by ZachC

 

I was hoping to bring you my first impressions of the new SUV paintjobs by now, but unfortunately there’ve been some problems. The hoods are flawed and don’t make it onto the vehicle with the paint. Because of that, ZMW didn’t list the paintjob that came in world last week. There are others who listed theirs anyway. Since the ”try-it” feature doesn’t work for paintjobs at this time there’s no way for people to discover the problem unless they buy it first, read the forums, or see it here. Then on Saturday I logged in and now I’m not sure even the paint works anymore. I checked the one I had in my inventory and it showed as a stock paint job. My question is: why put them in auction at this time? Not only that, but why front page an auction you already KNOW is for a flawed item?

One other thing I think my readers should know. The SUV paintjob is just that, a paintjob. The whole idea is to buy an SUV and then be able to change the paint, wheels, or bumpers whenever you want without having to buy a whole new vehicle. For that reason the wholesale for the paintjob is only 1,450t. So, yet another question: Why is there one on the front pages of the auctions (remembering that the paintjob doesn’t work anyway) for 11,450t? I’ll leave that to your own thoughts, I know I have mine. 

In short, I strongly recommend waiting until the bugs have been worked out before purchasing an SUV paintjob. You’ll have more choices then, and there are some interesting designs waiting in the wings including a few by Delightra and yes, ZMW as well.

 

Delightra posted a link to hers in the forums: http://delightra.com/there/SUVnew.jpg

BigD26 has one too: http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k217/bigd26_1979/SUV1.jpg

ZMW has several coming as well, here’s the link for those:  http://buggytrend.hugehost.net/gallery/coming-soon

 

I’m sure there are others getting ready too, so again, I strongly suggest you bypass the urge to spend tbux on a very limited selection of paintjobs that don’t work yet anyway.  

Let’s move on to buggy collecting. I collect buggies. I actually own over 600 and while the majority are ZMWs I own many others as well. One of the problems a collector faces is determining what’s collectable and what isn’t. By that I mean will it become more valuable and desirable as time goes by? That’s determined by several factors.  

The first thing to consider is quality. Is the buggy well done? There’s a major difference between a one of a kind buggy and a buggy that no one wanted so it never sold.  

Second is age. If it’s a really old buggy dating back to beta, for instance, it may be valuable to someone even if it’s hideous.  

Third is rarity; if the buggy is a limited edition that may make it more valuable. This mostly works if the buggy is by a “known” designer. There’ve been too many new designers designating their buggies as “limited editions” for that to count much. It’s more of a marketing ploy in many cases than anything else. Known designers could be someone who used to design but who isn’t seen much anymore. Spyderbytez and Melody_Copeland fit into that category.  

Any of these criteria has a bit of risk involved. For instance the age can’t be determined for sure until you actually own the buggy. To check, you go to your inventory, find the buggy, and click “return”. That brings up a page that tells you how much you’d get if you returned it, but it also identifies the date, hour and minute it was originally purchased. I reputable reseller that can be trusted is essential when asking for this date. You have no way of confirming it yourself until after you’ve purchased the buggy. Of course if its in auction and it states that the original purchase price was 5,250t then you know it’s fairly old, because the wholesale was raised to 8,850t several years ago.

 

Another risk is purchasing a buggy from a designer who is no longer in world. I personally love QGear buggies by Alixandrea. I own two of them myself and proudly display them when I do buggy museum shows. None of those buggies were limited editions, and she recently listed several after a very long time. She did nothing wrong in listing them, that’s her prerogative. The problem is that collectors assumed she was gone. Since I almost never resell buggies from my collection and only buy buggies I really like, this isn’t a problem for me, but one of her buggies, the QGear GT Hornet was in auction for over 100k when she relisted it for 16,850t. Collectors saw the value of that buggy drop instantly.  

This can affect a designer as well as collectors because if an old buggy gets relisted, collectors will shy away from purchasing others from this designer. That could be important to the designer if they come out with new product. Who wants to spend a ton of money on a “rare collectable” only to see their investment wiped out when the designer returns and relists? Again, that’s one of the risks in collecting and why it’s best to stay with established designers with a reputation for understanding the market. 

Finally there’s the integrity of the designer. Designers can work for years to create a reputation. It can be destroyed in a minute. If the designer states that something is limited to a certain number and then sells more, that’s not going to help them in the long run. If the designer tries to get around that limit by resubmitting the exact same design with some minor change, that doesn’t demonstrate much in the way of integrity either. If a designer wants to update a design, that’s one thing, but they need to do it with a clean start and with significant improvements and changes.

 

One designer who has established a reputation for integrity is BigD26. He’s just come out with his new DMC-King Corbra-08. It’s a very well done black and gray buggy. The interior and all the detail is excellent. It’s limited to 12 copies ever to be built. It’s priced at 50,000t and was submitted on January 14. If BigD says it’s limited to 12, it is. He also doesn’t resurrect old designs so if you find one of his that’s been discontinued you’d be safe in assuming it won’t suddenly be relisted.

 

Another designer of limited editions with integrity and honesty is Polymatrix. His new Silence is limited to 10 copies and priced at only 19.999t. For that price you get a stunning buggy with awesome detail from a trusted name in buggy design.

 

I like to review buggies from new designers when I can, and this week I’m happy to say there’s a new guy in town and he’s looking good! The Cheetah (4 seater) by Xummit is very well done for a first buggy. If only mine had been half this good! The detail is excellent, and he even got shine on his cheetah spotted paint! It’s priced at 13,250t and that’s probably about right since he’s a new designer but the quality is superior to most; including many priced significantly higher. I expect and hope we’ll be seeing a lot more from Xummit in coming weeks.