Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post - 1/45 Centuri Little Joe II

Quote:

Originally Posted by astronwolf

I wonder if the market for old rockets will bottom out as the boomers who collect these things age out of population.

Also, that the people who most wanted to get them already got them long ago.

IIRC, one of those kits, unopened, went for about $1000 in an eBay auction in the late 1990's. That means there were TWO people who wanted it that badly. The "loser" no doubt bought one later for less than $1000. And whoever was #3 in that auction probably got one for less than the #2 bidder got one. And so on.

I should have auctioned off a LOT more collector kits 20 years ago. And yeah, one of mine includes a Centuri LJ-II kit. But seeing that the one mentioned one sat unclaimed for weeks at $80, I might as well keep mine anyway (since I've built so many Little Joes, and the Centuri kits were such an inspiration to me. I flew the hel out of a 1/45 kit, and the Centuri1/100 kit was my 5th-ever successful model rocket). It is indeed among a very few collectibles that I'd like to hold onto....but I'd let it go for $500 in a heartbeat.

I have an Estes Mars Lander kit in its' original box, untouched. Such kits in the 1990's would have gone for many hundreds. Now about a hundred or less due to the Semroc/eRockets clones, only the hard-core of collectors who didn't already get one would be interested in the 1970's era Estes kit now.