Remember when a dollar was worth a dollar? Yeah me either!! Looking at these cool old price stickers 

i hit my teen years in the 70's, my first concert we were frisked before we got in, NO CAMERAS ALLOWED!! those times were certainly more relaxed, not as frenetic. We were out all day, no cell phones, pagers, internet. Heck we didnt even have cable in our village!

I'm 67, and can well remember buying kits at K-Mart and Sears. My main kit source for a few years was a TG&Y store - a dept. store within bicycle range. I discovered Testors paints and model tools there too. At one time it seemed every corner convenience store had a few model kits. Not so very long ago, Sears, Walmart and even Toys-R-Us gave up on model kits. That's when I began ordering online. I do remember when a dollar would really buy something.

I can remember when if you made $10,000 a year you could afford to buy a home, and a car. Ten grand a year was a decent salary. Today that's below poverty level. Many things factor into this, politics being only one.

I remember at a child going to the local department store and buying a model kit about once a month. Good times. Thanks for sharing.

Great video which brought back a lot of memories. We had a "Five and Dime Store in the village where I grew up and they sold a few model kits. Then in the city close by there was F.W. Woolworths and S.S. Kresge and they sold a lot of kits. In the Midwest we had a chain of department stores called H.C. Pranges and they also sold model kits. Tom S.

I can remember going to the department stores when I was a kid in the mid seventies, and running straight to the model isle. I’d spend such a long time figuring out which one I was gonna go and find my parents, and beg them, if I could get it. Back then they were around 2 dollars.

My first model kit was $3.35 in 1979.

Back when I was a kid I used to get my Matchbox cars, models & supplies at the local drug store. I think I still have some Testors bottles with 10 cent stickers on it. It's fun to look back on the olds stuff. Thanks for sharing ~ Cory

I'm 68 and remember getting models (1 a month) at our local grocer for $1.56!! Such great times, so long ago🥴

Really cool models.

LOL! I graduated high school in '76. I got started on the curbside kits that screwed together in the 60s. The first real kit i got was the IMC Volkswagen gasser. AA/Altered baby! When i moved to the upstate of South Carolina there was a drug store called McClusky-Todd in Greer. The store is there still but no models anymore. By the way those curbsides were $1.25. Matchbox cars were $.55 each. I bought many model kits, Matchbox and Hot Wheels at Carney's Department store in Marysville, Ohio. The good old days...... Cheers Terry

When i was a kid i lived in a really small town in VT i remember mowing grass collecting glass bottles shoveling snow to make $2.50 to buy model kits at Rays variety store. That was a long time ago lol

I grew up in a village of 500. We had a little corner (it was literally on the corner) store called Okies that had a tiny little toy area and I would get the MPC car kits along with some planes and ship kits. good times in the 70's and 80's

Great video Matt. Brings back many memories. I'd have to look in my stash to see if there are any price tags on the early sixties AMT kits that I have. Although the manufacturer prices were about $1.50 retail. Try buying new kits for that price now (lol)!!!!

When I was a kid we had the drug store and a ben Franklin's. I used to get a kit a week. Recently I went to Wal-Mart and bought the chevy square body with plow. I miss the 5-6 dollar kits!!

I built model cars back in the 60s. I bought my models from my town's Western Auto. There was a hobby shop in the neighboring town that my mom would take me to on occasion. I could get a model, spray testors spray bomb, and glue for less than 5 dollars. Inflation is a very convoluted subject... simply put: it's a function of simple supply and demand for goods and services. When demand increases but the supply of goods or services does not, prices increase. That said (based upon a discussion with my financial planner), today's prices are not simply a reflection of inflation (real or artificial) & actual product worth, rather they are based on what the public is willing to pay for said item.

Mub and Biff's Liquor and Hobby Emporium....... I think I'm on to a solid business model here. 😅 Department stores, drug stores, variety stores, even supermarkets had quite often excellent kit selections back in the 70s. And sold well enough to be worthwhile. I miss that.

one ove my first things I got back in 1966 was a aurora auto slot car race set.and I still have the race set.but put away.

Matthew that sticker on Gants car is from a label gun. Put many on chip bags when was in route sales. Most of displays required individual stickers before the pricing now days. As far as prices today on kits the 40% off at HL or Ollies for new kits and vendors at shows is my buying strategy. Out of my inventory I might have paid 25-30 for 4 or 5 kits.

1966 - I began building models in 1965 at 8 yrs old. I kind of remember those kinds of prices. I know they were in the $1 price range somewhere. Also, you could get the smaller scale Lindbergs, Palmers and airplanes for way under $1. 😁😁

I remember a birthday in the 70s when i was about ten and getting 40.00 and going on what seemed as a massive buying spree of 5 kits!

Great Video Matthew! I'm 69 and I remember getting turned down by my dad to get a model kit as a kid that cost $4.00. It wasn't that he was cheap but more because it was too expensive. My typical kits cost between $1 and $2 and I was limited to maybe 2 kits a month, (unless it was my birthday). My dad was a model builder too and he would spend maybe $10 on a kit to build but he always bought the "expert" large kits, (1:16 or larger). He would spend a month building and painting it and of course his builds would be perfect, at least in my eyes. Little side note, my first real job in an office as a draftsman paid $1.65/hr in 1973. That was a whopping $66/week. It was enough for me to move into a 3 bedroom rental house with a couple buddies. Our rent was $80 a month if you can believe that. Thanks for the memories my friend! 👍👍

Worked at TRU, that was the price tag on everything

Hey Matt, brings back memories. Growing up, I can remember getting model kits and Testors paint at a store called TSS. This was way before Walmart, Hobby Lobby ect. Actually, I think Kmart bought out TSS back in the day. Now K mart is gone too! Anyway, I wanted to ask about your incubator. I recently bought one off of ebay, and was curious on what temps. and humidity you set it on to dry your model kits safely. Thanks for the great videos. Keep on Modelin!!

I wasn't much into car model but I was heavy into the "Estes" model rockets. I still do rockets, But larger. Anyway we still have a wanna be hobby shop in town. Last I was in last year your mid range model witch consist of basically 16" of 1" cardboard tube , thin cheap plastic nose cone, 12"x12" piece of plastic and some kite string(chute) a 4" x 4" piece of balsa wood. couple odd pieces of cardboard. $60 starting!!

As I recall around 1966 KMart priced their $2.00 kits at $1.44 to 1.77.

I'm 64 but I do remember those days, I think that I kinda remember buying my first cars around 12.

I worked at K-mart in 1978-9 and we still had a big hobby selection. But got fazed out due to the massive amouth of theft of the models and paints and such. People would open the boxes and steal parts out of them.

I'm about 5.5 years older than you (just turned 53) and I remember always going straight to the model kit isle at our local "Belmonte" store in New Haven, IN. So that would have been from about 79-85 before I developed other interests. 😉 I want to say kits ranged in the $10-15 range, but I could be way off. Maumee, OH is pronounced "Maw-Me". The Maumee River runs from Lake Erie in northwest Ohio into northeast Indiana and meets the St. Mary's and the St. Joseph Rivers in Ft. Wayne, IN where I grew up. Peace and love.

Woolworths are still operating in Australia 👍

wow what i wouldn't give for the wht/walls and spokes otta that Lindberg kit nice dou😁🤩

I remember when some convenience store had a very small selection of models, when I was a kid my mom work at skags, Albertsons now but they had a whole aisle of models. My first job minimum wage was 3.35 a hour in 1986. I think model kits were around 5 or 6 at that time, I'm thinking, but don't hold me to it

Lowest price I remember is when I was a kid in the 80's I think they were around $8 at Kmart and toys r us.

great vid the Harry Gant car is ta die for and how are you not going to build built her 😁🤩🤔some nice kits love the 48😎🤗

I am part of the boom in Boomer so started model building pre Kmart days. My kits came from our neighbourhood drug store and were bought on a kid's allowance so the prices had to be low. On a recent shopping trip to Ollie's Outlet store (29 states) my older granddaughter-on her own-got a model to build. They're older re-released kits for $12.99. She got me started building models again! 😂 No "extra" kits however! Too expensive!!

You should try cutting just the bottom plastic and try to remove the top with plastic? Might need a little scotch tape. Cool old kits 😊

Try buying a kit in Canada 45 to 70 dollars for car kits crazy

Matt before had cameras, recording equipment were banned from concerts (except maybe the Grateful Dead) now with phones the genie is out of the bottle.

I open old kits to see if there is damage and the condition of the decals. I buy to build and if the glass has faults and the decals are useless, these are things I have to replace to build the model. After-market items I sometimes get to increase detail. There is no money from the selling of old kits, people will nickel and dime you, too much bother, bought to build is the best outcome.

Yeah, when I was a kid (80s) we used to get this stuff everywhere and it seemed like they were always on sale.

just to tell you one ove my model kits.a corvair model kit.i only paid $1:49 price tag.back about 50 years ago.non opened kit.at grant's department store.

Ralph's was a mid Ohio valley grocery store chain

Matt, I turned 57 this year, when I was a kid in the 70’s you would get models at two guys (NJ department store the sold everything including groceries) Bradlees anothe department store, Kmart, toys r us, KB toys and hobbies, pharmacies, well heck even the tiny min and pop corner store would have a couple of kits. In the 70’s model kits cost no more than $5.00. Autoworld was a thick mail order catalog carrying a lot of model kits and accessories.

never have i seen a model kit that cost less than 10 dollars

In the 80’s a pack of cigarettes cost less than $2.00, gas was around a dollar a gallon when I started driving in the 80’s.

Greetings from the UK! Yes, we DID (past tense) have Woolworths where I used to buy my pocket money kits (Airfix military) and my earliest memory of buying a kit was the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes Scenes Cro-Magnon Woman in the early 70s. Cellphones ar gigs? Too busy headbanging back in the 70s and 80s to even hold a pint !!!! Anyway - to the topic in hand - inflation!!!! A dollar in 1967 would be little over 9 dollars today - compare that to an average of 39 dollars for a car kit in Target and it seems extortionate. However, the production volumes back in the 60s and 70s were huge (spreading the tooling cost) and the cost of oil (for the plastic) was also dirt cheap (before the Arabs woke up to the economics of supply and demand and they aspired to something more than a one litre camel!!!). Off topic, I'm looking for some 1955 Ford F600 / F800 (5 nut / 5 hole) truck wheels in 1/24 or 1/25 note - these look similar to those used on GMC military trucks of the same period) - any ideas out there?

I am 60. I remember Zayre selling MPC '73 Annuals for $1.77, which went to $1.99 for the '74s, and then the '75s were $2.29. Then sometimes JC Penney would have a table of AMT kits for 99 cents each. all in the mid 70's. Kit prices seemed to stay reasonable until about 2005 then all hell broke loose. Now Hobby Lobby has $39.95 list prices...on kits that were on the shelf in the sixties! Yeah....I know , wait for the 40% 0ff still that alot. Kits out paced inflation, but kit makers need to make profits on much lower volume and now everybody wants a license for everything nickle- diming kits into high prices. Luckily my Ollie's has kits 12.99 . 19.99 for trucks, but it also makes me wonder about alot of these bloated prices.

We have 'Woolies' here ever since I remember but I can't remember them ever selling model kits as they are principally supermarkets here as with probably NZ & the UK no doubt?,you used to be able to buy model kits in Kmart here,but since the start of the 2000's they no longer stock them,only basic toys & kids stuff now much like woolworths,the first actual model car kit I bought was in 1982 which was the Revell '57 Chevy 'Street fighter' with late 70's/early 80's boxart,it never had plastic shrink wrap,just tape,like most of the Revell,Italeri,Tamiya,Airfix,Matchbox,even old Aurora reissues from the early 60's I built as a kid in the 70's,real early 80's?,I do remember seeing the shrink wrap on the car kits though by the mid 80's on,1/24/1/25 model car kits cost about AU$20 average then new from memory?,by the early 90's I remember they had gone upto 30 odd bucks even AU$40,trust me the memory lines do get abit blurred after 30 odd years as you well probably know,lol?,Acca Dacca,awesome matt,I fell in love with AC/DC when I was 11 when I first seen them on 'Countdown' music TV show in 1975,the same year colour TV first started downunder,they belted out'High Voltage',live on the show with their original lead singer,the very wild Bon Scott who died in February 1980,cheers

When trying to figure out what the actual cost of the kit today would be, it get a lot more complicated. You have to factor in the increased cost of materials, labor, licensing fees, and many other factors that go into making kits today. It’s interesting seeing what the kits would cost today if no other manufacturing factors are taken into account. The Mercedes ssk , I have that one and I got it on ebay for just a few dollars more than the cost of the kit when updated to today’s dollars. This was a really interesting subject and makes me want to go through my stash and see what I come up with.

AC/DC rocks

4.14.24 12:09pm. My care giver just told me that she vividly remembers the Andersons store in Maumee, Ohio.

I'm kinda late here but I get the price changes. Back in the early 1960's, AMT may have a budget of 150 to 200K for a product idea. This covered design, development, (tooling done in house), advertisement, packaging and then logistics of getting the product to market. EVERYTHING. Today, the tooling alone might run 500K. All other factors added in brings in the total to 1 to 1.5 Mill. I see very clearly why a kit that sold for $1.50 in 1964 is 39.95 today. Simply having tooling restored that was paid for when Lyndon Johnson was in the White House can run close to 300K. Then add in packaging, warehouse, shipping ect. and you have a re-pop kit that sells for $30.00. Grow a pair and a large wallet. The world is a mean and expensive place.

IMHO today's corporations push prices as high as possible to the maximum point a consumer would be willing to pay.

I agree, technology has ruined us.

Plastics are made from oil. The price of oil goes up so does everything. The different manufacturers all their suppliers charge more so the final product cost more.

Inflation, sell and demand (less model builders at least younger ones), price of petroleum, government regulations ie cost to produce plastic.

Nice 😅

The Model companys made100s of thousands of kits in the 60s they were pretty big toy companys. AMT also made promos for the car manufacturers. More volume than the current smaller company's market of speciality hobbyists. That volume is part of the reason kits prices have out paced inflation in recent years. They were still pretty cheap in the 90s. Supply and demand is basic capitalism no matter the politics.

great vid, my friend, appreciate all your comments, 1 was given a ferrari red cace car kit for christmas in 1967,cork, ireland, been building cars from kits and from scratch, a long time. most 19602 kits were,1 dollar.99cents, just bought on amazon 8 kits, averaging 25 35 euros each, i have about 15 or so old built cars from 1990s, need to get to work on thses , i have no models on my utube channel, i am artist,musician, living in italy, cheers from a brooklyn, nyc born, irishman in the shadow of the alps, robert,good day ./ buon giorno they say here,,ps subbing as i dig your freee thinking creative in repose mood video,,,,robert in torino,

A liquor store that sold model kits? Talk about one-stop shopping!

And I guess they were all made in the good old USA?

It’s simple Mathew, people are greedy, especially the ones that rose to the top .

Too much money chasing too few goods.

I was born in 1980 and I remember my dad buying model kits in the 90's at people drug store 6 or 7 dollars back then wow look where we are at in today's world thank for sharing Matthew love the old kits

I’m 51 and I remember getting model kits in Danville, VA from KMart, Hill’s Department Store, Eckard Drug, Thrift Drug, Woolworth’s, Charlie’s Stop-n-Shop (a local convenience store; I bought a Monogram Petty Grand Prix there). Kits were everywhere. I don’t remember going to many hobby shops…if I did I always noticed their prices were higher than everywhere else.

" My mother had me tested"

Corporate greed. Who controls prices is no secret when the CEOs and board members want their cut larger, they know there will be no opposition. How many companies have AMT and Revell been sold to, not to mention how many brands have come and gone. A great factor in retailers dropping models is the pilfering of kits for parts. That is on those who just can't keep their thieving hands to themselves. Prices aren't going down again, but an example like JR Salvinos gives some hope that innovation might have a chance.

I bought models from a hardware store 😅

I remember back when I was a kid my mom let all 3 of us boys pick out a model and also my dad of course I was the youngest so I only got a snap together but the only car I remember was my dads 55 Chevy with flames he put together. That’s a memory I’ll never forget. I had mine put together in like a half hour and the other boys like 2 days having to let the glue dry, I’m 56 years old now lol

What it is is they have less people to sell to because kids under the age of 35 don't buy models they are to busy on their phone they can build it on the on the cell phone less demand more money

Ralph’s is a grocery store

Matt, I do remember buying kits at K-Mart, Sears, Drug stores And Toys-R Us. Walmart I all so have some Testors paints with 10&15 cents marked on them. And yes the - 200 was the price of the kits by AMT, I'am 68 years old now and you can not get them at that price any more!!!! I have Tryed.

Ralph's is a grocery store chain - still very much in business.

Ralph's is a grocery store still in existence.