Pre-Owned Kits: What's the Deal?

King's pre-owned Mecca

    Lots of hobby shops devote retail floor space to offer a selection of pre-owned model kits.  Pre-owned kits appeal to a variety of hobbyists.  Kit collectors, scratch builders, novice modelers, builders who want to sharpen their skills, and nostalgia seekers regularly purchase pre-owned kits.

    Others simply enjoy "treasure hunting", or the process of perusing stacks of old kits.  It's sort of modeler's "zen", if you will.  Not so "zen" are the feeding frenzies at model shows that can result from a vendor plunking down containers of old kits rescued from abandoned long term storage.  I've seen adults shove kids out of the way to get to the "eureka" find.  It's like women at a shoe clearance!  It's like Walmart when the doors open on Black Friday!  You don't want to be the greeter, but I digress...

    Let's return to the appeal of pre-owned.  Serious kit collectors occasionally find a gem, while scratch builders can acquire loads of random parts.  Look closely at any scratch built sci-fi model and you discover the preponderance of out of context tank, aircraft, and ship parts that "busy up" fictional intergalactic craft.  Scale doesn't matter.  These models are convincing because they appear mechanically complex.

    Pre-owned kits can also be an inexpensive way to knock the rust off your modeling skills.  Build an old kit before you tackle that $167.98 Tamiya 1/32 P-51D Mustang.  New modelers can also acquire skill sets inexpensively by doing a few rounds of pre-owned before tackling new tool kits.  You don't have to hurt your wallet as much to break into the hobby.

Built this as a kid.  I think it had a different box.

    Nostalgic modelers may wish to replace beloved old models of yore or recreate memories of building that AMT Corvette when they were 8 years old (complete with the cussing!).  Sure wish I had kept some of the models I built as a kid.

    Pre-owned kits are generally priced inexpensively for several reasons. Reason one:  they're often somewhat shop worn and not in the best condition so pricing them reasonably makes them attractive to the buyer.  Reason two:  Retailers don't have the time to painstakingly verify all the parts are there.  Taking the time to do so isn't cost effective without raising the price of the kits.  It's a good idea to thoroughly inventory the parts yourself before purchasing a pre-owned kit as all sales of these items tend to be final.  Buyer beware!

Period kits have great box art!