Tom Geiger

With some of the glue bombs I have, I think I'd be better off selling them for eBay prices and buying an unbuilt kit or resin copy.

Chrysler sold those Lebaron 2 door coupes and convertibles in Mexico as the Chrysler Phantom. I'll bet there was some trademark issue that wouldn't all that same name here in the US.

Chris, here's my 1960 Ranchero done from an original Craftsman kit, way before the 1961 Ranchero was re-released in the 1990s. I had bought a bag that had two broken Rancheros, and one scorched 1960 Falcon promo missing it's roof, warped badly and hood burned through with a wood burning tool. The new release of the Ranchero was retooled as a 1960 and the newly done grill comes with separate headlights and turn signals.

I got one of those Challengers as a rental car two years ago. It was eerily exactly how I remember my 1973 Barracuda. It felt the same behind the wheel. Same dash, seats, driving position... same useless back seat and horrible blind spots in the rear! They did a great job of recreating the old car, both the good and the awful shortcomings!

Ray... tell me that she chain smoked the whole way and you've got a pretty good movie script there! Glad you are home safe and sound!

I dunno, if the only thing missing from the kit is the valve covers, I'll bet some enterprising caster will supply them.

Remember back when all the models were lumped together and you could still get through the entire category? (sigh!)

What about James Garner? Unless he got better.

Mark it's the same way in other collectible categories as well. In my stamp collectors categories I've seen the same old postcards and covers (postmarked old envelopes) that have been on constantly for years. Then there are the 100s of cheap common used stamps that nobody would pay a penny for, all listed for a dollar each with free shipping. I doubt that seller has sold a one. Then we get the non-collectors who haven't a clue that list common items for $100s of dollars. And there are those decently desirable items I'd snap up at the right price listed at astronomical prices. And these things all come up in my searches so I have to weed through the same awful ones regularly. It would be nice if they had an option to ignore a specific seller. That would be a good part of the battle.

It's basically people with no business skills. They don't know how to do the analysis of what they're costs will be, versus the sale price. A while back someone I knew sent a guy my way for advise on selling on eBay. This guy had a common item with what I imagined as a very limited appeal that he thought he was going to make a fortune selling on eBay. He was planning on buying these retail, as he got orders. I tried to show him that he would be losing money on his proposed plan. He got mad at me and refused to look at the numbers. He said that I was trying to talk him out of it so I could steal his idea. When I told him he'd lose $2 each on his item per sale, he told me he was going to make it up on volume! He thought he was going to be selling and shipping 100s of this item every week. I was still being nice and told him if he sold 200 of them a week he'd LOSE $400 a week. And my analysis was that he'd be lucky to sell one or two of them.

Why? Because they're waiting for the government to pay them to do so! Back after the first oil crisis, the US Dept of Energy funded a bunch of alternative fuel projects. One of those was Exxon's Colorado Shale Oil Project aka "Colony in Parachute, Colorado. When gas dipped back down under a dollar a gallon, the government declared the crisis over, and shut off the funding one day with no notice at all. That left huge refinery type projects unfinished, bankrupted construction companies that didn't get paid, as well as average work men who had relocated to build and man those projects. All around disaster.

My recent eBay purchases have been averaging three day delivery. The Heller Mercedes came from CA to PA in less than 48 hrs. Can't beat that. There's nothing I need quicker than that!

Not getting away with anything with Officer Dan on the job! With all the technology today, it's very tough to get away with anytihng anymore. Makes a guy want to go honest! And it seems that most of the crimes are commited by people who weren't all that smart to begin with!

I live pretty close to the Lancaster area here in PA. The Amish have work arounds for much of everything. When my cousin was building his house, the Amish crew showed up in a truck and power tools. They can't drive a truck, but are allowed to ride in it! So they add a Mennonite guy to the crew. Power tools? They aren't allowed to OWN them, but if someone else owns them, they can USE them! Technicalities! Many of them use electricity on their farms. They now say that electricity is okay... but having wires to their house makes them connected to the English world (their term for anyone not Amish), so the work around is that they have gas and propane generators to provide their electricity. Phones? They went with the technicality that they couldn't have them IN THEIR HOUSE. So everyone has a small phone shack, which looks like an outhouse in their yard for their phone. And I had wondered why our Home Depot had propane powered refrigerators.. yea, they use those. We were at an Amish farm market store, way out in the country. They had refrigerator cases and freezers, along with an electronic cash register that took credit cards. When I asked about that, they said that the state board of health dictated the refrigerators and freezers for health code.... and once they had the power anyway, they went for the register! Reminder, I need to go back there and get more of their hot pepper relish... amazing stuff! Such cunning work arounds! They all work for a living, some owning extensive and successful farms. They pay taxes and use English services like doctors and hospitals. They have no dietary restrictions so you'll see them in Wendy's. There is buggy parking outside the big box stores in Lancaster. So they have no problem buying things at Walmart or Target. And the Amish wagons. I asked and was told that there are two Amish companies that make these and new ones go for around $6500. Of course neither has a website! (Hmm honey, should we get the black one or the gray one?) They have what amounts to a car battery for the lights, which are dictated by law. There is a generator attached to one of the wheels, and although I didn't hear or see it, I believe they would use the solar chargers.

Thanks Charlie and Chris! I don't know what I'm going to do with these, but I'm not a big connie fan. If those carriers come off without much damage, I already expect to have to rechrome bumpers... then they will be gone. The tough part is that someone glued those shirts on really well, so I expect there to be a real mess to deal with there!

Interesting. When I was in career transition I actually got the Hobby Town prospectus and considered opening a store. I frequent the local Hobby Town which is far enough from my house to be a trip, and wouldn't have impacted a decision to open one locally. A few facts confirm my belief that the national failure of hobby shops is pretty much being hastened by the stupidity of the individual operators. For a Hobby Town, paying to be part of their promotions, to opt out on a promotion and tick off a customer is beyond my comprehension. The small minded mentality that they didn't want to take a loss on that one sale, but ignoring that they are making a customer walk away upset and not likely to return. Not smart enough to know that the coupon is a small sacrifice towards a long term relationship with that customer. Even more upsetting is knowing that I've been frequenting the local Hobby Town for at least three years, not buying kits for the above mentioned reasons. but my usual purchase being over $50 worth of supplies and such. They know me well enough to get a smile from the dullard owner, but have never ever mentioned any card, or discount program! They've never tried to get me to register for anything or get my email address. Stupid people who deserve to fail! Now I'm ticked.

You do realize those are fighting words LOL It's the ever generic car! It's a big 1/25 scale. I could get it onto a Lincoln chassis. But a cool custom not unlike the generic car shown on 1961 AMT annual kits. Premier Corvair... AMT engineers built models from manufacturer's blueprints.. Premier engineers built them from memory! And I swear I'd restore this one if I could find the parts! It looks like Stuart Little should drive it!

The issue with windmills and solar panels is the amount of real estate they take up. Not feasible in a lot of areas, but great in the wide open spaces. Off shore windmills where nobody from land can see them are just fine. In fact, driving home from the Toledo show to New Jersey, you see a lot of windmills from Route 80. And I think they look cool in the wide open spaces. The government had energy policies that made solar panels near free to home owners and businesses. In fact the parking lots at Philly's stadium look like car ports. they all have solar panels on the roofs. The high school in my NJ town did the same in their parking lots. The only negative is the visual. I hate when home owners put the solar panels on the front of a house, just looks like heck. My HOA has it in the bylaws that solar panels are only allowed on the back of homes. Amen.

The fact that he reported it as stolen voided any claim for the collision. If the idiot just wrapped it around a tree and admitted he did it, he would've collected the $18,000 total value... which would have still left the huge balance he managed to accumulate. It was pretty common for idiots who were under water on a car to be able to trade it in and have that negative number added to the loan on the new car. You didn't have to be an insider to be taken by that deal! Many years ago my idiot friend had a two year old Chevy Metro that he had driven some 50,000 miles. He decided that he 'felt like a new car' and went back to a Chevy dealer where he mistook the salesman for his friend. He showed up at my house with a brandy new Cavalier that looked like a stripped rental car to me. He told me the Metro was 'a wash' (which in his mind meant that the car was worth the owed balance and he broke even) and he got this new car for the same payment. A month later he came back to my house wanting me to look over his deal. He had gotten his payment book and his monthly was something like $600. He wasn't good with paper, so he asked me to sort it all out. From what I read, the 'wash' on his Metro was that they gave him absolutely nothing on trade, and refinanced the entire $10,000 grand he owed on it. How after two years he still owed $10k on a $13k car was beyond the scope of my investigation, but I know they hosed him good on that one too. The fact that he came back, made it open season on numpties. So they took this Metro for free and then sold him the Cavalier at full list. Then they added some artificial options like the all important 'environmental protection package'. That's the $600-1000 option where they say they say they have undercoated it (spray can) and Scotch guarded the interior and added some magic application to the paint so it will last forever with no polish. An insider told me they do absolutely nothing to these cars. All in, his debt was like $30,000 on this stupid $15,000 Cavalier, which at GMAC's 22% interest rate added up to that $600 payment. There was no way they could've qualified him for that loan since he was a low wage owner who never could have made that payment. He was lied to every step of the way. The transmission on the Cavalier failed within three months and the dealership treated him like garbage, saying that they couldn't look at it for more than a month.. brand new car under warranty. He had it towed there, took his plates off and abandoned it on their lot. My sister's husband added new car salesman to his ever varied resume. He lasted less than a year, saying that the salesmen who were top earners were pretty much criminals who laughed at how bad they stuck customers. He was pressured into doing the same, and quit.

I dunno. They were talking about doing a wind farm off the Jersey Shore.... many ill informed protesters... even after they said it would be far enough off shore that you wouldn't see it from land! Wind is clean energy there for the taking!

That is so cool. It has that quaint outta scale funkyness.. maybe it can send the rivet counters over the edge! But I like it and would like to have one on my toy shelf. It just screams 1950s. It's good to know they were redone, so I don't have to pay a fortune.

Yea John that's hard earned dirt! Actually greasy to the touch, so they'd probably benefit from a swim in the purple pond. They are currently tucked away, haven't opened the box they're in since I moved... Can that really be four years?

Same with new cars. Seems they'll give anyone a new car with a $5-600 a month payment. I know a guy who has had three cars repossessed. Each time he just shrugs his shoulders and signs up for a new one! And somehow they keep letting him do it!

Yea they could stand a run thru the dishwasher! So far I've left them as is since they are cool. And I don't have another 50 years to recreate that patina!

David, the wagon came out this year and if you like the sedan kit, this is pretty much the same kit. I just had to do the van version. In real life photos I've also seen a pickup version. They also did a Jeep body version for military use and sold civilian as the Trabant Tramp. I plan on doing that next.