The challenge of selling low-priced kits

I’ve been reducing the size of my stash over the last few years, four or five models at a time, using the many venues available to us modelers — eBay, discussion forums, and Facebook groups dedicated to selling and trading kits. I'm here to tell you that it ain’t easy.

Many of the models I’m selling aren’t worth much. I recently wrote about how to price pre-owned models, and I assure you I drink my own Kool-Aid. I price my models at what I believe to be a bargain price, and yet I don’t always get buyers.

For example, I recently offered an ICM 1/72 MiG-29 (with a mostly complete Repli-scale decal sheet) and a DML 1/72 Su-24 (with photoetch) in a Facebook group for $7 and $15 respectively. I think those were fair prices, yet no one expressed any interest. To be fair, you could say that both kits are “obsolete,” what with the new Trumpeter kits that have just hit the store shelves for these aircraft, but I know from experience that there is a market for low-priced models. Maybe that Facebook group isn't the place for them.

Or maybe it's the cost of postage. I would've sold the MiG-29 for just $5, but when you add another $6-8 for postage it doesn’t look like much of a bargain anymore.

These kits eventually went onto eBay with starting bids of 99 cents. Both models sold, but at less than my Facebook prices. I really don't mind, because  a dollar in my pocket is of more use to me than a kit in a box that will never be built. Had the kits not sold on eBay, there would likely have come a point where I’ll be happy to take the models to a contest, set the box in a corner with a FREE sign on it, and walk away.