mazdaprotege4

My Feedback: (32)

I was just seeing if there was anyone else who funded their addition by doing this. I usually buy things on eBay that come with tons of misc parts and then sell the parts to cover the cost of the vehicle (I got a Tamiya Striker and Parts lot for $42, but I actually sold off the extra parts for more than the original purchase, leaving me with a free Striker). Just seeing if I am the only one who actually does this?

redfisher1974

You crook.... Just joking good for you.

mazdaprotege4

My Feedback: (32)

I know it is probably not the best thing to do, but this hobby can get real expensive quick, so this is the easiest way to keep it under control.

calvino

I hve heard people will purchase like revo's.... from ebay, then sell the PARTS from them for more than they paid for the car and make alot of $$$$. Its almost like its "cheaper" to sell the parts off slightly discounted than to sell the whole car as a lot. Shure it takes more time... but it can pay off [8D]

Barber420

My Feedback: (1)

I haven't sold anything yet, but I've been stockpiling a LOT of vintage AE parts. I have MANY original RC10 and RC10T white parts I've been buying up over the past several months. Some I've gotten outrageous deals on and others just a fair deal. However, I'm going to keep whording these parts until they are no longer available. Then in 5-10 years when they become extremely rare, it starts raining money for me!!! I'd say if the economy weren't in the shape it's in I'd have about $7,000-9,000(easy) in original white parts and chassis' that I've paid around $1,000-1,800 for just buy being patient and watching the right auctions(I love the ones that end in the middle of the night, so easy to get a GREAT deal). I figure, going by what the old Tamiya's are worth, I should have about $20,000 worth of parts right now so long as I hold onto them for the next 5-10 years! I'll keep buying too! I know when it comes down to it though, it's going to be very hard to part with most of this stuff.

Access

That just seems kinda loopy, if you can do it than more the power to you, but I have to wonder who is actually paying that good money for those kinds of things. A market can be driven be 'rarity', making values rise, but ultimately artificial rarity will collapse. The manufacturers themselves gain nothing from the secondary market. If they can profit from destroying it, they won't hesitate to do so, and ultimately it's the manufacturers that are 'in control', since they are the guys who create the parts in the first place.

When I was growing up, this cycle happened with all sorts of artificially 'rare' collectables, collectable sports or gaming cards, comic books, etc. You'd have a run-up in value created by artificial rarity, and then the creators would find a way to make even more profit off the item, at the cost of the collectible market which meant nothing to them anyways (never helped their own profits). The collectible market would 'crash', the big losers would be collectors or speculators.

Anyways hoarding things of value you don't need in a deflationary economy is a losing proposition, in a deflationary economy the only thing you want to hoard is cash.

Barber420

My Feedback: (1)

Not really worried about cash. I'm not affected as most. Half of all my stock investments are lost, but that doesn't worry me. The economy will come back and I'll make the money lost back and all will be well again in the world. I'm not necassarily hoarding these parts strictly as an investment to resell them. The MAIN intention of the vintage AE hoarding is so that I never have to stop driving my vintage AE stuff. The secondary purpose is to sell them in the future for a large profit. I still run all of my old stuff except for a couple of shelf queen models(Edinger, Vintage LB, etc...) and once in a blue moon parts break. Nowadays I can't just go to the LHS and pick them up, so I buy doubles, triples, quadruples, etc... of stuff online and save it for myself. Things that I managed to get 8 sets of I know I won't use, but they were cheap. Therefore many of those kinds of parts will be sold off in the future. Foolishly, a lot of people are selling items they've been holding onto to try and get a quick few bucks. To me, it's not worth it to take a loss on anything right now, but I will prosper from others. Ah Capitalism. If you have to sell vintage stuff you've been holding onto to pay the bills then I understand and I truly feel for you, but I'm not in that situation so I'll take advantage. Also, I'm not really creating artificial rarity by having several hundred vintage parts. I'm seeing all kinds of stuff for sale right now that you wouldn't see in better times, so I'm sure their aren't many others out there holding onto tons of parts. In fact, I'm seeing a lot of people sell entire collections of vintage RC's just to get some quick cash. I try to take advantage of the deals while they're there.

Access

You're not creating artificial rarity by buying the parts, the manufacturer is by no longer selling those parts. 'Artificial' b'cos tommorow if they (the manufacturer) sees profit in it, they may decide to make another run of those parts and sell them to the public, essentially destroying any value that was there in the secondary market. In fact it may not even be the original manufacturer, just anyone who sees profit in doing so.

Think of it 5 years down the line, two things can go wrong, either enough people do the same thing you're doing and competition keeps you from making significant profits, or if a lot of people are 'flipping' the parts Associated might see sufficient profit in it and make a bunch more.

Anyways just something to think about, no big deal really. From the prospect of buying them to have around 'just in case', you can't really go wrong there, especially with all the cheap sales.

Barber420

My Feedback: (1)

Yeah, I've actually been thinking about starting a small ebay business out of the house here that specializes in reproducing original Associated white parts. I have to look into the legal aspect of things more to make sure AE won't be able to sue me, but I think if I'm using a proprietary plastic, and sell them as "Aftermarket Reproduction parts" things should be all good. I don't think it would be that hard to make molds to do it, but I'm sure it would take a while to figure out which plastic is most durable, least staining, etc... Would be fun doing the product testing though! Probably wouldn't be real profitable for a few more years though.

Access

No more than Traxxas can go out and sue RPM for putting out compatible A-arms... a lot of companies make aftermarket parts that are compatible by design.

They had a thread a while back about making your own molds, but when I looked into it, it seemed pretty time consuming to just make one mold. I know in industry we have a printer-like thing that prints plastic straight onto something in a 3-D fashion, which they use in going from 3-D models to prototypes. But this 'printed' plastic is rather flimsy, not very useful for anything other than demos and mock-ups.

DaveG55

The problem I see with having a bunch of vintage parts on hand with the intent of making a large profit on them is that in, say, 5 - 10 years there may well be fewer of those parts around but there will also be fewer of those vehicles around. and as the parts for them became increasingly scarce the people with those cars quit driving them and thus quit breaking parts. You may stillsell some but I don't see it making a large profit. Still, since you have a fleet of cars that need those parts you'll at least have them for your stuff.

To the OP, my brother buys and sells trucks on e-bay all the time. He watches for ones with the upgrades he wants, buys them at a discount, takes what he wants, puts stock parts back on the donor truck and sells it - often for more than he paid in the first place. Personally, it's more trouble thanI want to go through, but he enjoys it and ends up with nice trucks for not much money.

The_Collector

Most of what I find on eBay I keep for myself, mainly old Kyosho stuff. I would rather run my vintage glow cars, so it makes sense to put away all of the extra parts for later. The part lots and package deals are indeed the best. Many times I have bought a car with radio and starter box. The starter box always sells, and usually folks will buy a working 2 channel radio if it's cheap enough. I don't really expect to make much from it, just help the hobby fund itself, and try to get what I need for the least cost.

mazdaprotege4

My Feedback: (32)

I agree with "the collector". I am not trying to make a ton of money (just trying to fund the hobby). I usually just sell the parts for a little below what they are probably worth, to get them sold sooner (I sold a Kyosho Salute body for $23 which I am sure is too cheap, but I didn't want it laying around)

J.D.T

I have done the parting thing dozens of hundreds of times with real cars and made a little to alot depending on the car, in the rc world I am more of a buy a $40-250 rtr that won't run, give er a pinch/cleaning/whatever invest a little if anything is needed and resell at +60 +90 +250 whatever the market will hold lol, I bought a $400 fg once, changed the plug and sold it for $595 the next day, easiest money I ever made, five minutes $192 profit.
There are several guys on the internet that buy kits and then part them out, I have have good dealing with them on HPI MT2 and Savage parts, when you can score a set of arms for $5 or cvds pair for $15 good deal for you and it allows them to sell off all the piddly litte parts, if hpi wants $6 for knuckles you'd be suprised how many people will pay $3.95 shipping on a $.99 auction to save $1.04, escpecially the younger guys, saving $1 each time will certainly add up. I know guys do it to e t maxx and revos so there is always a steady supply of cheap stock parts around, the traxxas stuff makes it a little harder cause you are paying for the radio and electronic stuff which isn't really worth a whole lot on ebay.
I agree 100% about the rarity thing, you can't create a market, the market developes itself, I have about 1000 hotwheels, mostly fords and jeeps/offroaders but a few from every make, I bought them for personal enjoyment, not like my brother in law who has over 20,000 and says they are his retirement plan????? He always brags about one $30 set he got that is so limited its up to $265 allready, he has stored the thing for 10 years for minimal profit IMO, especially when you consider he has other $30 sets that are worth $12 BNIP on ebay right now. The only rc collector I know has over 100 kits BNIP, some older tamiyas that are worth $400-2000 in his mind, some newer tt 01 kits that are worth $80, he is constantly on the lookout however as his collection is always shifting, he will trade two for one, one for three and never blink an eye

Airbus 9e

Lately I've been listing things on CL just to clear out my shop some.....mostly stuff that's been upgraded, or just outlived it's usefulness.....

kistner

My Feedback: (10)

every time I buy a fixer upper to resell, I end up liking it and keeping it. I almost sold my HPI a few months ago and when the deal fell through I was relieved, ended up running it all winter. I did sell one car for like a $50 profit, and like everyone else I sell the extra bits I don't need/want. I want to be a 'flipper' but I just can't cut the cord.