Today, I visited my local model shop. It's about twenty miles away from my home, in a town that I really don't like going to. But I had run out of polystyrene cement, so I had to go.
The hobby shop is primarily a model railway shop, so there's another reason for not wanting to go there. Those beautiful Hornby Royal Scots were singing the most haunting siren song... but I managed to restrain myself. :-)
However, I did have a look at the aircraft kits, what few there were. I was particularly looking for a Tamiya birdcage Corsair, as Hannants is currently sold out. No luck though. There is another shop in the same town which sells model aircraft kits, so I had a look in there as well. This shop is primarily a craft shop, selling artists supplies as well as stuff for knitting and dressmaking. They had a smaller selection of kits than I have ever seen there. They didn't have the Corsair either, but they did have a number of 1/48 Spitfire IXs, both the Hasegawa and Revell boxing. It's always worthwhile having a couple of those in the stash and as I am out of them at the moment, I thought I would get a couple.
So I grabbed the standard Hasegawa boxing and then did a double take at the price. £28.50.
I was happy to pay £15. Maybe £18. But £28 is ridiculous. So instead I chose the Revell box, which is exactly the same moulding. It was then that I wondered if Revell had released a 1/32 version with the same box art as the
1/48 kit because the price was £37.95 !!!!!I looked at other kits.
Revell 1/72 Hunter F6 - £18.50 Revell 1/72 Hawk T1 - £18.50 Airfix 1/72 Mosquito II/VI/XVIII - £16.50 Airfix 1/72 Beaufighter - £16.50 Hasegawa 1/48 Hurricane IIC - £32.95. Revell 1/32 Spitfire 22/24 (you'd better sit down here...) £55.95
While I was standing there, utterly gobsmacked at these ludicrous prices, an assistant came across and asked if I need any help. I was considering asking her if she had any smelling salts... I mentioned the "rather steep" prices, as I put it, and she replied, "Those are the prices that our supplier recommends. They have to pay import costs and VAT which makes them more expensive these days."
I pointed out to her that the ones in the blue boxes came from within the EU and so didn't attract import costs and already had VAT charged. Her reply was "Kits don't sell well anyway, so we're probably going to drop them."
I'm not surprised that they are not selling if they charge those stupid prices. It seems to me that some non-specialist supplier is taking advantage of the rise in kit prices and carrying out a bit of blatant profiteering. Needless to say, I didn't enhance my stash today. :-(