Small Scale Military Headquarters

I've been offered a Snake Super Cobra for approx $350 but am not sure if this was a limited or low production model. so would like advice as to if this a fair price to pay?
It's still in the box which is the red flame type.
I've concentrated on fixed wing so far, so if anything has been mentioned previously on the subject it's not registered with me.

Thanks and all the best.
Mad Sam

The snake cobra in the red motorworks box is a rare one. I have seen these recently go in the $300.00 range. You can be patient and hope to pick one off of Ebay or somewhere cheaper but that is getting harder to do. Right now all the ones on Ebay are 389.00 and higher BIN which is high balling a bit. I personally like the camo version more but that one in the box is a rare one also.

It seems the latest listings for the Cobras has gone up considerably in the last couple months. Many are listed on Ebay for $350 or more. From my experiences it seems the more rare and most desireable is the camo version (not the snake). I have the snake version and it is a great piece, but it seems to be much more available more often than the camo version and the camo version seems to have a little more detail to it (armament is painted better, overall paint finish).
That all being said. I couldn't find any "completed listings" on Ebay in the last 30 days or so for any Cobra. So apparently the $350 ones aren't selling at that price.
If you look here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ultimate-Soldier-AH ... 4155a9f185
there is a camo version Buy It Now for $300 and $18 shipping. I would think this is a better deal than the $350 for the snake version you are being offered.
Even better, I'd just keep following the Ebay listings and I think you'll be able to score one for around $180 to $220 fairly easily. I followed auctions for about 6 months before I scored mine for $95 about a year ago and they were regularly going for $120 and more at the time.
But, like anything else - it's worth what you are willing to pay for it. I, personally, wouldn't put more than $200 toward a snake version - maybe $250 at most for the camo version.
Good Luck.

I got a used Cobra on SSHQ for $30 or $40.

I got a "Snake" Supercobra for $50 shipped off ebay back in the day since they never showed up at the Wal Marts in my area. I thought it was a bit high back in 2004, but its a steal by today's prices and really not bad even then. I still have the Motorworks box, too

Pcoughran is spot-on with his reasoning. $350 for a "Snake" Supercobra, even in the Motorworks box, is really too high. The cammo Supercobra is the more-rare of the two paint schemes and is only available in the standard 21c box.

I would differ in my reasoning only in the maximum price I'd be willing to pay... that is if I needed another Supercobra, since I managed to get both versions before the prices spiked Based on today's standards, I would pay no more than $200 for a boxed cammo Supercobra and perhaps $150 for a boxed snake Supercobra and with searching and time could certainly find them for less.

wow i hate it when prices go that high. I have both versions and have no desire to sell them but it's a lot of money i could make if i did. I won't but i don't like it because it makes me feel less good about opening things, modifying them etc.

I have to be honest. They are nice but not worth over $200 in my view....they're just not that nice. I prefer the marine camo over the snake. I like the snake camo scheme better but don't like the snake marking itself and would have preferred something plainer and more generic.

I paid 60 bucks for mine and really regretted paying that much....now, not regretting it so much:)

> it makes me feel less good about opening things

Aferg If you talked about the bad feeling of opening the box, it's the same here. I managed to get the two of them 4/5 years ago like most everything else of my collection, When I had enough room 2 years ago to open every boxes I hoarded over 3 years in the same hour* I neither found the motivation to open one of these once cheap plastic cobra toys nor to sell them since...I hate that

But again if I should open one and sell the other I would keep the camo cobra which I find better and which was also harder to grab.


*yes despite not opening the cobras it was one of my best christmas ever

i just sold my last snake version in 21C box for 400$

I passed on them when they went on sale at Wal-mart for $15 .

They were stacked to the ceiling.

Kind of wish what I know now back then.

They had a least 20 of them .

So that is 20 X $15 = $300

And if I had them now

20x $300 = $6,000

So that would have been about $5,700 worth of profit.

Some day I will learn.

Thanks to you all for the advice.

I've decided to pass on this Super Cobra, as the general opinion is that it's too expensive and there will be others in the future.

I'll direct the funds towards a few more WW2 fighters instead.

Also with some of the low rates you were able to pay for the helos makes me realise that I found the scale way too late, I'm on the wrong continent, and I'm VERY jealous!!!!!!!

$15 dollars...that's about £10...OMG...You can't buy a decent cup of tea for that......

All the best
Mad Sam

Yeah, the prices were fantastic for a while. Unfortunately, this is also why 21st Cent. went belly up. Yeah they got a huge deal with Walmart and Toys R Us to sell their stuff retail, but it required them to produce a ton of product (too much). Afterall, how many kids really want realistic war machines in 1/18 scale. Yes, they are GI Joe size so makes playing with 3 3/4" figures nice, but these were more models than toys in many cases and could not hold up to play by kids, which is what the market had to be for the numbers of items produced (the military collector market just isn't that big).
So, they end up with oodles of product not selling and getting returned by parents because it breaks just putting it together as they think it is a toy like the Chap Mei and GI Joe stuff, but it's not. To get rid of it they mark it way down just to empty the shelves. They get turned off to the "realistic" stuff even in small quality because of the bad experience and lost money when clearancing out everything. So we are now left with e-tailers and a much smaller and more expensive runs and almost no new product.
Anyway, hope you get your Cobra ultimately.

pcoughran - thanks for that.

I think only the Corgi boxings ever went on clearance sales over here, I can't recall seeing anything in our TRU or Walmarts, I may be wrong on this because I only started collecting a couple of years ago, just can't recall ever seeing anything, and I think I would have noticed.

BTW - I really like the photos showing your collection which were posted on here last year.

All the best
Mad Sam

Mad Sam wrote:I think only the Corgi boxings ever went on clearance sales over here, I can't recall seeing anything in our TRU or Walmarts, I may be wrong on this because I only started collecting a couple of years ago, just can't recall ever seeing anything, and I think I would have noticed.

Mad Sam, being in Europe, you guys really only ever got the short end of things as far as mass retail was concerned. What you saw in the Corgi boxes was what was available and it no-where compared to what we got in the US. Even then, I think only small retailers or chains like ModelZone got the items. I know for a fact the TRUs in the UK did not carry 21c items and I don't even think you have Wal Marts, at least in their American mega-store variety. The only 21c XD items I ever saw during the time I lived in the UK several years ago were some items in the Corgi boxes at the RAF Museum in Hendon in 2005. They were discounted to £29.99

tmanthegreat

Thanks for the info.

There are Walmarts here, but just standard sized UK supermarkets.

When I first started looking for 1/18 I found a couple of model stores which had run with 21st, but by then they only had a few pieces left and never restocked. (I did however get a few ex display aircraft for extremely good rates)

£29.99...Think I've seen pictures of these - Spitfires all stacked up - another reason I was too late into the scale - missed that lot too!!!

All the best
Mad Sam

The Snake version of the Super Cobra is the one that shipped to Wal-mart stores.

The camo version shipped to specialty retailers. To my knowledge, there was not any crossover there, but I could be wrong. Assuming I'm accurate, then the Snake version probably saw a larger production run?

pickelhaube wrote:I passed on them when they went on sale at Wal-mart for $15 .

They were stacked to the ceiling.

Haha, yeah I remember I bought 80 (initially) of the camo version from 21st back in the day. They just sat... and sat... and sat. I was totally mystified because it was such a great piece.

I wish I still had them now!!

The one chopper missing from my collection...very sad I missed this one..maybe one day I'll get lucky.

Just posted - posible good deal for someone.......



http://cgi.ebay.com/ULTIMATE-SOLDIER-1- ... MyEbayBeta