Models and charity

[kpnuts]

Hi all a friend of mine (who has gone on to be a millionaire and incredibly successful, let's face it he could sell freezers to Eskimos) (I mention that only to point out he knows what he's talking about when it comes to promoting stuff)

He asked me what I did with my models and I said they go in the shed in the garden and then get used for parts in new builds or in the bin. I said a while ago I gave a load away for spares or repair (the bloke who had them came from a long way away) he said have you thought of auctioning them for Charity and I said no, no one would want them, I put 2 1/6 bikes on ebay and they went for £4.70 for the 2vof them. I told him I would rather have set fire to them if I thought that's all they were worth.

He said if I had said the proceeds were to go to charity the result would have been very different, so to cut a long story short do you agree. Is it worth putting my models up for auction (the only one I have available atm is the 1/12 Airfix Bentley boat tail, which is covered in spray dust but could be cleaned off fairly easily)

What do you think.

[Bernard Kron]

Over the last 6 months I have been selling off some of the earlier models I built when I first resumed car modeling starting in 2008. My shelves have been getting crowded and some of the earliest efforts have lost any nostalgic romance they may have held. These days I mainly see their flaws, LOL! I have put 22 models on eBay since I started and sold 20 of them, gotten stiffed(non payment) on 1 more, and 1 got no takers. None of them sold for as cheaply as you experienced. For one thing I offered them for what I thought they might bring, after spending some time researching what similar efforts were bringing. Like you, if those researches had shown such low prices I wouldn't have bothered. Given what I have seen of your modeling over the years, IMHO you should ask for much, much more. I also took the time to repair and clean them, and, where needed, rephotograph them for maximum presentation effect. The extra effort has been well worth it, IMHO.

My experiences have been quite varied, ranging from, as I said, getting ignored or stiffed to outright bidding wars which brought prices, while welcome, I thought were silly. The most flattering and delightful transaction involved receiving a personal message from an eBayer asking if I was Bernard Kron (I'm lifetimeofstuff on eBay). I replied yes and he went on to say he had always remembered the model I was selling, had always wanted it, and would do his best to win it. In the event he did win it in a spirited auction among 3 active bidders, paying well over $100 USD plus shipping for a red Revell '32 Ford roadster done in the "Ohio Look" style developed and popularized by the late Barry Lobeck. It was one of my better early efforts and the only reason I sold it was because I intend to do another one which I hope will be better.

For the initial batch of twenty I sold 19 with one non-payment. The net 18 grossed slightly over $1,070 USD including shipping. Shipping and commissions took about 20% and Washington sales tax of 10.2% took about 8% of the gross receipts. This netted roughly $770.00. I sold another two in the last couple of weeks but I don't yet have all the net stats on costs because I am owed a refund on a duplicate shipping label which is being processed by the U.S. Postal Service. I expect similar stats, however, The numbers above show that my net receipts per model were a little under $43.00 USD. Obviously this doesn't even begin to reflect the true costs of construction, but that isn't the point of the exercise.

As I said, I expect that you should get much, much more per model than I do. To start with the models I sold were all 1/25 scale hot rods, drag cars and customs. The market prices for these are very weak and completed models for these subjects are often bought for the parts or to be resold in antique and curio shops. At least one of my models has already been resold on eBay where it went for slightly more than it had originally sold for, which implies that the re-seller was lucky if he broke even. But I have also sold multiple models to the same buyers who apparently look for me when I am selling more models. I have a friend, Curt Raitz (CrtR8z on eBay) who builds models of very high quality for the pleasure it brings him, and then promptly sells many of them on eBay. His subjects vary wildly from the most mundane pickup trucks and American sedans to sophisticated scratch built efforts like a Bugatti Tank or super-detailed Merit Alfa 158. He's very prolific and builds easily 20-25 models each year. He is a superb modeler and he has an avid following. This, interestingly, has led to commission builds as well.

In your case, many, if not most, of your projects are large scale. In addition you tend to build classic race cars, vintage subjects and motorcycles and all these subjects command much higher prices than my lowly hot rods. I believe this is especially true in the UK and the EU. Your realistic style, too, will be much appreciated. I would suggest researching on eBay using their advanced search tool for sold built models among the models you might be thinking of parting with. I think you might be surprised at the kind of money you might be able to gift to your favorite charities! (I have ignored the notion of the proceeds going to charity because I don't actually believe it will impact the final selling prices. IMHO it's has mainly to do with the quality and condition of the completed model, how effectively that is presented and described, and, perhaps most importantly, the initial asking price.)

[kpnuts]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to reply don't put your stuff down, I don't work in 1/25 1/24 as its too small,I feel more encouraged from your reply just worried if I put my stuff up it will get stupid prices like I had before.

[Bernard Kron]

Nov 7, 2021 16:53:05 GMT -5 kpnuts said:

Thanks for taking the time and effort to reply don't put your stuff down, I don't work in 1/25 1/24 as its too small,I feel more encouraged from your reply just worried if I put my stuff up it will get stupid prices like I had before.

In my experience as both buyer and seller on eBay I think it's important that sellers offer their goods at an opening price that resembles what they would accept regardless of how active the bidding turns out to be. For example I once sold a Fujimi Porsche 356a Speedster, the red one, not the far more rare and expensive black competition Speedster, which I thought was rather keenly priced at $65.00 USD plus shipping. This was roughly $20.00 less than the average sale in the past year. It turned out there was only one bidder. However I had decided that I would accept that price since I had paid far less for it originally and it was a duplicate in my stash that I didn't need. $65.00 as an attractively low price but not an entirely irrational one.

As a buyer I have repeatedly been the sole bidder at absurdly low prices. This was great for me but I have always felt these items were mispriced by the sellers because they didn't represent something approaching fair market value. I know many sellers think that low-balling their opening price will help build bidding traffic, but my experience is that the risk they will land up giving the item away is all too real. I know that, for a fee, eBay allows you to put a reserve price on an item, but if I bid below the reserve eBay tells me my bid was "reserve not met" and generally I come away merely annoyed because I'm put in the position of having to guess what the reserve price might be. This is silly, IMHO. Reserves risk discouraging potential buyers from repeat bidding.

eBay has the search tools that can provide you with an idea of both what your model should reasonably fetch and the frequency with which they are bought.

[kpnuts]

Thanks for all the help mate.

[jbwelda]

So, the obvious question: what charity would you be donating the proceeds to?

We all are some kind of charity case, few of us function as anything but a non-profit organization, or at least a zero-sum entity (your friend being a possible exception). But to claim donating to "charity" and then keeping the funds because one views oneself as a non-profit charity would be a bit unethical. Am not accusing you of anything unethical, just trying to clarify the point.

But I assume you would actually donate something to some worthy cause of your choice. And the percentage of that donation would be...100% of the proceeds (which would mean you actually "lose" money, and therefore part of the donation is actually coming out of your pre-sale pocket)? Or some nuanced portion of the proceeds, say minus all the fees and shipping charges? And would you spell this all out in your auction listing?

Personally, someone saying they are donating to a charity would be of no consequence as far as my bidding goes. I am not really in it to support charity, I am in it to buy a model (or whatever the case may be). I have a feeling others would feel the same except in rare exceptional cases. So that would mean, no extra proceeds from playing the charity angle as far as I can see. In fact sounds to me like it would be a real hassle and open oneself to critical examination as to the ultimate receiver of funds, for very little gain in return. In short, bad idea unless your point is really to generate donations by selling your models.

Hope that helps.

jb

[kpnuts]

Yes I've thought of that very problem I think I'm going to ask The British Heart Foundation if they would like the model to auction themselves. That way people know it is for charity.