EBay madness

[The Johnster]

OTOH, the crews of those corvettes must have been some of the toughest in the RN.  Picture the scene; some bar in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while the convoy is assembling…

 

’What ship you from, bud?’ 
 

‘Why, my good colonial fellow, the Marigold!’

 

Cue brawl.  
 

 

[petethemole]

50 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

OTOH, the crews of those corvettes must have been some of the toughest in the RN.  

Probably due to the conditions they had to put up with.

[Swissrail]

Back now to our normal programming...Go$tude is at it again, this time showing that he seems not to understand the difference between HO and OO...

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334739512324?hash=item4df0079c04:g:bP8AAOSwFEJj5PYu&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkGoCamWlOYBqUWEO90URAYeHZjA0VjKYxhX1ve%2F1XS3CCmMxq4J8B%2BZgRJmiMggIxW9gkraBgeY6obwwSyantO41EhXLR6OyVtzUu%2BDkeuCe2K9MvEI91nqQLxis9QyAdsLW86eaYio05fr80kRtZu9QG0HheWNJt1p7lx8JZ%2FsbDI8eLncSf16ZK3EtTVGs6w%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_KmoYrIYQ

 

And this incredible listing, plugged as being a "great price"! Three empty boxes, yours for the bargain basement price of £109.50!!...

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364140747403?epid=13013876423&hash=item54c87ada8b:g:lrEAAOSwif5j5Mwp&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkFJALSBKuvY7OBezsBDMGKRGn1XVcRO1rRyXfYgNdzu8fhnS%2B46XSzA99HP7u4lX6XnNl%2BaJm6%2BPtKvVlQAerXMZvVMwK%2BVx1CkpkJeNokyHRiyGMNcn8qUouy%2Budcopmpy6z%2FfAg58eaSS59%2FnkDup3xUwYrSC5KJUXBe6mk9E0v8zo0prI7Gt%2F%2Bm2E0KY6vw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_KmoYrIYQ

Edited February 11, 2023 by Swissrail

[Paul H Vigor]

4 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

You tend not to learn from history when it isn't taught. Or if it is, it's revised, edited and rewritten to suit a particular political agenda.

Anyway, we better stop airing our opinions, as just about everyone on here is a white male, we might just get investigated and proscribed as a potential hate group.

We are, according to the new history books, responsible for everything bad that has ever happened in the history of the world and must apologise constantly.

You never know, we might even have a Royal Male, or two, lurking?

[40152]

45 minutes ago, Swissrail said:

 

 

And this incredible listing, plugged as being a "great price"! Three empty boxes, yours for the bargain basement price of £109.50!!...

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364140747403?epid=13013876423&hash=item54c87ada8b:g:lrEAAOSwif5j5Mwp&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkFJALSBKuvY7OBezsBDMGKRGn1XVcRO1rRyXfYgNdzu8fhnS%2B46XSzA99HP7u4lX6XnNl%2BaJm6%2BPtKvVlQAerXMZvVMwK%2BVx1CkpkJeNokyHRiyGMNcn8qUouy%2Budcopmpy6z%2FfAg58eaSS59%2FnkDup3xUwYrSC5KJUXBe6mk9E0v8zo0prI7Gt%2F%2Bm2E0KY6vw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_KmoYrIYQ

Looks like he’s acquired a pile of empty boxes; they’re everywhere on his site.  I was particularly taken with this offer:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373981508235?

 

Select your box? What a kind offer. Yes, I shall spend my evening with a fine dram, perusing your fine collection of boxes. If I’m feeling frisky, maybe I’ll buy a couple.
 

Ambassador G, with these empty boxes you are really spoiling us…

Edited February 11, 2023 by 40152

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, petethemole said:

Probably due to the conditions they had to put up with.

 

That too.  They were not large ships, based on whaling fleet catchers I believe, and must have been very uncomfortable and wet in the North Atlantic, and I cannot imagine what the conditions were like on the Arctic convoys.  Compass Rose in 'The Cruel Sea' is pretty realistic.  Dangerous as well; torpedoed or shelled, they went down fast with little time to get off. 

 

WW2 convoys in general were pretty grim and unrelenting struggles against the enemy and the weather.  The weather was better in the Med, in summer anyway, but these were some of the hardest fought convoys with the highest rate of losses of the war.  My father was on Pedestal, the famous 'make or break' relief convoy to Malta in 1942, 3/O on the Melbourne Star, one of only 5 out of 14 merchant ships to reach Malta.  There were no Flowers on this convoy, heavily armed with fast ships and escorted by destroyers in the final stages.  The navy lost an aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and a destroyer, with a further carrier and two more cruisers damaged.  Of the 5 merchant ships that got to Malta, 3 were damaged: one, the America tanker Ohio, an incredible story in her own right, barely afloat and being conned by destroyers lashed port and starboard, no power, and a Stuka buried in her ahead of the bridge, accompanied by the remains of an Italian bomber futher aft, simply sank at her berth as her oil was unloaded in Valetta.  She was refloated and broken for scrap after the war, while such parts of her that were above the water were used as accommodation blocks during the rest of it.  Melbourne Star's sister ship Adelaide Star had her bows blown off.  Another American ship, Almeria Lykes, was sunk.

 

Father was transferred off Melbourne Star shortly after this terrifying ordeal.  He told me he was only really frightened once during the war, from 1939 to 1945, but this was the worst.  He was lucky; no ship he served aboard was ever even damaged though Melbourne Star was badly scorched when he took at full speed her through the burning sea left in the aftermath of the explosion that destroyed Wainamara (he was mentioned in Admiral's Notes, similar to being mentioned in dispatches, for this exploit, but he denied any bravery, claiming it was instinctive and cowardly self-preservation, his best chance of surviving until lunchtime).  The Royal Navy Oerlikon gun crew on the poop deck took one look at what was coming and jumped overboard, to be picked up by a destroyer later.  Melbourne Star was sadly lost in the Atlantic a few months later.

 

When they arrived in Grand Harbour, father asked what the cheering crowds and the band were for...

 

My memory of the Flowers is of them mothballed in Penarth Dock in the 50s and very early 60s, and some in Cardiff's West Dock.  They didn't look very impressive to someone familiar with Airfix's Cossack Tribal, not enough guns and funnels for me!  I know better now...

[Swissrail]

Look at this amazing piece of jun...sorry, scale model...what a paint job!

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374503078306?hash=item57321f79a2:g:AP0AAOSwqCpj44YQ&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkNprsrFXy%2FYqviauL0yoedRxRAXo2czAg04CavjAXHL6pLB9MJFiEVsdNqmzKhtABsOsTIfV9AhJzjm3wgXmWveR5cVTludxajfKolFCBkJcpMxR8cEyWJ8aHNEW%2Fu1eEL8XuuB0a71BKEpoDCvyt2rEjJIAhxjeCU7luWsxv69V5J339Fh%2B3N1gmHNSBfYZWQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_amoYrIYQ

Edited February 11, 2023 by Swissrail

[Paul H Vigor]

5 minutes ago, Swissrail said:

Look at this amazing piece of jun...sorry, scale model...what a paint job!

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374503078306?hash=item57321f79a2:g:AP0AAOSwqCpj44YQ&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkNprsrFXy%2FYqviauL0yoedRxRAXo2czAg04CavjAXHL6pLB9MJFiEVsdNqmzKhtABsOsTIfV9AhJzjm3wgXmWveR5cVTludxajfKolFCBkJcpMxR8cEyWJ8aHNEW%2Fu1eEL8XuuB0a71BKEpoDCvyt2rEjJIAhxjeCU7luWsxv69V5J339Fh%2B3N1gmHNSBfYZWQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_amoYrIYQ

But still: "A great item for your collection."!

[Swissrail]

Here's another amazing bargain!

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220743416424?epid=2079470346&hash=item3365553a68:g:2DwAAMXQsmFRcg9J&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkNpaMlTU%2BHsQSClBbLnHhXL4ecQcycnlLnO%2B1ayfvGQf7f2xutdTOnt3a5l2wSOl6kpvOJpQ%2BqnmIDG95go8yp0FUYbnQqoetalUQXy2%2BBu0QGgs1qbccg3KZ74V7wPD66kDxVrR4p8bEzhqgUUEszr4ePHKyWXvZkyHOK%2F1degjG3KveRKhjv%2BvZ9pnfHK3%2Bg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8rdmpXIYQ

[Paul H Vigor]

3 minutes ago, Swissrail said:

Here's another amazing bargain!

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220743416424?epid=2079470346&hash=item3365553a68:g:2DwAAMXQsmFRcg9J&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkNpaMlTU%2BHsQSClBbLnHhXL4ecQcycnlLnO%2B1ayfvGQf7f2xutdTOnt3a5l2wSOl6kpvOJpQ%2BqnmIDG95go8yp0FUYbnQqoetalUQXy2%2BBu0QGgs1qbccg3KZ74V7wPD66kDxVrR4p8bEzhqgUUEszr4ePHKyWXvZkyHOK%2F1degjG3KveRKhjv%2BvZ9pnfHK3%2Bg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8rdmpXIYQ

Perhaps he's posting these items deliberately just to goad you/us!? 

[TinTracks]

Look at this amazing piece of jun...sorry, scale model...what a paint job!

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374503078306?hash=item57321f79a2:g:AP0AAOSwqCpj44YQ&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkNprsrFXy%2FYqviauL0yoedRxRAXo2czAg04CavjAXHL6pLB9MJFiEVsdNqmzKhtABsOsTIfV9AhJzjm3wgXmWveR5cVTludxajfKolFCBkJcpMxR8cEyWJ8aHNEW%2Fu1eEL8XuuB0a71BKEpoDCvyt2rEjJIAhxjeCU7luWsxv69V5J339Fh%2B3N1gmHNSBfYZWQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_amoYrIYQ

Edited 10 minutes ago by Swissrail

 

 I see it's lettered TCR. Perhaps that stand for Tender Care Required?

   Regards Rich

[SteveyDee68]

The overpriced junk* that Go$turd posts up on eBay is simply excruciating and his descriptions (“a great item for your collection” etc) just mark him out as a con artist on the make, hoping that someone somewhere is clueless enough to fall for his twaddle.

 

Unfortunately, I think the likes of Rocket Railways et al emulate his “business model” and that perpetuates price bloat on eBay. Even the likes of Hattons and Rails of Sheffield seem to have jumped upon that particular band wagon.

 

HOURS OF GLUM

 

* I did have another term in mind, but that would land me on the naughty step. It starts with a remonstration to be quiet and ends with a Stephen King horror character, and rhymes with “spit”

[Michael Hodgson]

10 hours ago, The Johnster said:

OTOH, the crews of those corvettes must have been some of the toughest in the RN.  Picture the scene; some bar in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while the convoy is assembling…

 

’What ship you from, bud?’ 
 

‘Why, my good colonial fellow, the Marigold!’

 

Cue brawl.  
 

 

My father was in the RAF, bombing occupied Norway, but at least that meant he got to spend his off-duty time in relative comfort in Northern Scotland.  He always said the toughest conditions were those faced by the Merchant Navy crews on the Murmansk run, a very long voyage both ways within easy range of enemy lines. 

 

They suffered exceptionally heavy losses from U-boats, surface vessels like Tirpitz and dive-bombers having to rely on RN escorts for protection but very limited armaments to defend themselves with.  The inadequacy  of the clothing available at the time inevitably meant a great deal of hardship in Arctic winter weather.  Even the Russian government recognised their contribution with medals - but it wasn't until Cameron was prime minister that the UK saw fit to honour them.

 

[Swissrail]

1 hour ago, SteveyDee68 said:

The overpriced junk* that Go$turd posts up on eBay is simply excruciating and his descriptions (“a great item for your collection” etc) just mark him out as a con artist on the make, hoping that someone somewhere is clueless enough to fall for his twaddle.

I couldn't agree more. There are 113 pages in his Ebay listings and about 90% of it is overpriced crap. The sort of stuff you'd find in a junk shop but at antique shop prices. He's a complete chancer.

[The Johnster]

13 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

My father was in the RAF, bombing occupied Norway, but at least that meant he got to spend his off-duty time in relative comfort in Northern Scotland.  He always said the toughest conditions were those faced by the Merchant Navy crews on the Murmansk run, a very long voyage both ways within easy range of enemy lines. 

 

They suffered exceptionally heavy losses from U-boats, surface vessels like Tirpitz and dive-bombers having to rely on RN escorts for protection but very limited armaments to defend themselves with.  The inadequacy  of the clothing available at the time inevitably meant a great deal of hardship in Arctic winter weather.  Even the Russian government recognised their contribution with medals - but it wasn't until Cameron was prime minister that the UK saw fit to honour them.

 

 

 

The North Cape convoys were appalling by any measure.  They didn't run for much of the winter because the Kara Inlet would be iced in, but at least winter gave the cover of darkness.  Much of the route was above the Arctic Circle, and experiences 24 hour daylight for the 6 months of summer, with long hours of full daylight for many miles to the south.  The convoys were routed well to the north of the North Cape, but of course the weather is worse up there, and they were still for much of the voyage within easy reach of German aircraft based in Norway and both surface and U-boat naval units.

 

Convoy PQ17, in June/July of 1942, routed from Hvalfjiord in Iceland to Archangel, was a particularly disastrous affair.  It was under continuous heavy attack for 9 days 1st-10th despite strong escort capability including the battleships HMS Duke of York and USS Washington, but the entire escort force was withdrawn at high speed westwards under Admiralty orders on the evening of 4th July, as they had information that the greatly feared SMS Tirpitz was putting to sea.  This had been the Kriegsmarin's intention, but various factors including confusion in their command chain prevented her actually sailing.  The convoy was ordered to scatter and make to Archangel independently.

 

What followed was a duck shoot, German submarines and bombers operating virtually unopposed in broad daylight and viciously good visibility.  Of 35 merchant ships, 24 were sunk, only 11 reaching ports in Russia.  The convoys were suspended for some time following this, and Stalin was furious.  Supply routes overland through Iran and via Vladivostok were kept open. 

 

I was taken aboard a ship in Cardiff docks in 1962 and introduced to a friend of my father's who had been on this convoy.  His ship was sunk by a U-boat which also sank the Russian vessel next in line.  The U-boat then surfaced with the intention of machine-gunning the Russian survivors in their lifeboats, but McTavish (not surprisingly one of the engineers with a name like that), O/C of one of his ship's boats, manoervered to prevent this, as the Germans would not shoot at British or American survivors in boats, only Russians, who they seriously hated. 

 

They were all picked up by another Russian ship, the tanker Azerbaijan (famous for her chief engineer giving birth to a healthy baby boy in the middle of the battle, something apparently unprecedented in modern warfare), and landed at Murmansk.  McTavish was met at the gangplank by a couple of rather serious looking burly characters in big black Astrakhan fur coats and bundled into a big black car.  Assuming he was for the gulags for some unknown offence, he was slightly relieved when he was hustled aboard a luxury train, which promptly left heading south at speed.  As the (clearly) NKVD escort were cheerful, friendly, and sharing vodka, patting him on the back, and calling him kamarad, he started to think that whatever this was about, it wasn't the gulags, and the train stopped at a station some miles north of Moscow, where they were taken in another big black car to a rather smart Dacha, where he was greeted, warmly, by none other than Uncle Joe himself, who pinned the Red Star on him.  After the vodka-fuelled train ride and Stalin pouring Scotch, he was pretty sozzled by this point, aside from being close to collapse from exhaustion.  Only two non-Russians were awarded this honour in WW2, the other being an American pilot.  He showed me the medal, of which he was clearly rightly proud.  Bear in mind that Russia was considered very much an enemy in 1962!  Or, as my dad put if a few years later, 'Russia is not our enemy, Russia is a friend with a loaded pistol held to our head.  America is not our enemy, America is also a friend, with a fist clenched tightly around our b*ll*cks'.  About right.

 

The Allied war cemetery in Murmansk is well tended and fresh flowers laid regularly, on the initiative of local women who think it's the right thing to do, an activity that continued throughout the Cold War.  They haven't forgotten up there...

 

[rab]

Black market???

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325532350022?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=3qY6EnoFRL6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=zGBHSdYdRyy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, rab said:

Black market???

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325532350022?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=3qY6EnoFRL6&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=zGBHSdYdRyy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

They're only black because the lights don't work.

[longchap]

Newly returned to ebay, as I needed some GWRJs, then spotted this good looking item: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225393776935

 

I might be missing something due to my lack of knowledge of GWR inspection saloons, but it looks as if the new owner needs to move the grab handles over on one side and the door handles on the other. Curious.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2023 by longchap

[kernowtim]

Growing up near a Blue Circle cement works in Bedfordshire and watching the cement trains  means I have an excuse for  collecting a few Cement wagons for my still unbuilt O gauge garden line, although I don't recall any looking like the Hornby tinplate example! 

I have set myself a price limit of £12 for the common yellow ones so this example is slightly out of my price range!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275620478053

The seller has a selection of somewhat overpriced items for sale...

 

I do have a few of the excellent Ellis Clarke presflows ,but don't remember seeing them run there either 😉

Edited February 12, 2023 by kernowtim

[Rowsley17D]

2 hours ago, longchap said:

Newly returned to ebay, as I needed some GWRJs, then spotted this good looking item: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225393776935

 

I might be missing something due to my lack of knowledge of GWR inspection saloons, but it looks as if the new owner needs to move the grab handles over on one side and the grab handles on the other. Curious.

 

 

 

It's very pricey for a poorly built and painted job. I want one done by Larry Goddard at that price.

[eastglosmog]

On 11/02/2023 at 09:18, PieGuyRob said:

Or the direction the thread has gone since, HMS Snowflake is appropriate!

 

Other names that made me chuckle, HMS Buttercup, and, HMS Pink.

In the First World War, the "Herbaceous Border" sloops included an HMS Pansy.  Bet that cheered up the sailors!

[PieGuyRob]

On 11/02/2023 at 14:10, 40152 said:

Looks like he’s acquired a pile of empty boxes; they’re everywhere on his site.  I was particularly taken with this offer:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373981508235?

 

Select your box? What a kind offer. Yes, I shall spend my evening with a fine dram, perusing your fine collection of boxes. If I’m feeling frisky, maybe I’ll buy a couple.
 

Ambassador G, with these empty boxes you are really spoiling us…

Errrr, I actually bought one for a Hornby mk 3 that I needed. Guilty as charged....

[PieGuyRob]

On 11/02/2023 at 16:42, TinTracks said:

Look at this amazing piece of jun...sorry, scale model...what a paint job!

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374503078306?hash=item57321f79a2:g:AP0AAOSwqCpj44YQ&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkNprsrFXy%2FYqviauL0yoedRxRAXo2czAg04CavjAXHL6pLB9MJFiEVsdNqmzKhtABsOsTIfV9AhJzjm3wgXmWveR5cVTludxajfKolFCBkJcpMxR8cEyWJ8aHNEW%2Fu1eEL8XuuB0a71BKEpoDCvyt2rEjJIAhxjeCU7luWsxv69V5J339Fh%2B3N1gmHNSBfYZWQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_amoYrIYQ

Edited 10 minutes ago by Swissrail

 

 I see it's lettered TCR. Perhaps that stand for Tender Care Required?

   Regards Rich

Or Totally Carp Rubbish.

[MrWolf]

4 hours ago, kernowtim said:

Growing up near a Blue Circle cement works in Bedfordshire and watching the cement trains  means I have an excuse for  collecting a few Cement wagons for my still unbuilt O gauge garden line, although I don't recall any looking like the Hornby tinplate example! 

I have set myself a price limit of £12 for the common yellow ones so this example is slightly out of my price range!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275620478053

The seller has a selection of somewhat overpriced items for sale...

 

I do have a few of the excellent Ellis Clarke presflows ,but don't remember seeing them run there either 😉

 

Even though it's an early one with the tin wheels, it's just a little (lot) overpriced and even when it isn't, I'm seeing a lot at toy fairs and it isn't exactly flying off the stalls.

[40152]

27 minutes ago, PieGuyRob said:

Errrr, I actually bought one for a Hornby mk 3 that I needed. Guilty as charged....

Down with this sort of thing ;)