selling model ships

[polydoc]

I think the consensus opinion is that yes you can sell them on e-Bay, Facebook Market Place, auction sites, etc., but it is highly unlikely the selling price will cover the value of time and materials.

 

[Pepite 1/60]

Well, you asked for it:

Question: How to sell ship models?

Answer: Ship models can't be easily sold because most all of them have no market value whatsoever.

1. What little customer base exists is generally ignorant and can't tell a good one from junk, let alone know how to appraise it.

2. There are very few people who care enough about ship models to spend money on one. (However, by some reports, there are still people in Sweden who haven't yet received the memo.)

3. The market is flooded with an oversupply of worthless finished kits and schlock from foreign sweatshops, resulting in a devaluation of true fine art ship models.

4. Styles change. Present interior design trends favor sparse, sterile, environments without display pieces like ship models. Few people have any interest in buying a dust catcher for their home or office.

5. Ship models are not perceived as a fine art investment vehicle as are other more marketable representational fine art forms. Ship models generally tend not to appreciate at the same rate as fine art except, in some rare cases, as antiques. They often require greater care and conservation than other representational fine art and generally take up much more space to display.

On the +side: as they have none, ship models will never lose their market value! So just keep building your models for fun, or don't build them at all.

 

[Jim Fortnam]

Ubjs brings us back on track…

The question in the thread was how to sell ships, no one has given a sensible answer.

How to sell?

Nothing magic or unknown in that.

First, understand who might be a buyer. Think it through.
Ships are no longer the forefront of technology, nor the mean# by which to make a fortune by shipping exotic goods and selling at huge profits. (Well, they are, but different ships) where once a model was the way to examine and critique, and compare designs, and, earlier, the way for the shipyard to visualise the curves requested by the designer.

A secondary market always develops in antique things, so some models may have an antique value. Old furniture (my thing) has many similarities. The material - timber that is no longer available, such as good, solid mahogany’s or boxwood. The finest craftsmanship, as befits a model bound for the man paying for the full size ship, or his shipyard foreman. Such a thing has a value by virtue of the place in history of the prototypes.

What does that tell us?
There are few people who share an interest in the detail of a model of a ship.
There are few people who have any idea of the functioning details of a sailing ship.

How do we sell? - we provide reasons for purchasing.
“This model illustrates the Venetian Bow, an amazing invention that was the main reason the Brett family were able to take over the entire teazel shipping industry” the addition of six masts was the innovation that stole the market. Notice on this model the cunning way that each mast is tapped to the keel, and the model shows the original blocks as built, before the re-rigging carried out by Woodbridge shipyard in 1746”
Now - would that interest you, with pictures of competing ships to compare?

Finally, get that message, amplified, onto as many social platforms as you can manage, and list the ship on eBay, adding that shipping will be in a custom box to ensure no damage etc etc.

THAT’S how to sell a ship model

Good luck - it will be needed.

Jim

 

[DARIVS ARCHITECTVS]

Well, you asked for it:

Question: How to sell ship models?

Answer: Ship models can't be easily sold because most all of them have no market value whatsoever.

1. What little customer base exists is generally ignorant and can't tell a good one from junk, let alone know how to appraise it.

2. There are very few people who care enough about ship models to spend money on one. (However, by some reports, there are still people in Sweden who haven't yet received the memo.)

3. The market is flooded with an oversupply of worthless finished kits and schlock from foreign sweatshops, resulting in a devaluation of true fine art ship models.

4. Styles change. Present interior design trends favor sparse, sterile, environments without display pieces like ship models. Few people have any interest in buying a dust catcher for their home or office.

5. Ship models are not perceived as a fine art investment vehicle as are other more marketable representational fine art forms. Ship models generally tend not to appreciate at the same rate as fine art except, in some rare cases, as antiques. They often require greater care and conservation than other representational fine art and generally take up much more space to display.

WELL SAID! That's it in a nutshell.

 

[danielsje]

One can actually sell the kit for more than the finished model from same…

 

[fourseas]

I worked for several years as a contract model ship builder for a small ship yard here on the North shore of Lake Erie. They would have me build models of the vessels they built for their customers as that was usually part of their contract requirements. Even though these models sold for a few thousand dollars the time spent converting the original drawings and building every single fitting from scratch never paid much on a profit basis. The customers I built the models for were not interested in old style sailing ships or anything built from a kit. They only wanted a scaled down exact replica of their particular vessel. As an example of the exacting work required for this type of build, I once forgot to add a fuel tank vent on one of the decks and was called upon to make it right.. I agree with most comments made on this subject, and will add never make a model for sale unless it's already sold, and you must be the type of builder to do it perfectly.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

The question in the thread was how to sell ships, no one has given a sensible answer.

to answer the original question, you have to first establish where the market is and who you are trying to sell to.

if you live in an area like along the coast or in the Great Lakes region you will find far more maritime activity than say in Kansans or land locked areas. In the past i have been involved in the hobby, maritime museums, sales of models and organizing shows and competitions.

you would think a show such as this that draws in thousands of maritime enthusiasts would generate sales or commissions to build models. It did have a degree of success but you need backers to pull something like this off. corporate sponsors a booth at such a show is very expensive.

Cleveland Boat Show - 2025 Progressive Cleveland Boat Show

Join us to celebrate Cleveland Boat Show! Experience the nautical event of the year with boats, live music, education, live fishing, local cuisine, family fun, and more!

clevelandboatshow.com

Check out your area for specialty shops that deal with hand crafted items, Get involved in your local art scene these are the people who have their finger on the pulse of who, why and where, they put on art and craft shows, they have connections to buyers.
lucky Cleveland is a maritime port and a very vibrant and active art scene. Selling your work is all about networking


it has crossed my mind to have a meeting with the staff at the Mathers to discuss a model gallery in the museum. There is no problem with space they have a lot of it. Keep in mind they will take a % of sales. first like any museum the first thing is who is going to handle the models? museums are always understaffed. i live 20 miles from the museum. as of now it is just a matter of getting around to it.

Steamship William G. Mather

Tour this restored 618-foot historic flagship!

greatscience.com

and then a museum like this they have a gift shop and like all museums it is a struggle for income so maybe a model or two or a few in the gift shop benefits the museum and the model builder.

David Warther Carvings Homepage - David Warther Carvings

David Warther Carvings Museum - We are preserving, promoting and exhibiting the artwork of nationally known maritime artist David Warther who has carved ships and vessels from Ivory and wood depicting the history of ships.

warther.org

every now and then a museum will sell a model note built from scratch, kits are not accepted i asked!




it

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

One can actually sell the kit for more than the finished model from same…

Now that is a truth
way back in the museum gallery days a builder brought up the same idea. He said "selling a finished kit model is like trying to sell preassembled jig saw puzzles" the fun in it is the build and that is where the value is. The idea was brought up rather than trying to sell finished models why not a very simple kit for kids it never did develop because we were a club and not setup to mass produce kits.

 

[Roger Pellett]

Bob Brucksaw’s Ohio: Although I met Bob Bruckshaw once, I cannot claim to have been anything more than an acquaintance. He did write to me though. He had an objective to build all of the US Navy ships named Ohio. This was way before the Ohio Class Ballistic Missile Submarines. He was going to start with a gunboat named Ohio and since many of these gunboats were built in Marietta, Ohio where I lived, he thought that I might know of information that might be useful. Sadly, at that time I didn’t know where to look for basic research information like that so couldn’t help.

A principal builder of small vessels built in Marietta, Ohio was a recent arrival from Connecticut with the last name of Devol. A descendant, Jerry Devol was a draftsman in our engineering department. I didn’t make the possible connection with gunboat research until many years after moving to Minnesota and reading the book “The Pioneers” about the settlement of the Northwest Territory.

Al Mastics: Back when people actually read newspapers, those located in major ports along the Great Lakes had dedicated Marine Reporters. I believe that Al. Mastics was one for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. At least here in the Great Lakes’ largest port shipping news if reported at all is by regular pool reporters with consequent loss of interest.

AND, in the Great Lakes largest port, a signed Hockey Stick is more valuable than a well made ship model.

Roger

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

my wife and i do a lot of art shows because she and my daughter sell at art shows. I overhear this many times "oh i can do that" even my wife turned to me and said "you can do that"

i think a problem with selling finished kit model ships is the same "i can do that" so rather than buy the finished model someone will go out and buy the kit at far less than the asking price of the finished model. This might be the reason there are so many unfinished kits, it is not as easy as one may think. So after 150 hours and frustrated that buyer starts to realize the asking price for the finished model he saw might just be worth the asking price, figuring the builder must of been working for .50 cents an hour.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

although drafting was covered in graphic design classes it was Bob Bruckshaw that taught me how to understand ship plans and how to draw them He was a draftsman by trade.

He did do the first rate OHIO that was in the museum for years. i do not know what happened to that model. it was at 1/4 scale and really big.

 

[Roger Pellett]

I lost my connection with Vermilion, Ohio when my father died in August 1986. My mother sold the house on Portage Drive and moved to Pittsburgh to live near my sister. Three years later we moved from Marietta, Ohio to Duluth, MN. While we were happy to leave the Ohio Valley for a home less than five miles from Lake Superior we missed the closing of the Vermilion, Museum and the opening of the one in Toledo. I hope that Bob’s First Rate Ohio model found a good home. Probably not displayed in Toledo as not of the Great Lakes and their mission.

Roger

 

[Bob Cleek]

AND, in the Great Lakes largest port, a signed Hockey Stick is more valuable than a well-made ship model.

Now, that is one of the best lines I've heard in a long time. You win the internet today!

 

[Peter Gutterman]

I've made s few thousand dollars doing mostly restorations and actually sold a few originals for something approaching (but not quite out of the " Don't Quit Your Day Job") profitable arena. I got lucky with a collector who liked my work, for whom I did a major Connie model restoration and who bought three originals, but last time I spoke with him he'd just tuned 90 ...a few years ago

 

[Bob Cleek]

There is a lot of very good information by the guy who probably knows more about selling ship models than anybody else in the world, or at least in the Western Hemisphere, Michael Wall's American Marine Models website. There's really not a lot of point in general musing about the subject of selling ship models when the man who's had his finger on the pulse of the ship model market for over thirty years has provided just about every answer anybody could want in the FAQ section of his gallery's website.
See: https://www.shipmodel.com/
https://www.shipmodel.com/faqs/
https://shipmodel.com/pdfs/RMW NRJ Lecture.pdf
https://www.shipmodel.com/2018SITE/...ship-model-classification-guidelines-1980.pdf

It is of particular interest that Mr. Wall makes a critical distinction between "hobby" and "fine art" models, a subject that has been extensively discussed in SoS recently. I believe he is correct that the only reasonably marketable completed ship models are those built by recognized artists in the field to the Class A and Class B standards of the Mystic Seaport Ship Model Classification Guidelines. (See: https://www.shipmodel.com/2018SITE/...ship-model-classification-guidelines-1980.pdf ) Wall's distinction, taking as a given the exceptional quality of a model, is that there are primarily two categories: 1) ship models which are original and unique works of art generally produced by "ship model artists" and 2) all other ship models, generally produced by "ship model hobbyists" for their own pleasure and satisfaction. It would appear that those who people the various ship modeling online forums are overwhelmingly members of the latter category. Those ship modelers who adhere to the accepted conventions of fine art in their modeling and have earned recognition as such, are a very small, and, yes, elite, group.

From the Mystic Seaport Ship Model Classification Guidelines:

CATEGORIES OF SHIP MODELS

CLASS A: SCRATCH-BUILT MODEL: Model built entirely from scratch materials by the builder with no commercially fabricated parts except cordage, chain and belaying pins.

CLASS B: MODIFIED SCRATCH-BUILT MODEL: Model built from scratch, but supplemented by the use of some commercially fabricated accessories.

CLASS C: MODIFIED KIT MODEL: Model built from materials provided in commercial kit, supplemented by other commercially fabricated parts or by scratch-built parts.

CLASS D: KIT MODEL: Model built entirely from materials provided in commercial kits.

SPECIAL: SUB CATEGORIES: Model built and/or displayed in any of the following methods: Antique Waterline Cross Section Cut-away Exposed Interior Sailing Half Hull Power Rare Materials Diorama Mechanized Builder’s Extreme Miniature Ship in a Shadowbox Americana Folk Art Decorative Production Pond Model Other

Categories provided by The Manners’ Museum Model Ship Craftsman Competition, and by Mystic Seaport Museum, as prepared by R. Michael Wall, 1980.

 

[Roger Pellett]

And the Ship Model Artists are too busy trying to make a living than to participate on ship model forums. We’re lucky to have the ones on our forums that do.

A highlight when visiting Mystic Seaport is a visit to the ship model gallery that offers models for sale. These are high end models made by Ship Model Artists, not the “decorator” models sold in the attached gift shop. I visited in 2015 and again in 2019.

In 2019 I was surprised to see how few models that were for sale compared to 2015. There was also a J Boat model that had not sold since my 2015visit. The lady running the store commented that there was very little demand for these models.

I have also noticed that the models that they offer for sale are usually built to smaller scale than is usually seen on ship model forums. This gives them a jewel like appearance. No bowling pin sized and shaped belaying pins.

Roger

 

[Peter Gutterman]

I had some luck showing and selling some models at the Annapolis Marine Art Gallery over several years. Never made a fortune and had to split the proceeds with the gallery. But it was in the four figures per model. There was no guessing as to what was gonna sell for any particular reason. Of the ship models sold there, the regional Chesapeake craft were most popular. Three of the four that I sold represented Chesapeake craft; one was a miniature schooner yacht "America" (1:192 scale which had been critically savaged when I had the gall to enter it into the NRG model contest one year). The miniature was bought by a yachtsman who'd sailed over from the U. K. Paid full price, no haggle, $6k!. (I'd put a high price on it 'cause I didn't really want to part with it.) I also got several restoration commissions that evolved into commissions for originals. Some started as kits, some were totally scratch built. So, ask me if I give a flying F**K as to the opinions of "experts" when it comes to the aesthetic or monetary value of what you create. The only thing that matters is if somebody loves it enough to pony up. There's no accounting for taste, and it's all worth whatever somebody's willing to pay. So, ask for whatever you think your time and talent are worth. Don't sell yourself short. What's the worst that can happen?
You become a "recognized" artist by persevering until you get recognized.
Nobody ever built a monument to a critic.

Pete

 

[Peter Gutterman]

Another lower coarse yard. Each of these has 60+ separate parts/assemblies/fabrications.
A few days at the beach in between. One more of these to go.

 

[Peter Gutterman]

Oops, I posted that in the wrong place!

 

[Peter Gutterman]

I think the "gem-like" or precious quality of miniatures is most appealing, as well as most accessible. Easy to ship, carry and display.
Most appealing to impulse purchase. I also believe that, if well executed, the miniature "gem-like quality" adds to the impression of value.