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EBay madness


Marcyg
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204132099109

 

 Here's another tinged with a large dollop of optimism. He says ''Box is tatty as one would expect''

 Errm not for that price I wouldn't.

Also.is it just me but that leading bogie looks as if the front end and wheel is missing/ chopped off? At first I thought it was just hidden by the interior flaps but comparing with a couple of mine I'm not sure. Nearlyorgot to add that the centre rail pickup frame is bent downover at both ends

 Needless to say the WR liveried carriage is wrong for this set so all in it's     not VGC

Edited by TinTracks
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3 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Secondhand, meaning something that you buy that isn't new, is a perfectly cromulent description but has been so completely sullied by association with dodgy dealers charging what they can get for it that it has, over the years, been replaced with all sorts of other descriptions.  Secondhand car dealers all changed to used car dealers late 60s/early 70s in an attempt to dissaccosiate themselves from their own richly deseved and poisonous reputation.

 

 

If I were splitting hairs (hang on, this is a RMWEB topic, so away we go),  I'd suggest that "used" is possibly more accurate than "second hand".  I'm the third owner (or to be more accurate registered keeper, I reckon that there have been two more owners) of my current jalopy, so when the time comes to replace it, a used car dealer could sell it, whereas a second hand car dealer couldn't.

 

Adrian

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3 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Secondhand, meaning something that you buy that isn't new, is a perfectly cromulent description but has been so completely sullied by association with dodgy dealers charging what they can get for it that it has, over the years, been replaced with all sorts of other descriptions.  Secondhand car dealers all changed to used car dealers late 60s/early 70s in an attempt to dissaccosiate themselves from their own richly deseved and poisonous reputation.  I was a little amused by this, because in my mind 'used' is a far more derogatory term creating a far more negative impression than 'secondhand'.

 

At around the same time the sort of establishment that had previously, with disarming honesty, described itself as a junk shop became an antiques emporium, still purveyors of junk though, and from the 80s terms like 'bric-a-brac' graduated to them from the world of jumble or boot sales.  'Pre-owned' and 'pre-loved' appeared when the middle classes discovered shabby chic in the 90s.

 

I prefer the straightforwardness of 'secondhand', 'used' if you must, but if you start talking about 'pre-loved naive folk art, great for your collection, retro, classic, charming (ugh!), lovingly restored, kit-buit RTR, L@@K!' or any similar carp, I reserve the right to dismiss you as a mendacious chiseller, and refrain from dealing with you.

 

Then we had the internet, and all bets were off as eBay brought out the inner shyster in all of us, buyers and sellers.  eBay promises, but never delivers, incredible bagains to buyers and incredible returns to seller, but as it is a fundamentally public forum, the market operates freely within it as everyone can see what things are going for by checking searches out as BIN.  The promise is very largely complete nonsense, everything ultimately has a price determined by the iron and immutable Laws Of Supply And Demand, pitiless and eternal, codifed in the Ferengi 'Rules of Acquistion', red in toof an' clore. 

 

Caveat Emptor.

At the end of the day: how many hands - two?? Three??? Four???? And long ago I twigged that I was buying 'dead man's trains'. I'm surprised Stephen King hasn't explored the potential for horror in HO!

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I am reminded of a conversation some years ago when a friend of mine was enquiring about skip hire to which the response was, "Do they still do skips since they invented ebay?"

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image.png.9f8fab4e4b2e4dee49b0aa7836087be5.pngLove this bit of the description

Quote

 Here's another tinged with a large dollop of optimism. He says ''Box is tatty as one would expect''

 Errm not for that price I wouldn't.

Also.is it just me but that leading bogie looks as if the front end and wheel is missing/ chopped off? At first I thought it was just hidden by the interior flaps but comparing with a couple of mine I'm not sure. Nearlyorgot to add that the centre rail pickup frame is bent downover at both ends

 Needless to say the WR liveried carriage is wrong for this set so all in it's     not VGC

 

image.png

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2 hours ago, TinTracks said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204132099109

 

 Here's another tinged with a large dollop of optimism. He says ''Box is tatty as one would expect''

 Errm not for that price I wouldn't.

Also.is it just me but that leading bogie looks as if the front end and wheel is missing/ chopped off? At first I thought it was just hidden by the interior flaps but comparing with a couple of mine I'm not sure. Nearlyorgot to add that the centre rail pickup frame is bent downover at both ends

 Needless to say the WR liveried carriage is wrong for this set so all in it's     not VGC

 

It's a typical loft find. Five decades of soot, cement dust, damp and extremes of temperature and that's how it looks.

Had it been in a drawer or the bottom of a wardrobe (and the coach not being swapped out ) it might have been worth a bit. Not anything like what he's asking of course, but he appears to be a typical hearse chaser and I've never met one of those who actually needs the money, so no sympathy (empathy?) and it will probably sit there for another thousand years or so until it's completely knackered.

 

BTW, I think that the loco is complete, just stuck behind one of the (actually rare) packing pieces.

 

I don't think that Dublo is fetching what it did, perhaps a generational thing and then there's the new stuff....

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3 hours ago, TinTracks said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204132099109

 

 Here's another tinged with a large dollop of optimism. He says ''Box is tatty as one would expect''

 Errm not for that price I wouldn't.

Also.is it just me but that leading bogie looks as if the front end and wheel is missing/ chopped off? At first I thought it was just hidden by the interior flaps but comparing with a couple of mine I'm not sure. Nearly forgot to add that the centre rail pickup frame is bent down over at both ends

 Needless to say the WR liveried carriage is wrong for this set so all in all it's     not VGC

 

And here in the real world is what it's actually worth. At a recent Vectis auction, this set - with a non-tatty box - sold for £70. Plus you get the bonus of the goods set as well!

Edited by RFS
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50 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

When they say 'used' I can't help thinking in some cases abused is more like it.

 

A phrase popped into my mind regarding used cars etc, like a line from a Tarantino movie:

 

"Used - like a five dollar wh0re..."

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5 hours ago, RFS said:

Thomas the Tank Engine layout for nearly 5k anyone?

 

 


Madness, but I can see this selling.  Scenario; the kids are clamouring for a TTTE layout, daddy hasn’t the time/skill/inclination to build it, but can afford a ready-to-go plug in and play layout with, if not all the characters, a good selection of them.  Kerching

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12 hours ago, Paul H Vigor said:

At the end of the day: how many hands - two?? Three??? Four???? And long ago I twigged that I was buying 'dead man's trains'. I'm surprised Stephen King hasn't explored the potential for horror in HO!

How does one know how many owners there have been? Sounds like an impossible task, not forgetting that 2 owners could be bad news, yet one that has changed owners many times, is actually in better condition!

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12 hours ago, John M Upton said:

I am reminded of a conversation some years ago when a friend of mine was enquiring about skip hire to which the response was, "Do they still do skips since they invented ebay?"

Yes, I've asked that about the UK these days!

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9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

When they say 'used' I can't help thinking in some cases abused is more like it.

Does 'used' mean that it has been cleaned 'properly', or is that 2nd hand? The other is 50 years of dirt/rust!

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5 hours ago, The Johnster said:


Madness, but I can see this selling.  Scenario; the kids are clamouring for a TTTE layout, daddy hasn’t the time/skill/inclination to build it, but can afford a ready-to-go plug in and play layout with, if not all the characters, a good selection of them.  Kerching

Perhaps a lot of such people in south Wales, then?

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18 minutes ago, kevinlms said:

How does one know how many owners there have been? Sounds like an impossible task, not forgetting that 2 owners could be bad news, yet one that has changed owners many times, is actually in better condition!

 

Reminds me of the Hertz RentaCar joke, 6 careful owners, one maybe not!

 

Mike.

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I've just been out in the car this morning.

 

Is a "careful owner" one who drives at 20 mph. In the middle of the road. In second gear. No matter what the speed limit is?

 

Just asking*.....

 

😬

 

* Not for me, you understand, but the ruddy loon in front of a queue of traffic.

Edited by Hroth
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