Amazed

[Mike Griffin]

Someone has some silkspan up for auction on ebay.  The description is, 30pc K&S Roll Silkspan White 24x36" RC Airplane Cover Sheets 00 #1100 *NOS*

With almost 3 days left to go, the bid is $153.00.   For paper...to cover a model....

WOW

Mike

[944_Jim]

I did the cost per square inch...it won't be much longer before it is cheaper to paper with dollar bills!

[Mike Griffin]

I did the cost per square inch...it won't be much longer before it is cheaper to paper with dollar bills!

I think we are already there Jim.

Mike

[Mike Griffin]

As my very good friend, Dean Pappas often says: "There's only one hobby... spending money!"

Bob

I like that Bob.

Mike

[Dan McEntee]

  I thought things were settling down on eBay but I have witnessed the same as you mike recently. I really think that there is just a small group of people out there willing to bid crazy money on this stuff. The worst I ever saw was over 300 bucks for a box of silk span. I saw a seller offering some banshee kit parts, enough for 2 kits I think, and they went for well north of 300 bucks also. I don't remember if there were plans or not included. Like the old saying goes, it only takes two participants at an auction that really want the item to drive things crazy and I really believe it is just a very few people in the whole country driving these prices. I usually check the bidding record and you can see what the activity is and who is bidding. 
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[Steve Lotz]

And to think I paid 25 cents a sheet for silkspan because $1.00 for silk was too expensive for me back in the day.

[john e. holliday]

Well some people have more money than sense.

[Brett Buck]

  I thought things were settling down on eBay but I have witnessed the same as you mike recently. I really think that there is just a small group of people out there willing to bid crazy money on this stuff. The worst I ever saw was over 300 bucks for a box of silk span. I saw a seller offering some banshee kit parts, enough for 2 kits I think, and they went for well north of 300 bucks also. I don't remember if there were plans or not included. Like the old saying goes, it only takes two participants at an auction that really want the item to drive things crazy and I really believe it is just a very few people in the whole country driving these prices. I usually check the bidding record and you can see what the activity is and who is bidding. 

  Some of it is genuine need, but don't underestimate people wanting to buy credibility. Effectively, they are trying to make it so they can claim to be "old school"; that is, they were doing it "before it became cool".

       I saw the same thing in rockets in the early days of eBay, the most notable being a "original" Astron Space Plane kit (with the green corrugated hang tag) for $1600, and another one where someone wanted to buy just the *box* for the Centuri Little Joe II kit for $400. I know the purchasers of both of those, and they were desperate to make themselves seem like big shots by having a bunch of old stuff around, the implication being that they had been doing this so much longer than you and I that they were super-cool.

     BTW, an Astron Space Plane kit sold for $1.80 and consists of a very crude body tube (wound from manila file folders), a balsa nose cone about 3/4x2", and a couple of 9" sheets of the worst 1/16 balsa you ever saw, Sterling would have rejected it. The only exotic part were two 2-56 x3/8 nylon pan-head screws that even now sell for about a dollar for 1000 of them.  The heavy wood was actually necessary, because if you built this model too light, it was either unstable on boost, or did death dives on the glide.

    Also, don't overlook the possibility that someone is trying to buy it up to flip it for 2x, one $10 sheet at a time. I think that is about what an entire roll of Polyspan costs!

      Brett

[Colin McRae]

It's really very simple. Something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Good old capitalism.

[Steve Helmick]

It could also be that somebody is just driving up the price on behalf of the seller, and the "buyer" will never actually pay or want to receive the item. I do know a guy that actually sold a pristine K&B GH .35 BOX...no engine...for $110. Lunacy, IMO.  Steve

[Ken Culbertson]

Well some people have more money than sense.

I am open to a swap......

Ken

(money for sense because not having money makes no sense)

[David_Ruff]

Lots of insanity out there. 

[Mike Griffin]

Well, somebody paid $164.00 for the 30 sheets of silkspan.  They must have wanted it awfully bad.  I wonder if it was a true modeler of just a narcissistic hoarder.

Mikie

[Marty Hammersmith]

Well, somebody paid $164.00 for the 30 sheets of silkspan.  They must have wanted it awfully bad.  I wonder if it was a true modeler of just a narcissistic hoarder.

Mikie

That may seem crazy to people who have been in the hobby long enough to remember when milk was free, gas was a nickel and model airplane kits were a dime. To other's in 2023 it's not that crazy. The auction sale price is less than twice what Brodak is selling as their versions of silkspan. If you watch Sparky's videos, you watch him wet another brand of silkspan and he tears it while explaining how much nicer it was to work with the much more cooperative K&S brand silkspan. One could look at that and say, ok, it's going to take 3 sheets to cover my model. That's $9.88 from Brodak for their current stock, OR $16.40 for what at least one popular quality builder calls a better quality brand. For a difference of $6.52 the buyer gets to work with K&S quality material AND has 27 more sheets in his hands for future projects. I don't find the sale price too crazy when one considers the potential issues one may have just avoided by snatching the K&S silkspan.

I don't mean to knock Brodak. It's what I am using. It's working fine for me so far. I was just using their availability and price in my example.


FYI, I am not the buyer. Lol.

[john e. holliday]

To that perso the price was worth it to him.  Way back a few years ago I bought a Cox .049 RRI for a $100.00.  It was worth it to me as I had not seen one before and it was not a reed valve.  I still have it as well as Another one I picked up.  Also found the rear rotor valves for clock wise rotation.  On Combat Kittens they were faster than the TeeDees were on the other planes.  I only used 10% nitro fuel also.  with 6-3 nylon props.  I think the engine sold originally for $9.95.  I too when I see some thing I really want I will pay the price.  But it does seem that some things on The bay get ridiculous bids.

[David_Ruff]

That may seem crazy to people who have been in the hobby long enough to remember when milk was free, gas was a nickel and model airplane kits were a dime. To other's in 2023 it's not that crazy. The auction sale price is less than twice what Brodak is selling as their versions of silkspan. If you watch Sparky's videos, you watch him wet another brand of silkspan and he tears it while explaining how much nicer it was to work with the much more cooperative K&S brand silkspan. One could look at that and say, ok, it's going to take 3 sheets to cover my model. That's $9.88 from Brodak for their current stock, OR $16.40 for what at least one popular quality builder calls a better quality brand. For a difference of $6.52 the buyer gets to work with K&S quality material AND has 27 more sheets in his hands for future projects. I don't find the sale price too crazy when one considers the potential issues one may have just avoided by snatching the K&S silkspan.

I don't mean to knock Brodak. It's what I am using. It's working fine for me so far. I was just using their availability and price in my example.


FYI, I am not the buyer. Lol.

This is actually a brilliant analysis.

[Ken Culbertson]

My local hobby shop, now long gone, sponsored my plane for the '64 Nats.  Total cost INCLUDING a Fox 35 was about $25.

Ken

[Mike Griffin]

I think Brett's analysis is about the best on this subject. 

Mike