Honestly,

And this is JUST me saying this:

If a model is opened and of no major significance or rarity, I consider open and built kits just a collection of parts.

Now where that changes is in respect to parts that are molded, metallic as in Vashon or Estes Cold Power, or parts that are complex.

An open Vashon kit has a metallic tank that would cost more than what the kit is worth to replicate in modern dollars. So I would pay up to 70 - 80% of what a mint/sealed version of the same kit would cost.

On the other hand, if the kit is an opened Big Bertha, Astron Mark, Farside-X, anything that I can buy the parts from Semroc and the decals from Gordy, then I consider it to have the SAME value as the costs for me to clone it.

Now of course, a Citation Bomarc with vacuum formed gold nose cone comes up, and the plastic parts, then that is a different ball game. Same thing with Space Transport America, or a Centuri Apollo LJ II.

So when I hear things about molds being lost, or destroyed, I take more interests in those types of kits

Jonathan