Allright, you guys made me go back and find the WS 71/FoB 010 and here is the
thread.
What follows is Andy's post from that time (you should probably read the prior posts in that thread or things may be taken out of context).
*****
Hey Njja,
Give me a break! And also get things into proportion… there are disasters and then there are real disasters!
For the record here’s exactly what happened… a couple of months ago we could see that both the “Berlin” King Tiger and the FOB Char Blbis were going to run out of their initial production runs – 1,000 and 500 respectively.
Well I thought what should I do? I had 3 options:
A. Let them “run out” – end of story
B. Do a “repeat order” with the factory (usually 500 and 250 respectively). Exactly same colour… same markings… same everything or…
C. Do a new “paint job” for both and make some minor amendments. And release again 500 and 250 respectively – as that is what I could sell at the time.
Call me old-fashioned if you will, but option 'C' seemed to offer the most fun for me, the dealers and most of all you, the collectors.
And that’s what we basically did. What we also did was let dealers know that was the plan… Now what I tried to tell dealers was that we only originally planned a limited number (500 and 250).
Please note my mistake I should never have used “Limited” because some people started confusing that with our official “Strictly Limited” releases which come with special boxes… brochures/certificates etc. etc.
I only meant that I thought 500 and 250 would meet the dealer demand… how little did I know. Within 24 hours we had dealer orders far in excess of the original numbers and some dealers screaming for even more!
So what did we do… we contacted the factory and “upped” the order to meet the majority of dealers requests – pure and simple.
There was… there is no “conspiracy” to mislead either dealers or collectors. If some collectors no longer want to purchase any of these particular “new paint” jobs that's their decision and choice – it’s still a free world.
To be frank no one pulls a gun and puts it to a collector's head and forces him to buy anything he or she does not want.
Some people on these forums forget that I am also a collector and I buy what I like… if I like it. Whilst the increase in the values of K&C continues to grow that is only a reflection of the increase of new people coming into the hobby.
Many years ago new collectors would come up to me at a show or in my Hong Kong store and ask, “If I buy this will it increase in value?”
My answer was always the same… “Don't buy it for that reason, buy it because you like it and it gives you pleasure.”
Years later the same question still comes up. I always give the same answer.
Best wishes and…Happy Collecting!
Andy C.
