long each build generally takes, combined with my age now, I’ll have to live to 147.3 years to get the ones I have NOW, built… (not to mention the ones on my wish list!) [;)]
I have every intentention to build the kits I buy. That being said, I will never be able to build all of the kits that I buy, and am still buying. I’m an admitted kitaholic, with a real styrene addiction. I think that I’m doomed to roam around from LHS to LHS looking for my next fix. Truth be told… my favorite part is looking at all of the kits that I have and imagining what they’ll look like finished. Of coarse I haven’t finished one yet… I’m in the final stages of two of them though. I do see Pixilater’s point though… you can’t take either of them with you…[xx(]
Every kit I buy I intend to build, but like many have already said, I know I’ll not live long enough to build them all. Still, I can’t resist the latest releases and keep on buying em. Like the owner of my LHS always says, “I don’t care if you build em or not, just buy em”. I don’t consider myself a kit collector, but I have become one by default. As far as kits as an investment, my heirs will have to dispose of my kits, and they would have inherited more if I had just left the $ in the bank. Some dealers make $ on kits, mainly by buying collections at a fraction of the kits original price and then re-selling at shows, Internet, etc., but buying kits as an “investment” for most of us is a losing proposition.
Some of both. If I see a good deal at a shop or an estate sale that is not in my interests but can be resold at a profit to buy stuff that is in my interests then I am game. Everything that is in my stash I do intend to build … someday.
When it comes to models I am a very compulsive buyer.[:I] There is no way I can build all the kits I have now (90+) and knowing that I will more than likely by something else.[banghead] The thought of usiing it as an investment never occured to me once again due to a time problem. I know I wont live another 50 years and even if I do I would not have a steady enough hand to do modeling.[censored]
Can’t say enough about the comments listed ahead of my post[bow][bow][bow][bow]
in a way my models are an investment. my time and knowledge of the subject are an investment. when my children or thier friends ask about the builds i can share the knowledge and that in itself is an investment. the value of the models is only relavent to me or those who are interested in the subject. so yes i would say i buy and build for investments.
I have bought most of my models with the intent to build them. Now over the past 45 years of mostly “intent” I’ll never build a 1/10 of my collection of 850+! It was hard to pass up kits on sale! So a buddy of mine kids about making the model show circuit to sell our collection when we retire. Then you can always make a fellow modeler happy by giving him a good deal on an old kit that is hard to get. It is scary to think I if I could sell my collection at retail prices I could buy a new Jeep! I guess there is always E-Bay!
Some day I will build, some day I will build, some day I will build!
Models as investments? I think there are better collectible things to invest in if you are really in it for the money. Models can alwasy be re-released, and I think there is a limited audience of people who pay big bucks for them. Not to say it couldn’t be done-- with the advent of eBay you can probably end up selling just about anything for profit down the road. Used socks?!
I don’t have that huge of an unbuilt collection (maybe a couple dozen). Like others I have more than I can build in the forseeable future, but that doesn’t stop me from picking up intriguing decal sets or kits for cheap. For example, the Albatros Marauding Crusaders II decal set was too cool to pass up, so I bought it and later got the Corsair II kit to go with it.
as a side note - it depends what u mean by investment! Do u buy a kit & keep it as is (ie with the plastic wrap left on or leave the kit unbuilt) or Do u buy a kit & build it for an investment (ie do u build with the intent of selling now or later). I suppose buying a finished kit has pros & cons to it (ie you cant build it or build it the way u want) and there’s propabably some unqiue appeal having a very rare limited kit untouched in a box left the way it was packaged.
For me, I now buy kits at an exponentially higher rate than building them, so I have several kits on the go at any one time. Never sold one, never given one away, but have built one kit that someone “contracted” out to me - and that was for my old man!
At one point in my life (late 20s) I had about 2800 unbuilt kits in my collection. About 1100 were inherited from my modeling mentor who passed away, but at the time I was newly married with no kids, and making great money as a network engineer. Most of the kits were 1/72 scale, so it’s not like I was out hoarding Tamiya 1/32 F-4s or anything.
I’ve thinned my collection out to about 300 kits, mostly 1/32 and 1/48 aircraft, and 1/350 ships. There’s a few oddballs in there, cars, couple of dinos, etc., and I still have a pretty hefty number of 1/72 kits, most are pretty ratty boxes and not really re-sellable.
Both. I see collectors as the archivers of our hobby and they are to be admired for the precious kits they preserve for others down the road. I have collected for decades and have a huge collection of kits but I wouldn’t say I have ever made a profit. My reward has always been the friendships and gratitude of those who I have traded with. I’m always amazed by the sometimes less than friendly things that some say about the collector. If you followed the logic of those people then it is a none issue as the kit in question would have been built shortly after it was manufactured. The object of their desire wouldn’t even exist and they wouldn’t be complaining about it’s high ebay closing price.[:)]