What a 11,391 model collection looks like

[Bomber_County]

Ok, so now I have seen the pictures, man that makes me sad. The only question I have is why? My limit on the stash is max 30 and no exceptions......the F4J took me to 24.....SWMBO keeps saying I need more........

[1to1scale]

So I did contact the daughter and made a bid, more than you could buy a small new car for, but unfortunately, she had higher bids already. Her idea was over $100k, my bid was about a 1/5 of that. So I wished her luck, I also explained to her the values of certain kits, and how to value the collection. There were many old 1/72 vac kits, and many, many, frog and heller kits. These were realistically $1 swap meet kits. The biggest value was in modern 1/48 and some modern 1/32. I also explained why she may never see the kind of bid that she was looking for, because of the money and effort needed to move, store, and sell the kits. I figured between taxes, customs brokerage, two dedicated truckloads, i would have been looking at over $5k, and long term storage at about $500 per month. There are also many things to consider, such as sales venue, packaging, shipping, capacity, and dilution of the market. An example is she had 10 Tamiya F-14’s, if you look on eBay and see only two selling for $150, and I flood the market with ten more, then all the values go down, now they are all selling for $75 since there are more on the market than buyers. So I would then need to limit sales of this item to one per month, to keep the market for saturating. This meant that i need to keep paying storage rent fees for a year, now i have invested another $12k, eating into profit. I learned this years ago in another business venture, where myself and my partner offered a unique service, however, others started copying our service, eventually bringing the value down to 1/10th of our original price. So for me, the investment does not make sense anymore at higher prices, as tempting as it was... I am out of this endeavor. 

If anyone is remotely interested, let me know and I will give you more details.

[Jeff]

And like they say on Dragon's Den.............. " For those reasons I'm out"........................... wow that makes perfect sense, and from a business point of view, it is about maximizing your profits ( or you wouldn't BE in business)  For, me, andI'm sure others as well, when we see these big collections, it seems like it is the dream we have all had, you know the one, finding many coins or dollar bills, and then waking up to have to go pee at 3 am....this is sorta the same, BUT most of us never think of it in the real day light practical terms.....and the storage, packing, separating, cataloging, shipping etc, is monumental, and costly..... she needs someone to help her sell the collection , like in small lots , but someone who knows what is there and what is valuable and what isn't..... like was mentioned earlier, I'm sure if she doesn't know, some unscrupulous individual will take advantage...... I hope not, but we know how some guys work.....................  interesting perspective 1 to 1......

[Bomber_County]

I think unfortunately reality will set in rather rapidly at her perceived valuation.........

[Drifter]

Good luck to her in any case . 

[BlrwestSiR]

So here's a quick update. The stash/collection has been sold as a single lot. I don't know the selling price as it wasn't my business to ask but my LHS were the buyers. They get possession in a month or so and then they'll be slowly going through it and getting it ready for sale. I've already put my wish list in so we'll see what happens. I was told that it's going to take them time to get it organized and it won't come into the shop all at once. Which I said was fine by me. Spreads out the pain to my wallet a bit more. 

Carl

[harv]

Keep us informed......harv

[BlrwestSiR]

Will do Harv.