Trains.com

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

1923 Jordan Model A

2671 views
18 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Huntsville, AR
  • 1,250 posts
1923 Jordan Model A
Posted by oldline1 on Monday, September 21, 2020 7:06 PM

Anyone interested in a rusted out 1923 Jordan Model A Ford sedan? Here's one ready for the layout and ONLY  $5,512.99! Guy claims he's sold 26 so far. I asked him if the price was correct and he said it was and that they were rare!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HO-Scale-1923-Jordan-Models-Model-A-Ford-Sedan-Rusted-out/391411854961?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

PT Barnum was right! I think this may have hit the ceiling for assinine prices on feebay!

oldline1

 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Central Vermont
  • 4,557 posts
Posted by cowman on Monday, September 21, 2020 7:11 PM

Dreamer.  Sounds like he has reality and modeling mixed up.

Wonder if he'll get any bids?

Have fun, 

Richard

  • Member since
    May 2014
  • From: Pennsylvania
  • 1,152 posts
Posted by Trainman440 on Monday, September 21, 2020 7:21 PM

This is surprisingly common, and for good reason. Often, when an item runs out or is low in stock, but the ebay seller doesn't feel like removing the listing (then relisting when stock returns), he just simply raises the price to an astronomical price. 

This could be for other reasons besides low stock... I've done it myself when I went on vacation for a few days...

Other times, the seller is actually crazy.

But considering most of his other products are reasonably priced, I think the latter is more likely...

notice how the crazy priced ones often say "last one/1 remaining" in his listings.

Charles

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Modeling the Santa Fe & Pennsylvania in HO

Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLb3FRqukolAtnD1khrb6lQ

Instagram (where I share projects!): https://www.instagram.com/trainman440

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Collinwood, Ohio, USA
  • 16,228 posts
Posted by gmpullman on Monday, September 21, 2020 7:31 PM

Trainman440
This is surprisingly common, and for good reason. Often, when an item runs out or is low in stock, but the ebay seller doesn't feel like removing the listing (then relisting when stock returns), he just simply raises the price to an astronomical price. 

I've seen this happen on Amazon, too.

I'm often shopping for out-of-print books. Talk about markup! If I'm patient — which I always am — I usually find what I've been looking for at a very reasonable cost.

Regards, Ed

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Monday, September 21, 2020 7:45 PM

To the best of my knowledge of Jordan's vehicles, he produced 10 Ford vehicles, and not one of them was a 1923 model.

The Ford body shown in the ebay link is that of a 1928 Ford Model A sedan, and while its body may have rust-coloured paint daubed onto it, that's definitely not what anyone would call rusted-out - rusted-out means areas which no longer exist...they've rusted away.  At best, the paint might represent surface rust, but doesn't even do that very well.

As far as the price is concerned, the $5512.99 figure, when reduced to HO scale, as is the carbody, the price comes out to $63.37.
I realise that the value of Jordan's Miniatures increased when he passed away, but even that figue is too high for only a part of a vehicle.

If there's anybody out there contemplating that as a purchase, I have several, not rusted out, that I will let go - each at half the ebay seller's listed price...

Wayne

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Collinwood, Ohio, USA
  • 16,228 posts
Posted by gmpullman on Monday, September 21, 2020 8:06 PM

At my last, pre-Covid train show I found someone selling some Jordan kits.

 Jordan_6 by Edmund, on Flickr

While examining the one with the $5 sticker the seller said "Would you go $20?" I hesitated, just long enough apparently, "thats $20 for the whole bunch" he continued.

I stopped hesitating. Big Smile

Let's see, $20 initial investment. Today's "market price" they could fetch $33,077.94 after holding them for ten months? Wait 'til Wall Street hears about THIS investment opportunity! (Shhh, keep it quiet)

Cheers, Ed

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, September 21, 2020 10:06 PM

All the previous sales were for $12.99 each. I think the double "5" on the beginning of the price was either a typo or a way to hold the auction without making any sales.

There used to be an idiot on eBay that would hold auctions by listing a single HO scale rail joiner for $10.00. This irritated people like me that search mostly by "newly listed" to troll for bargains. Sometimes there would be pages of $10.00 rail joiners for sale.

The wargame forums used to have a thread about the funniest things found on ebay. Some were truly hilarious when someone who knows nothing about wargaming tries to list a wargaming item.

I think an ebay item thread on here would violate a forum rule.

-Keviun

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    March 2012
  • 1,134 posts
Posted by PC101 on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 12:24 AM

Wait a minute, the 1923 Jordan's had aluminium bodys. Can't rust.

Ok, I just looked it up, late '20's went to steel bodys. Could rust.

I use to play in one, a four door, it was up on blocks, red velor (?) seats in the rear, flip up middle seats between the front and rear seats, even a little silver vase in the rear for a flower, leather covered roof. We could always out run the cops.

Opps, my mistake. I see it's not a Jordan in 1:1 scale. It's the Jordan that made HO cars, trucks, buss, buggys, wagons and livestock in plastic.  

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,326 posts
Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 3:54 AM

Well, it IS supposedly custom hand made by professional craftsmen, and he thought that was important enough to emphasize that he put that in the listing two different grammatical constructions.  

And I suppose it's certainly rare in N scale ... you scoffers didn't consider that, did you? ... and it's 'not designed for childern to play with'.  

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 10:02 AM

 It's a rare model of something that didn't exist - there was no Model A Ford in 1923, the Model A came out in 1927.

 ANd if he's sold 26 of them at that price, I'll eat one. Seriously. I suspect it is what was mentioned -0 common tactic to keep the item int he eBay store when out of stock, just crank the price up but leave the listing, then reset the price once back in stock. He's sold other weathers N scale models for a more reasonable $15.99, which is probably the price he sold those 26 Model A's for.

                                   --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,333 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 12:05 PM

I still have a few Jordan kits unopened sitting around.  I should sell them to him at half his price, he can brush-paint on some rust, and sell them for his full price.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,326 posts
Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 2:28 PM

PC101
Oops, my mistake. I see it's not a Jordan in 1:1 scale.

Think of it not as the Jordan Playboy, but the Hugh Hefner at 87 Playboy.

Somewhere really, really west of Laramie... gone west, that is.

Now there IS a weathered old Model A on RyPN for about $5500 ... perhaps on eBay by now ... with a '31 Model A engine, hood and radiator.  (It was converted to a railbus with the somewhat interesting, and unexplained, gauge of 27")  Would make an interesting model, but it's full scale.  (Has the stainless 'car' radiator shroud, too!)

  • Member since
    January 2018
  • From: Douglas AZ.
  • 634 posts
Posted by Little Timmy on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 9:46 PM

At least the shipping cost is reasonable...

Rust...... It's a good thing !

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 11:06 PM

Overmod
Well, it IS supposedly custom hand made by professional craftsmen, and he thought that was important enough to emphasize that he put that in the listing two different grammatical constructions.

Well, Jordan Jackson should then have been credited with the "hand made" portion of that description for creating the parts, and only the assembly of the parts to "professional craftsmen". 
I noticed that there's no accreditation for the apparently non-professional painter, though...perhaps best to avoid any embellishment there.

It's odd that there's no reference in the ad blurb to the "professional craftsman" who created that price, though...at least that guy (or gal) has chutzpah.

Wayne

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 3,139 posts
Posted by chutton01 on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 2:23 PM

Overmod
Somewhere really, really west of Laramie... gone west, that is.

That "Somewhere west of Laramie" phrase rang a bell - that ad is featured on the Gus Wilson Model Garage story archive site for the 1920s section as shown here. 'Gus Wilson and The Model Garage' was a long running series of automotive problem "detective" stories (featuring the characters Gus Wilson, Joe Clark, and later Stan Hicks) running in Popular Science from 1925 to late 1969, written by a number of authors under the name "Martin Bunn".  I read thru the stories last year, and it is rather interesting both in seeing how automotive technology changed and advanced over the years, and also to guess what the problem was causing the automotive issue in each story (when you binge-read the stories, you see patterns like clogged tailpipes, loose tie-rod, cracked distributor caps, pin-holes in vaccuum diaphragms, and so on). While the series entered the age of the Muscle Car, it never got to the wonky 1970s stuff, let alone later era rlectronic ignition, fuel injection, LCD dash displays, computer modules and so on - however, if you are automotive interested and/or a real classic auto owner (1970 or earlier), the stories make a good read and might even be helpful.

The mismarked eBay offering of this thread, OTOH, is just a sad joke...

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 21,326 posts
Posted by Overmod on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 4:22 PM

Didn't Mechanix Illustrated have a similar 'anecdotal' style in analyzing and solving automotive problems?  Who had the article about how to solve 'dieseling' with a strategic piece of cardboard over the air-cleaner horn in the late '60s? 
This in the era where the Wankel and then the Rolamite could be touted as the next utterly game-changing innovation for The Fuuuuture! Laugh

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 3,139 posts
Posted by chutton01 on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 5:31 PM

Overmod
Didn't Mechanix Illustrated have a similar 'anecdotal' style in analyzing and solving automotive problems?  Who had the article about how to solve 'dieseling' with a strategic piece of cardboard over the air-cleaner horn in the late '60s?


Tom McCahill was one of the car writers for Mechanix Illustrated, but I don't know if he wrote any trouble-shooting articles. Popular Mechanics, I don't know, but I do know that Science & Mechanics had chief car editor and all around wise...guy Joe Gutts, who covered many mechanical issues...and workplace issues...and odd inventions...and mini-skirt lengths...and heat waves...and the then new 'Water Sphere' water towers...and UFOS...and micro-skirt lengths...and the Mayor John Lindsey Memorial Test Track (a broken and pot-holed narrow public road in the Bronx where Joe stress tested new car suspensions) and so on.  I thought it was hilarious as a little boy, and since I still have a small collection of S&M that I occasionaly reread, I still do.

I'm pretty sure I learned to read as a toddler from these magazines as oppose to the namby-pamby little readers of the late 1960s...

And to bring it back to Jordon Minitature vehicles - I wonder if the rumors I heard at the last Springfield Amherst Railroad Hobby show in January are true that the tooling for those models was destroyed - if so what a shame, as they really were nicelly molded.  (I also wonder if there will be 2021 Amherst Hobby show - the website says the show is on for 30-31 January 2021, but I guess we will see).

BTW, if you read some of the additional material on that Model Garage link I posted above, one article is from the last writer of the Model Garage column (he can claim it as among other storys he wrote the 1970 christmas story where the now retired Gus come back to visit the garage and settles a dispute). Anyway, the reason he gave for the column being dropped was not that the column was unpopular - it was always in the top readers favorite features - but that thoses readers were not the ones wantede by the new media group owners of Popular Science. Hmm, don't target the articles to the audience, target the audience to the advertisers. Reminds me of the 'Rural Purge' at CBS where they dumped Green Acres, Belevery Hillbillies, Hee-Haw and other such shows. Of course, the shows that replaced the rural humor did become classics in their own right (Mary Tyler Moore, All in the Family, Bob Newhart, M*A*S*H, etc.) that I liked watching as well.

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
  • 11,426 posts
Posted by dknelson on Thursday, September 24, 2020 12:01 PM

I heard the same rumor - that the Jordan tooling was destroyed by the family.  That seems so dog-in-manger that I can hardly believe it, but sometimes famlies have odd notions of how best to honor the memory of the deceased.

I was looking at Jordan kits at the Madison WI train show last February -- MY last preCovid train show -- and someone scooped up the whole collection.  Could we have been at the same show.

Knowing what I know now I should have bought up every can of DullCote I saw.  DullCote has become as rare as hen's teeth, for reasons not clear (gloss or matte) to me.  It is on sale at Walthers but they have no information as to when they'll get a shipment!

Dave Nelson 

 

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 3,139 posts
Posted by chutton01 on Thursday, September 24, 2020 1:58 PM

dknelson
I heard the same rumor - that the Jordan tooling was destroyed by the family.

Hopefully from a different source than me, as i posted that info in a "Chooch Enterprises Going Out of Business" thread back in January. Maybe the customer I heard it from at the Tichy booth at Amherst had been in Wisconsin as well.

DullCote has become as rare as hen's teeth, for reasons not clear (gloss or matte) to me.

This showed up as a topic in March of this year, in a "Rattle can substitute for Testor's Dullcoat" thread.  One thing that came out in that thread, and agrees with my recent experience with DullCote, is that the finish is not as flat as it used to be in the past - still a bit of a sheen, whereas to me it seems that the Dullcote of even 5 years ago would leave an absolutely flat finish.

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Users Online

Search the Community

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!