How do you all decide what kits to sell off?

I've gone thru my stash several times now, picking out things but ultimately I put them all back and leave. I keep seeing diorama ideas pop into my head, even though I have zero room for display.....

I think the goal for me is to trash all the kits I've started and most likely lost the parts, keep 50 of what I determine are the most important to me, and then somehow sell off at probably a loss, the other 100 or so kits... Its time to move on (and buy guitars instead). I have not touched a kit going on 3 years now...

Because I can't decide which of my kids to sell off, I think I'm not quite ready to give it up...

How have you decided how to cull your herd?

Craig

Reply to
crw59
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Reply to
reznap2002

I'm in the same position. After moving from a place that allowed me the space and solitude to model, I now have to compete for every last inch of space with two young'uns, who also would not be able to keep their hands off the "pretty airplanes." The youngest goes nuts for any kind of plane (chip off the old block, there), but would reduce a masterpiece to rubble in under 15 seconds.

So, no modelling for me - not for a while. So, to get the space, I'm going to sell/auction the whole thing off. Everything. And what's left over, I'm going to either donate to the local Cub Scouts (Boy Scouts too) or slap together with no paint and use for pellet gun practice. Hey, it was fun when I was a kid - maybe it'll be fun again. :)

So, if there's something that you absolutely can't bear to part with, keep it. And you'll know which ones those are. I have a 1:48 B-26 and an aftermarket decal sheet for "Flak Bait", along with about double the model's original cost in detail sets. That one's gonna be a tough sell. :)

Reply to
Ed Pirrero

Same way I replace ex-girlfriends...

I replace older less desirable/buildable kits with newer/better ones of the same subject - like dumping my Hobbycraft Arado 234s for Hasegawa and Monogram ones.

I'll also sell off multiples of the same subject if I lose the enthusiasm to do that conversion or second color scheme I was so keen on some time ago.

...but you ultimately gotta be da' judge.

Reply to
Rufus

The one that keeps doing stupid things that require emergency room visits.................

Reply to
Ron Smith

If you are no longer interested, why is it a hard decision? Why keep

50 of anything that you have no interest in. Humans are certainly complex, especially us Yanks. Why is it we feel the need to collect something / anything? We buy it for $10, love it for a brief time, and then sell it for $5 so we can buy something else and then repeat the process over and over again. It is really pretty funny if you think about it.
Reply to
Count DeMoney

I collect dollars. I don't keep them very long and trade them in for other stuff, like food, utilities, housing, etc.

Reply to
Willshak

what I should have done is but a house with no attic or garage, but nooooooo, I have way too much of both. Too damn easy to buy and store stuff. but it is odd, as you say, that we put way too much emphasis on stuff.... like why can't I get rid of my collection of 40-50 year old Nat'l Geograhics???? Yikes!

Craig

Reply to
crw59

I've started selling off the aircraft kits that would be too big to fit in my display case (assuming I'd ever finish any!).

Reply to
Al Superczynski

Just about the same as most of the other posters; too many multiples, lost interest in the subject, newer, better same subject kits, good deals or raffle wins of 'not my cup of tea' subjects.

Things I just can't seem to pull out are any of my Monogram 1/48s (not enough multiples anyway), Bi-planes, what 1/32s I've crammed away, or (like any returning auto modeler agonizes over) most of my cars. I shoulda listened to the guy in Car Model years ago: 'Buy 3; 1 to build, 1 to keep, 1 to sell....... much later!

-- Chuck Ryan Springfield OH

>
Reply to
Chuck Ryan

I am an "aspirational" builder.

When I got back into the hobby two years ago, I decided I would buy one kit of every aircraft I wanted to build. Realising this was something of a massive task, I decided to specialise. Given space constraints, it was pretty much a no-brainer to go for 1/72 scale - both for storage and display purposes. After that, I decided I would specialise in Battle of Britian fighters. Then that expanded to trainers, special purpose aircraft, and fighter bombers.

Then my well-meaning wife, not understanding the Pandora's box she was unleashing bought me a Hasegawa Mitchell and that REALLY threw me for a loop. So my collection started to expand to include all prop driven aircraft on the Western front.

Africa kind of crept up on me too, and before I knew it, I had a few LAGGs and Yak kits padding my shelves as well. So there we had it. African and European theatres. But really, there are only a couple of period jets, so I made room for the Gloster Meteor and the Me262 as well. Now the brief was 1939 to 1945 - Europe.

Time to get building. Or so I thought. The lure of the pacific conflict grew too great when at Duxford last year, I bagged a Hasegawa Jack for peanuts (the box was water damaged, no decals, but everything else present and correct). Before I knew it, I was installing new shelving in our box room (the description has never been so apt) to accomodate the Wildcat, Helldiver, Avenger, Dauntless, Devastator, Vindicator, Jugs (Bubbletop & Razorback of course) Hellcats and everything IJN and IJA I could get my hands on.

Oh, and just in case I decided to do a diorama or two, I have a 1/72 Isuzu fuel truck and an Academy kit with three support vehicles in it.

Did I mention the reference material, after-market detailing kits, extra decals, paint, airbrush (which I have no space to use!?), scribing tool, various putties, knives, cutters, tweezers, paints, cutting mat, varnishes and the obligatory bottle of Klear?

So here I am, totally tooled up (is there anything I have missed?) with

300+ kits covering World War II adorning the walls of my box room from top to bottom and what, exactly is the output of my two years of feverish collecting and preparation?

(a) An Airfix Spitfire Mk IX mostly OOTB with a Falcon canopy and a few scratch-built details; (b) An ICM Polikarpov I-16 Type 24; (c) A Revell Curtiss Hawk 75 in Armee de l'Air colours with aftermarket decals; (d) An Airfix Lysander built as a gift for my wife's Grandad, who used to fly in them on special ops; and (e) A Fujimi Val, currently on the table resting for the best part of four months!

I look upon my Hasegawa kits with reverence. I am still psyching myself up to build one by easing out the rustiness of my skills on lower end kits. Some of the larger models I won't touch until I get the space and skills to use an airbrush (a criteria for our next house when we move in 1-2 years...) as using a brush to paint the broad acreage of a Liberator or Flying Fortress feels me with the same sort of dread that I usually reserve for "vegetarian meals".

I have of course, sold quite a few kits in the time I have been "back at it", and they usually fall into two criteria:

(a) I have ditched a few Airfix and early Revell kits when higher-end or more accurate limited run kits have become available (ex. Sold an LS Peggy when I finall found a reasonably priced Hasegawa Peggy); and

(b) I have sold problem kits (i.e. missing parts, ruined decals etc.) to get different versions of more complete ones;

Of course, at my current pace, I will be around 459 years old by the time I get around to all of them, but that does not detract from the pleasure of randomly plucking a kit from the pile, opening the box, perusing the decals, scanning the instructions, surveying the parts and then closing the box again, in the full knowledge that those parts may never come off their sprues - not on my account in any case.

Am I bothered? Not much I suppose, and as long as I don't start raiding other rooms for storage space, my wife won't be bothered either.

Reply to
ArmoFool

Interesting conclusion. Mine would be to keep it all, build like daft, and try to keep ahead of the rugrat. Don't bother with masterpieces, just quick and dirty builds. In the mean time, try to infect said rugrat with the modeling virus, and switch him over from demolition to construction (it will probably be hard to tell the difference initially..). This will make a horrible dent in your stash off course, but you were downscaling it after all..

Rob

Reply to
Rob van Riel

It is really funny. We all seem to have similar stories. I had a large pile of old baseball cards to deal with a couple of years ago. It was my good fortune there were a handful of valuable ones that I made some money on. At least enough to say I actually made a small profit over what I acutally probably paid for the stuff. The rest would of been easier getting rid of in the fireplace. From that experience I learned that things were only worth what someone else was willing to pay for it, not a price found in some collectors guide.

That experience helped me when I got back into modeling. I only have about 30 kits in my stash and I am building at the rate of about 6 to

10 a year. As I am nearing retirement, I hope to get my stash up to about 50 kits (buying while I still have a good income). It is very hard to resist buying more. I fight the urge everytime I walk into a Hobby Lobby, Colpars, or pick up the mail order catalogs. I get the shakes. Is there a Modeler's Anonymous group out there? Maybe we all need to join (:>
Reply to
Count DeMoney

No can do. I suffer AMS.

I don't think it'll work. There are very few female modellers for a reason.

Except I need the space now. If I were to restart, I would probably look at WWI subjects - aircraft, of course. 1:24 rigged a/c look pretty darn cool...

E.P.

Reply to
Ed Pirrero

HI all,

When my dad passed in 01 I went through the cathartic experience of disposing of his things that my mom didn't want. He had built about 400 models, they all went to an air museum in AZ. I kept all his unbuilt stuff, under 10 models!, he was a model builder not a collector!

Fast forward to a year ago....I had about 2000 unbuilt models, I sold off the ones I had 5 or 6 of and the ones that I knew I would never build. Then about 2 months ago I got downsized (forced retirement) and am trying to simplify my life....a little. I came to the realization that I probably would not build another model unless I was sick and had to stay in bed or something like that. So since the last model I built was in 1989 I decided to sell all my unbuilt except for some VERY special project I may build (JV

44 190s and a P-61). I have ebayed everything else. The last left this week!

I think if keeping 1000's of unbuilt around makes you happy then do it, I think there is a certain therapeutic value of having all those unbuilts....If you start looking at them and thinking....why? then it is time to get rid of them and move on to something else....If you decide at a later date to begin again the "new" stuff usually is far better than the "old" stuff you had anyway, buy again. It's painful to sell something you have had for 40+ years but when you are gone what then? No one but me knew the time and labor my dad put into the models he built....the same will happen when I'm gone. Getting rid of them now is also helping whoever has to deal with my "estate" when I'm gone....I know kinda morbid.

Now I will be ebaying all the books/magazines and stuff, and gun stuff....then all the military memorabilia....then the cat....hmmmmmmmm....cc

Reply to
cc

Easy. You tell your spouse, parents, friends, roommates, and especially yourself that each new kit you buy will replace an old one you will get rid of. Then you keep all of them.

Reply to
z

Four kits finished in two years? Seems about right to me... ;-p

Reply to
Al Superczynski

Good News : There is one Bad News : This is it

Reply to
Bob

Just a thought---get some big boxes, take a deep breath and start packing as quickly as possible, grabbing kits at random without really looking at them. Then, take those boxes to your local modeling club, or hobby shop and tell them to send them to the troops in Iraq. Don't give second thought to what you're giving away, just do it. By packing quickly without looking you don't lament about what you could do with kit 'X'. Plus, you have the warm fuzzies about giving troops something else to do and think about. I have culled my stash a few times by simply taking the kits to club meetings, putting them on the table and letting the guys have wahtever they wanted for free. I've given away some higher end kits that way, but you know, i really don't miss them.

Reply to
Disco58

Speaking of which, I've got a bunch of good stuff up for auction right now, ending tomorrow night. And besides the good stuff, I've also got some of my own Alps decals listed... ;-p

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Reply to
Al Superczynski

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