Indeed it is! Assuming the production run is big enough to dilute the design/tooling costs of course.
The one good thing about this discussion is the realisation that people have been moaning about prices ever since the hobby started! At least it’s steady and consistant…
I remember when kits cost more than a whole weeks’ income.
Pocket money: 2 shillings a week. Airfix Series 1 kit: 2 shillings and 3 pence
This was a while ago, mind………………..
… back in the past when there were still shillings …
I never managed to fully understand the British coins,
the farthings were already gone by then but the shillings
were still around even if decimalisation had happened.
Funny, I keep my guitars in the same place as my small stash.
Obviously, that is More False Information; Per the Ruling by the US Court of International Trade,confirmed by the Appellate Courts, and recently upheld by the US Supreme Court,All ‘Tariffs’ established A Year ago ,without the Approval of Congress, Are Illegal, Null and Void.
This is not untrue, but the global inflation has been “a thing” for at least 50 years, not just the most recent war. I remember gas was $0.39/gal many years ago, went up to $5/gal a few years ago, then down to $2.30/gal just a year ago, back up to $4 now.
This is incorrect. Take it from an attorney.
The news media doesn’t know how to accurately report on legal issues. They just look at who politically wins/loses in a judgment and pretty much ignore the specifics. “Red team lost, woohoo!”
I agree with Rick Taylor’s @taylorrl $1.92 an hour philosophy. Even as kits hit $100, model building is a very inexpensive hobby. $1.92 an hour - that’s half the price of going to the movies, something you do without thinking. And at the end of a movie, you’ve got nothing to show for it except an empty popcorn tub. At the end of a model, you’ve got something you can show off and be proud of.
Trust Me, You don’t need to be an Attorney to know how the Law Works; Misinformation is all over the Internet; The Tariffs are done,yet the so called ‘Reliable Sources’ are still living in Denial.
Let’s see: four 37×17 BFG MT’s at around $1,200 for the set, good for a year. Spare front axle shafts, one pair for the front Dana 44, $450 or so, figure a year on average, just to play on the rocks eight or ten times a year in a jeep I already had around $30k in…
Yeah, modeling is very cost-effective as far as hobbies go in my world.
I rarely buy anything “new”, but wait a bit and the price inevitably comes down. AM can be found on eBay if one is patient, tracks are all over the place and half the price of what Friuls used to be.
And I coughed up $4.89/gal for 93 octane ExxonMobil juice yesterday. I’m okay with that too, except for the fact that it was $4.59 two hours earlier.
Oh, a latecomer! I seem to recall bagged Airfix Series 1 kits at 1s 9d, but for a long time they were 2s, as was my pocket money - which left nothing for glue at 6d per tube. However, I used to run down the hill from school for lunch at my grandmother’s place, and was given three halfpence for the bus up the hill so I wasn’t late. Run UP the hill on four occasions and the glue problem was solved. Otherwise I’d have been an even fatter little b------. That and the Christmas Club Savings Card at a local store taught me the value of money; perhaps too much so… I’m still a bit of a scrounger.
Cheers,
M
Considering the climate challenges our societies are facing it is
the scroungers who’ll come out on top …
Keith, The Supreme Court’s ruling eliminated all of the, what I feel like today, tariffs. However, he has a 10% tariff on about everything because he is using a different legal rule. I think it only good for only 150 days before he has to reinstate it.
So do I. I have 11 guitars / basses and about 10-12 kita stored together. Comparing the prices, well a US Strat costs about 40-45 tank kits in 1/35 scale. It does not sound that much but should you pay the price in one cash for a kit or for a guitar - the kit is still easier to explain to Her Majesty.
That part is simple: one pound was twenty shillings and one shilling was twelve pence, so when the pound was decimalised, one shilling just went from being worth twelve pence to being worth five new pence (100 pence divided by 20). This meant the shilling could just be renamed to “5 pence” on newly minted ones and be totally interchangeable with the old shilling coins.
The thing to understanding pre-decimal currency (any, not just British) is to realise that there isn’t a single unit that all of the other coins are denominated in — unlike today, when one dollar or euro (or whatever) is made up of 100 cents (or whatever) and all coins can be expressed as a full number of one or the other. Rather, each coin is basically made up of a certain number of the next-smaller size, with no regard to how many even-smaller ones that makes it worth. Or even of a next-smaller size, as there can be several systems at work alongside each other 
Inflation has always been a thing, but it became relatively noticeable when the US dollar stopped being exchangeable for a fixed amount of gold in 1971, which caused currencies to fluctuate in relation to each other much more than they did before. It became really noticeable to the general public in the West only over the last five years or so with what’s become known as the cost-of-living crisis. Before then, a lot of people don’t appear to have ever heard of inflation, but now everybody has a basic understanding of it (even if it’s just “prices rise”).
You make it sound so simple..
Until they downgraded the 5p to shirt-button size. I miss half-crowns (2s 6d, £0.25) and thruppenny bits (the 12 sided “so you can get them out of a Scotsman’s grasp with a spanner” version, not the silver ones).
M
I do have way more money wrapped up in music gear than modelling equipment, however there is always need for one more guitar or amp for the stable. I’ve really been eyeing a Laney Ironheart L20T-112 lately.
I played a game with Her Majesty the other day as I was looking over a Rickenbacker 4003. I said place the guitars in order of price from highest to lowest;
Gretsch - White Falcon
Gibson - ES335
Rickenbacker - 4003
She failed miserably and was horrified by the prices, but said I should get a White Falcon because it’s pretty! She’s a keeper!!