Prices?

[Rcfiddy1]

Foam is made from Oil... in general, over the years oil prices have risen. However the total amount of foam in these planes amounts to about a cup of liquid, and its the cheapest part of the plane.

But that really isn't what drives the price of these models...

The cost is in the molds, and the electronic parts, and the labor to produce these finished planes, and the logistics chain. It takes money to design, produce, distribute, warehouse, and market these models. The foam itself is a blip on the radar.

I understand but its still foam. A Lcd tv needs molds for the bezels and circuit boards full of technology. The actual electronics in our foamies are just short of garbage. Servos that cost a buck or 2, a led or 2 that cost 25 cents. The only expensive part would be the esc amd motor and even than its a bearing and magnets and motors can be had for a few bucks. Yet prices of TVs go down and foamies never seem to go down. Its BS that a foam plane needs more tech than a large format Oled tv. Im calling BS for the high prices for a foam toy. Hell theres more foam in those tv boxes that are molded to keep the tv undamaged.

[F106DeltaDart]

I understand but its still foam. A Lcd tv needs molds for the bezels and circuit boards full of technology. Yet prices of those go down not up. Its BS that a foam plane needs more tech than a large format Oled tv. Im calling BS for the high prices for a foam toy.

The difference is in the demand. A mass production line rolling off thousands of TVs that are sold everywhere and owned by everyone brings the price down extremely low. RC aircraft are sold in much smaller quantities to a very small group of individuals. The economy of scale simply isn’t there like it is in mainstream products.

[Twowingtj]

It's all about perspective. For those that have only lived in the world of PNF BNF foamies, the new prices may seem high.

Try picking up a balsa or composit warbird ARF. Keep in mind that the cost of the ARF airframe is the cheapest part of the investment. You have to invested the time to choose the right components. That can take some time to ensure you get the right components. Next comes purchasing all that is needed to complete the build, usually 2-4 times the cost of the ARF. Now comes the time investment of fitting, modding and testing everything. Don't forget to order all of the bits that you didn't realize that you would need the first time around. Months later you are where you would be if you had bought the preassembled bird. And it doesn't look as nice....More time needed to detail. That was easy and only cost twice+ as much to get there.

If you really want to invest some time and a lot of $$$$$, try building a kit. I have one bird that the covering alone cost more than a fully outfitted L-39. I made the mistake of keep all of the receipts for some of my early builds. It didn't take long to break that habbit:Silly::Scared:.

Buying something like the new Corsair or F-22 at these prices is a no brainer.

[xviper]

Looks like a lot of the prices have jumped for the helis as well. Some of the Superscale 700s have gone up by nearly $200, and a lot of the 500-600 size fuselages have some up by $50-$100 as well. Dang, looks like the tariff effects are really starting to hit in force.

Initially, I didn't think this whole tariff thing had any implications to our hobby, but having surfed a little on the net at some of the online RC shops out of Hong Kong, I believe this may indeed be the case. At least so far, pricing at the Hong Kong store for the same planes have yet to change and I can still buy them and have them shipped to Canada for the same price as before. With the new pricing at Motion, the tariffs (if that's what it is) put them at a distinct disadvantage as I still have to pay for shipping to Canada. For those in the US where you get free shipping, the price increase may not yet exceed what it would cost to buy directly from Hong Kong and pay for shipping. One certainly has to do price comparisons more carefully now. Up till now, I didn't really care if I had to pay a little bit more from Motion as I liked to support them equally as I do the other seller in Hong Kong.

[Valkpilot]

Initially, I didn't think this whole tariff thing had any implications to our hobby, but having surfed a little on the net at some of the online RC shops out of Hong Kong, I believe this may indeed be the case. At least so far, pricing at the Hong Kong store for the same planes have yet to change and I can still buy them and have them shipped to Canada for the same price as before. With the new pricing at Motion, the tariffs (if that's what it is) put them at a distinct disadvantage as I still have to pay for shipping to Canada. For those in the US where you get free shipping, the price increase may not yet exceed what it would cost to buy directly from Hong Kong and pay for shipping. One certainly has to do price comparisons more carefully now. Up till now, I didn't really care if I had to pay a little bit more from Motion as I liked to support them equally as I do the other seller in Hong Kong.

First off, you're lucky because you're not here. But the thing is that MRC assumed the risk for us that is generally incurred from ordering from an overseas company. And while you didn't see it at those you looked at,
I saw them some time ago at Toucan Hobby. And I'm not sure but the tariff might be a big suprise at check-out OR when you go to pick it up at the Post Office, ECT.

[xviper]

First off, you're lucky because you're not here. But the thing is that MRC assumed the risk for us that is generally incurred from ordering from an overseas company. And while you didn't see it at those you looked at,
I saw them some time ago at Toucan Hobby. And I'm not sure but the tariff might be a big suprise at check-out OR when you go to pick it up at the Post Office, ECT.

You may be right. In Canada, we sometimes see brokerage and the subsequent tax and many times, we get off without paying it. I suppose this tariff thing for you could hit you the same way on such purchases at your end.

[Pete Lane]

410 for an old Stinger ?

I had to return my F-22 due to multiple issues.
Lots of time and effort running around trying
to iron it out.

Just ordered an RV-8 from Flex.
Will see how that goes.

[Valkpilot]

410 for an old Stinger ?

I had to return my F-22 due to multiple issues.
Lots of time and effort running around trying
to iron it out.

Just ordered an RV-8 from Flex.
Will see how that goes.

When talking about aircraft that come in different sizes, it helps others if you specify the size.

[hellcat716]

I do not like the price increase but will continue to support Motion RC. Been buying from them for years now and just love there support. Still great products for the price that includes free shipping. You can either buy or not buy, your choice.

[Pete Lane]

When talking about aircraft that come in different sizes, it helps others if you specify the size.

90mm Stinger.
90mm Raptor

[NoDirt!]

Well regardless of the bang for the buck, these increases have pushed prices above what I am willing to pay for alot of these aircraft.

Thank you Washington!

[JamesonC]

For me, it really isn't about is the plane really "worth" the money. Worth is in they eye of the beholder. F22 was a perfect example for me. Some saw the original price on that plane incredibly over priced and others saw it very reasonable. So, all that is just an opinion.

My problem also isn't an increase but the size of the increase. Some of the increases are very large. I just have a pretty hard time believing that they were "getting by" on the old prices but it was gonna take $30-$80 increases to keep everything afloat. If you need to increase prices due to various reasons, fine. But, I don't think that size increase was expected by many. Radios were hit the hardest by Tariffs from what I read and even Spektrum didn't have that big of an increase, AND they warned people it was coming multiple times. And for radio equipment to get hit the hardest, Admiral rxs didn't go up, yet PNP planes did??? :Thinking:

Either way, I am not gonna bash MRC for doing whatever they needed to for whatever reasons they are. I don't like it and wish they would have handled it better since they have always bragged about being all about the customers. If that was REALLY true, give your customer base a chance to make any purchases they had been considering and on the fence about before such a big increase. But now, like many others, I will just really have to look harder at future purchases and see what else is available. MRC has had a hard time keeping a bunch of stuff I need in stock as well lately, maybe this has something to do with it, don't know. It will be interesting to see if HK, HH, or FMS follow suit with price increases on their products.

[Tom]

Hi everyone. I'd like to mention a few things. Market forces caused us to look at every single plane we sell. While some planes did go up, most only went up a little, some did not go up at all, and some actually went down. We pass on our savings where we can. We've tried to hold prices firm since we started Motion RC 6 years ago with the exception of FMS which was not dictated by Motion RC. During that time freight costs for container shipping have gone up significantly. Healthcare, technology (website and software), rent, insurance, salaries, licensing, and UPS/USPS costs have gone up significantly. Manufacturing costs (labor and raw materials) and ultimately product costs have gone up. We'd love to keep prices low forever but market forces have made that impossible. Expenses and prices of goods have been going up every year we've been in business and we held our prices for as long as we could.

For those who say it is just foam and foam is cheap, you are right, foam is cheap. However, the molds to turn melted foam and plastic into an airplane are extremely expensive. Every plane requires its own unique molds. The machines to inject the foam are six figures. The cost of the mold is not far behind. The more scale plastic parts a plane has, the more molds it needs. While labor in China is not super expensive, it has gone up consistently, every year. These are low margin low volume items which are hand assembled and shipped across the ocean. We're a small company and all of these planes are made in very small quantities. Companies like Horizon produce in larger quantities but still had increased costs too. Horizon increased their prices but they did it to mostly to the dealer, not the consumer. They raised our price significantly but not your price.

We wish we gave a bit of warning to everyone, for that we are sorry. We will still stick to our core values of the best customer service and highest quality RC products. I appreciate all your business over the years and hope you will continue to support Motion RC.

[Twowingtj]

Thanks for chiming in Tom. Most of us here on the Squawk get it. You did forget to mention that the cost of keeping Aplha supplied with Ramen has gone up too! You don't want to scrimp thereLOL. He's the one that keeps the good stuff coming down the pipeline. Do what you have to do to keep MRC there for us.

[Valkpilot]

Thanks for chiming in Tom. Most of us here on the Squawk get it. You did forget to mention that the cost of keeping Aplha supplied with Ramen has gone up too! You don't want to scrimp thereLOL. He's the one that keeps the good stuff coming down the pipeline. Do what you have to do to keep MRC there for us.

Speaking of Ramen, did you know that the guy who invented it was motivated by the belief that his homeland(Japan) would one day have a manned space program of it's own and he wanted to be the person who was responsible for feeding it. And as another side note, whenever somebody talks about Ramen or I stock it on the shelves where I work, I all ways think about the title sequence of the show "Futurama" where
they show the billboard advetising Bachelor Chow.
"

[Mako]

For me, it really isn't about is the plane really "worth" the money. Worth is in they eye of the beholder. F22 was a perfect example for me. Some saw the original price on that plane incredibly over priced and others saw it very reasonable. So, all that is just an opinion.

My problem also isn't an increase but the size of the increase. Some of the increases are very large. I just have a pretty hard time believing that they were "getting by" on the old prices but it was gonna take $30-$80 increases to keep everything afloat. If you need to increase prices due to various reasons, fine. But, I don't think that size increase was expected by many. Radios were hit the hardest by Tariffs from what I read and even Spektrum didn't have that big of an increase, AND they warned people it was coming multiple times. And for radio equipment to get hit the hardest, Admiral rxs didn't go up, yet PNP planes did??? :Thinking:

Either way, I am not gonna bash MRC for doing whatever they needed to for whatever reasons they are. I don't like it and wish they would have handled it better since they have always bragged about being all about the customers. If that was REALLY true, give your customer base a chance to make any purchases they had been considering and on the fence about before such a big increase. But now, like many others, I will just really have to look harder at future purchases and see what else is available. MRC has had a hard time keeping a bunch of stuff I need in stock as well lately, maybe this has something to do with it, don't know. It will be interesting to see if HK, HH, or FMS follow suit with price increases on their products.

JamesonC this was well said. I know I was on the fence for two of the new planes, the F-22 and the Flightline F4U. Now with the increase I have decided to withstand from the purchase. I have noticed that the overseas competors have not raised their pricing. So that being said I just ordered a few airplanes that are now less expensive including the shipping as well.

[JeffS69]

[QUOTE=Companies like Horizon produce in larger quantities but still had increased costs too. Horizon increased their prices but they did it to mostly to the dealer, not the consumer. They raised our price significantly but not your price.[/QUOTE]

So if Horizon Hobby sold Freewing products, their price to the customer would be less than MRC? My business is subject to the Chinese tariff increases as well. Initially (Nov. 2017) these were 15% increases with the possibility of another 10% Jan 1st 2019. A total of 25%. As we all know or not, the 10% increase in January 2019 did not happen. Price increases are never good. I've lost quite a bit of business due to the first 15% tariff increase. Mostly on high volume jobs. 15% more expensive on a 100K or say a 1M dollar job is huge. And unfortunately these jobs get shopped around, sometimes to the lowest bidder that can produce a quality product on time. Unfortunately for us consumers, (or fortunately for MRC) it appears that MRC is the only USA distributor of Freewing models? So basically no competition apples to apples. Also in my business some jobs (planes) have a higher profit margin than others, so while some jobs (planes) have seen a modest 5% to 8% increase, while other have gone up the full 15% or more depending on profitability. And a tariff increase is a great way to get back profit margins on a job (plane) that typically runs at low margin to begin with. IF the customers buys it? Also, it boils down to how little a profit margin, I or MRC is willing to accept, how difficult the job is to run,(Logistics) and if the customer is worth it. Yes, there are some difficult people that requires so much attention above and beyond the actual job that it reduces the profit margins.(ie. Warranty returns on defective models or parts) Price increases force customers to really think about their purchases, the value of that purchase and whether they / we feel we are truly getting the best bang for the buck, and backed by excellent customer service or no CS. MRC DOES have the best CS in the business and excellent products. No denying that. So my take is, they hired more / new employees, opened a UK warehouse and are after higher profit margins to cover these operating cost, I get it. So the bottom line is, until there is another USA Freewing distributor to compete against MRC, we can only either buy their product or not. I personally prefer to deal with MRC, so I will be supporting them because there are the premier RC plane supplier. And I want them to be around when I buy my next model. I have no problem supporting a real price increase, Happy Flying Boys and Girls!

[rifleman_btx]

Even though ive gone to printing my new planes, most all the electronics i buy i get from MRC, but lately ive noticed they are getting rid of the radio systems i use. That hurt to see also :(

[moodg16]

I have had to cut back as I cannot afford to pay the higher prices, I just hope Motion RC will lower the prices once the tariffs are repealed as I feel they will end soon. I have made purchases at Horizon Hobby as they offer affordable financing through Affirm, I hope Motion RC will start offering Affirm soon too.

[JamesonC]

I have had to cut back as I cannot afford to pay the higher prices, I just hope Motion RC will lower the prices once the tariffs are repealed as I feel they will end soon. I have made purchases at Horizon Hobby as they offer affordable financing through Affirm, I hope Motion RC will start offering Affirm soon too.

Motion has said multiple times that it had very little to do with tariffs.