This is why the modern collecting mentality infuriates me.

[PNGwynne]

Crimson Ghost, the donated kits I mentioned were all, I believe, from active companies but perhaps discontinued kits.

[ScottA]

Holy cow. What a waste.

[Hector]

Should've donated them to Toys 4 Tots and countless other kids whose families can't afford toys.

[huedell]

Wait... is Monarch going out of business?

Not that that would change my final judgement...

But at least it may be a better explanation/rationalization than merely Monarch maintaining the collectibility/value of their product.

[enyawd72]

Wait... is Monarch going out of business?

Not that that would change my final judgement...

But at least it may be a better explanation/rationalization than merely Monarch maintaining the collectibility/value of their product.

Monarch has ceased operating for the time being, but also says they may still produce the occasional kit. However they themselves stated the reason for destroying their stock was to maintain collectibility.

[jwyblejr]

^That right there tells you what kind of company they are. A lousy one.

[justzeg18]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MonarchModelGroup/?fref=nf

That's the link to the "announcement" referenced in the initial post, so we can all have a little context.

[megomania]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Mona...Group/?fref=nf That's the link to the "announcement" referenced in the initial post, so we can all have a little context.

Chyfhkkk

[huedell]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Mona...Group/?fref=nf

That's the link to the "announcement" referenced in the initial post, so we can all have a little context.

OMG.... I read it.

The guy thinks he's a hero.

If he IS a "hero".... then his supporters are (inherently) my enemies.

[PNGwynne]

Eff them. My hobby shop never said one word about Monarch folding. Denis said on FB, "What part of closing the doors don't you understand?" So what's this about a rebirth and does he think it will be supported?

I dread to look again on ebay for these kits...

[CrimsonGhost]

Ok, I read the Facebook post. This guy is a giant baby and he's throwing a tantrum over the fact that no one wanted his stupid garbage.

"You didn't want it to order it when you could? Well, now NO ONE can have it!!"

HAHA! Yeah, he's not looking to donate anything to anybody... I still think they did it for tax purposes and him saying it was done for collectability is just spin. He probably thought it would make him look good, but I don't think it worked.

[enyawd72]

Ok, I read the Facebook post. This guy is a giant baby and he's throwing a tantrum over the fact that no one wanted his stupid garbage.

"You didn't want it to order it when you could? Well, now NO ONE can have it!!"

HAHA! Yeah, he's not looking to donate anything to anybody... I still think they did it for tax purposes and him saying it was done for collectability is just spin. He probably thought it would make him look good, but I don't think it worked.

I wanted to step in for a minute...first I wanna make it clear, these kits are far from stupid garbage, they're beautiful. The problem was in distribution. The company was based in Canada, and for whatever reason the kits were hard to obtain here in the U.S.
The major chain in my area is HobbyTown and they would never order any of Monarch's stuff despite me begging and hounding them. The carried Moebius and Polar Lights though. Even after Monarch shuttered it's doors they were selling some kits on Ebay quite successfully. What upsets me is I just paid $129 for a square box Glow Ghost I thought was rare from a reseller when they had dozens of them they were just sitting on. I would have gladly bought three or four from them at full price of $35 each, but I never had the chance.

[palitoy]

My local shop has tons of these, I guess I'd better buy now.

There were more than one way to sell these that wouldn't detract from future collector value, what a short sighted mess.

[enyawd72]

^Brian, If they have any of the square box Glow Ghost of Castel-Mare I will gladly pay you to pick some up for me. Shoot me a PM

[hedrap]

"Maintain collectibility"....ok. Putting aside the tax issue, how do they benefit?

It sounds like they want higher secondary market prices and clean accounting when pitching for a loan/investors.

EDIT - just read the FB thread. The "collectbility" emphasis makes me believe they still have decent amount in storage.

So you take the destruction pics for the tax write off, spike secondary prices by slow-dripping your stock and then take those sales prices to show an investor the demand.

If not, then it's apparent why he went under. His business model was from the 1990's.