9***k is at it again tonight!!!!!

Bid summary: 30 bids within the last hour; 28 wins. 340 items bid on within the last 30 days.

Is that normal?

9***k just took/won a #1284 Space Shuttle kit.

He placed one bid with 5 seconds left to go in the auction.

12 bidders participated in this auction making 27 bids.




:

This guy must be bored.

Again with 5 seconds to go when he placed his bid, he just took a ESTES E2X #2026 ATHENA MODEL ROCKET SEALED KIT.

It's easy to follow what he does. Just run an ebay search for "rocket" and sort the list by time.

And again.

5 seconds to go.

I clicked on the next rocket on the ebay search list with 3 minutes to go. I watched the new java enabled ebay page count the seconds down. At 5 seconds to go, the number of bidders went up by one and the high bid changed. Then clicking on the bid history list, there he is again.

Does he build or fly rockets? Or just punch in $501.00 on any and all his ebay bids? (see my post above regarding the Farside-X; winning bid 501.00)

Yes, 9***k is at it again. He went absent for a few days which allowed me to pick up a number of kits from a seller named carboy. The SCUD kit looked to be in gem condition and is a most difficult find.

I believe 9***k uses a sniping program whereby a bid is entered in advance and is timed to go off at 5 seconds before the auction closing time. His bidding pattern is too similar to be done manually.

You are correct, simple enter a huge bid into a sniping program and walk away. Guaranteed to win all lots....

As I watch the lots acquired by 9***k, it is apparent that he is building a complete Estes kit collection against the listing I've placed on the website. That was the intent to stimulate more Estes kit collectors and build an active market for sealed kits, but 9***k is aggressive and shutting down others.

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Estes kit pricing history and individual kit descriptions at www.seateddimevarieties.com/BAR/home.htm At least a work in progress....

I am glad I was able to get my collection over the last 3 years. For the economy tanking, Estes rockets are going for a fortune on Ebay.

Indeed this is an accurate observation. The upward trend started about 3 months ago. Here is a short case study for kit #1976 Jupiter-C. Scale or semi scale models are consistently in demand followed by the exotic kits from the early 80's. K kits are in another world.

Here are the Jupiter-C sale prices in chronological order from Feb 2008 through June 2009

53, 46, 50, 59, 41, 61, 35, 52, 51, 103, 54, 54, 49, 72, 46, 46, 56, 57, 71, 70, 74, 73

Now starting July 2009

70, 63

The last six sales appear to be about $20 higher than the typical price range for prior 18 kits.

I've notice a similar situation with other popular kits.

The K kits are under strong upward pricing pressure and current pricing should bring out more supply until the demand:supply reaches balance.

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Estes kit pricing history and individual kit descriptions at www.seateddimevarieties.com/BAR/home.htm At least a work in progress....

Nice website gerry!!!



Here's the recent Estes Jupiter C sales that I found:

July 19 ..... $46 + 5.50 shipping
July 15 ..... $51 + 10.70 shipping
July 10 ..... $52 + 10.70 shipping



Finally I was able to get something yesterday! I guess 9***k took a day off!
Got the Estes Explorer Aquarius (#2016),
and the Centuri Mercury Capsule.
I can build a scale Mercury Redstone now that I have the 2" diameter capsule.

Well folks, I made it back to Maine safely and first day home is a washout. The bright side is much time to work on the long overdue Estes kit update.

The 0651 -1299 kit update is now online with much effort to add details for the K kits. You will immediately notice the changes. I used two sources for the update. Source 1 was Mojo1986 excel database and his tracking of 2004-2005 kit sales. The second source was TimiD's collection images. The K kit variants are still not fully capture but the current update is a significant step.

I moved the Alpha II to be listed as 1416/EK-25 rather than 1203/EK-25 after purchasing a kit and seeing the facecard first hand. Are there separate kits marked as 1416/EK-25 and 1203/EK-25???

BTW, has anyone seen a 1220/K20 Mars Snooper...this is with the green skill level facecard but not the Mars Snooper II with green skill level facecard? I ask since not seeing the kit listed by Mojo, TimiD or YORF. I bought a gem example two weeks ago and finally had chance to inspect it last night. Suspect this is a rare kit!

The balance of the database updates will occur today including the eBay tables etc... just a lot of work to catch up and no model rocket kit building time.....

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Estes kit pricing history and individual kit descriptions at www.seateddimevarieties.com/BAR/home.htm At least a work in progress....

<BTW, has anyone seen a 1220/K20 Mars Snooper...this is with the green skill level facecard but not the Mars Snooper II with green skill level facecard? I ask since not seeing the kit listed by Mojo, TimiD or YORF. I bought a gem example two weeks ago and finally had chance to inspect it last night. Suspect this is a rare kit!>

Hi Gerry. I suspect that is a rare kit too! Can you post a photo here on YORF?

Joe