Selling Star Ships?

Post by **Natalya** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 12:37 am

So like if I were to throw this on EBAY for $500, would any of you buy it, or do you know anyone who would?

$500 because it costs at least that much in parts.

Post by **IVhorseman** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:52 am

You'll get at least 500. Leave it up to auction though, you can definitely score a lot for something this size/quality.

NINJA EDIT: I'd buy it, but I'd feel bad about taking it apart. So that's a no from me.

Post by **birdman** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:21 am

i would definitely buy it... if i had 500$ to spare.

Post by **501stCadians** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 8:13 am

Bought. Perhaps you should sell instructions for like 20-50 bucks?

Post by **OneEye589** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 8:35 am

What?! You're selling that piece of amazing?!

For all of the parts and everything I would say just take it apart yourself and keep the parts if you didn't want it anymore. You said yourself that it is worth at least that much with parts.

Post by **Natalya** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:52 am

I didn't say I was gonna sell it, I said if I were to sell it, could I at least get a return on the parts invested in it.

The idea is for me to throw it up on EBAY, starting bid of $500 but reserve set to $900. If it got over 900 I'd have to sell it (and totally would for this much), but then I'd use that money to order more parts and make a bigger, badasserer star ship, then I'd probably sell that one off too for a bigger profit. I need the money for car parts lol.

Alternatively, I like the instructions idea. How would I go about that?

Post by **OneEye589** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 12:33 pm

Okay, I thought that would be crazy, but if you need money for something else right now it makes sense. If you do get enough to buy all the parts and then some I guess that would make sense. I could just never see myself doing that I guess.

Post by **Shaeph** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:44 pm

I would definetly buy it...
except for shipping

Post by **RoC77** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:14 pm

Wow, I wouldn't know how to even start setting up instructions on how to build her. It took me over a month of my spare time for my ASHIP.

You would first have to inventory your parts so they know what to get. Then you could breakdown each section with detailed photos, with a list of parts used. And have someone go through the photos and see if there's some piece or technique that they don't see or understand.

I think the worst part would be the inventory.

Post by **RagnarokRose** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:18 pm

NO. Don't sell it, whatever you do.

I would buy it for $500... you could probably sell it for $650 though.

Post by **MasterEcabob** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:58 pm

I bet you could get some major money off your Czech Republic fleet, especially if you sold them all together.

Post by **ace121** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 12:55 am

*twitch* It's times like this that I wish I was a man of independant means. Damn being 16. I would seriously offer as high as 500-600 USD if I had the cash on hand.

Stupid not being a famous director yet... Would you take a pre-order of, say, ten to fifteen years?

Post by **james+burgundy** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:38 pm

no way in hell for $500 maybe $150 but $500 never just not the good a ship lest not for that much

Post by **ace121** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 12:23 am

Dude! That thing is at least as large and intricate as the $499 millenium falcon. 500 would be a perfectly fair price.

That being said, (Especially in a reccession) not many peple would shell out that much for a hunk of plastic.

Remember, 15 year pre-order, got it

?

Post by **davee123** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 1:28 am

Honestly, I'd go with "nah". Are people really going to shell out $500+ for this? If someone wanted the parts, they'd just buy the ones they wanted off of BrickLink or eBay, where they know what they're getting in advance. Or they'd get discounted Lego sets, or even garage-sale-style bulk lots from Ebay which are cheap as dirt.

My AT-AT is about comparable at roughly 5000 pieces, which would cost ballpark $500-$1000 these days (assuming it was new gray, not old gray, or some other non-rare color). When I built it, BrickLink wasn't really what it is today, so it was probably more like $500-$2000 at the time, depending on how lucky you got with your sources.

Anyway, I never actively tried selling my AT-AT, but I got several offers from people who were willing to pay in the $500-$1000 range. So, people were willing to pay approximately what they felt the pieces themselves were worth, but no more.

I know a few other AFOLs who have sold MOCs, but the pre-built MOCs typically don't sell for that much. In my experience, the few other AFOLs I've known to have done this have either regretted selling or simply changed their minds and didn't sell, because it wasn't worth it.

There are a few people out there (Dan Siskind is the only one who comes to mind) who made "kits" of comparable size and were able to sell them at a worthwhile price-point, but from what I know they're few and far between. I believe most of the AFOL-designed kits are smaller and sell for a more "affordable" cost, like $100 or less. Of course, those also come with instructions, and are easy to ship, unlike this where you've got to figure out some way to send a completed (and likely delicate) model through the mail.

Anyway, I'd expect you'd make about the cost of pieces, but not really any more. So if you need the money, by all means go for it, but I wouldn't expect it to really sell for all that much. I'd doubt you'd meet the $900 reserve on eBay.

DaveE