Do you buy to keep? Fed up with poor parts supply?

[300bhp/ton]

Just wondering what the general consensus is (if there is such a thing) on RC model ownership?

 

I know there are some people that are very hard on items they buy and probably have a disposable attitude to their purchase, such as throw it away when it breaks.

 

But I suspect most of us fall into one of two camps:

 

-buy to keep

-buy with the intent of selling on in fairly short time

 

Personally I tend to buy to keep. Because I don't really buy things that I intend to sell or didn't really want.

 

But I do find that RC car makers simply don't support their products for long enough, which becomes a bit frustrating.

 

For example, in the last few years I've bought these:

 

-1/8th scale Carisma Porsche 959

-1/10th scale Turnigy (Hobbyking) Shortcourse Truck/Desert Buggy

-1/10th scale BSR Racing M.Rage M-chassis AWD

-1/8th Arrrma RaiderXL BLX

 

All of them are good models. But now there seems to be no parts supply for any of them --- WTF???

 

It seems such a waste to sell them, but running them comes with the risk that they may only be fit for the rubbish bin if you end up breaking something.

 

Anyone else find this extremely annoying!

 

 

[Alex97]

Every model is different, personally I'd only but a car that I know will have good part support in 5 years times otherwise you've got an expensive paperweight. Cheaper less known brands seem to be more problematic when it comes to long term part support however the bigger boys will normally carry stock for a while. 

 

 

 

 

[turok007]

I would buy  and if it was really my thing (really good)  i would get a few spares.   But now i will only buy if i know spares are about.  Also got to remember now  so many things are being released you just don't know if they will be about in a few years time.

[300bhp/ton]

1 hour ago, Alex97 said:

Every model is different, personally I'd only but a car that I know will have good part support in 5 years times otherwise you've got an expensive paperweight. Cheaper less known brands seem to be more problematic when it comes to long term part support however the bigger boys will normally carry stock for a while. 

 

 

 

 

This is the thing. I have a few Tamiya's and while they are stopped, they often come back. So by and large a reasonably safe bet I think. I've also just bought a Traxxas Summit, which I know is an 'old' model and only brushed, as well as expensive. But I feel more secure in the investment, that parts will be available longer.

 

I was very interested in the Axial Ryft. But it is expensive if in 2-3 years time you can't get bits for it.

[Bajadre]

i tend to only owe one or two models at a time and get plenty of spares for them as i tend to bash hard. cant remember a model i havent kept for at least a year tbh would hate to add up my body shell collection now lol 🤣

[Lone-wolf]

I think most of us buy with intention to keep, but maybe our interest changes to a new aspect of hobby and stuff has to go to fund or make room

also there is no getting away from the issue when you buy a model and think at time it will be ideal then find its less than ideal for what you wanted to use it for

[stretch]

I buy to keep but avoid hobbyking/bsr type brands as they don't tend to support their models for long. On the scaling side Traxxas and Axial for example have plentiful parts supply as a lot of times their "new" models are just reshells anyway.

[Lone-wolf]

1 minute ago, stretch said:

I buy to keep but avoid hobbyking/bsr type brands as they don't tend to support their models for long. On the scaling side Traxxas and Axial for example have plentiful parts supply as a lot of times their "new" models are just reshells anyway.

Hard to go wrong with Axial, just wish they would use something different to jeep bodies a factory SCX10ii with a nice ford Bronco or F-150 would be nice

[stretch]

48 minutes ago, Jack Reacher said:

Hard to go wrong with Axial, just wish they would use something different to jeep bodies a factory SCX10ii with a nice ford Bronco or F-150 would be nice

 

Very true mate in fact I'm thinking of a scx10ii for my next rig. Do like the UMG10 as well.

[Ant.p]

I’m not sure what I’m up to? Wouldn’t say I’m a hoarder, but I have duplicate models and still not keen on letting any go. Most have had little use, but they look so pretty on the shelves. Is there a helpline I can ring? 😅

[Tug]

I buy to keep, so prefer name brand stuff. Better parts support, plus more likely to get aftermarket hop-ups. 

 

Oldest I own (from New) was bought in 2006, a Traxxas E-Maxx 3906. Still got it, although I've swapped out approximately 90% of it, but still the same car, to me at least. 

[Yorkshireman]

14 minutes ago, Ant.p said:

I’m not sure what I’m up to? Wouldn’t say I’m a hoarder, but I have duplicate models and still not keen on letting any go. Most have had little use, but they look so pretty on the shelves. Is there a helpline I can ring? 😅

Haha 😄 I'm the same mate....l buy things I like but may not use much, I've 3 nitro trucks sitting on the shelf...haven't run them for ages but I can't even think of selling them 😅 

[Kpowell911]

I buy with the intention to keep BUT resale value, ease of sale  and parts avaliability is the big one for me cause you never know. Unfortunately to me theres only 2 brands who Im confident that parts supply will be constant and theres value second hand if I do sell.  This is Tamiya (who dont really make anything I like) and Traxxas, hence everything I own is Traxxas. 
 

Without sounding offensive, if youre buying a Turnigy/BSR/WLtoys etc youre always going to run into issues like this and it should be expected. Its why I could never recommend them to anyone

Edited December 14, 2021 by Kpowell911

[monkeyboy_uk]

Traxxas have to be the easiest brand to buy parts for. Most of my RCs are Traxxas for that reason.

 

I also have lots of Axial, one Arrma, Hobao, GMade, Tamiya, Absima, Cross RC, HPI, Tekno, MST, RC4WD and some generic chinese things.

 

I only run the Traxxas though as parts for the Horizon brands are a pain to get at the moment and the rest of them aren't much easier.

Edited December 15, 2021 by monkeyboy_uk

[babylon]

I'll buy anything, Don't even think about parts support, FTX and Absima will stick there name on most of the good Chinese stuff anyway, I'm pretty much only 1/8 and most of them are now pretty much interchangeable with each other, Diff gears, Arms, Your always find something that will fit.

 

It's got to the point were you can pick up stuff second hand nice and cheap these days anyway, I'll buy something and then just keep an eye out for a cheap rolling chassis or something for parts, I still have my BSR Berserker, HPI diff internals are the same, The only thing that would be harder to source would be the lower front arms but I have one spare set so covered at the moment, And if it gets to hard I'll just shelf it and move on.

 

Not really worth selling stuff, You could sell a half decent buggy roller for say 80-90 quid maybe, But just the shocks could be worth 50, So i'll hold on to stuff, That £90 roller is never really gonna be worth any less than 90 quid if I sell it today or in 10 years time, It's as good as bottomed out price wise. 

[Ross9999992]

The hyper 7 I bought used and have owned for 18+ years now says hello 👋🏻

[Nitroholic]

I buy to keep .... usually because I like to modify things, so after a fairly short amount of time the vehicle has become fairly well tailored to what I want, and you never get back the time effort and money you put in if you sell on.

So, things either get kept....or as has happened a couple of times....get sold on fairly quickly if the thing just failed to impress or become part of my RC family

[Lone-wolf]

This one nearly got moved on about 15 months back, but i now really like it a huge amount and the amount of cash i have sunk into it.....i dont want to tally up, and it has been through plenty of incarnations with different wheels different bodies and so on, its just had brand new Axial axles, a little while back new gearbox and motor......but its a stunning rig, it started out as an FS racing SCX10II clone

[Stormbringer]

Glad your liking it now tho mate 

How you getting on with the DC1 ?

[Lone-wolf]

23 minutes ago, Stormbringer said:

Glad your liking it now tho mate 

How you getting on with the DC1 ?

Kinda like the DC1 now, no plans to move it on, i guess sometimes it takes a while for me to likea rig for its good points and overlook its minor points

[Stormbringer]

Yeh sometimes it can take a wee while to gell with em 

[BashingBrian]

I'm like a magpie, I see shiny things and buy them.!!

I like to try most brands to be honest, I'm just too lazy to sell stuff that I don't use, it just ends up in storage usually 🤣🤣 ( still have 20+ year old Tamiya's )