TOPIC:

I was thinking recently about how eBay has changed over the years. I first joined it in 1999, and as many of you would remember, there was a golden period from about that time until around 2005, when many vintage parts and cars were available on eBay.
Some sellers would list NIB kits of nearly every vintage tamiya throughout the course of a year. I had a certain optimism that, given time and enough savings, I would eventually get hold of every item I wanted or needed.

Nowadays though, I feel that while Tamiya has flooded the market with many re-releases (which personally I am not interested in, other than for those few parts and components which are indistinguishable from the originals), vintage components have become very scarce in some instances.

Even when you talk about vintage components of the kits that have been rereleased, like say, mechanical speed controllers or original bodysets for Sand Scorcher and Rough Rider. These were absent or different in the re-release kits, and the price decline of original stuff caused by rereleased has also made some sellers reluctant to sell anything original.

Or what about parts like Wild Willy original tyres. A WW or Blazer restorer seeking a new set of those tyres could wait years just to see one come up.

And then as you look into rare cars from other makes (not Tamiya), and try to find parts for those, the odds of finding them just grow longer and longer. As always, tyres are an issue. There are a lot of people who try to restore the Mugen Bulldog and Mugen Bulldog II, but in all my time on eBay I have never seen a brand new spare set of tyres for those classic cars.

What are some of the parts you can never find? Or what are some of the things you have seen become noticeably scarce over the years?

H.

I am a relative newbie on eBay but one item that has become rare for example is a decal sheet for the Top Force Evo.
Last seller I saw that offered it, was asking 135 euro. That's out of control in my book.
Try and find a torque splitter for it these days or the lightweight diff parts...
The car was never rereleased though so that might change - temporarily.

got the manta ray torque splitter a couple of weeks ago and just found the lightweight balldiff kit (53112) last week (both for a decent price)

so don't give up hope

Nice... I'm sure the last two are still out there. Decals is becoming quite a disaster though.
But that's probably the case for many cars...

Hibernaculum wrote:

There are a lot of people who try to restore the Mugen Bulldog and Mugen Bulldog II, but in all my time on eBay I have never seen a brand new spare set of tyres for those classic cars.
H.

Wow I was just cleaning out my garage today and came across my old Mugen Bulldog, I opened the box and I have a brand new set of four genuine Mugen tyres never been put on rims. Unfortunatly I dont think the car will ever go again.

This brings back so many memories.

If you want to sell them, please let me know It would be nice to see some photos either way ....
H.

I'm not sure if I want to sell them just yet I may have a look at the car tomorrow and see if it's worth rebuilding, I just went and took photo's of the tyres for you.







Regards

Hibernaculum wrote:

I was thinking recently about how eBay has changed over the years. I first joined it in 1999, and as many of you would remember, there was a golden period from about that time until around 2005, when many vintage parts and cars were available on eBay.
Some sellers would list NIB kits of nearly every vintage tamiya throughout the course of a year. I had a certain optimism that, given time and enough savings, I would eventually get hold of every item I wanted or needed.

I'm with you H., although I only joined ebay in 2004, I still got the last bit of the good period, where vintage was still vintage, and Tamiya had not yet started the reissue wave.

Hibernaculum wrote:

Nowadays though, I feel that while Tamiya has flooded the market with many re-releases (which personally I am not interested in, other than for those few parts and components which are indistinguishable from the originals), vintage components have become very scarce in some instances.

Even when you talk about vintage components of the kits that have been rereleased, like say, mechanical speed controllers or original bodysets for Sand Scorcher and Rough Rider. These were absent or different in the re-release kits, and the price decline of original stuff caused by rereleased has also made some sellers reluctant to sell anything original.

Definitely! One of the reasons for the low selection of true vintage parts nowadays, is just the reissue parts. Most of the Tamiya fans don't care if the part is a reissue or not, as long as it fits and make the old model run again. So the majority of buyers will go for the low cost reissue parts. That removes a large chunk of the vintage sellers market. They can probably still keep the the prices high because of the original fanatics like you and me, but their volume must have taken a hit. When the volume is no longer there, I suspect they just don't bother to sell their vintage stuff.
This probably alos goes for complete vintage models. Most sellers of a vintage Brat of Hotshot will take a look at ebay and find that it's just not worth selling their vintage model as the prices of the reissues are controlling the market.

Hibernaculum wrote:

Or what about parts like Wild Willy original tyres. A WW or Blazer restorer seeking a new set of those tyres could wait years just to see one come up.

And then as you look into rare cars from other makes (not Tamiya), and try to find parts for those, the odds of finding them just grow longer and longer. As always, tyres are an issue. There are a lot of people who try to restore the Mugen Bulldog and Mugen Bulldog II, but in all my time on eBay I have never seen a brand new spare set of tyres for those classic cars.

What are some of the parts you can never find? Or what are some of the things you have seen become noticeably scarce over the years?

H.

Oh, there are quite a few things i still would like to find.
How about a Ford C-100 in any condition... I have not seen one on ebay for the last 2-3 years... (including NIB's)
Also a Mk.1 hotshot would be great, or only parts for it.

I was in one way "lucky" to whenever I got my hands on a model needing restoration, I would usually get on ebay straight away and source the parts I would need. So, as I still have quite some models to restore, I am fortunate enought to have the majority of parts available already. I did however, restore some Group-C models a couple of months ago, and the real pain was trying to locate the vintage parts among all the reissue parts. I believe that will be one of the main challenges for us purists, in the time to come.

-Lars

Grubby, yes those are the ones! If you don't end up restoring, let me know. I have some of these tyres, but it's always good to have spare.

larbut wrote:

Oh, there are quite a few things i still would like to find.
How about a Ford C-100 in any condition... I have not seen one on ebay for the last 2-3 years... (including NIB's)
Also a Mk.1 hotshot would be great, or only parts for it.

Yes, the Mk.1 Hotshot is rare indeed, and not something I have had any success with. I have 2 NIB original kits and many original parts, but no Mk. 1 at all. Which only bugs me because I idolize the Tamiya catalogue pictures

larbut wrote:

I was in one way "lucky" to whenever I got my hands on a model needing restoration, I would usually get on ebay straight away and source the parts I would need. So, as I still have quite some models to restore, I am fortunate enought to have the majority of parts available already. I did however, restore some Group-C models a couple of months ago, and the real pain was trying to locate the vintage parts among all the reissue parts. I believe that will be one of the main challenges for us purists, in the time to come.

Yes that is definitely a challenge. You are so right, and I suspect we approach things very similarly.

I find that my collecting habits change when a model is rereleased. When the rerelease happens, I do these things:
- Try to learn about the differences between original and rerelease
- Avoid buying most used models, as I do not want to have to deal with any complex hybrid models comprised of new and rerelease parts.
- Focus on getting the NIB original if I don't have it (since this is more likely to be complete original gear), but with caution as even these may have parts swapped from re-release kits.

To this day, I think I have zero rerelease parts (with a few spare rerelease tyres being an exception). But I have been very lucky to start collecting NIB models on ebay in 1999, and have been ahead of the curve somewhat, ie already owned all the models I wanted which were later rereleased, with a couple of exceptions.

The rereleased are both a help and a hindrance to original fans. It's a very bittersweet situation. I also see many people who claim to love rereleases and to not to care about the differences, later trying to hunt down the few parts that distinguish original from re-rerelease (and struggling to find them - due to the market being flooded by rereleases!). All of this is a madness caused by Tamiya I never saw coming during those early eBay days (1999-2005).

One more thing - I was very lucky in 2009-2011 to source a lot of genuine vintage parts from hobby shops around me. This was a true thrill, and perhaps the last period when I will find such things in such quantities, as old leftover stock. This to me, is the great joy of vintage R/C - finding those rare jewels in some old box somewhere to complete your models. It's somewhat less satisfying to click "buy now" on one of 1000 available items on eBay

As Oscar Wilde said,