What is up with Bronco pricing of late, they seem to want to price themselves to a point where nobody can afford their kits.

http://www.dragonusaonline.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=BOM35209

The Einheits Kfz12 selling for $76USD??? Our local hobby shop got the listing from Dragon USA showing it a $91USD. Again exclusive distribution strikes again, where the distributor is undercutting the stores.

But even with that said, $76USD for a small 4 wheeled vehicle with a gun????? Is it made of gold???

No, just gold plating.

I just took a look at the pricing structure in the UK and that seems to be at odds with the prices being quoted in the US.

What is the UK price? I believe the pricing here in N.America has to do with the exclusive distribution. I am waiting to see the price in China to see if I want to order it.

Cost is $54.19 at Hobby Easy in Hong Kong

Hannants has not set the price as yet, but I went by like releases from Bronco. using that it should be in the mid £30 bracket.

That would but it about $60US, so sounds better. I did find it on Hobby Easy for $76USD, which would be about £40. Bronco here is getting out of touch. The four figure airborne set was selling here for about $40USD or £20.

It's not just Bronco. Spruebrothers here in the US has a "new" DML Panzer III (6606) with Winterketten, list = 87 but price = 69.99. Really? $70 for a repop of a Panzer III? It's a nice kit, but, not at that price. Unless of course all the companies are joining in the price climb.

$70 I could justify for a tank, but $76 for a small vehicle?

You get a lot of stuff in the kit.

And shopping around def makes sense. I got the Pz. III L with Winterketten for $38 at Squadron on one of their insane sale offerings.

Are Bronco themselves setting these prices or their distributer for the region (Dragon I believe for Canada) doing it?

Dragon has the North American distribution rights. They set the price to the brick and mortar stores, then sell it on the their website for much less. But Bronco kits are still expensive on their site.

So are the Dragon kits.

There is a distributor in Canada for Dragon, and I don't believe they get them from Dragon USA.

The dragon distributor in Canada shut down about ten years ago when it was deemed that Dragon USA could easily handle the Canadian market.

I just snatch up deals anymore. These kits have priced me smooth out of buying new kits. Model making is accurizing, and I have well over 500 armor kits, plus aircraft, auto, naval...collecting for over 45 years. I mostly build what I got in the stash. I refuse to pay this kind of coin, and all who do keep the pricing up. Who in their right mind would pay over 30 dollars US for a reboxed 20 year old Italeri jet that's not worth 5 bucks just for a new decal sheet?! Look at Tamiya and their crap business procedures- reboxing someone elses' product, okay. But 'new tooling' and 'new parts' is just a sham to suck more money out of the public.
Oil is dirt cheap, so that poor excuse to raise prices won't work so these manufacturers hit us with high tech molding processes which are used on only a few parts.
But the biggest turd in the bucket is import fees. Everybody gots 'em, and the more countries the product passes through the more we, at the bottom, have to cough up.
I'm not feeding this monster anymore, I gots plenty of meat to keep me busy. Cheers!

Well than, it's raining all over The Netherlands, the weekend starts and some nice models screaming from my bench to continue on.
But first going through the forum list!
To read all this.
Why should we not look at it more possitive? The low oil prices don't influence the price of the model. It is just too little. Prices are driven high by our own "gread" to see more and more details, the newest armour types and an endless choise of types. So, we all together created a market where we paid whatever possible. And now we are apparently coming at the top.We start concluding that modelmakers have just gone over a border by asking just that much too much what wakens us up.
At the other end: who are all involved until a model reaches our table (or stash)? Instrument makers, designers, production staff, traders, customs, shipping companies. Everybody adds his 10 cents and here we go! Not to speak about a shop holder who is 'forced' to have the latest model, all required update sets and at least fiftheen different decal sets!!!! And if he hasn't we leave him alone to never return and order it via the web. And if he wants to fulfill or needs he has to invest quite a lot to keep us satisfied and his shop up and running (not to forget the silly politics of importers who not seldom force this shopkeeper to order at least a minimum amount of € 750 per time!!!!!, as it is usual in The Netherlands).
So, I do understand all the complaints, and I agree upon the fact that some models, certainly the ones we know from decades ago, are quite expensive. But a. we have created it ourselves and b. if you look at it this way: how many Euros/Dollars/whatever is it per hour of joy? Than a bottle of good old wisk(e)y or a good sigar are even more expensive.
But, it's only the way I look at it...........

Well than, fellow modelers, enjoy the weekend, keep on building and let's keep on "complaining about prices" and thereafter drive to our LHS just to buy another model, which most likely will be in the stash for the coming months and for which we pay too much (again).

OK, wait! High pricing for models is a fact of life. Production costs have gone up because of the high technology involved in producing the models that We The Modellers Want. That entails CAD and Slide-Mold Technology, which DO NOT COME CHEAP! High "parts count" requires the necessary molds and precision tooling in order to satisfy our very-often capricious demands and "needs". Let's face it- The level of detail and quality that we demand of our models today are a far cry from what passed as a "great model" back in 1980. All of those delicious "goodies" that we find in the latest kits today COST MONEY TO MAKE. That doesn't just mean hideously-priced slide-molds; it also entails engineering, R&D, packaging and distribution costs, PLUS PAYING the overhead, managerial staff, engineers, clerical staff, and workers' salaries. Oh! And then there's advertising, to boot...

The high retail prices of ANY kit coming from the Asian manufacturers can be offset by buying from the various Asian vendors on ebay. I recently bought a 1/35 BRONCO CB35134 Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.A for about $36.00 USD, PLUS about $18.00 for the Shipping, from an ebay vendor based in China. So, just to round it off, that's $56.00 combined price for the kit and shipping, while DRAGON USA still had this kit on back-order for $61.00 PLUS SHIPPING...

Of course, this kind of pricing isn't quite fair when compared to your basic Local Hobby Shop's pricing, which unfortunately, will run quite a bit higher in price. This is true because many of the LHS' are forced to sell at RETAIL, and CANNOT AFFORD to stay open for business if they sell at a discount comparable to the Asian Hobby Outlets.

If I want to buy ANYTHING anymore, which I am doing less and less often, I will scour the various domestic and Asian vendors on ebay, after having checked with non-ebay US vendors. By and large, even pretty big American Hobby Outlets such as OMNI MODELS, can't really compete with the Asian Hobby Shops' pricing. How can the Asian vendors sell so cheap?

Simple: The Asian Hobby Outlets buy their stock direct from the Asian manufacturers, or from Asian Distributors. Their wares don't have to sail across the ocean first. DUH...

NOTE: SHIPPING COSTS- BEWARE!!! Many times, what will at first be conceived as a "GREAT DEAL" can very quickly turn sour in your mouth because of high shipping costs. The trick is to check the price of the SHIPPING, COMBINED with the SELLING PRICE of the item in question, and then COMPARE the pricing between your vendors to arrive at your "best" choice between them. It's worth the time to "COMPARISON SHOP", if you want to save yourself some money...

All the complaining in the world about model kit and related products' pricing isn't going to do any good; if you want to lighten the load on your wallet, then you'll have to go about your "Hobby Buying" as you would when shopping for anything else. Are you going to buy your next hamburger for the same price that you would spend for prime rib?

Spend a little time on your computer "price-shopping" rather than wasting your time complaining about "high prices'. Forget 1980-pricing! That's GONE, NEVER TO RETURN!!! So again I say, as I've said umpteen times before:

"Get Used To IT!"

The only problem we have in the UK to stop us buying from China is the import duties which have been put up so now instead of getting something up to £18 (approx $25.60) without having to pay import duties it is now £15! On top of this the Royal Mail charges £4 for collecting the duty when delivering the item.
As regards distributors we have a number but one does Tamiya, Italeri, Dragon & Cyber Hobby. The problem then is you only get what they deem to be salable items of course so items like the larger Tamiya acrylic paints 23ml are not imported but available in the rest of Europe, add postage to them & they become expensive.
I still buy smaller items from abroad when the postage is about the same as here, Australia BNA Models for example.

So far the concensus is that we have dug ourselves a hole we have no intention of climbing out of. We complain that the gruel tossed into the pit doesn't have enough rat meat in it until eventually we have gruel with green rat meat and a bonus side of wormy cornbread. Yay say we, marvelling at the preponderance of extra protein the cornbread gives us! Then we find we must pay extra for that meager nourishment by working harder, longer, taking away that precious time we use to enjoy our gruel, and complaining about it. Me included. My previous mention of oil prices reflects not only shipping, but the price of styrene, since it is a petroleum product.
It's a situation difficult to resolve, and that takes too much time. So I think we should grab the knife and get back to parts prep! HAPPY MODELLING YALL!

I do UM rail modelling, as well. This topic has been hot for a while now, after Bachmann UK announced a major price hike. They did, however, post on their website, and in forums, the reasons behind it.

Some of those are the same as have been mentioned here, but also included the labor market in some Asian countries, predominantly China. Wages keep going up, and skilled labor gets harder and harder to find, and retain.

I do have to agree with the comments regarding the modelers who want more and more 'perfection' in kits. The Bronco and Dragon type companies see folks buying their kits, and then shelling out more money for PE and other add on items, and they figure, I assume, "Hey, why don't we include those things, and get that money?" So the price of a kit with all goodies gets expensive, fast. Greta for those who want the items, sucks for those of us who don't.

Having hundreds of kits in a 'stash' to build (something I could never get my head around), and being able to say "hah, I won't pay those prices, I'll build what I have" is great, for those who have that option. However, for someone who is just getting into the hobby, or coming back to it, they will either have to pay higher prices, or give up.

Higher prices are here, as stated, so one can only do some judicious shopping around for a best price, as also stated.

Jim