03-23-2009, 10:33 AM
When Galen (Ocaliecreek) was living here in So Cal and a member of the Orange County Modular club, he built up an Atlas interlocking tower kit he had sitting on his shelf. He no longer needed the tower for anything he was currently planning to model, but he built it, painted and weathered it, an listed it on E-bay to see what it would do. I think he ended up selling it for 3 to 4 times the price of the kit! As a business, it probably does not make economic sense. You should expect to at least paint and weather any model you build to get the maximum return on investment, and even if you get $30.00 for a built up kit that cost you less than $10.00 to buy, you will probably find when you do the math that you worked for less than $5.00 per hour! On the other hand, if you enjoy building kits or even kitbashing, but don't have space on a layout for all of the models that you would like to build, it can be a fun way to pick up a few bucks "on the side." I think the key to not losing money on the deal is to know what shipping is going to cost before you list the item, and disclose it in the ad from the start. I think you will also do better by building the cheap Atlas type kits or small DPM that are also small (less expensive to ship). If you develop a few customers who like your work, and want some custom designs, then you can negotiate specific prices for a specific design for them.