Best deal you ever got on a kit from a store

[philp]

Not talking internet deals or freebies you got from your mates.  Actual best sale you ever grabbed the item from.

Reason I ask is I got a decent deal today and want to brag

So, mainly build 72nd and have wanted the Revell Gato since it came out but $100 is just not in my model budget.  Hobby Lobby has had a couple and I have been waiting for the fabulous 40% off coupon to snag one.  Coupon came out last week so down I went and their kits were on sale 30% off so can't use the coupon and the Gato was on Clearance for $70.  Still a little too high for me so I left it. 
This weeks coupon was only 25% off and I wanted one of the Viper kits for another project (see elsewhere) so hit a different location and no Viper and no sub 
So back to the other location and neither are on the shelves in the model isle.  Looked around and found a bunch of stuff on clearance and low and behold, the Viper kit was on for $16.19 so snatched it up and looked down and there were the Gato's only now they are marked at $35.99.  So just had to grab one.  Still don't know if I will ever build the beast but even if I sell it later, should make a little profit off it.

So, what was your best store deal?

[puddingwrestler]

Fujimi Toyota 2000GT. Usually around $40AUD. Got it from a specials bin for $15. This was around 2001 or so, the prices would have gone up by now.

[Steel Penguin]

Tamiya dragon wagon and drag in 1:35, when b d price were shuting down in wolves, got it for  £60 if i remeber right was £80 ish at the time i think.  or the 1:48 TSR2 with resin pit and bomb bay sets for £20 at the Hamex show last year.  The guy selling it said that hed never do it and wanted the room..... bingo.

[The Rat]

Probably this piece o' crap, an abysmal Russian collection of plastic parts impersonating a bad model of a MiG 19:



It got turned into the Flunker, details here. I got it from a dumped collection for the princely sum of $5, but some collector sites are asking up to $145 depending on the condition of the original Lindberg box. I would love to see the faces of collectors who discover that I actually built it! 

[sequoiaranger]

Way back when about the only German 1/72 fighter you could get was the Revell Me-109E and Fw-190A (before Airfix came to American shores), Lindberg put out a fabulous series--Me-163, He-162, Do-335, Me-410, Fw-190D, and the He-100. These were a whopping $.98 each. A local hardware store was talked into carrying models, but I guess they didn't sell well, and the store put these gems in a barrel for $.49 each! Needless to say yours truly bought out the barrel!!

Uh, since you asked, that was back in the Stone Age of modeling, about 1961, I think.

[JayBee]

Way back when about the only German 1/72 fighter you could get was the Revell Me-109E and Fw-190A (before Airfix came to American shores), Lindberg put out a fabulous series--Me-163, He-162, Do-335, Me-410, Fw-190D, and the He-100. These were a whopping $.98 each. A local hardware store was talked into carrying models, but I guess they didn't sell well, and the store put these gems in a barrel for $.49 each! Needless to say yours truly bought out the barrel!!

Uh, since you asked, that was back in the Stone Age of modeling, about 1961, I think.

SQ yes I remeber those Lindbergh models, and thankfully the He-100 has reappeared over here in  recent years under the REVEL lable.
However I must take you to task about "the Stone Age of Modelling". What was it that I was doing back in 1957/8 with FROG Meteors, Venoms, Attackers, etc.?


However back to point of this thread, I think the best deal I have had in recent times was an Airfix Nimrod for £20 in Wonderland in Edinburgh.
My wife and I had gone to Edinburgh just for a days shopping and I found this bargain, they were trying to get rid of their stock.
I posted the info on the forum when I got home and in less than an hour Overkiller advised that their stock had gone down by one more. YES!

What am I going to do with it though?
I have not the faintest idea.
I have thought of extending the fuselage and making it an airliner in VIRGIN ATLANTIC, or BOAC colours.

LoL

JimB

[sequoiaranger]

>However I must take you to task about "the Stone Age of Modelling". What was it that I was doing back in 1957/8 with FROG Meteors, Venoms, Attackers, etc.?<

You were lucky that you lived in the UK, where modeling, especially 1/72 aircraft, was in its heyday long before it caught on over here. Here across the pond in the States, the 1/72-scale had yet to "arrive" in 1961. That year, I was taken to Britain by my mum, and was delightfully astonished at the quantity of 1/72-scale aircraft available from Airfix and FROG. My suitcase coming home was BULGING with bags and boxes of stuff from the LHS. A couple of years later, Airfix began to be distributed in the States as "Airfix 72" and the scale caught on here. Then other "imports" like FROG, Italeri, and Hasegawa showed up to begin a delightful "revolution" in scale modeling.

[ChernayaAkula]

One of the best deals was a Revell 1/48 F-105G, marked down from 17.99 EUR to 2.99 EUR.  

And then there's this Italeri 1/72 F-111Awhich I got for... nuthin' at all. When I took it to the counter and the show owner scanned the bar code, he couldn't get a price. So he looked into his files in the computer and couldn't find it on the inventory. So he looked through a paper ledger and still couldn't find it. So he gave it to me for free!   Said he couldn't well charge me for a kit that, according to his paperwork, shouldn't even be in his shop!  

[PR19_Kit]

I can beat all of them, hands down......... 

I bought a whole model shop's stock for £70.00 back in 1974. 

The guy who ran the local 'we sell everything' shop had a very good stock of plastic kits, of all manufacturers and types. I used to build him display models for his windows so that helped him sell them and he gave me discount on the ones I bought from him. Then he wanted to retire and sell the shop to his two sons, but they weren't interested in the model side so he asked me to take a look at his stock room and make him an offer for the lot. The only trouble was the stock room was about 25 ft long, 15 ft high and one wall was stacked floor to ceiling with kits, at least two or three boxes thick! HUNDREDS of pounds worth and no way I could afford it all, and I told him so. He said he didn't care and that he wanted me to have the stuff 'cos of all the good work I'd done for him in the past, but I said I'd never be able to pay him even a fraction of the stock's value. So he asked me how much spare cash I'd got then, and I said around £70 or so and he said 'That's fine, they're yours!'

It took me all day and about 6-7 large station-wagon loads to get them all back to my house. Explaining all this to my wife at the time was another problem entirely, perhaps that had some bearing on the fact that she's now my EX-wife too. 

But that was the start of my Loft Stock, and I still have some of that stuff to this day, including two Frog 1/96 DC-7Cs...... 

[philp]

Kit, that is fantastic.  You should make a movie.

[PR19_Kit]

The one of my ex-wife beating me about the head you mean? 

[Steel Penguin]

Kit...   i bow before your superior kit-fu... thats amazingly astounding.
i just read it to my wife and her comment was " if you ever manage to do something like that, my only thought would be where are we going to get anouther loft from? "

[The Wooksta!]

Best deals?

CMK Westland Welkin at a show a few years back -£4.00.  Gave the guy a fiver.

Ventura Spitfire F.XIVe at a show a few months back - £3.  I happily paid Dave a fiver.

CMK Seafire Ib, 2 Pegasus Spitefuls (first and second toolings) and a Ventura Spitfire PRXI - £20 at the Hendon show last year.  The Hannants list price on the Seafire was £25...

A local store has the Airfix Nimrod for £15.99.  Our local Modelzone has them for £19.99.

[JayBee]

Kit,

WOW!

[Spey_Phantom]

best deals i got,

a 1/144 revell Lightning F.53 for 89 cents
a 1/72 DH Comet racer for free