EBay madness

[Martin S-C]

On 31/07/2021 at 01:52, sandwich station said:

 

Yet he has a feedback rating of 43510, someone must be buying his stock (183 positives in the last month alone).

Nigerian money launderers maybe?

[Martin S-C]

On 06/08/2021 at 19:26, Michael Hodgson said:

I noticed this site a long time ago - I have bought a number of things from them and been perfectly satisfied.

Why would they redact their website or the advert painted on the side of their own van?

16000 different listings, I'm surprised they can be bothered photographing them all, but they include photos of their shop in the listings - why not - it's free advertising! 

 

I've bought a few bits n pieces from 2ktechnologies as well. They seem decent enough to me and tend to have a knack of stocking odd industrial building kits that others do not. I got a nice stone crushing plant thingy from them a while back that will be a part of my coal mine washery one day.

But... yeah... the phone number and web address deletions are weird.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Martin S-C

[Compound2632]

23 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

Four Hornby coaches - kit built ones! Only £189

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334132206190?hash=item4dcbd4da6e:g:vdwAAOSwunhhLKst

 

The ones in simplified livery have replacement etched sides - are/were those 247 Developments? - so the description is not quite as absurd as it appears though some work is needed to make it accurate and honest! I couldn't comment on the price.

[Martin S-C]

On 09/08/2021 at 12:17, Michael Hodgson said:

At least they don't say "comes from a pet- and smoke-free home" which is completely pointless on so many ebay listings. 

I find the smoke-free home bit of info useful. I once bought a loco where the box stank so badly of nicotine I had to dispose of it at once. Luckily it was sealed and the loco inside wasn't too bad.

Any information, if its factual, helps.

[Martin S-C]

On 10/08/2021 at 16:49, Michael Hodgson said:

How about this job lot ?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154557309171

 

Difficult to tell what's in there ... because he's "only allowed 12 pictures" ... and it's only two and a half grand opening bid

 

Nobody's bid yet - is that because he won't ship, collection only - but he's got a postage charge of £3.20 ?

If you are a Dublo collector that probably is 2,500 quids worth.

[Martin S-C]

On 12/08/2021 at 19:17, 47137 said:

Me too but I succumbed, and my offer was accepted. I'll post some photos after it arrives.

 

- Richard.

I think there's a bit of fun in the creative almost-fantasy school of modelling. I've seen some great photoshop images of preserved diesels in fictional black and silver with pre-1956 BR emblem and they look wonderful. A model based on a parallel universe but technically functional early BR could be a fascinating project if you wanted to have more freedom in your modelling.

[Paul H Vigor]

6 hours ago, TinTracks said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274966158927?hash=item4005429e4f:g:d-MAAOSwnZ1hUzjw

 

I think some one is a little confused

Power Supply: DC??

[The Johnster]

On 29/09/2021 at 13:29, TinTracks said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274966158927?hash=item4005429e4f:g:d-MAAOSwnZ1hUzjw

 

I think some one is a little confused

Hmm.  His other items are magazine collection models, and he has priced them at about £5 a go, which seems reasonable.  I think he may be selling a tender drive Hornby Evening Star at a not unreasonable price and has used the magazine model photo as a genuine oversight; he is clearly aware of the market price for his other magazine models.

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, Kim Durose said:

I threw a load of Mainline and Replica Railways boxes in the bin last week. I can picture the floods of tears in some quarters.......

Heretic! Burn him! Auto de Fe!

 

I keep mine, not with a view to resale but in case they are needed.  The value of this was proved 5 years ago when my landlord (I live in a rented flat) decided to refurbish and everything had to be packed away while I was moved to the flat across the hall for the duration.  The layout survived with only minor damage, and stock was completely protected.  As security of tenure is less than 100% in any private rented accommodation (or in mortgaged housing if you lose your income for that matter, or even if you own outright and become subject to compulsory purchase because somebody wants to build HS2 through your property), the boxes are a potentially useful backup, assuming you have room for them.  Mine live on top of a wardrobe.

[Martin S-C]

On 13/09/2021 at 15:06, PeterStiles said:

Well, I was going to get this haystackmodel, but as its not P4 I'm not interested...

 

I thought it was a pie. I'm hungry now.

[Martin S-C]

On 13/09/2021 at 17:03, Compound2632 said:

 

I would defend their choice of words. OO scale describes neither the scale, 4 mm/ft, nor the gauge, 16.5 mm, but both together. There are numerous other gauges one can use when modelling at 4 mm/ft and, equally, numerous other scales one can use, when modelling with a track gauge of 16.5 mm. It's also true, as far as I'm aware, that 16.5 mm gauge is the most popular in the world, though I suppose the majority of modelling is to HO scale.

 

So when a manufacturer describes, say, an RTP building as "OO scale", they mean, "suitable for use by people modelling at 4 mm/ft on 16.5 mm gauge but the EM and P4 people will probably turn their noses up at it." On the other hand, if they describe an item as "OO/HO scale", they are themselves confused and spreading confusion.

I disagree. 00 is a gauge. 1/76 or 4mm:1 ft is the scale. But the semantics are hardly relevant - we all know we live in a world that's getting dumber and dumber.

However these people should have known better...
 

 

I bought boxes of plastic soldiers like this from the age of about 9 and the use of "H0/00 scale" irritated me then. *And* H0/00 refers to model railway gauges ... er, scales , er whatever ... more than to military scales where 1/72 or 1":6 ft is the scale.

[Martin S-C]

On 14/09/2021 at 17:51, DLT said:

What do you make of this one????

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133772124521?hash=item1f2570a169:g:U4YAAOSwILFgrk2J

 

I get the impression that some people paint their garden railings, or perhaps the garage door and feel they are going to suffer imminent financial ruin if they don't use up the paint left on the brush. The first thing their hungry cost-saving gaze lights upon is a hapless model locomotive. The result is what you see before you.

I Just noticed its our friends Fails of Sheffield again.

Edited October 1, 2021 by Martin S-C

[RFS]

6 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

I get the impression that some people paint their garden railings, or perhaps the garage door and feel they are going to suffer imminent financial ruin if they don't use up the paint left on the brush. The first thing their hungry cost-saving gaze lights upon is a hapless model locomotive. The result is what you see before you.

I Just noticed its our friends Fails of Sheffield again.

 

Another one in the same style. Also prototypically incorrect as Urie King Arthurs never ran with watercart tenders. 

[Martin S-C]

On 17/09/2021 at 10:40, Paul H Vigor said:

A 'Junty', eh!?

A Junty made by Triangle Hornsby no less. Unique!

[Compound2632]

28 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

00 is a gauge.

 

To continue down a rather pointless rabbit-hole, if that is the case, there is no difference between HO and OO. And try explaining OO9 from your premise...

[PhilJ W]

34 minutes ago, Martin S-C said:

I disagree. 00 is a gauge. 1/76 or 4mm:1 ft is the scale. But the semantics are hardly relevant - we all know we live in a world that's getting dumber and dumber.

However these people should have known better...
 

 

I bought boxes of plastic soldiers like this from the age of about 9 and the use of "H0/00 scale" irritated me then. *And* H0/00 refers to model railway gauges ... er, scales , er whatever ... more than to military scales where 1/72 or 1":6 ft is the scale.

Airfix also described some of their 1/76 models as 1/72.

[The Johnster]

Gauge is gauge and scale is scale.  Gauge can be expressed as the actual gauge of the model track, e.g. 16mm, or given a number, e.g. 0, H0, N.  Scale can be expressed as a fraction, 1/76th, or a ratio, 1:76, or as a 'to the foot/metre whatever', e.g. 4mm to the foot.  4mm to the foot is commonly accepted as the scale used for 00, EM, or S4 modelling, but each of those definitions encompasses back-to-back wheel and rail profile standards unique to it as well.  As an expression of scale, it's a bit of a nonsense, a hybrid metric/imperial statemnt, but is the accepted form of use in the hobby.

 

Now, as soon as you start describing matters beyond this, you start to become confusing, or to be more accurate even more confusing. If you are au fait with the system and how it is used in the hobby, it is fairly obvious what 009 is, or 0-16.5, but when it gets to H0e3 or whatever I'm lost.  For me there is a sense in which it doesn't matter; I model to 00 RTR standards, at 1:76 scale, on an incorrect RTP track to a gauge originally intended for H0 use; we all know the history behind the 00 bodge. 

 

There may have been an opportunity for the trade to rectify matters when the 'new kids on the block' hit the UK market in the 70s, either to mass produce UK H0 models (Lima started to do this) or to produce to 1:76 with a new track gauge somewhere in the 18-19mm ballpark, but the market saturation of Triang Hornby at the time persuaded Palitoy and Airfix to go with the existing compromise.  Once that decision was made, Lima fell into line. and apart from Trix's hybrid scale, which was a little bit of a niche thing, that was that.  There is not a snowball's chance  in hell of either of those solutions, both of which would in my view be highly desirable, being adopted by anyone producing UK RTR prototypes now or for any foreseeable future.

 

I am not skilled enough for EM or S4 (don't, please, tell me I am and it's easy, because I can't build my own trackwork and must rely on RTP.  I know, I've tried.), so must, if I am to have a layout in 1:76 at all, I must accept the compromise and do my best within the limitations it imposes on me.

[Darius43]

1 hour ago, Martin S-C said:

However these people should have known better...
 

 

 

So the OO vs HO argument was started by the Commandos.  Who knew.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Martin S-C]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

To continue down a rather pointless rabbit-hole, if that is the case, there is no difference between HO and OO.

There's a huge difference because one is a model railway gauge to a scale of 1:87 and the other is a model railway gauge to a scale of 1:76. Neither are scales. Its plain wrong to offer a box of plastic model soldiers that cannot be at the same time both 1:87 and 1:76 scale, and then describe them in terms of model railway gauges.

Bachmann do not have very much to answer for given that we've struggled with this confusion since at least the mid/late 1960s when Airfix chose such a horrible way to label their models.

[Martin S-C]

4 minutes ago, Darius43 said:

So the OO vs HO argument was started by the Commandos.  Who knew.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

Exactly. It was a ruse to mess up Hitler's invasion plans.

[The Johnster]

On 29/09/2021 at 13:29, TinTracks said:

1 hour ago, Darius43 said:

So the OO vs HO argument was started by the Commandos.  Who knew.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

Commandos never start arguments.   They finish them, though…

[Paul H Vigor]

3 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

I thought it was a pie. I'm hungry now.

"He stuck in his thumb, and pulled out a ..."?? 

[Paul H Vigor]

On 29/09/2021 at 11:38, The Johnster said:

‘If you are a modeller you will know how many hours this has taken to build from scratch’.  Well, yes, I’ve got a fair idea, and it doesn’t feature ‘hours’, as in the plural of ‘hour’, meaning a singular hour, one hour.  Or possibly less in this case. 
 

Seriously, two people, one putting the track down and the other opening the boxes, could easily do this in less than an hour.  It’s all RTP/RTR with no scenery, where’s the scratch?
 

 

"... build from scratch." Who stocks 'Scratch' these days?? Asking for a fiend.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Martin S-C said:

There's a huge difference because one is a model railway gauge to a scale of 1:87 and the other is a model railway gauge to a scale of 1:76. Neither are scales. 

 

Ah, but what gauge to those scales? HO is 4'8½" gauge at 3.5 mm/ft; OO is 4'1½" gauge at 4 mm/ft. So I return to my original point that each represents a particular combination of gauge and scale. Thus OO9 is "the scale used for OO models - i.e. 4 mm/ft - with 9 mm gauge track", or more succinctly "2'3" gauge railway at 4 mm/ft scale".

 

Sorry about all this - I used to be on a couple of international committees that dealt with symbols, units, terminology, and nomenclature.

[John Besley]

2 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

Exactly. It was a ruse to mess up Hitler's invasion plans.

I suppose if the 00 Commandos took on the H0 Kommando then we would tower over them