Too good to be true?

[Barclay]

Just a cautionary tale, or maybe it will give someone a laugh...

 

I recently bought this K's coal tank kit - got it for £40, which seemed a good price I thought because it had been nicely built, came with an aftermarket etched chassis, and 6 Romford wheels.

 

 

It arrived - looked good, so I ordered some Markits EM axles and some crankpins. Another £10-£12 or so, but no bother.

Then and only then did I look at the wheels, to find that one of them was odd. It wasn't a Webb wheel. OK I think - that can remedied, sort of, with some sort of overlay. However something made me check the crank throw, and I found that the odd wheel has a different crank throw:

 

 

OK not the end of the world, nice Mr. Markits will sell me a single wheel to match what I have. Of course there's a £10 minimum order so I added a nice turned whistle. Add postage, about £13.50.

New wheel arrives, flange is a little finer, but looks great, except... Crank throw on this one is also different. They must have re-tooled it at some stage. I now have a new wheel that still doesn't match the other 5.

 

So - buy another 5 wheels to match the new one? That'll be around £35 with postage. To add to the extra £25 I've already spent. I could, of course, have had a nice set of Gibsons, which look better as well, for just £20. The plan at the moment is to see if I can 'alter' the throw of the new wheel to match the existing ones. But if it fails, I'm cutting my losses and going with Gibson. The axles and crankpins may well see use in another project in the future.

 

The moral - check your purchases very carefully before giving excellent feedback !!!!

 

[jonhall]

But is that something that would have really deserved anything but a positive feedback? If its a K's kit it must be 30 odd years old, possibly 50? It's perfectly possible (probable?) that the seller had no idea that was a problem?

 

I think it would be different if you were dealing with the manufacturer of a new kit, but as a secondhand, long obsolete, part built - I'd say you got what it was reasonable to expect.

 

Jon

[Hal Nail]

Unfortunately I don't think checking that a part built kit bought on eBay is any good is that big a revelation!

Many won't touch them with a barge pole for good reason.

[Steamport Southport]

2 hours ago, Barclay said:

Just a cautionary tale, or maybe it will give someone a laugh...

 

I recently bought this K's coal tank kit - got it for £40, which seemed a good price I thought because it had been nicely built, came with an aftermarket etched chassis, and 6 Romford wheels.

 

 

It arrived - looked good, so I ordered some Markits EM axles and some crankpins. Another £10-£12 or so, but no bother.

Then and only then did I look at the wheels, to find that one of them was odd. It wasn't a Webb wheel. OK I think - that can remedied, sort of, with some sort of overlay. However something made me check the crank throw, and I found that the odd wheel has a different crank throw:

 

 

OK not the end of the world, nice Mr. Markits will sell me a single wheel to match what I have. Of course there's a £10 minimum order so I added a nice turned whistle. Add postage, about £13.50.

New wheel arrives, flange is a little finer, but looks great, except... Crank throw on this one is also different. They must have re-tooled it at some stage. I now have a new wheel that still doesn't match the other 5.

 

So - buy another 5 wheels to match the new one? That'll be around £35 with postage. To add to the extra £25 I've already spent. I could, of course, have had a nice set of Gibsons, which look better as well, for just £20. The plan at the moment is to see if I can 'alter' the throw of the new wheel to match the existing ones. But if it fails, I'm cutting my losses and going with Gibson. The axles and crankpins may well see use in another project in the future.

 

The moral - check your purchases very carefully before giving excellent feedback !!!!

 

 

You are giving Feedback on the transaction though. Not the item. Something that some people don't quite understand. I've actually seen people leave book reviews as Feedback.... 

 

The only thing that could be slightly marked down is the description. But was it correct to the best of the sellers knowledge? I would say so as you got the correct amount of wheels.

 

But worth pointing out that kit has been on eBay when I used to buy from it. That means it's been going around constantly for at least five years!

 

Was I tempted? Yes. That's why I remember it.

 

 

Jason

[Barclay]

1 hour ago, jonhall said:

But is that something that would have really deserved anything but a positive feedback? If its a K's kit it must be 30 odd years old, possibly 50? It's perfectly possible (probable?) that the seller had no idea that was a problem?

 

I think it would be different if you were dealing with the manufacturer of a new kit, but as a secondhand, long obsolete, part built - I'd say you got what it was reasonable to expect.

 

Jon

Yes, perfectly possible, of course, and I have taken no steps to seek redress from the seller for this reason. To be honest I was more annoyed with myself for throwing money at Markits when I could have just bought a set of Gibson wheels for £20 and still considered it a fairly good deal !

 

17 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

Unfortunately I don't think checking that a part built kit bought on eBay is any good is that big a revelation!

Many won't touch them with a barge pole for good reason.

To be fair I have always had a decent experience with such purchases - they are bought more for the challenge of making something decent out of them than expecting a 'bargain'. I just got a little carried away - I do hope no-one thinks this was a genuine rant !

[Barclay]

1 minute ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

That means it's been going around constantly for at least five years!

 

 

Jason

Ha ha well now you know why !

 

It won't appear again - look out for it in the kitbuilding section, but not for a while...

[Hal Nail]

1 hour ago, Barclay said:

To be fair I have always had a decent experience with such purchases - they are bought more for the challenge of making something decent out of them 

I've broken the rule on many occasions and in fairness have had some success too but there is an element of chance!

[tomparryharry]

Aha!  I bought a 1076 saddle tank ( M&L )  on 'Bay which the vendor couldn't get to work, and neither could I.  It never occurred to me  the a  Romford/Markits wheel would be 'off'. 

 

Strike one for the world of Edd-u- cayshun .  The model is  stowed away, so thank you all for the tip. 

[hayfield]

4 hours ago, Barclay said:

Just a cautionary tale, or maybe it will give someone a laugh...

 

I recently bought this K's coal tank kit - got it for £40, which seemed a good price I thought because it had been nicely built, came with an aftermarket etched chassis, and 6 Romford wheels.

 

 

It arrived - looked good, so I ordered some Markits EM axles and some crankpins. Another £10-£12 or so, but no bother.

Then and only then did I look at the wheels, to find that one of them was odd. It wasn't a Webb wheel. OK I think - that can remedied, sort of, with some sort of overlay. However something made me check the crank throw, and I found that the odd wheel has a different crank throw:

 

 

OK not the end of the world, nice Mr. Markits will sell me a single wheel to match what I have. Of course there's a £10 minimum order so I added a nice turned whistle. Add postage, about £13.50.

New wheel arrives, flange is a little finer, but looks great, except... Crank throw on this one is also different. They must have re-tooled it at some stage. I now have a new wheel that still doesn't match the other 5.

 

So - buy another 5 wheels to match the new one? That'll be around £35 with postage. To add to the extra £25 I've already spent. I could, of course, have had a nice set of Gibsons, which look better as well, for just £20. The plan at the moment is to see if I can 'alter' the throw of the new wheel to match the existing ones. But if it fails, I'm cutting my losses and going with Gibson. The axles and crankpins may well see use in another project in the future.

 

The moral - check your purchases very carefully before giving excellent feedback !!!!

 

 

Barclay

eBay is like any other auction, which is buyer beware, that's not saying everything is rubbish. In fact far from it and I seem to recall like myself you both enjoy building the odd kit and like a bargain, Unless its stated as new we seem happy to take the odd chance providing the price is right. As you say had you bought a set of Gibson's it still would have been a good buy. Its just the case every now and then our hunches happen not to be not as good as you had hopped. Its still a good buy, you happened to make a mistake buying the wrong wheel

 

2 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

Unfortunately I don't think checking that a part built kit bought on eBay is any good is that big a revelation!

Many won't touch them with a barge pole for good reason.

 

I wish there  were more people like yourself who don't like eBay, it would make it cheaper for others. Like all things you need to know what to look out for which is only gained through experience, in fact the trick is subconsciously looking for what is not there. Or looking at what I would call the bottom line, what in the worst case scenario is it worth, if I have doubts about something, that's my maximum bid

 

47 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

I've broken the rule on many occasions and in fairness have had some success too but there is an element of chance!

 

Isn't it the chance element of buying something cheap that others have not seen the true value of that's what we enjoy, the trick is not to get too greedy. For every 10 items you buy 1 may not be as good as hoped for, but the other 9 were !!!  I think in the past all 3 of us have done well from eBay

[Barclay]

15 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

Aha!  I bought a 1076 saddle tank ( M&L )  on 'Bay which the vendor couldn't get to work, and neither could I.  It never occurred to me  the a  Romford/Markits wheel would be 'off'. 

 

Strike one for the world of Edd-u- cayshun .  The model is  stowed away, so thank you all for the tip. 

It's worth looking at. To be fair to Markits I was comparing a brand new wheel with some old Romfords of indeterminate age, but, yes, despite being notionally the same wheel type, the crank throw is 0.60mm smaller on the new one, which would certainly be enough to stop a loco. running properly !