Tom Geiger

I remember that many years ago someone was trying to sell those on eBay! Seriously! Only with your name and stuff filled in.

So sorry to rain on this parade... but I got a job! Funny thing how your business contacts come into play. My old VP from two companies ago called me. He's now VP of a consulting company and hired me over the phone to run an account at, get this, my original employer in my industry. So I'll be going back to my old stomping grounds. I'll be working at a facility that I had originally purchased for them. No financial risk, good pay. So I'll have to abandon the idea of a hobby shop for now...

Who you calling a hoe?

Nick, here's some inspiration for when you get to the point of creating those windows!

I have many unfinished projects, some going back 20 years. Shelved for all the reasons said above... missed the deadline for a club build or show, so I moved on to the next club build project. Got in over my head and didn't know how to finish. Lost interest, lost inspiration... you get it. Sometimes once I see my great idea up on wheels and I can squint and imagine it finished, that's enough! I keep all my unfinished projects on the shelves right over my work bench so I have to look at them and can't forget about them. Every so often when I am bored with what's currently on the bench, I'll pull one down and fiddle a bit. Sometimes I'll work on one for a day or a week, and it goes back in the box. No problem, it's a bit further along for the next time. I do one thing... I call it my Christmas Amnesty project every year. Just like the president pardons a turkey for Thanksgiving, I give amnesty to one of my unfinished projects over the end of year holidays. I've always had that week off, so it's a natural to take a break at year's end and spend it at the bench. So each year I pull down some deserving long dormant project, and give it my best shot at completion. There are times I won't finish, but as long as I keep going until it's done, I'm happy. I've been doing this for 14 years now. A bunch of guys on the Spotlight board also join me in this build each year. So it's all good, we get a lot of models out of boxes! This year I've been working on my Jimmy Flintstone resin Dodge A100 van. I started a replica of a friend's old ride back when the resin first came out. Has to be 15 years ago or better! So right now I have it essentially complete and up on wheels. I am working on a problem creating wood bumpers right now. That got me frustrated, so I've given it a few days break. But I will solve it soon, add on the mirrors and it will be done!

Hey watch that! I had a '66 Valiant in high school!

Hi Felix! That looks pretty cool. I bought one recently. You are motivating me to build it.

Um, not really. Yea, I used the Amish as an example in jest, but I live about a half hour from Lancaster Amish Country. Contrary to popular belief, they don't live in the 19th century. They have their ways, but they have hypocritical work arounds for a lot of stuff. For instance.. my cousin had an Amish crew working on his new house. They show up in a truck. They say they can ride in a truck, but can't drive or own one. Truck is driven by a Mennonite. They were all using power tools like power saws and nail guns. They say they can use them if they're provided to them, but cannot own them. They take a lot of taxi rides too. They have no dietary restrictions, so you'll see them in Wendys. They love Walmart and Target, both of which have a buggy parking area. They say they don't use electricity, they say they can't be hooked up to the power grid since that's being hooked up to non Amish society... BUT they can use electricity if they make it with their own generator. So they have a lot of gas generators. And those grey Amish buggies have batteries to run the lights and such, which they recharge on their generators. They have refrigerators, only they run them on propane... if they don't have a generator. We went to a genuine Amish farm which had a tourist shop attached to it. They had no electric lights, but a ton of skylights to provide natural light. They sold Amish foods and preserves, both from a refrigerated case AND a freezer case, yea with electricity. And the cash register... modern computerized one that takes both credit and debit cards! Yea, even the Amish take credit cards!

Cool Brad! Yours and mine are the only ones I've ever seen converted. Most the 55-57 pickups I see just have the kit error present and you can see right up into the doors.

Nick, that looks great. Nice save! Looks like you started with one of those models that the original builder assembled the complete chassis and engine and sprayed the entire assembly flat black. Then assembled the entire interior and sprayed it one color without any further thought to detailing anything. Yea, great model builder Al gave me a R&R resin 1960 Valiant wagon that had a similar touch. The entire interior bucket was sprayed flat black. There was no prep whatsoever on the body, it was just sprayed blue over bare resin. The builder then didn't like his work, so he decided to sand off the paint... yea, he gave up after he sanded one side completely flat, ruining the body. Man, I'm happy I learned to build from good mentors!

Yes. I would have a website and an eBay store to cover all bases. Always want to maximize your exposure and sales. There are things that are better sold in the brick and mortar store and those better sold on eBay. For instance, recent kits are saturated on eBay and probably not worth the effort to list. And some of the stuff that traditionally hits the clearance rack at a shop, like Tamiya kits, do very well on eBay. So it's a matter of working smart and knowing the hobbys. Per buying older inventory, most shops don't have the contacts in our hobby that we have. I know sources to buy big lots of kits cheap, collections etc. I don't know about buying kits one at a time on eBay, too labor intensive and postage is a killer these days. Back in the days when Priority Mail first started at $2.99 for up to 2 lbs we never thought about it. Today postage for a kit can be as much as the kit itself. Even this week we noticed that the rates have gone up significantly in the past year. Last year we mailed out the NNL East postcards at 29 cents. This year it was 33 cents... that's a 15% increase! And rates are going up again. I would also like to have a decent size conference room to hold seminars and establish clubs for all the different hobbies. We wouldn't discourage hobby folks from coming in on a Saturday morning and hanging out. I know when I did this, I never left without spending $50!

And what about those last century businesses that are still cash only? I've been watching some of those bar and restaurant make over / fix shows and on one Restaurant Impossible, coming in to troubleshoot a failing restaurant, the first thing Robert Irvine saw was the "Cash Only" sign. He pulled it down and confidently told the owner, "This is your problem!" And it was their problem. I know when we go out I wouldn't even think about whether a restaurant took credit or debit cards. It's just a given. And when I did run into one cash only establishment, we never went back. It's just too much trouble. I don't carry a lot of cash. Just enough to buy a coffee or soda when I'm out. I find that you can put a lot of cash in your pocket, it disappears and you have no idea where it's gone. With a debit card you can review every dime you spent, by just logging in on-line.

Absolutely! that's why I take a ton of photos during my building. Before I finish a model I may have 100 photos in the Fotki album. The things you see in those photos! My father was a photographer from way back. He put himself through college taking weddings and class photos. It was always his hobby. When I got into models he said he'd get me a good 35mm camera and teach me to use it. He was a great procrastinator and never got to it. And I never bought a camera since I was waiting for him. Right after he died digital cameras arrived. I bought my first Sony Mavica for $700 and never regretted that purchase. I could actually take good photos! I often wonder what he'd think about digital cameras!

Here's how I filled in the floor voids on a number of these '55 Chevy pickups. I did a few back when the kit was new and followed directions from a source at the time. Later I've been told that the side step would only be the length of the door. It was fairly easy to do, I just added the plastic to the outer edges of the existing interior bucket.

Jeff, since you asked... In my mind, running a hobby shop that can answer the needs of serious hobbyists would need to have some 'historic' stock. Most shops just have what a distributor sends them. I know one shop in NJ didn't know didly about models, just told their distributor to send them two of every new issue. What happened there was that they never reached their potential of sales since they never knew what were HOT kits. If the two examples of say, the 1950 Oldsmobile got sold quick, they never understood to order more. And anyone else who went to that shop and didn't find the kit, seldom came back! I would actively seek lots of sealed kits from the past 20 years in the $5-10 wholesale range, and integrate them into the model shelves with the new releases. And price them in that range. The average hobbyist would be happy to have a much greater selection, and not know that these weren't current offerings. But, they would have been purchased by my shop at a much lower cost than the current issues. That could be part of what makes a shop work, a higher markup on some products due to a lower purchase price by us. I would also have a case of 'collector kits' for the very serious guys. We may not sell a lot of these, but checking out this case on a regular basis would be a draw to guys like us. Once in the store, well you know how it goes, they can't help but spend some money on something. Multiply this by the same serious attitude towards other hobbies. Note that most hobby shops barely touch upon the basics a beginner needs in any hobby. And we'd have passionate hobbyists in the different hobbies on staff, who would be very trained in customer service etc. Yea, a shop that does everything right.

After reading this my first though was the people on line in front of you at McDonalds who have waited for 5 customers ahead of them to be taken care of. They get up to the cashier and they look at each other and say, "Gee what should we get?" Um, you had friggin 15 minutes to decide that already. Know what you want when you get there!

What irks me? People who refuse to keep up with technology! Um, no. You swipe your card and punch in the PIN. Nobody signs a receipt. That's only credit cards and some stores have done away with that under a certain dollar amount. Nobody balances their account anymore, just log into your account on-line and check it from time to time. There's your spend and correct balance right up to the minute! And on-line Bill Pay is great. I pay all my bills that way and never write a check or use a stamp. I even some bills on automatic pay each month so I don't even need to think about their due dates. Cell phones are a God send. You have a phone with you at all times. Get stuck on the road? Call right from your car. My cell phone rarely rings because I don't talk a lot on the phone. And I have a Smart Phone where I get all my emails and have the Internet with me too. I'm on a job hunt right now and I never miss a message. That's worth a lot. And I love Direct Deposit of Paychecks and ATMs. It makes life so much easier than the old days. I remember getting a paper check at work on Friday and having to get up early on Saturday morning or I wouldn't have cash for the weekend. I rarely have cash on me anymore. No need for it. People with no computer access IRK ME! For NNL East, we used to print a 4 page flyer and mail it to the entire mailing list. Now we mail a quick postcard telling people to look at the website where we have all the info. And it's right up to date! Cost savings? Over $1000. People with no GPS IRK ME! I get phone calls from people who want me to give them turn by turn directions from where ever they live! Um, here's the address... put it into your GPS. (Note- for the odd 5 people who request it, I do print out the pages from the website and mail it out) But my point... there is all this really cool technology to make your life easier. Take advantage! Unless you're Amish or something!

People who put sooo much importance over winning at a model show! That's why I'm an NNL kinda guy! And let him whine publically. Kinda like shouting "I'M AN IDIOT"

A whole mess of post cards! Yes, this is the NNL East mailing that went out today. Our club members did the stamp and sticker project at our meeting yesterday.

And we can talk about these sales scams because we were wise enough to not fall for them. I feel sorry for the average joe out there who isn't astute enough to see the scam, or outspoken enough to object. Again, many years ago I had a secretary who was very happy that she was about to pay off her car. Then she got something in the mail that confused her, and she brought it in for me to decipher for her. The letter was the instructions on how to turn in the car. She had no idea that she had been leasing the car! She thought she had bought it and that soon she'd have no payments, and the car! Then the nightmare began. The lease had a very low mileage allowance, and she had overrun that considerably. The dealer then went over the car and wrote her up for all kinds of wear and tear issues, everything from tires below 50% life, to stains in the interior and parking lot dings. They presented her with a huge bill to turn in the car, and end up with nothing. There was no provision in the lease to purchase the car, which at that point was worth less than the ransom they wanted her to pay! So I got involved and went to the dealer with her. I got them to sell her the car and waive a ton of fees. Of course I threatened getting media involved in the taking of a single mother with three kids making it on a secretary's salary. Still, the best we could do was that she wound up making pretty much the same payment for another three years. Absolute bull.

On this one the letters were inset. I painted them with acrylic white and just wiped off any paint that went outside the lines. Of course I wanted mine worn, but it would work the same on a shiny truck.

Whenever you lose a car you are going to take a beating. When you buy a new car, the moment you leave the lot, it's a used car. Back around 1977 a guy I worked with bought a brand new Olds Cutlass. He brought it to work and showed it off. It went back to the dealer for some repair the following week. That night the dealership burned down with his car in the service department. Insurance called it a used car, and reduced the price down enough that he couldn't afford to replace it.

The absolutely worse encounter I ever had with a dealer was with Potamken Chevrolet in New Jersey. My father and I accompanied my young female cousin to buy her first new car. The salesman was such scum that he tried to ADD the rebate to the purchase price. We had to fight to get the price where we wanted it, numbers all over the sales sheet crossed out and initialed etc. At the end of these negotiations, the salesman wanted my cousin to sign a BLANK sales agreement, saying that this one was too messy and he'd fill out a clean one later. Um, no. The car needed to be prepped, and the rear window defroster added by the shop so we agreed to pick it up the next evening. We arrived and he had a freshly typed agreement where all the numbers had been jumbled to their advantage of course. We had to negotiate the sale all over again. Then they wanted to look at the trade in 'one last time' and tried to devaluate it by a few thousand. We stood our ground that nothing on this car had changed over night. They finally relented. The car was being financed by Chevrolet on a low interest deal. The salesman announces that he found a way to reduce the payment $50 a month, and to just sign here! Looking at his paperwork, he had substituted in a high interest rate loan. He had upped the car's purchase price back to full list, and had substituted a 60 month loan for the original 48 month loan. That's how he got the payment down! When I pointed out the sales price rise, he said that was just 'paperwork' and just to look at the loan payment line. That was more than enough. We walked out. Later that year I'm watching a news show with John Stossel doing an expose on car dealers tactics with hidden cameras. I recognize the dealership and realize that he's talking to our salesman! My phone rings and it's my father laughing, he's watching the same show. Stossel basically said Potamkin was the shadiest dealer in the show. And at the time they were the biggest car dealer in NJ.

No Nick, just those who pull underhanded tactics. And I've run into a few real dueseys in my lifetime! I've bought two cars with my daughters in the past two years. The Fiat dealer couldn't have been nicer, everything was truly above board. I'd go back there anytime. The Ford dealer was another thing. Tried the bait and switch, 'couldn't find the advertised car' (2011 Fusion with 18,000 miles) but had others at higher prices! Once we were leaving, the advertised car was suddenly found. He kept asking my daughter how much a month she wanted to spend. I kept telling him we were cash buyers, but he wouldn't believe me. When he 'found' the car, he pulled it up to the front of the showroom. Then he pulled a brand new one next to it, and pushed my daughter, "Wouldn't you rather have a brand new one for only $100 a month more?" She yelled at him that she was paying cash! The new one was nearly double the price of the used one. Then he tried to tell her she'd have less problems with a new one... which I nearly grabbed him by the neck and asked him, "If we're going to have problems with a 2 year old, 18000 mile Fusion, why would we even consider buying one at all? At that point I grabbed a sales manager and told him we were not happy. He sent the salesman away and handled us himself. He couldn't have been nicer. I bargained on the 2011 and got a good deal in the end. Oh, and don't think he reprimanded the salesman at all.. that was all part of their ruse.. bad cop, good cop.

I'm irked at car dealers.. I just spent some time looking through a couple of Auto Shopper type free magazines and hate the tactics! + Dealers who don't put the mileage in the ads... you just know when you see a car at a good price, it will have a million miles on it. I equally hate those that say "low miles" usually over 100,000. I had a salesman tell me a car only had it's first 120,000 on it! Yea, that's a high mile car in my book. And those crafty idiots who put "good miles" in the ad. Yea, those are gonna have a million miles on them, but friggin GOOD miles. + Dealers who put amazingly good prices on the cars in the ad, but the very very small print (often smudged) at the bottom of the page says "With a $3000 down payment or trade-in". I wonder how many people get sucked into those ads? + Dealers who put $3000 For Any Trade - What idiot doesn't know that they just added $3,000 to the price of the cars in the ad! + Dealers who don't put a price on the cars, only a monthly payment. You just know they are thieves! And I hate those dealers who ask you how much a month you want to spend right up front... um, gimme the price of the car and we'll work from there! You know they'll just adjust the price of every car upward to meet that payment. A Ford dealer tried pulling that on my daughter and I, and refused to believe we were going to pay cash for the car! + And what about those clowns who waste money on full page ads of cars with no mileage and no prices! As if I'm going to drive down there on that info! Okay, I feel much better now!