Although I hear what you're saying and to some degree you are correct... BUT... I'm in UK and my preferred scale for building is and always will be 1:20 for F1 and 1:24 for road and sports car racers Le mans etc. My preferred type of kit is Multi-Media Studio27, MFH and I'm warming to Alpha just lately, still to buy one, just waiting for my coffers to build up again. I tend to go on a spending purge to buy my kits... then hibernate while my coffers build up! Which brings me to buying... You said:jaymtford wrote:I think the 1/20 resin kit market is pretty dead these days. With the new BeeMax releases (and all the other plastic releases over the past hew years) I'm sure people have some decent size stashes to work through. Add to that the many 1/12 MFH releases and I would guess a lot of modelers don't have much budget left for 1/20th resin kits. I've noticed its been much harder to sell some of my 1/20 resin kits the past few years versus 4 or 5 years ago.
I used to buy kits in the USA quite regularly, in fact a lot, and yes I've purchased from you too... Trouble is I haven't bought a kit from the US of A or Canada for getting on for 15 years. Why??? Some sellers are taking the preverbial WE-WE, they're charging extortionate Postal costs to send out of the USA. Some WON'T even post out of the USA full stop. If a kit is for sale, say at GBP £150.00 the USA seller is charging nearly the same again to post to the UK and Europe, lets be kind and say GBP £100.00... some are even charging a further up to 20% if I choose to pay by PayPal... SUB Total GBP £250.00... then once in UK, I have to pay Customs, Inland Revenue, VAT Tax, Royal Mail handling charges etc etc etc. This has cost me what I've paid to the seller another GBP £250.00 plus maybe up to 20% ... SO!!!... we have a grand total of GBP £500.00 sometimes GBP £550.00 for a 150 pound sterling model kit. The same has happened to me from Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland (not in Euro). But it's not all negative there is a small band of American sellers who INCLUDE customs & import charges in the price, so I don't get slammed here in the UK. My Amercan freinds tell me that they don't get stung if they buy abroad...jaymtford wrote:I've noticed its been much harder to sell some of my 1/20 resin kits the past few years versus 4 or 5 years ago.
But you're right what you say about the MFH 1:12 kits:
I have bought a few of these magnificent Museum quality kits and it HAS slowed up my 1:20 & 1:24 purchases, at 500 to 700 pounds a time, it slows many of us up, plus don't forget all the other items we need Paints, Glues, Detail Parts, Tools etc etc etc it all adds up... I'm living on my pension, and yes it can get tight, but I replenish my coffers selling kits I don't need and other items. Then there's my wifes Hobbies, Steiff Teddys don't come cheap either yer know... then there's her " Brams Stoker Dracula " film collection, film props, cinema film posters, model kits and toys... Then my " Hellraiser "" film collection and also my Ferrari Memorabilia/Paraphernalia collectionjaymtford wrote:Add to that the many 1/12 MFH releases and I would guess a lot of modelers don't have much budget left for 1/20th resin kits.
Everything slows up when I need a 1:12 MFH kit... we NEVER stop each other obtaining collection necessities... Another reason for my slow up on 1:20 1:24 is... I only build Ferrari model kits these days, I have done for just over 35 years, and then only in 1:20th & 1:24th. When resin kits first came out I was encaptured immediately. Then when MFH started I was fully converted, I bought as many of the Ferrari kits as they came out, nothing lasts forever and they gave up on 1:20 & 1:24 started doing 1:12 had to give it a go and got the Ferrari kits. Then Shock Horror Probe, Stop Press, they then gave up on Ferrari kits altogether. Now because I already have most of what they've produced, 1:20 (262), 1:24 (148), 1:12 (39), all Ferrari, Model Factory Hiro (114), Studio27 (70), Tamiya (84), others (181) my buying kits has slowed right up, I'm only buying the ones I haven't got now, on the rare occasions they come up for sale!!! So it's not because I necessarily, I don't want or can't afford or uninterested or gone off, that I'm not buying, it's a combination of reasons, but mostly I already have them...