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Many of you seem to miss the fact that the RETAIL price of the Tamiya F-14A, as set by Tamiya is 7800 YEN........not dollars, Yen. At the current exchange rate, that equals to $71.83 USD.

 

What we pay here in the States for a kit with a retail price set in Yen are the importer/distributor/retailer costs. Importers bring in the kits and supply them to distributors. Distributors supply the kits to retailers. Retailers supply the kits to consumers. Along those lines, each has to make a profit in order to remain in business. Just an FYI, I can state as matter of fact that Steven's International has the exact same kits listed at a higher MSRP than Douglas Distributors and Squadron MMD!

 

If you buy the Tamiya F-14A from any retailer in the United States, the average price is in the ballpark of $90, give or take a few dollars, not including shipping.

If you buy the Tamiya F-14A from HLJ (you know, they're in Japan), the current price is 6,240 Yen, which converts to $59.97 USD and you can have it shipped via SAL for 1,620 Yen, which is $15.57 USD for a grand total of roughly $75.00 +/- USD.

 

Conversely, if you buy the Revell 1/72 C-54D in the States, the average price is in the ballpark of $40, give or take a few dollars, not including shipping.

If you buy the Revell 1/72 C-54D from HLJ, the current price is 7,040 Yen (the list price is 8,800 Yen!), which converts to $64.91 USD and you can have it shipped via EMS for 3,850 Yen, which is $37.00 USD for a grand total of roughly $102.00 +/- USD.

 

You see how that works?

 

It's really irritating to read comments accusing companies of being "greedy" or "they're ripping us off" (not directed at anyone here, just generalizing). No, they're not. They're running a business and set prices based on their costs to successfully operate that business. The price you end up paying is a culmination of the costs it takes to get the product from its country of origin to your doorstep, whether it be direct or through a series of importers, distributors and/or retailers.

 

If you refuse to pay the high prices, or can't afford the high prices for Tamiya kits here in the US, then buy them direct from Japan (applies to any other manufacturer from any other country and vice versa).

 

I can guarantee this is all going to apply to the new Tamiya F-14D.

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Shop around I already pre-orderrd 2 kits my price was 160 with shipping. Thats about 35% of the US MSRP of 124. To me All of this conversation is a kneejerk reaction . I'm just gonna  let it all shake out. In the end I"d bet you'll still get Tamiya kits at a price you can justify.

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8 hours ago, Dave Roof said:

Many of you seem to miss the fact that the RETAIL price of the Tamiya F-14A, as set by Tamiya is 7800 YEN........not dollars, Yen. At the current exchange rate, that equals to $71.83 USD.

 

What we pay here in the States for a kit with a retail price set in Yen are the importer/distributor/retailer costs. Importers bring in the kits and supply them to distributors. Distributors supply the kits to retailers. Retailers supply the kits to consumers. Along those lines, each has to make a profit in order to remain in business. Just an FYI, I can state as matter of fact that Steven's International has the exact same kits listed at a higher MSRP than Douglas Distributors and Squadron MMD!

 

If you buy the Tamiya F-14A from any retailer in the United States, the average price is in the ballpark of $90, give or take a few dollars, not including shipping.

If you buy the Tamiya F-14A from HLJ (you know, they're in Japan), the current price is 6,240 Yen, which converts to $59.97 USD and you can have it shipped via SAL for 1,620 Yen, which is $15.57 USD for a grand total of roughly $75.00 +/- USD.

 

Conversely, if you buy the Revell 1/72 C-54D in the States, the average price is in the ballpark of $40, give or take a few dollars, not including shipping.

If you buy the Revell 1/72 C-54D from HLJ, the current price is 7,040 Yen (the list price is 8,800 Yen!), which converts to $64.91 USD and you can have it shipped via EMS for 3,850 Yen, which is $37.00 USD for a grand total of roughly $102.00 +/- USD.

 

You see how that works?

 

It's really irritating to read comments accusing companies of being "greedy" or "they're ripping us off" (not directed at anyone here, just generalizing). No, they're not. They're running a business and set prices based on their costs to successfully operate that business. The price you end up paying is a culmination of the costs it takes to get the product from its country of origin to your doorstep, whether it be direct or through a series of importers, distributors and/or retailers.

 

If you refuse to pay the high prices, or can't afford the high prices for Tamiya kits here in the US, then buy them direct from Japan (applies to any other manufacturer from any other country and vice versa).

 

I can guarantee this is all going to apply to the new Tamiya F-14D.

 

I bought my first Tamiya F-14A in Canada for $89.99 ($69.35 US) from a local shop.

 

If this North American shop can make money with the kit passing through a distributor the rest of NA should be able to do the same.

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12 hours ago, Darren Roberts said:

Pricing in the marketplace is complex, yet simple at the same time. Let's start with a kit that retails for $100. The distributor imports/buys them for a certain discount, say 60%, so they pay $40 for the kit. The distributor then sells those kits to the individual sellers for a 40% discount off retail. So, the seller pays $60 for the kit. Most sellers won't sell for the full $100 retail price, though, and will discount it about 20%, which drops the $100 cost down to about $80 off of full retail. That gives the seller a 20% profit, or so it would seem. Then there are the hidden costs, such as credit card fees, employees, utilities, rent/mortgage, etc. The credit card fees alone are 2-3%. Now the 20% profit is down to 17%. All of the other items, spread out across all sales, will probably amount to close to 7%. So now the profit for the seller is down to about 10%. That's not a very big margin. As far as the MSRP on the Tamiya Tomcat, I can't speak to what that exactly means. Is that for the Japanese home market? Even Tamiya didn't announce an MSRP that low. The F-14A was announced at $115, so I'm not sure why there would be such a discrepancy between the announced MSRP and what is printed on the box. In the end, what you finally pay depends on how much the importer wants to make. They have quite a bit of influence into what the final cost is. What I'm still trying to figure out is how some sellers are selling kits at 30% or more discounts. They can't be making any profit. Maybe they're hoping that people will buy other items to make up for the loss.

 

I’m going back to the 1999-2005 time frame when I did most the ordering for a model shop. I wasn’t staff at the shop, but I was friends with the owner. Back in those days mark-up from the distributor was 100%. If the kit sold for $40.00, the shop owner paid $20.00 for the kit.

 

Times were better then, I remember ordering four cases of 1/48 Hasegawa Starfighters and three cases of 1/48 Hasegawa F-18Ds. They’d be gone in a few days. Hasegawa was the hot seller in those days, Mikerian Mercantile was only a few hours drive away.

 

I’m willing to be the mark-up is still 100% from the distributor.

 

I’ve seen the Tamiya F-14D listed from $74.99 US to $124.99 US. I don’t get that discrepancy.

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1 hour ago, Scooby said:

 

I’m going back to the 1999-2005 time frame when I did most the ordering for a model shop. I wasn’t staff at the shop, but I was friends with the owner. Back in those days mark-up from the distributor was 100%. If the kit sold for $40.00, the shop owner paid $20.00 for the kit.

 

Times were better then, I remember ordering four cases of 1/48 Hasegawa Starfighters and three cases of 1/48 Hasegawa F-18Ds. They’d be gone in a few days. Hasegawa was the hot seller in those days, Mikerian Mercantile was only a few hours drive away.

 

I’m willing to be the mark-up is still 100% from the distributor.

 

I’ve seen the Tamiya F-14D listed from $74.99 US to $124.99 US. I don’t get that discrepancy.

Those were the days! 

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2 hours ago, Scooby said:

 

I bought my first Tamiya F-14A in Canada for $89.99 ($69.35 US) from a local shop.

 

If this North American shop can make money with the kit passing through a distributor the rest of NA should be able to do the same.

Are they actually making money on that specific kit, though? SB has it for $91. That includes their discount from the MSRP of $115. I can tell you that the price you paid is not much more than the cost SB has to pay to the distributor. So how is the shop you purchased from doing it? There are only two possible ways. 1. They have a special deal with the distributor and pay less or 2. They are not making a profit on the Tamiya F-14 and are depending on sales of other items to supplement. It really all comes down to how much the distributor is charging. What we pay to the hobby shop, whether on line or brick and mortar, is directly proportional to that cost. 

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7 hours ago, Scooby said:

Is the MSRP $115?

 

Or is it 7700 Yen?

I guess that's the big question. Roof's explanation may help with that. 7700 yen may be for the domestic market. It's kind of like R/M before they went away. We got them cheap over here, but they were expensive in Japan.

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3 hours ago, Darren Roberts said:

I guess that's the big question. Roof's explanation may help with that. 7700 yen may be for the domestic market. It's kind of like R/M before they went away. We got them cheap over here, but they were expensive in Japan.

 

Yeah that was what I was told so many years ago when the Monogram kits were everywhere. I even heard that in the UK the Monogram kits were really high but that made sense I guess with the shipping over to the UK and Europe. Hey I remember paying $17 CDN for a 1/48 F-4 Phantom by Monogram and then the Hasegawa versions started to be released and they were selling for about $25. Wow that was expensive back then. Now THOSE were the days.

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On 6/1/2018 at 6:16 AM, Darren Roberts said:

I guess that's the big question. Roof's explanation may help with that. 7700 yen may be for the domestic market. It's kind of like R/M before they went away. We got them cheap over here, but they were expensive in Japan.

 

No, I think the yen amount is the worldwide suggested retail. At least it used to be. When Tamiya started their new toolings of 1/48 kits I used to compare what I was paying in North America with what is on the side of the box. In the last 7-10 years the prices have creeped up. But not at my local shop.

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On ‎6‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 6:11 PM, Scooby said:

 

Buy American Japanese kits?

No, buy Monogra. . . . . .oh, hang on. . . 
He meant Renwa. . .oh, hang on
He meant Haw. . . oh, hang on
He meant Lindber. . . .oh, hang on
He meant AM. . . oh, hang on
He meant Accurate Miniatur. . . OH, hang on
He meant Amte. . . Oh, hang on. . .

Your Chinese overlords are watching.

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Does it come with a crew of 1:48 ordnancemen to hoist that GBU-31 into the rear shackle properly? Kidding...

 

Impressive decals. They got the placement of the stars and bars on the nose correct - they were a little higher than normal on AJ-213.

 

Do the instructions tell the modeler to fill in the glove vane outline? F-14Ds didn’t have those...

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3 hours ago, Skull Leader said:

point of order: Your F-14D has glove vanes.

 

Didn't some have the glove vanes? I thought he remanufactured ones might have still had them. IIRC, the were locked down and non functional, but still slightly visible.

 

mason

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It's my understanding that the B's and D's were puttied over. One thing I've learned about the D, there was a thicker part of the wing glove behind where the vane was positioned. I'm thinking of doing it in vinyl. That would at least give a representation of it. It's hard to see, but a fellow ARCer, who is very knowledgeable about the D, pointed it out.

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