$250 for a Hasegawa P-40 kit?

[ScottsGT]

Okay, click bait title.  But isn’t the Eduard P-40N the Hasegawa kit with a few Eduard goodies and special decals added?  When it came out years back I thought the price of admission was pants on head stupid.  But now they’re asking $250 for them on eBay.  Wow……

Yea, now regretting not buying one when they came out. 😢

And don’t get me started about the K and M models. (Or the Parrot Head N)  I figured since Hasegawa is a mainstream kit company these kits would always be out there in abundance.  
 

yea, I have an E model going on the bench as soon as the Cutlass is in the display case. So my random thoughts and ramblings have merit.  

[BlrwestSiR]

Yup, it's the Hasegawa plastic with some extra bits including a stamped metal plate. I have one in the stash here somewhere.

The funny thing is, the original P-40N box with the 15,000 markings was a slow seller. About a year after it came out, HLJ had them on clearance . They still weren't selling so they then offered heavily discounted shipping on your entire order if you bought one. So I did,  and then had no idea what to do with it. Finally Zotz did a decal sheet for them and I built it. I think it's at my parents' place. 

Then someone traded me one and again I had no idea what to do with it. Ended up trading it to another member. 

As for the K I just picked one of those up from the flood sale. It has both an E and K tail so if do a regular E, I'll let you know if you want the K tail. 

 

[CANicoll]

I also don't buy with the idea of investment.  But I did buy a few of the WNW kits early on as at one point I really did think I was going to build them.  But then it got to the point where I really didn't have THAT much interest in such detailed kits, and the premium I was able to get - even selling below market to other members - made the decision to sell pretty easy.

I still have the Eduard Royal Class FW-109A-8/R2 which is up to $175 on EBay.  But this one I want to build one day...

[ScottsGT]

1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Yup, it's the Hasegawa plastic with some extra bits including a stamped metal plate. I have one in the stash here somewhere.

The funny thing is, the original P-40N box with the 15,000 markings was a slow seller. About a year after it came out, HLJ had them on clearance . They still weren't selling so they then offered heavily discounted shipping on your entire order if you bought one. So I did,  and then had no idea what to do with it. Finally Zotz did a decal sheet for them and I built it. I think it's at my parents' place. 

Then someone traded me one and again I had no idea what to do with it. Ended up trading it to another member. 

As for the K I just picked one of those up from the flood sale. It has both an E and K tail so if do a regular E, I'll let you know if you want the K tail. 

 

That would be awesome, Carl. 

[BlrwestSiR]

I've built some kits that I have foolishly checked the price on after I started them and almost made me want to cry. 

I was partway through building a Yamato 1/3000 SDF-1 kit from the Macross anime. I'd bought it for maybe $150. So when I looked online and found they were now $1,000-1,200 I had to shrug my shoulders and keep going. 

Lego is even worse. I had their Technics Porsche RSR and just sort of lost interest in building it. Our youngest was going through a bit of a rough patch so I let him build it. Building it really helped to give hims something positive to look forward to every day. When he was done, he wanted to do another so we looked it up. Turned out it was discontinued and was now a collector's item selling for over $1,000. The happiness and sense of pride he got out of it was worth way more than that.  

[HubertB]

Well, this is the going price as long as the seller finds a buyer for it …

I never bought a kit for investment and future resale. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be butchering my Fisher Cutlass (which is the bottom box pf a significant pile of white boxes of the same manufacturer). But I reckon I have some rare kits, and my stash is probably worth - in total - the price of a (small) entry-market car …

But I’ll live long enough to finish them all ! What’s 250 years after all ?

Hubert

[ScottsGT]

7 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

I've built some kits that I have foolishly checked the price on after I started them and almost made me want to cry. 

I was partway through building a Yamato 1/3000 SDF-1 kit from the Macross anime. I'd bought it for maybe $150. So when I looked online and found they were now $1,000-1,200 I had to shrug my shoulders and keep going. 

Lego is even worse. I had their Technics Porsche RSR and just sort of lost interest in building it. Our youngest was going through a bit of a rough patch so I let him build it. Building it really helped to give hims something positive to look forward to every day. When he was done, he wanted to do another so we looked it up. Turned out it was discontinued and was now a collector's item selling for over $1,000. The happiness and sense of pride he got out of it was worth way more than that.  

Same reason I’m hesitant to build my Tamiya Thunderbird.  I hate that feeling. Build?Sell? Build?Sell?  It’s like having the little devil and angel sitting on your shoulders telling you what to do.

Speaking of Legos…My son sent me this yesterday.

This hung above his brothers bed for many years.  When the wife repainted their bedroom after they moved out, I’m pretty sure she tossed it out.  

[ScottsGT]

5 hours ago, HubertB said:

I never bought a kit for investment and future resale.

Same here, Hubert.  But I did come close when the 1/48 B-36 kit came out.  Yea, I have a few that have gone up in value.  Hell, I about passed out when I found a Fisher Connie nose correction in the stash. I knew I had bought the corrected radomes, but forgot I bought the nose correction.  Saw one on evilbay fetch $185.  It’s just a little bigger than a thimble! 
I’ve got a set of G-Factor F-18 landing gear.  I bet I could get $100 for them now.  Nope.  Going on my kit when I build it. 

[JohnB]

I have one of the Hasegawa 15'000th "N" kits that I've been tempted to build lately but I hate to do it since any of the "N" issues are hard to find and, when you do find one, the seller wants a arm and a leg for it. So for the time being it'll stay in my stash unbuilt. I wonder how the "E" kits are still available since it's one of the group of their 1/32 P-40 kits. If the "E" is still out there then why not the "N", "K", and "M"???????

If a manufacturer issued a series of new 1/32 P-40's (except Trumpeter which really dropped the ball on their P-40's. I got one of their "F" kits and was very disappointed in it), I think they would sell well. I know I'd buy some!

[ScottsGT]

1 hour ago, JohnB said:

I wonder how the "E" kits are still available since it's one of the group of their 1/32 P-40 kits. If the "E" is still out there then why not the "N", "K", and "M"???????

Thank you!  Exactly what I was thinking.  

[BlrwestSiR]

25 minutes ago, ScottsGT said:

Thank you!  Exactly what I was thinking.  

I think that's due to the modularity of Hasegawa kits. They can easily throw in /take out the required sprues and get a different variant. 

Also, many folks speculate that Hasegawa has decided to focus on their domestic market. Just look at their recent releases: JDM cars, mecha, and Egg Girl figures. So if the N version didn't sell well there,  I can see their reluctance to re-issue it. 

We need to get Hobby 2000 or Revell to do a  re-box and then we'll have some for the rest of the world.