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Thanks Simon~ Now my follow up and a bit more insight as to where I was/am coming from: There is a lot to cover here. I wish I could just tell you guys to blow and that I don't care but the truth is I care a lot and for many reasons. I made some mistakes and I will apologize for them within the text of this posting. As far as backpeddling or trying to bs my way out of anything, that's unfounded. Any apologies, explanations, justifications, I offer here are done so out of respect to you folks, not because I need to cover my butt. I really have nothing to prove here and I need this forum's members' approval like it needs a site crash. At the risk of seeming arrogant which I really am not.... I have sold over 300,000 items on eBay. Donated and given $1,000.00's annually in freebies to bidders, charities, and train organizations. A shyster would not be able to claim a 99.7% positive eBay feedback rating of over 7,000+ comments, as I can. Chris is an artist and a very skilled modeller but not a train guy. I gave him an old but mint in box Athearn SD40-2 and swapped out the metal stanchions for the plastic ones... thinking they were preferable. He 'weathered' the loco like a car and not an engine. I can admit I am not a train expert. I don't have a layout. I have much to learn about the hobby. When I posted the auction, I hyped the engine because I thought the paint job looked realistic for the effect Chris was trying to get. Is that to say that it was prototypical or what most of us see on the road? No. If you read my auction carefully, nowehere do I say that Chris had ever weathered a train. And for the guy who saw the first 2, N scale cars Chris weathered and which I sold on ebay... in the first of those auctions, I openly admitted it was his FIRST weathering job of a train car. Both buyers were extremely happy with what the n cars they got. Addressing the chalk and hairspray comment. I honestly didn't even know hairspray was a viable means to create the illusion of rust. It was a metaphor and I thought, a made-up one... I did know chalk was used and again, in my limited knowledge of train weathering I made the assumption that paint is always superior to chalk. the fact that Chris only used paint was what I was trying to emphasize.... I should have just left the directional analogies out of the text. The "...hide pathetic state of being..." part was directed at ebay sellers I have seen who have taken their kitbashed trash and do a cursory job at making the piece look intentionally weathered, rather than just selling it as kitbash or parts. To reitterate, the ATSF SD40-2 I listed was in NEW OLD STOCK = MINT condition before 'Chris took it muddin' ... I still have the box and the yellow, plastic detail parts on the sprue.... My puffed-up language, within the description of the auction was to emphasize that the engine was new to begin with and not painted to be covered up. For anyone who took offense, I sincerely apologize. I directed none of my comments to any member of this board. I have since looked at more of Aggro's and others' weathered trains and they are awesome. I also saw the use of hairspray to create rust on several freight cars and now realize that it is viable weathering technique. Long story short.... the auction listing badly portrayed Chris as an artist and me as a seller. Yes, I immediately ended the auction out of respect to myself, to Chris and to the members of this board and the greater, model train community. I think we all make mistakes. Some of us own up to them. Some of us deny them. Yet others, look outside themselves at the shortcomings of others to deny their own. I hope you all can and will forgive my ignorance, the condescending tone of the auction, etc... and realize that I am not the summation of one crappy ebay auction. I'll CHALK this up to a learning experience and move forward. I hope you will too~ Peace~ Mark Lynn
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