7mm **** Parkinson's - Occasional 7mm Workbench

Set my maximum bid, just frustrating!

C'est la vie, as B*Witched sang.

I love watching snipers, particularly when they miss…

That said, I just went and had a look. The prices are absurd. There are either some very gullible buyers, or some very optimistic sellers, or both, I suppose.

As the dragon famously said, “I’m out.”

simond said:

Set your maximum bid, and wait and see. EBay will bid automatically for you, up to that amount. And earliest bid wins if they’re the same.

Sometimes the snipers win, sometimes they don’t, but if you don’t win, it went for more than your maximum, so that’s ok.

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But don’t bid a round figure. If your maximum is £20, then bid, say, £20.06 to beat someone else’s £20.

Prices realised in e-Bay auctions can be very unpredictable. I’ve seen vintage items sell for far more than ‘the going rate’. I have also picked up a few rare and interesting pieces which were mis-described and very cheap because there were hardly any or no other bids.

It does make a difference where something is being sold. I sometimes used to attend a local auction which included toys and models, from time to time even the entirety of the equipment from a dismantled layout. I also occasionally went to the specialist vintage train auctions held in Rugby. It was possible to get rare items cheaply in the local sale as other bidders generally did not realise the model’s significance, nor did the cataloguer. Not so at Rugby with a room full of experts and dealers. Conversely, a nice Bassett-Lowke lithographed Royal Scot, for example, would sell at a top price (or more) in the local sale. It would go for far less at Rugby because, as a fairly common model, all the attendees already had one.

I buy quite a bit off eBay and the variation in price of many items defies explanation!

I collect Playmobil trains/railways and range of prices and auction prices is huge for similar items. One rarer wagon I picked up for £35, boxed - there's one currently buy it now for £99 plus £12 postage!

What always baffles me is bids exceed the retail price - only takes two people desperate to win though!

There’s a thread on that subject…

The van has, on side at least, a new brake lever and lever guard courtesy of Ambis. The latter is cleverly designed to fold up while still on the etch. Removing it is tricky though.

Worth the effort? Certainly more durable than the plastic mouldings.

Cruel close up of the next lever guard before removal from its fret.

James said:

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Cruel close up of the next lever guard before removal from its fret.

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Ooh! Origami in brass