Question about cost of models.

In the late 60's I worked after school in a gas station. I remember gasoline at 19.9 cents a gallon. An AMT 3 in 1 kit was about 3 or 4 dollars. Gas is now $3 per gallon. That is an increase of about 95%. That would make that same AMT kit about $35 to $40 if we use the same logic. When you look at the price of a kit, you can't just look at the box and the plastic. You have to think about the cost of operating a store, paying the help, paying the insurance, utilities, etc., not to mention the cost of freighting the item from god knows where to the distributor and than to the store. Now add in the cost of engineering and production and don't forget about the 10 times the tax man steps on the deal before you even buy it. That $100 kit starts to sound cheap. Welcome to the 21st Century.....................

Gents:

I have stumbled across a September 23, 1939 issue of the Boston Post newspaper. The prices on stuff in the adds would make all of you SICK!!!

Bill Shuey

Vessticles, Vessticles, Vessticles; even when you're making a modeling related post that, on the surface seems relatively calm and reasoned, the true you can't be stifled entirely and you end it with a cheap shot. And you wonder why so many on RMS can't stand you.

"Vess Irvine" wrote in news:cCPhg.73$ snipped-for-privacy@fe07.lga:

2) You're a whiny socialist, why aren't you complaining about the big companies ripping off the little consumer. maybe you should lobby your leftist moron politicaisn for a subsidy to even out the playing field.

Jonathan Silverthorn wrote in news:W1Whg.42278$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net:

I concur. It's like you've only done half the work. My son had asked about putting a prepainted kit in the local contest. I told him no! the essence of the hobby is the complete kit building and painting. I think the skill is in the whole package, the paper models and the prepaints just don't make any sense at all to me.

Frank

I didn't mean if one or two people stop buying. If MOST people stop buying them, however, that would have an effect.

One theory of pricing is that if you find people willing to buy at a given price, that price is not too high. There may be a sweet spot, that maximizes profits, but the curve is gentle, and one can still make profit on either side of the sweet spot. In a product with a reasonably inelastic demand, it requires a LOT of people who refuse to buy at higher price. That is, we have to turn it around and make inelastic demand become elasic.

If we modelers support inelastic demand, it is, collectively, our own fault, not the manufacturers.

Of course, if we get too cheap, then well crafted kits with lots of parts will become unmarketable, and we'll have to settle for the kinds of kits we had in the late fifties and the sixties.

Government price index shows an inflation factor from 1960 to 2005 of 6.67.

I have done a detailed study on model kit prices based on old model magazines. What I find is that while the cheapest kits have just about hovered around the inflation factor, there are a lot more expensive kits. That is, in the fifties and sixties there was not that big of a range in prices. Today there is a big range between cheapest and most expensive.

But on the other hand, the kits in the fifties,and to a lessor extent the sixties, were rather simple, like today's cheapest kits. There WERE no really detailed high-parts-count kits then to skew the price statistics.

So would the wages.

I'll happi;y pay $35-45 for current 1/35 DML armor kits with all the extra goodies they contain and the quality of the kits. I will not pay $40+ for a 1/48 Tamiya airplane. Trumpeter needs to get their fit, parts enginerring, finish quality and detail back up to an acceptable level before I shell out anymore money for a 1/350 ship by them (resin is cheaper in the long run when it comes to Trumpy's last three USN kits).

The government doesn't count food, fuel, utilities, and medical care in their inflation factor. I don't know about anyone else but the real expenses that effect peoples lives are "all of the above". I put little stock in what the government says. I do know that gas was 20 cents a gallon and a McDonalds meal was 15 cents for a burger 10 cents for frys and 20 cents for a milkshake. They advertised it as 45 cents for a 3 course meal. I also know for sure that the people who are involved in manufacturing, distributing, and retailing models have to do "all of the above" to live. Ask someone on a fixed Social Security income about the governments inflation factor. You are likely to get a very large belly laugh.

This is why I say the Government's statements on the economy are just so much Bull----!

Bill Shuey

Hmmm. I thought that food and fuel costs WERE included in the CPI. Don't know about medical costs nor utilities. Now, the particular "basket" of food used has caused controversy, but I believe they do account for at least some food items.