Brodak Major Price Hike

[Joe Ed Pederson]

 

Just went to the Brodak website and the Ringmaster kit jumped 35% and the Legacy 40 jumped 50%.

My income certainly hasn't increased 50%.   I understand they can't stay in business if they lose money, and I sure hope Brodak doesn't go out of business, but those kind of gigantic increases are bound to hurt the volume of their business.

Joe Ed Pederson

[Kafin Noe’man]

Oh boy!

Just saw it, I guess I should fly better and be more careful.

[Mark Mc]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just looked at their 1/2A prices.  Good thing I can scratch build and have a lifetime supply of accessories.  I don't begrudge anyone for pricing what they have to to stay in business, but on a relatively fixed income (recently learned what that really meant), I'm afraid pre-packaged kits are now out of my league.

[Rusty]

$160.00 for a Goldberg Cosmic Wind or it's brother kits isn't going to work.  If they expect that to keep them in business, I think their days are numbered.

Sad to see.

[Gerald Arana]

I just checked out Brodak's web site.............................Holy "bleep"  And I know just who to thank for it! 

Cheers, Jerry


PS: Thanks Joe.

[Dennis Toth]

Theirs is a modest increase. Look at some of the other up 75 - 100%. We need to find an alternative to balsa to get the kit prices down.

Best,    DennisT

[fred cesquim]

RSM raised prices months ago as well, those kits used to be 140-160 $ increase was almost 100%
there is 2 reasons for that: balsa price increase, plywood shortage ( with price increase) and low sales numbers, wich makes a short run expensive.
if they sell as 10 years ago, prices would be better.
for us in brazil it´s impossible to buy, as we have a 5 x 1 cambio rate and 100% taxes upon receiving the kits ( including shipping cost)

[Mike Griffin]

Our club here in New Orleans has, for all practical purposes, lost its flying site.  This,  combined with the sky high prices of kits plus the increased balsa prices, is probably going to be the death nell for me in the hobby.  I have a few kits that I will try to build in the future but after that, I think I am done.  With the cost of living in general crippling the lifestyles of folks like me who are on fixed income, it is going to be hard enough to just buy and pay for the essentials.  I am 75 years old, not in the best of health and I have gone back to work part time just to try and meet the increased cost of food, utilities etc.

I have enjoyed this hobby tremendously, but I think it is time to say goodbye to it as I cannot justify the expense anymore.

Mike

[Rusty]

Our club here in New Orleans has, for all practical purposes, lost its flying site.  This,  combined with the sky high prices of kits plus the increased balsa prices, is probably going to be the death nell for me in the hobby.  I have a few kits that I will try to build in the future but after that, I think I am done.  With the cost of living in general crippling the lifestyles of folks like me who are on fixed income, it is going to be hard enough to just buy and pay for the essentials.  I am 75 years old, not in the best of health and I have gone back to work part time just to try and meet the increased cost of food, utilities etc.

I have enjoyed this hobby tremendously, but I think it is time to say goodbye to it as I cannot justify the expense anymore.

Mike

     Mike, you ain't going anywhere.  You're in this until your last breath.  I think this is the 5th time you have said this and in fact, sold your stuff.  But, here you are.   You're stuck just like us.   

[Steve Berry]

 

Steve

[Aaron Baxter]

The thing that keeps me away from Brodak at times is the $16 flat shipping. It's fine if I buy a bunch of stuff but if I need a few small parts I look elsewhere. 

[Phil Spillman]

In part you can the "Green Energy" bull @#$% for most of this as the wind mill blade making people have bought up th great majority of ALL BALSA and chopp it all up, mix it with epoxy and stuff that mix into blade molds to make wind mill farms! If our government would only pull its head out of it's butt and grow some common sense we might not have many of the inflationary tendancies we are all experiencing! For the time being whatever their prices Brodak is the only answer!

Phil spillman

[john e. holliday]

Phil,  the people that were elected by people with no common sense are the ones who can't hold a decent job and expect us that used to work to support them.   If any of our politicians, no matter waht level of government had any common sense we would not be in this fix.  Granted wind turbines might be fine for some areas but not in all areas.   The suspending of our oil pipeline that already had way too much money spent on it doesn't help.  Now trying to force electric power in place of internal combustion is just pure brain dead thinking.  Look at the peple growing our food on the super farms.  As one farmer stated many times during the year his eauipment is going 24 hours aday for tilling soil, planting the seeds and then harvasting does not work when electric powered equipmen is out in the middle of several hundred acres of land and it needs to be charged.  Can't use solar chargers in the middlle of the night.

When I was asked who I going to ote for last election, I stated I would vote for anybody who has not been in any political office.  Remember back decades ago when people who ran for a political office usually had a job or business to support them when they needed to be at the location of place they were voted to be at when needed.  Look at how many are out campaigning instead of being in their elected position.  They also pay more for campaigning than the salary pays for the posution.  But when you have the gift of gab and can't hold a regular job get into politics.

Now I just recieved an increase in my social security that I worked for most of my life and all the utilities have made increases which when added together wipes out the increase I got.  But I have enough stashed away in the shop to keep me busy for what time the good LORD lets me keep doing it.   

[Bill Morell]

And a lot of people thought I was nuts for stock piling kits, engines and everything else that goes into them. Inflation be damned. I have more stuff than I'll ever be able to use. Life is good.

[Dan McEntee]

And a lot of people thought I was nuts for stock piling kits, engines and everything else that goes into them. Inflation be damned. I have more stuff than I'll ever be able to use. Life is good.

    Great minds think alike!! I just accumulated kits and stuff thinking that companies go out of business all the time, so grab things while you can. Lots of people called me crazy when I bought all those old river boat balsa life preservers , also! In 1970, who would have ever thought that Goldberg, Top Flite, Sterling, MidWest and some of the other standard company would no longer exist?? I didn't ever foresee this time coming, though. Whoever thought that it would be so hard to get good glow plugs or fuel?? C/A should be available in some form or another. When Ambroid became extinct, we had SIGMENT to fall back on, but with the things going on at SIG we may not be able to get that any longer. On some ways, it's like time has gone backwards to the period of the 20's and early 30's when not of the stuff we took for granted didn't even exist!! I'm having trouble realizing that SIG won't exist as they always have been in my life time!!
    Type at you later,
     Dan McEntee

[John Carrodus]

This disease kills human activity and spirit down here too and is in strong form. It's what we call Slidenomics.

[pat king]

The cost of wood and supplies is not driving kit prices up nearly as much as the cost of postage. The terrible postage prices do not just affect the shipping from the dealer to the customer. They affect the cost of everything but labor that goes into the kit. Labor costs may go up at about the rate of inflation, but postage increases are unbelievable!! Postage is set to go up again on the 22 of this month. That may force me to increase my prices again, and I think my prices are already too high. That being said I will not operate my business at a loss, I don't have to make much profit, but I will not keep going at a loss. 

Pat

[pat king]

One thought for those who want to scratch build. Full size .pdf files of the plan sheet/set for any of my airplanes are only $5.00 and there is no shipping involved. The files are delivered directly to your inbox. All my plans show all parts full size on the plans. Those files can be printed at any copy shop that has a large format printer.  That price will not go up regardless of the increase in materials or postage. 

Pat

[Dave_Trible]

One thought for those who want to scratch build. Full size .pdf files of the plan sheet/set for any of my airplanes are only $5.00 and there is no shipping involved. The files are delivered directly to your inbox. All my plans show all parts full size on the plans. Those files can be printed at any copy shop that has a large format printer.  That price will not go up regardless of the increase in materials or postage. 

Pat

Pat I'd expect this to be the way of the future in our sport.  We also have a few who can laser cut parts from files.  Find the wood,  send that and the file to someone with a cutter if an Exacto scares you,  you are in business.

Dave

[Brett Buck]

For the time being whatever their prices Brodak is the only answer!

 https://www.rsmdistribution.com/index.php

    Brett

[doug coursey]

https://vintageperformancemodelairplanes.com/collections/control-line-combat-kits-19-35

[Rusty]

I agree with all of you.   I, like Dan and Bill have more stuff stockpiled than I will ever use.   In fact, I have so much stuff that sometimes I just give people things to help them out.  I will never miss it.   

The postage is totally out of control.  I had a R/C plane called the Weston Magnum (speed plane) that a guy wanted to buy.  It was an ARF and the box was about 5 lbs.  The shipping was about 77.00.  The guy paid it and then backed out saying his wife raised cane.  I refunded.   

[wwwarbird]

 The guy paid it and then backed out saying his wife raised cane.  I refunded.

 That guy needs to grow a pair. 

[Rusty]

 

I agree.  I couldn't understand paying that much for shipping and asked him was he sure before he paid.  He got cocky and said it was peanuts and he had a 6 figure salary.  He paid and then several hours later was saying he couldn't do it because his wife found out.   

Egg shell balls?

I ended up selling it locally. 

[rich gorrill]

How come our kit makers can't use EPO foam like the majority of R/C kit makers? Almost every plane in the AMA journal listed for sale is FOAM, The only balsa and wood planes are the big 3-D planes. Just wondering, if it would reduce the prices.

[Brett Buck]

How come our kit makers can't use EPO foam like the majority of R/C kit makers? Almost every plane in the AMA journal listed for sale is FOAM, The only balsa and wood planes are the big 3-D planes. Just wondering, if it would reduce the prices.

   Tooling costs, among other things. I also think there is nearly no market equivalent of the RC "sport flier" in CL.

     Brett

[pat king]

What Brett said! To get into the Balsa kit business all that is necessary is CAD cutting files for a laser cutter and CAD files for the plans. The laser cuts can be contracted out, the plans can be plotted by a service. There is almost no capital investment required. I no longer even have a plotter for plans because mine broke, and parts are not available. A new plotter is in the $4000.00 range. To do foam airplanes requires tooling for each airplane There is probably more than $10,000.00 tooling for each airplane. I have more than 200 airplane kits.  I would doubt that there are even 2000 C/L airplane kits sold in the USA each year.
Volume allows a lot of cost reduction. 30 years ago if you could sell 5 million 5.7liter V8 engines per year crate engines could be sold at retail for less than $2000.00 each!

NO VOLUME = HIGH COST

Pat

[Teodorico Terry]

I noticed that.  I was thinking about buying a MoBest or Legacy 60 kit before Christmas and now I regret not doing it.  The kits have become pricey but in general they are reasonably well made and the wood is generally of at least decent quality if not better than average.  The one thing that Brodak has done over the years is to update their kits; I believe that most of them are now laser cut and the ribs have the holes which allow you to build them using a jig (in essence, a pair of 5/16 steel rods supported by a pair of brackets; I made my own). The point is this feature makes their wings easy to build.  They also generally include the scrap wood needed to shim the wing if building over a flat board which is a nice touch. Their hardware is generally OK although I have replaced when I felt it necessary.

Regarding the MoBest kit and its price I was surprised to see that delivered to my door it would cost roughly as much as what I paid for a Thunder Gazer kit last year (the website does not show it, but prices for RSM kits might have gone up as well).  Considering the differences in hardware and complexity it is obvious that the MoBest is not in same category as the Thunder Gazer so either the Thunder Gazer is an incredibly good buy or the MoBest is significantly overpriced.

For a C/L sport plane maybe it would make sense for them to offer something with a simple foam wing and wooden fuselage; similar to what Bob Hunt did with the RD-1. The idea would be ease of assembly and minimal use of wood (assuming that the foam wings can be made cheaply enough; say for the price of a rib set).

At any rate, it is disappointing but I will continue to purchase from them. 

[Mike Griffin]

Regarding the MoBest kit and its price I was surprised to see that delivered to my door it would cost roughly as much as what I paid for a Thunder Gazer kit last year (the website does not show it, but prices for RSM kits might have gone up as well).  Considering the differences in hardware and complexity it is obvious that the MoBest is not in same category as the Thunder Gazer so either the Thunder Gazer is an incredibly good buy or the MoBest is significantly overpriced

When I kitted the MoBest, before Brodak, Eric Rule did the laser cutting for me and told me at the time that the kit had more balsa in it than the Thundergazer kit.  If you ever built one of my MoBest kits, you would see why. 

Mike

[Dan Berry]

If you call Brodak instead of ordering on-line shipping can have a lower rate.

The price of balsa isn't the reason for the huge spikes in prices from all the kit makers. I build things. Materials are cheaper than labor.

[Teodorico Terry]

“When I kitted the MoBest, before Brodak, Eric Rule did the laser cutting for me and told me at the time that the kit had more balsa in it than the Thundergazer kit.  If you ever built one of my MoBest kits, you would see why. 

Mike”

Thank you for the clarification, I was not aware of that.  What I was really trying to say that pricing a profile kit with a much lower part count in the same range as a full blown stunner did not make sense. Not sure how the cost of balsa compares against the added laser cutting needed in a more complex design.  The MoBest is on my radar as a future build.

[Mike Griffin]

“When I kitted the MoBest, before Brodak, Eric Rule did the laser cutting for me and told me at the time that the kit had more balsa in it than the Thundergazer kit.  If you ever built one of my MoBest kits, you would see why. 

Mike”

Thank you for the clarification, I was not aware of that.  What I was really trying to say that pricing a profile kit with a much lower part count in the same range as a full blown stunner did not make sense. Not sure how the cost of balsa compares against the added laser cutting needed in a more complex design.  The MoBest is on my radar as a future build.

I wasn't either Terry until Eric told me that.  In any case, the hobby is getting expensive.  The MoBest is a great flying plane and you will not be disappointed.  There are several people on here that have built them.  I think Perry Rose built my kit and then the Brodak kit.  If I am not mistaken, he did a build thread on one of them. 

Mike