Bro out here literally pulling apart kits then selling them for more than the original kit is worth.
Found this seller on ebay who is apparently just building an easily obtainable kit, pulling it's arms, head and legs off into separate components then asking for at least twice as much as it would cost you to just buy the original kit yourself.
Bro even wants over US$60 just for the dry decals alone! But hey, silver lining-the postage is FREE!
So, question time. Curious to know if anyone thinks I am maybe missing something crucial here? Because they do have a 100% approval rating, with nearly a 950 sales, which is interesting.
So is this just batshit insane like my instincts say it is?
If it was a rare kit I could probably understand it. But for such a common HG though... yeah, not so much.
Who would pay that much for these scraps?
EDIT: I could even almost put it down to ignorance if someone thought this was the old 1/144 no grade from waaaaay back in the day. But it's not that kit. That is the only non--dodgy explanation I have so far.
EDIT 3: What a ride! A niggling question turned into something that could only ever happen on Reddit! Anyway, big update! User u/Dracula-X- actually messaged the seller and flat out asked why! (I feel really bad, I wasn't actually planning on doxxing some poor ebay seller today)
But I digress... what they told u/Dracula-X- is that (as many people have pointed out) they do this as a service to help people out-victims if you will, people who have lost parts to the void, customisers and things of that nature. A noble service to our community, I am sure you will agree!
The crucial part being they do this locally for Japanes customers. At reasonable prices. They went on to say that the hugely inflated prices are in fact due to the unfortunate price of international shipping. I have no way really of confirming this is true, but when you look at all the facts together, Occam's Razor says that this is the thing that makes the most sense.
And on top of that, I do like to always at least try to see the best in people, and always give them the benefit of doubt until proven otherwise!
And I see no real reason not to do that here.
So I think we can tentatively call this case closed.
Thank you to everyone who came along on the journey and helped me try to unravel my tiny, insignificant problem. I appreciate all of your help.
This is an amazing community of people from all walks of life and many and incredibly varied backgrounds, all united and motivated by a love of building cool Japanese plastic robots, and it's amazing group of people to be part of. I love you all and thanks to everyone who tried to help me solve this puzzle. And my deepest, sincerest apologies to someone whom I imagine is a very confused, or at least bemused Japanes person right now, wondering what the hell just happened...
So to my poor, mystery Ebay Seller Chan, please allow me to say this:
My deepest and most profound apologies, and (god I hope this is correct)
お詫び申し上げます