[Cruver Collecter]

I think there may be a larger group of casual collectors out there. I can use my local Tuesday Morning store for an example. For a period of time they were getting in fairly regularly a nice selection of Corgi diecast models. I knew that if something special like an He 111 came in that I had better snatch it up or it would move fairly fast. Needless to say for awhile they had P-51s, P-40s, P-47s, Bf 109s, He 111s, and some B-24s (They actually had a fairly nice selection), but it did not take to long for them to clear from the shelves. Well I know that there are no model clubs in my local area and do not know anyone locally that collects diecast aircraft. So even though I live in a fairly small town, the Corgi diecast models move pretty quickly off the shelves. Even my local Target store FOV aircraft get picked of at fairly quick pace. I find that if I see it and I like it, well I better pick it up or it will not be there in a couple of days. Could it also be that there are more serious collecters out there, but for some reason they do not take advantage of forums like this.

[hworth18]

Just an example, I bought a Sugar Lanc off Ebay that came with broken props, No stand, gear glued in place, no extras and no box. Fortunately, there was a generous member on the UK forum that had all the parts I needed to make it complete again.. After the purchase I contacted the seller (which was a brick-n-mortor Ebay resale store) and was told that it was a "one-off" brought in "as is".. Obviously, it was not from a collector, but from an individual, and I imagine that many diecast end up this way, or as childrens sandbox toys or in the trash.. The number of casual collectors I am sure probably number more than 500-600, but that is the number that I consider to be a determining factor in the market place.. Yes, I do believe that a run of 1000 will eventually sell after the collectors take their share, but it will be on a "one at a time" sale to miscelleneous Ebay buyers who buy it for sentimental reasons or as a gift..

[Epapazian]

If one looks at the magazine business, some interesting parallels are obvious. Take travel. Millions of Americans travel overseas over the course of two or three years---some making more than two trips annually, others going only once in three years. Yet the typical travel magazine, which caters to people who are "into travel", editorially, does well to attain 700,000-1,000,000 subscribers. In like manner, millions of Americans ski, however a top flight ski magazine is lucky to garner 500,000 subscribers. I could go on and on, however the point is fairly clear. While magazines catering to specific markets and/or mindsets attract millions of so-called "pass-along" readers---people who don't actually buy or subscribe to the publication but see copies at a friend's home, a doctor's office, the workplace, etc., their actual "core reader" base is made up of true "hard core" buffs who plunk down money to be able to read every issue of the magazine. The others, who represent the majority of those who participate to some degree in the hobby, sport or activity, plus many who are interested, but not yet active, won't make even this commitment.

I suspect that the same thing is true of our hobby, which is, in fact, only a sub-segment of a much larger collectors' market, including airliners, trains, cars, ships and other genres. This, in turn, overlaps to some unknown extent with the modelers' market, itself an extremely diverse aggregation covering a wide range of interests. In view of this, it is not surprising that forums such as ours, which have a fairly narrow focus, relative to the multi-subject layerings of collector/modeler interests, described above, have relatively few members---and even fewer "activists". It would not surprise me, therefore, to find than many diecast warbird models are bought by people who collect (or make) other genres but do not consider themselves "diecast collectors", and only that.

It seems to me that we might consider how to broaden our scope and find ways to let people know we are here. I wonder how often we pop up on the screen when someone looking for a forum about aircraft in general does an Internet search. The same question applies to searches about military subjects, civilian airliners or even modeling.

[1250ships]

I see something similar to all this in the ship collecting market. We have dedicated collectors and a forum. But there are also people who are into cruising and will only buy a model of a ship they have cruised on. They might buy one or two models a year max and have only 5 or 10 total. But there are potential a lot more of them than there are hard core collectors. Then there are people who buy the ship their dad or grandfather served on. They are one time sales but again a huge potential market.

I suspect a lot of Tuesday Morning Corgis are being used as toys. If I had to buy a birthday gift for a kid who liked planes I would pick up one of those $9.99 Legends for them

[MoMo]

Well I know that there are no model clubs in my local area and do not know anyone locally that collects diecast aircraft.
Cruver

Have you tried placing an ad in your local paper, Cruver?

It's a long-shot, but it may put you in touch with some of these collectors. perhaps they are looking for some of the people who they know collect die-cast, but have never bumped into them.

This is one of those areas where a local hobby store helps. The stores which I visit are full of fliers which direct you to modeling clubs, modeling shows, swops/trades, and military discussion groups, or even just a bunch of guys discussing whatever at a particular pub.

cheers,

MoMo

[Cruver Collecter]

Originally Posted by MoMo

Have you tried placing an ad in your local paper, Cruver?

It's a long-shot, but it may put you in touch with some of these collectors. perhaps they are looking for some of the people who they know collect die-cast, but have never bumped into them.

This is one of those areas where a local hobby store helps. The stores which I visit are full of fliers which direct you to modeling clubs, modeling shows, swops/trades, and military discussion groups, or even just a bunch of guys discussing whatever at a particular pub.

cheers,

MoMo

I might just take a crack at that. Thanks for the idea.

[flyXwire]

Originally Posted by Cruver Collecter

I think there may be a larger group of casual collectors out there. I can use my local Tuesday Morning store for an example. For a period of time they were getting in fairly regularly a nice selection of Corgi diecast models. I knew that if something special like an He 111 came in that I had better snatch it up or it would move fairly fast. Needless to say for awhile they had P-51s, P-40s, P-47s, Bf 109s, He 111s, and some B-24s (They actually had a fairly nice selection), but it did not take to long for them to clear from the shelves. Well I know that there are no model clubs in my local area and do not know anyone locally that collects diecast aircraft. So even though I live in a fairly small town, the Corgi diecast models move pretty quickly off the shelves. Even my local Target store FOV aircraft get picked of at fairly quick pace. I find that if I see it and I like it, well I better pick it up or it will not be there in a couple of days. Could it also be that there are more serious collecters out there, but for some reason they do not take advantage of forums like this.

Hmmmm, that's a pretty thoughtful post there, CC. I also agree that the Corgi dumps at Tuesday Mornings would set off alarm bells because forum members will get wind of the reports made in this forum as soon as one of us begins to post it here. And then there are the 'other' silent majority of lurkers in this forum whom would want a piece of the action too, believe it or not! It then 'snowballs' and the next thing you know, the TM mornings in yours and mine are picked clean save for the last Corgi undersirables like the Legends Phantoms. I never under-estimate events like these diecasts dumps at TM simply because of the very thing you elaborated above. Like the old saying goes "You snooze, You lose..." is definitely apropo in this situation.

[JustPlaneNuttz]

Well, IMHO (derived from decades of Marketing and Advertising) experience), Corgi (specifically) is going to really have to get 'savvy' about it's Product Marketing if they are to survive. They are going to have to start 'thinking outside the box' to get NEW attention to their products -- and NEW collectors is what they need (as this is a numbers game) -- whether these are casual or fanatical. One can become the other quickly as most of us can testify!

Currently, I can only find their aircraft (remember Corgi still also does trucks, buses, movie novelties, figures, cars etc) in a rare number of 'specialist shops' here in Toronto (3+ million pop). It is these shops where a NEW convert to the hobby will have their first look-n-feel of the product. You don't get much of an impression from a 72 DPI web image (even as an enlargement!). They need to get 'into the buying publics face' more AND leverage their heritage to stack the cards in their favour.

Big job. VERY big job -- and it will take guts and resources. Do they have it? Time will tell.

JPN

[Epapazian]

With Carousel 1 apparently holding back on new aircraft introductions for 2008 and Dragon following suit, to say nothing about those companies that have opted out more formally, the great military diecast marketer shakeout seems to be gaining momentum. I hope that I'm wrong on this, but Corgi may be leaning in the same direction and I doubt that its execs are contemplating ways to expand the diecast warbird or AFV market----which is exactly what they should be doing if they saw themselves as key players who are in it for the long haul. Hopefully, new companies such as Hobby Master and Century Wings, who enter the marketplace and fill the developing void, will profit by the mistakes of the "old guard" and be more responsive to collectors' interests. If not, we are heading, increasingly, in the mass-produced Altaya and Easy Model smaller scale direction and away from high quality, large sacle products.