Thank You Kindly Mike!
Mark is correct. I have hundreds of body tubes, about 100 nose cones (some old ones with canards you haven't seen in years!) a small stock pile of balsa in various thickness's. And if Sandman don't have decals, I get them from Mark at StickerShock. I have about 150 of Estes kits in the build pile, about a dozen from Quest and another dozen from Custom.
I have 6 or 8 Semroc kits, some from NC, not Ohio on the facecards. I have all kinds of thrust rings, EM rings, cardstock templates for reduction shrouds and tail cones and nozzles. All kinds of tube couplers, some plastic and some balsa reducers. Over a hundred parachutes of various sizes from 6" to 32". Anything from BT-5 to BT-80, including BT-70 stuff.
I usually clone OOP kits. But my wish list is so large, and that one is so small, it makes sense to me to clone it and maybe twice with an 18mm EM. I often do that, either larger, or smaller. Like the Hi-Flyer, I'm building one stock, and one with a mini EM, both from kits.
I had to sell off most of my collections when idiots burned our apartment building down and we had no insurance. I was lucky to get the kits and supplies out before the fireman stopped me from going back in.
So I'm slowly recovering my collections to leave for my 2 sons, and rebuilding my stock pile of kits to build or alter in some way.
I don't spend what money on can for rockets at one or 2 places either. I buy from several places.
Estes sales, eRockets, Heavenly Hobbies on occasion, Jon Rocket, Uncle Mikes to just name a few.
I support a good variety of vendors. I can't afford to keep them all in business, but when I can afford it I spread it around.
I think it is the fairest way to do it. And once in a while I get lucky on Ebay and land an OOP kit within what I call a Fair Price.
And I have a friend I like to throw some business at once in a while that sells on Amazon.
But if the Mini Fat Boy goes on sale, I'd probably buy the kits. It's just not a high priority on my wish list.
