PMW

Now there's a thought. I do have a couple of Flying Scotsmans (or should that be Flying Scotsmen?) hanging around my stock room. I did think about photographing them upside down and calling them "Special Edition Australia Tour - L@@K RARE!"

Armand Van Helden vs Butter Rush - I Need A Painkiller

If you contact the seller they can arrange to have your unique message printed on the next batch

I'm in love with a German film star - the passions

I'm Still Standing - Sir Elton John

Much the same as those who populate their adverts with "Not xxxx brand, yyyy brand zzzz brand" (or any other brand people are likely to be looking for, come to that). In the American "Model Railroad" scene this fact would lie somewhere between irrelevant and insignificant. They would paint Flying Scotsmamn's in Conrail blue if they thought there would be a market. Justification that it did once run on Conrail lines.

It's neither to my taste or my area of expertise but it looks pretty honest for what it is. Better photos would do it a world of good.

If you buy something for £20 and it's worth £40, and you do it often enough then you might not get rich but you can make a decent little profit. The problem with that in this industry is that rather than people undervaluing model railway stock they tend to do quite the opposite, often dramatically so. They seem to think that their late father's Triang Flying Scotsman is worth £300 despite the missing buffer and bent valve gear. As a reseller I have lost count of the times I have been invited to "come and have a look and see what you think" about some dearly departed relatives model railway collection only to arrive and find a few tatty pieces laid out on the dining room table and the seller envisaging a price tag with at least one nought too many. Not everyone takes kindly to being told their nearest and dearest's pride and joy is worth eighty quid when they were thinking five hundred. So much so, that I have stopped doing it now. If someone asks if I am interested in buying something then I always ask for photos and a price first and if I get the answer "come and see what you think" then I do something more constructive with my time, such as watching Skill Builder's excellent video on youtube about paint drying.

ohhps do do do - the police

That's not the true ebay spirit! Rule 1 - Separate the tat, put it back on ebay at an inflated price so we can have a laugh about it here

I had to look twice. I thought it was something my dog had left on the carpet And by the way - if that sells for £10 I am seriously going to torch my stock of boxed mint Hornby LMS coaches which I can't get a sniff on and sell them as "crash and destruction". I could then maybe sell the empty boxes for £15 each - another ebay trend I can't get my head around - people selling empty boxes for more than other sellers are offering the actual item boxed!

I never "relist" items for the reason discussed earlier, but all my stock is first listed on a 7 day auction with a starting price midway between what it owes me and what I think it's worth. I often include a buy it now for a few quid more than I think it's worth in case anyone is keen to buy straight off. If it goes unsold after that first auction then I will list it again with a slightly lower start price but similar BIN. If still unsold then it will go to a fixed price listing at what I valued it at, so a higher price than the auction starting prices. The logic behind this is that I am willing to take a lower profit margin to turn stock over faster but if it is going to hang around and keep my capital tied up for a longer period then it needs to realise full price. I find that eventually the right buyer comes along as long as you list it well, present it well, it's decent stock and you price it appropriately. All that said, some of the tat that I have seen listed on this page which people are watching or even bidding on can be a bit soul destroying. As a light hearted aside I have got a small wager with the "missus" as to whether our items will appear on this "ebay madness" page or the "good buy from ebay" page first!

You should be able to deselect the auto relist option, then if it doesn't sell then when the next 80% off weekend comes around find the item in "unsold" select "sell a similar item" and just list with displayed fees. I do that now with all of our OO Heaven items, so we have one weekend of listing stuff, the next weekend of packing and posting, and the next weekend listing again and you only pay 80% on everything. Assuming of course you get the 80% off offer every other weekend as we do. You can also create a listing then save for later and go live with it when the offer comes in.

King of the World - Steely Dan

I sell the odd bit through ebay now and then, usually got a few items listed and try my best to offer good quality / good condition items at sensible prices. Then I see some of the tat shown on these pages for ridiculous amounts I sometimes wonder should I just add the word "rare" to all the descriptions and add a zero to the price?