Whoever says that there are no good deals on eBay is not looking in the correct manner. [8-|] I just snagged a 1/48 Monogram B-58 Hustler for $27.50 including shipping… I can’t believe that this went so cheap. Now I won’t feel guilty if I open and build one of them since I will have a spare in the collection for my Daughter’s college fund… LMAO.
Rich
Oh hell yeah… I’ve scored numerous deals on “high-end” kits over the last three years… 16.00 Tamiya Beaufighter Mk VI, a pair of AFV Club M548s for 30.00, and a Dragon Marder II for 20.00, for instance. Also the “medium” kits like a 12.00 Phantom Mustang, three 1/35th Testor’s/Italeri GMC duece & halfs for 25.00 bucks, a pair of Testor’s M7 Priests for 15.00, etc…
The trick is to use the price-range search, and stay away from the “stores” (although they DO have some worth looking at and making a few bids on from time to time), but you can find some partial-built ones there to for a little bit of nothing… …I save a lot of modey on some by buying kits that have been started (but have all the parts) too… Got several Hasegawa kits that way, as well as some Tamiya and Academy kit for just a few bucks… I’ve only had one kit that wasn’t complete, a Monogram F4U-4 Corsair, that was missing the radar pod and canopy, both were easily fixed…
Yeh. If it wasn’t for eBay I would never be able to get new kits. Hobbytown is just too much now, and there aren’t any other places to get kits around here. I sometimes see a kit that I just can’t resist, like the B58, and I just have to bid. I usually low ball the bid. Like if I get it great, if not then big deal. I was actually searching for a replacement 1/32 Corsair when I spotted the Hustler. Why it came up in a search results for an F4U-4 is beyond me. I too have gotten a bunch of prestarted kits. Sometimes it’s an easy build because the little assembly that was done was done well, but sometimes you get a glue bomb. Then it becomes either a long term project or a spare parts kit. Unfortunately, with the new UPS and USPS rates, I have even less to choose from as even the glue bomb kits have gone up in price, significantly…
Rich
Since you are in the Toledo area. Check into the IPMS contests. I know there’s one every year in Toledo. You’ll probably find many more deals there than you will on E-bay. You could also make the drive up to Warren/Livonia area (Michigan), for the excellent vendor room. It’s only an hour or so from Toledo. Even if you don’t enter in the competition, the $2/3 dollar admission fee is well worth the deals on the tables! Bring plenty of cash, haggle a bit, and things get really cheap towards the end of the day!
I am thinking of joining the local IPMS chapter. They meet about 2 miles from my house. I know livonia well. I was the main and only technical person at a small ISP in Dearborn, and we lived there for a number of years. It’s only a stones throw from Livonia. Unfortunately, long drives and I no longer get along. It’s a huge hassle. Loading and unloading my power chair, and the other issues which my meds cause. (I think I should get the record for most trips to the little moddlers room in a single day). Uh Oh, I really hope Manny dopesn’t see that… LOL
Rich
I hear ya on the chair issues… I’m in a wheelchair too, and have to get it in and out of the trunk (I can use crutches for short, 10-15 foot trips though)… Hard part is pulling it up behind me to a third-floor walk-up apartment… I sit on the steps, pull it up a step, move up one, pull up one, move up one, pull up one, etc… Takes me 10 minutes to get from the LHS to my building, and 20 minutes to get from the front door of it to my apartment…
I can walk for very short distances like the van to our mobile home, with a cane. But for anything longer than that, I need the chair or I get a LOT of pain in my left leg and my right knee is starting to go on me as well. Plus I put on a lot of weight because of the Diabetes, and I can’t exercise because of my aneurysm. Anything that raises blood pressure is very dangerous for me. So I can’t get rid of the weight easily. This isn’t helping my mobility much either. I have to rely on my Wife to handle errands. About the only time I get out of the house anymore is to go to Doctor appointments. Which is why I got back into modeling. I think that without having the hobby, I would have gone totally loony years ago.
Rich
Man there’s got to be a better way. I did the routine of pulling my chair behind me up stairs and in and out of rooms with narrow doorways and it sucks. Don’t know how attached to your current residence you are, but you might want to consider moving.
Hehe, unless yours had a sale like mine did back in November. They had a huge 75% off sale on something like a 100 or so kits: armor, planes, ships, etc. I picked up a Tamiya Stug III B for $12, a Tamiya Desertized Challey 2 for $15, a Revell Leopard A6 for $12. They had many Tamiya birds, but I passed. I believe a Dragon or Trumpeter Leopold for going for something like $50! I just had nowhere to put it, so I passed. I’d say that was easily my best score at HS sale.
Well… I’m kinda in a cake-billet since I’m the building supervisor, my apartment is free ( part of my salary), and the owner lives 1400 miles away, lol… That’s why I get to model full-time too, since all I got to do to be at “work” is get outta bed, and my “commute” is never more than 180 feet…
And when a tennant complains about a drain being clogged, a window’s broke, there’s no hot water, an outlet is throwing out huge sparks and the carpet’s smoldering, they smell gas, yadda, yadda, yadda, you know, all the bullsh*t, little, whiney stuff that renters always bug ya about… I just tell 'em, “Hey, you’re on the list, got the work-order right here!”
Then when they complain again three weeks later about it and tell me they’re mad about the drain not being fixed yet, some pigeons got in through the window and there’s bird crap all over their furniture, the sparks from the outlet burned a hole through their ottoman, the gas smell keeps making them pass out, I say, “You’re mad?? I’m furious!” and, “I’ll call that damned contractor/electrician/plumber/ right now and rip his azz!”, then roll away, yellin’ into my cell phone, etc…[;)]
Hammer: Add a stair lift to all those work orders… tell the owner you made an executive decision to increase the value of the property.
The only stuff I ever see on sale at our Hobbytown are kit’s that no one wants. Stuff like the Convertiplane.
Rich
Planning on it… I’m just waiting for him to cool down over the 1800.00 dollar walk-in bathtub/shower combo he bought me last fall, and the electronic door-opener he bought me for Christmas… [whstl]
hey Hans, havn’t you scrounged enough stuff to build your own? or at least vacu-form it ?[whstl][A]
Hammer: I’ll sut up now.
Great bargain for the B-1
I’ve hard that kit is a monster, have only seen the kit in the box not the finished model.
I just secured the 1/72 B-1B for $50.00 which now completes my US Bomber series.
The B1 is on my Bday wish list, so it’s up to Wifey. I have a long way to go to complete all US bombers. Especially if you figure in all the variants… lol
I would just tell her that it would make you such the better Husband by her getting this model. That line never fails.
My kits are stacked up the wall but my study is my zone and a no-go zone for all others.
I think I’ll possibly cop some flak when (if) I get the TU-160