Maybe this question has been asked before, but I am quite interested in forum member kit collecting approaches since the idea of collecting one each of the K kits (Estes database thread) has not received a response. So if you consider yourself a collector, how do you collect old Estes kits?

- Do you collect a variety of kits from early no hangtag through modern 1990s with no specific formula or goal?

- Do you collect by a certain theme; exotics, scale, gliders etc?

- Do you collect just pre Damon kits? How about just skill level colored kits?

- Do you collect just what appears on eBay and strikes your fancy when you have extra monies?

- Has the Estes kit database been a useful tool for you or did it not affect your collecting habits?

Hope to see a few responses.... and thanks.

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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 don't really consider myself a collector, however, there are a few Estes kits that I highly prize and would like to get. So, I don't think I can answer the first four questions. But the last question is a 5/5 for usefulness. I used it as a "go by" last month to bid on a kit being auctioned on eBay. It gave me useful parameters to understand the market for the kit. So in my opinion, the website is very useful, informative, and an authoritative source. [thumbs up emoticon].

Also, had I not been on YORF, I don't know if I would have been aware of the site.

Thank you Gerry for making that information available.

Greg

At FIRST I wanted anything that was made before I got into rocketry. THEN after I started building kits for Estes in exchange for merchandise, I would buy multiples of my favorite kits and ones that were BEING discontinued. Now, good deals and filling holes in my collection with kits I REALLY want is the only driving force. If its a model I designed, I try to grab a few for the pile.

At first my philosophy was "buy three" 1 to build later, 1 to trade and 1 to keep. I've given up on that due to space restrictions

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Scott

NAR #32070

I originally started just buying (then building) what I could, but I never had all the kits I wanted from the cool catalogs...

So, when I got my first job delivering papers and then mowing lawns, I bought all the kits I could afford, and my building rate slowed down (after all, I was earning the money to buy the kits, so I had less time to build)...

After awhile, I had a bunch of kits and no time to build them (by then, girls had arrived in my life, and, well, they offered certain enticements that my balsa and cardboard beauties couldn't provide)...but those pesky manufacturers kept producing more kits I wanted to build, so I kept picking up the latest ones, and just putting them into the growing number of boxes...

Then I got married, and had my kids, and my build rate (already low) dropped to almost zero, until the boys got old enough to be interested in Dad building and flying rockets with them. But suddenly there were a bunch of new manufacturers who all had such cool designs that I had to buy them so I could build them *someday*...

So now I have several hundred kits from the 60's until now, and it *just happened*. I didn't set out to be a "kit collector", I just one day found myself in possession of a lifetime's worth of fun and memories.

Gerry, sorry, man, but I don't collect to be a completist, or for a specific set of hang tag or tagless kits. I collect because I can't build 'em fast enough.

(But here's the really cool thing --- my boys have already started to help me "thin the pile", and someday I hope their children will, too.)

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Dean Fox
NAR #53946SR

---- "Wherever you go, there you are"

This parallels my BAR years. When the fire was lit, I began building as fast as I could, and buying all the cool stuff I never had (or finished) when I was a kid. So my collection is really just my 'round-tuit stash, which I've managed to keep under ~60 kits or so, but includes a 1:100 Sat-V and 1:100 Sat-1B along with a couple of Mars Landers and some other scale kits.

What I've found is that my strongest interests are in my own designs and the more technically challenging stuff whereas the scale stuff is really more about fine modelling skills and less about engineering a solution to a complex problem such as successfully lighting and flying a clustered stager. As a result, while I've managed to control my impulses and not add to the pile, it isn't going down because most of my building is done using the large pile of parts I have.

So for me, collecting is a by-product of building slow rather than an endeavor of its own.


Doug

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YORF member #11

Thank you for the interesting responses as they do share insight on why no one is responding to my kit collecting initiatives. Basically, none of the responses indicates kit collecting for the sake of collecting alone. Rather the piles or stash of old kits are a by product of building enthusiam and over purchasing one's true capacity to build. No one responsed (so far) about buying Estes kits as part of a set building motive (one of each design or catalog number).

For those of you who are familar with coin collecting, the goal is typically to find all of the dates and mintmarks in a particular series like Indian cents or Buffalo nickels. Whitman was intrumental in advancing the hobby with blue coin folders so collectors could organize their purchases and view them as a complete set (with the pride of accomplishment).

I brought this mentality to the Estes Kit Database though I am also a builder with the same problem as reported by others (enthusiam far exceeds capacity to build). On this point, I must have 10-12 Launchpad kits and 5 InFlight kits that are part of a huge Estes opened kit build pile.

Having said all of this....

Do you believe that there is any hope or possibility of building an Estes kit collecting community in the long term if collectable "sets" were defined and illustrated. For example, one set might be the "Skill Level Kits" with their matching facecard and hang tag colors. Another might be a set of all kits with "Countdown" hang tags. Does this idea make any sense? It would be realy cool to assemble such sets in one place and have internet display.

The Estes Database is already in place as a price and rarity guide.

Comments?

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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 have a handful of kits that I obtained (a few were given to me) more or less for the purpose of creating a collection. But I'm not collecting in any organized way or in a way that results in a coherent series; I just pick up the odd kit every now and then if I happen to get an opportunity. I don't scan auction sites looking for them. Not all of them are vintage; most are just kits that have been OOP for a while. I believe that only two of them have anything more than nominal value and I don't view my itty-bitty collection as representing any kind of monetary investment. There are a great many vintage kits that I would like to have, including all of the Astron K kits that were in production when I started up with rocketry, but I'm not going out of my way to get them. I have never paid any attention to such esoterica as particular hang tag series, first year productions, etc. I don't have the financial resources to bid for rare kits, so I don't expect to ever get anything very scarce or valuable unless it is through some windfall. I guess that although I'm a collector, I'm not a dedicated one. Kit collecting is not a very significant component of the hobby for me. What I do collect, I get for either nostalgia or simple curiosity (much of what I have was obtained because I had never seen the kit due to my long hiatus from the hobby). I don't have anything left from my early days in the hobby (they were disposed of without my knowledge) and so everything in my little collection has been obtained in the past few years.

MK

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SAM # 0011

I used to collect coins pretty seriously, so I know exactly what you mean. Currently I collect vintage and present day production fountain pens.

I have a large and growing pile of unbuilt kits, but they are almost entirely current production stuff that has come onto the market in the past decade.

I had the impression from seeing various threads on YORF over the years that such a community of avid collectors already existed. I'm sure that they must be out there and have just not posted to this thread yet. If I'm not mistaken, the owner of this forum is one such individual. Some of the resources on YORS, such as the Estes and Centuri kit lists and starter set lists, look to me as though they were originally created to assist collectors.

MK

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SAM # 0011

- Do you collect a variety of kits from early no hangtag through modern 1990s with no specific formula or goal? No.

- Do you collect by a certain theme; exotics, scale, gliders etc? My main goal was to collect the Estes 1979 catalog and build all those kits. I have now collected 2 of each kit from 1979 and built over 25 of them. I have also collected all the Goonies and other Era kits such as the Falcon, Space Plane, Wac Corporal and Scrambler. I also have most if not all the early 80's kits. My intention is to build them all.

- Do you collect just pre Damon kits? How about just skill level colored kits? No

- Do you collect just what appears on eBay and strikes your fancy when you have extra monies? Sometimes, I bought the Thunderbolt kit and Long John Silver this way.
- Has the Estes kit database been a useful tool for you or did it not affect your collecting habits? Yes, I think it is awsome.

This is exactly my position. I do not see buying kits just to have in a collection. The one thing I am trying to do is build models of the kits I never had, such as a Mars Lander. But I am building the Semroc model now, because it is "new", parts are high quality, etc. I would have trouble bidding on an Estes original, just so I was building the original. I bought 2 when I discovered them, since I knew prices would go up.

Now I tend to "collect" things like Interceptors, since cloning one in the future, when Estes discontinues them, means I have a steady supply to build into retirement (2 years from now). And trying to clone these and having a detailed nose cone, tail cone, and pods is near impossible. And for the time being, Hobby Lobby keeps them in stock, so I get them for 40% off using the coupons.

My collection of oldies includes Saturn Vs, 1Bs, Honest Johns, V2s, etc. But all were bought to build. I'm just slow.

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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp