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EBay madness


Marcyg
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In all probability there will not be that many second hand traders about once the Covid-19 crisis is over. Most depend on exhibitions and swap meets for their business. A few are on E-bay but many are not and also those who don't depend on the income from selling will just discontinue trading. 

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1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

In all probability there will not be that many second hand traders about once the Covid-19 crisis is over. Most depend on exhibitions and swap meets for their business. A few are on E-bay but many are not and also those who don't depend on the income from selling will just discontinue trading. 

Loads of clearance bargains?? Who knows!

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3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

There is a lesson there for post-covid fundraising: second-hand stalls are not an effective way of fundraising, not least because on-line selling reaches a much larger audience.

 

True, but it takes a fair bit more effort. A s/h stall will shift a lot of stock in a short time, without the need for generating ebay listings and then wrapping and posting items to the buyer; it's surprising just how time consuming ebay selling can be.

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3 hours ago, Sweep said:

 

Looks like it’s taken a sudden journey from the table to the floor and then been sat upon.

 

I think I’ll pass.

 

Darius

Edited by Darius43
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4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

True, but it takes a fair bit more effort. A s/h stall will shift a lot of stock in a short time, without the need for generating ebay listings and then wrapping and posting items to the buyer; it's surprising just how time consuming ebay selling can be.

I agree, but, p!aying devils advocate, you have to take into account travelling to a sale location, setting up time, breaking down after, and travel home.

Also if you are manning (sorry am I allowed to say that these days) the  stall, you have to be there whether stuff is selling or not.  wheras selling on line, you can list at your convenience, let the stuff sell itself, and, within reason, wrap and dispatch to suit you.

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7 hours ago, Sweep said:

 

He could get a set of etched plates for it and rename it Sir Ralph Wedgewood - It's not been dropped, that's scale blitz damage guv'nor!

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It's a funny thing, collecting, it doesn't matter what you are interested in. There is always that one thing that is the key item and often wipes out the saving you might have made on the rest of a set. A friend was selling a whole raft of vintage model railway locos and stock from Bassett Lowke, Exley, Marklin etc to more prosaic items like Trix and Triang. The thing that got all the attention was a Triang American diesel set. He was constantly asked to sell just the centre car, the whole thing was mint and boxed. The loco and dummy are apparently common as muck, but the centre car jacks up the value considerably. I bet if he had split the set it would have been on eBay the same night.

We recently renovated and sold a bedroom set made for Harrods in the late 50s. Individually, the items are worth a few hundred pounds each. But if you find the dressing table, which was the most fragile part, that was least practical (and for a time unfashionable) then the price (I don't like the word value too much!) more than quadruples.

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A lot of the posts here are about overpriced amateur weathering jobs.  I’ve just seen this from The Model Centre, whose speciality is weathering and who, to be fair, are usually OK:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2S-008-011-Dapol-N-A4-Silver-Fox-2512-LNER-Silver-Grey-Valanced-Coal-Weathered/264600779816?hash=item3d9b6f7c28:g:BhEAAOSwTm1eIInH

 

The pristine version is yours for £120 from Rails.  I’m not at all sure that TMC’s professional weathering on this one is really worth an extra £70?  Looking at the only picture, it looks as if they’ve just given it a quick mist of brown “brake dust” dirt and then dabbed some “rust“ patches on the Cartazzi truck and the tender chassis. In other words, they’ve weathered it as if it was a grubby 1970s class 24 diesel.  

 

I’ve noticed this “brown brake dust” weathering on other commercial steam models, and it always looks wrong.  In this case five minutes looking at some photos would show that the first four A4s in silver livery were prestige top link locos kept well cleaned: the weathering they got was largely trapped dirt emphasising the seams in the cladding, and a black oily sheen wash on the wheels and motion. And in no way would they have been allowed off shed with *any* visible rust on the chassis!

I’d expect a model in this state to be discounted, not sold at a premium.   Not TMC’s best effort.


(Mind you, they have 

glued some real coal on the tender, and we all know that’s getting quite rare.)

Edited by RichardT
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6 hours ago, jivebunny said:

Well, this has to be the most reluctant purchase I've ever made, and I'm certainly guilty of encouraging eBay madness here: approx £90 BIN for a long-out-of-production and very-hard-to-find postal TGV trailer which had a RRP of about £25 at the time... The damn thing only has four wheels!

 

You know what though, I do wonder if this is the exception. 

 

If you had kept looking, would you have been able to find one for less than £90? If so, How much lower; £80, £70? How long would you have had to look for, would it have been in as good condition? 

 

I really don't want to sound like i'm lambasting you - i'm actually encouraging you! I often decide there is a scale of how much things are worth vs how common they are, how often they come up, condition etc. and it's up to each person to decide where they want to slot in on the scale. Ebay Madness is (I think) when these factors are completely out of line and the scales don't tip in the right direction! 

 

Personally, I think the Postal Trailer looks fantastic, as does the rest of the TGV! :good_mini:

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11 hours ago, RichardT said:

 

 

I’ve noticed this “brown brake dust” weathering on other commercial steam models, and it always looks wrong.  In this case five minutes looking at some photos would show that the first four A4s in silver livery were prestige top link locos kept well cleaned: the weathering they got was largely trapped dirt emphasising the seams in the cladding, and a black oily sheen wash on the wheels and motion. And in no way would they have been allowed off shed with *any* visible rust on the chassis!
 

My dear old Uncle was a top link at the + and although he drove just about everything he said the A4 was his favourite, and when he was driving he would never take it off shed or holding unless it was gleaming........

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You think that's mad, Mick?   Have you seen the 'Robinson' 4-6-0 he's also selling?

 

If he'd put that O4 on at fifteen quid I might have been tempted, just to put a proper chassis under it and put it out of its misery, but 35 notes is way over the top.

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Thanks for the comments on the TGV, glad you like it! I have five sets in different liveries and that's the third one I've completed, now to finish off the TGV Sud-Est (orange livery) and Thalys PBA (maroon livery). Then I need to build myself a very long cabinet to display them in when not in use. Most of the sets are "only" 2.3m long but the TGV Atlantique sets have an extra two trailers, giving them a scale length of just over 2.75m (240m at 1:87 scale)... 

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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triang-Hornby-Model-Railways-OO-Gauge-Joblot-4-x-Insulfish-White-Vans-Unboxed/373037830813?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

Four old Triang Fish vans in mediocre condition recently bid up to and sold for £23 plus postage.  

Their only claim to fame is "Previously owned by a top link, steam days LMS / BR engine driver.".

I've accumulated plenty of those in job lots acquired over the years and usually sell them on for a couple of quid each at our local show.

Perhaps I should dig out a rake of them and flog them on eBay seeing we aren't holding our show this year!

 

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Yes and quite a few more recently !! £15 !! I wouldnt even offer 15 pence you are too genorous!!

 

 

Makes you wonder where he finds such "Gems" to sell on , he even gets bids, at the asking prices as well !!

Edited by micklner
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15 hours ago, cessna152towser said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triang-Hornby-Model-Railways-OO-Gauge-Joblot-4-x-Insulfish-White-Vans-Unboxed/373037830813?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

Four old Triang Fish vans in mediocre condition recently bid up to and sold for £23 plus postage.  

Their only claim to fame is "Previously owned by a top link, steam days LMS / BR engine driver.".

I've accumulated plenty of those in job lots acquired over the years and usually sell them on for a couple of quid each at our local show.

Perhaps I should dig out a rake of them and flog them on eBay seeing we aren't holding our show this year!

 

I want to comment here, the seller listed them at 1 pound for the four; the final price is the responsibility of the bidders and their desire to own the item. Just my thoughts.

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Can't fault it in a way. Those old Triang vans may not be "worth" that much, but they made that price so good for him. I have one of the old blue ones, the roof had crumbled, so it got overlaid with Slater's corrugated iron and ended its days as a shed. I think I gave £1 for it on the car boot.

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