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EBay madness


Marcyg
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23 hours ago, DK123GWR said:

This seller has a few locos, wagons, and parts priced by volume (and apparently they're all 10ml).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/scouse889/m.html?item=165157170515&epid=11039227104&hash=item2674226d53%3Ag%3AjBcAAOSwlApgqAjw&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

 

Are you sure that's not the distance you are from the seller - 10 miles.

I get that showing up on my saved searches.

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17 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

And still I get people confidently asserting that "everyone is struggling financially post covid"...

 

No indeed. Those with office-based jobs have been doing very well, and largely continue to do so, out of working at home and not paying out for commuting and childcare.

Edited by Compound2632
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Very true, my younger sister works in finance for a major art gallery and openly admits that although she has had to set reminders to actually have a break during the day as she would at the office, she's done rather well out of working from home. So much so that she bought my brother in law another vintage motorcycle for a significant birthday this year.

I haven't been badly affected, because I work from home anyway. I have found that the money was to be made from buying incomplete, dismantled motorcycles, putting them together into a viable "project bike" and they were flying out. 

The same thing has applied to bicycles, particularly in the lockdown. The sort of tatty mountain or town bike that is normally piled high atop the scrap man's lorry, due to the fact that imported bikes had dried up, were cleaned, repaired and serviced to command around 60% of the price of a new one.

My friend and I couldn't put them together fast enough and had a list of wants from potential customers. It was good for us not only from a financial point of view, but it paralleled my belief that everything should be repairable, rather than recyclable.

On the flip side, things were less certain for my other half as she had started a postgraduate course that was off on, distance learning, attendance, no attendance until she didn't know which was up. She's started again now but it means a lengthy train journey three or four days a week.

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Some us oldies on "gold-plated" pensions, as some like to refer to them, have been okay too. No going out for coffees or lunches, afternoon teas or pub meals during the lockdowns and avoiding impulse buys at the shops have saved us a few bob - more to spent on model railways.

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1 hour ago, Rowsley17D said:

Some us oldies on "gold-plated" pensions, as some like to refer to them, have been okay too. No going out for coffees or lunches, afternoon teas or pub meals during the lockdowns and avoiding impulse buys at the shops have saved us a few bob - more to spent on model railways.

Not forgetting the cost of attending shows and swap meets.

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6 hours ago, Rowsley17D said:

Some us oldies on "gold-plated" pensions, as some like to refer to them, have been okay too. No going out for coffees or lunches, afternoon teas or pub meals during the lockdowns and avoiding impulse buys at the shops have saved us a few bob - more to spent on model railways.

 

Think that's prolly offset by the extra time spent browsing on the 'Bay and making impulse purchases, or it certainly is in my case!

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Looking at their other items for sale, they appear to be an antique / junk dealer. Why the item is listed as Heljan when it's obvious to anyone who can read that it's a Hornby product is a bit of a mystery.

Unless they've listed in a hurry and eBay's text recognition has decided that "class 86" is a phrase more commonly linked with Heljan an automatically generated parts of the title.

I know that I have had to go back and correct eBay's corrections more than once when creating listings.

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I must admit I was tending towards cock-up rather than conspiracy and suspected someone who doesn't know their stuff possibly identifying it from eBay listings for the more recent Heljan products, as you say those who know their trains wearing coathangers would instantly spot the Flexicoil springs and large plastic lugs disguised as steps in the body side.  I didn't know however that Tatbay has an autofill text recognition algorithm, which might explain some of the more weird listings we see.

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I know virtually nothing about "modern" locomotives, however, the bright red Hornby box combined with the words Hornby Made in England underneath the model might give even me some clues as to it's origins.

I list everything I sell on eBay via my mobile phone, its helpful suggestions along with those of eBay often results in some form of SNAFU.

 

 

Edited by MrWolf
That SNAFU was mine!
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3 hours ago, wombatofludham said:

Mmm, not sure where to start on this.  Deliberate misrepresentation, or a genuine mistake?  Either way the item illustrated is definitely not by our friends in Denmark but is a Hornby repaint.

Hornby pretending to be the Prince of Denmark

Another mis description from the same vendor.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265398560130?hash=item3dcafca582:g:~KgAAOSwHQhhirO2

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9 hours ago, John Besley said:

So what do you get for £7... and what do you get for say £30...

 

For £30 you get just over four times as much boot polish applied to the model with an old toothbrush as you do for £7...

 

Being serious for a moment, I remember showing a friend - who is an international award winning kitchen designer - a picture of a kitchen from the website of a local bespoke design and fitting company, and after a few moments looking at it her comment was, "And is that something they are particularly proud of and think will bring them business?!"

 

I can think of multiple contributors to RMWeb whose efforts could be posted against RR post to show what proper professional-standard weathering looks like! 

 

Steve S

 

 

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Not commuting for 18 months has moved me from four figure overdraft just before pay day to 4 figure left over just before pay day.

 

I keep giving it to the model railway industry!

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