Howard Zane I have noticed that an eBay seller is disassembling brass locos and offering them for parts. Any thoughts on this? I cannot muster up an opinion other than I have always seen brass models as an art form....desecration or smart business??? HZ
I have noticed that an eBay seller is disassembling brass locos and offering them for parts.
Any thoughts on this? I cannot muster up an opinion other than I have always seen brass models as an art form....desecration or smart business???
HZ
I guess that would depend on the model (s) in question. If model was severly damaged and the cost of repair was significantly more than the value of the individual model, parting it out might yield more money than trying to sell the damaged whole.
On the flip side, the person may not know anything about trains, took it apart to fix it, then decided that it would be easier to sell it. It could be either.
Howard I am sure you remember the Bill Schopp articles in Railroad Model Craftsman where he engaged in any number of elaborate kitbashes involving brass locomotives, swapping boilers and cabs and parts. I do think he largely purchased basket case junkers, but not always. He came in for his share of criticism for what he was doing, and indeed one had to wonder just how used or useful those articles were, since so few guys other than he would just happen to have the huge array of brass parts in their inventory that Schopp did. And Schopp had the same skills as those expert Japaneses or Koreans who worked for the brass builders.
But even Schopp didn't cut up brass locomotives just to make more money than he paid by selling off the parts. His goal was to end up with a finished, and often beautifully assembled, new brass locomotive - a new work of art, so to speak.
Somehow I am reminded of the Australian guys several years ago who proposed to purchase a genuine Picasso, cut it into pieces, and then make more money than they paid for it by selling off the pieces to folks who they surmised would part with big bucks just to be able to say they "owned art work by Picasso"? I think they never went through with it, but for a while the art world was outraged.
Dave Nelson