News from the Dogtown Gazette:
Engine # 3 of the HP & RC RR caught fire while passing Dogtown and burned out completely just outside of Camp Wilson. The inspectors on scene suspect that the owner of the railroad committed arson on this worthless KLine G Gauge piece of junk (that has been repaired too many times) for insurance purposes.
RUDY JAGER, CEO OF THE LONE WOLF RAILROAD
TRUST ME--I USED TO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT!
Hi Rudy,
Did you used to work on the set of Adamms Family?
Rudy:
Chuckle. Enjoyed the scenes.
(And so may be the end of all such infernal machines. Diesels).
No, I'm just kidding. I have nothing against diesels. Really. Honest.
Les W.
Nice work. What.... you too chicken to leave it on the track for realisim?
Let's hope Al Gore doesn't see this!
-Brian
Most people don't burn their mistakes and problem children anymore...they foist them off on the next unsuspecting slob on evilbay with listings and pictures that aren't QUITE erroneous or misleading enough to get them nailed for actually lying. Or peddle them at small train shows as "untested"
How do I know this? I've bought a few....okay, more than just a few.
I guess they did a lot better with "O" scale. I got a set of their 15" GN passenger cars and they are spectacular....to say the least.
Byron C.
ElMik wrote: Most people don't burn their mistakes and problem children anymore...they foist them off on the next unsuspecting slob on evilbay with listings and pictures that aren't QUITE erroneous or misleading enough to get them nailed for actually lying. Or peddle them at small train shows as "untested" How do I know this? I've bought a few....okay, more than just a few.
Awright, El, I was gonna suffer in silence, figgerin' my pain was mine. But, from the few posts we've traded on this-here board, you come off as an intelligent, decent guy, and dad-gone-it, you got a real point that I'm dumb enuf to run with. Yeah, I'll catch grief for this post, prob'ly for speakin' in Ozarkian. (I enjoy it on occasion. Please bear with me.) But when someone speaks a truth, some other dumb outfit needs to take up the slack. I reckon, on this subject alone, I'm qualified. I got broad shoulders.
Just the other day I laid down my yearly 'big bust' for a certain 'quality' engine that will remain anonymous to not give grief to the deserving.
Received it in due course. Broken. I'm not about to criticize packing vs the USPO.
First: color of paint on photo did NOT EVEN match color of engine received. By one heckuva way.
Second: Scuffs on GRAY cylinders. Wear on the pickup shoes (that oughter give 'er away to the alert) was ... what I call serious. No 'Just an hour around the track and back in the box'. Yeah, with a five pound sandbag on top, maybe. Or maybe distributed underneath on the track. Hard to know such stuff.
Third: Loose journals. Woe to seller, I have several others of that ilk (manufacturer's brand) and thus have at least a small frame of reference.
Fourth: Posted me back that 'color shift on photo caused discrepancy'. My dyin' ... posterior. Like, I've been into serious photography since a long, long time ago. SLR days. I know about color shifts. I fight 'em with every art photo I take. (No nudes, sorry.)
Okay. I'm an ignerent slob what believes what a seller posts. So, sue me. But don't try to screw me. That's a whole different ballgame. Been done by experts; amateurs just hack me off.
Upshot: seller agreed to refund purchase price. He gets to keep his 100% rep and I only lose $25 bucks for shipment both ways. But I've laid out more'n that on a pool shot 'n won. (Single days) More'n a few times.
Moral: Some you win. Some you lose. Learn to live with it.
Sometimes An awful lot of lost time goes into 'gettin' my dimes back'. Yeah. Like the old Gamblin' Man song: "Know when to fold 'em...."
So, El, back to your point of people selling junk knowingly. Ever wonder why used stuff goes cheap--except to the uninitiated? And how the very same squall like a sledgehammered hog when it happens? My motto, passed on to my carefully-raised son re blindsiding-- "Sucks to be you, dude." He's a 'way better man than I ever was, some gal will tame him down.
I digress.
You say, "Hey, the seller had a 100% rating. How's a person supposed to know?"
You lay down your money, you learn. That's how.
Not just on Evilbay. In life.
Why would folks on this board suppose I'm stupid for buying Echo, Sci-fi, New Lightbright? Bachmann parts engines?
So I can figure out wth is going on. Like shootin' pool for money: it teaches you a lot, one of the things is, know when you're outclassed soon's you possibly can.
My heartfelt thanks to Vic Smith for his definitive assessment of my pore ol' Lionel O-6-0T. Except, it dint have no tanks. (I'm fixin' to fix that along the lines of his assements--including what it might resemble--and blow it back at him.)
But, was he condescending? Harsh? Talking down--(a redundancy)--NO.
He tole me like it was. Ya gotta know how to take informed assessments delivered in a kind way.
Ya gotta know how to deliver 'em, too. Vic's a pro. You can tell by his attitude. So's FJ&G, less'n some folks think VS paid me. And Cabbage. They know, they share. Sometimes it isn't what you're expectin' but it's the truth as they see it.
Though I've wandered a bit, but not too far off the subject--hey, I enjoyed it--El's got a real point.
Les, as my dear departed father said "When you buy a used car, you're just buying somebody else's troubles!" I extend that thought to just about everthing!
I've bought one used locomotive and that only because I wanted another hi hood SD45, and the man said he ain't gonna make any more hi hoods! BUT, I bought it from someone with whom I had conversed over a couple of years.
Those horror stories are why I tend to stay away from the on line auction!
Glade I am not Pro!
Toad
Capt Bob Johnson wrote: Les, as my dear departed father said "When you buy a used car, you're just buying somebody else's troubles!" I extend that thought to just about everthing!I've bought one used locomotive and that only because I wanted another hi hood SD45, and the man said he ain't gonna make any more hi hoods! BUT, I bought it from someone with whom I had conversed over a couple of years.Those horror stories are why I tend to stay away from the on line auction!
Cap, my dad used to say the same thing, as he bought used cars because that was what he could afford.
I've bought a good deal of stuff thru EB. The overwhelming majority of it was 'as described'. Some few were poorly packed and the dealer offered to make good, which I declined. On vanishingly rare occasions someone lied a little. But at the price ... shrug.
The item I related buying was costly--at least to me--but I came out with nothing more than skinned knuckles, so to speak. You play, you pay. Or stay out of the game. Over all, I'm so far ahead, money-saving wise, I feel I can take a minor hit and go on.
Look at it from the dealer's side: now he has to offer the thing again, broken, and the alert ones will wonder why. He'll likely take a heckuva hit in the next selling price, and I'm gonna help with an innocent question when he does, under a different addr. I'm watching to see if I get characterized as a 'non-payer' in which case EB mgmt will hear about it, and the dealer likely knows that, or is dumber than I think. HE won't get a refund on the significant bite EB took out of his sale.
But the huge majority of EB sellers are honest folks who get taken advantage of more than you'd think, just trying to hold their numbers high. They're the ones who suffer from posts like mine; I debated a long while before I wrote it.
Upshot: I have a very short list of dealers from whom I won't buy. Two. Out of multiple dozens. So don't be afraid to venture there.
Les
Toad:
I never was, either, if you mean shooting pool. I did manage to keep my head above water and never had to sink to hustling. I enjoyed 'beer games' best, because there was no pressure and I got to drink for free ... usually.
The time I made real money was, believe it or not, in the early 70s, buying, repairing and selling Lionel trains at swap meets.
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