The Little World

I’ve seen these advertisements in the back of the newspaper. But they are rarely from hobby shops…

I don’t think we need to make our hobby – scale model building – sleazy and profitable to attract the masses. I am not sure how you’d add porn appeal to an M4 Sherman tank in 1:35 scale, but if it was possible, someone in Japan would do it. As it is, I’ll settle for some way to buy and sell old scale model kits on a regular and honest basis.

Honest means more than pricing, though that comes into it a great deal. Honesty means kits that are all there, whether opened or not. Parts that have not been twisted from their sprue trees. New kits at new prices and old kits at old prices, and not the other way round. If I was reamed and steamed by a second-rate kit maker in the 1960’s I do not want to spend 21st century money to repeat the process.

Honest means not taking off the old Boans department store sticker that tells us the kit sold for $ 2.49 before trying to get $ 50.00 for it. If you are going to be greedy, be openly so.

Honest means selling a ” rare ” kit as a one-off and not having a cardboard carton of 23 more of them in your garage, ready to trap the next yokel.

Honest means being on a real phone number or website. I already have the Calcutta Scam Company on speed-dial and I don’t need more of the same.