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What Irked You Today?


LokisTyro

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15 minutes ago, TarheelRick said:

I am in the same predicament, except I am 74 years old.

I have done this for the past 12-15 years with not so great results. At the last three shows I have attended I may have sold a dozen kits.  With table fees and the cost of gas to and from (none of the shows were close to my home) the costs really add up.  Another thing I have noticed is a lot of the buyers are expecting garage sale prices.  I want to downsize my collection, but I am not going to give it away.  I feel my models are realistically priced, I do not try to gouge anyone and I will negotiate to a certain extent, but don't expect me to cut my prices in half.

I have had mixed results as for the selling of kits. I found if I price the kits at or just below what they would pay at Hobby Lobby with the 40% off they do sell. I have had a few of the other sellers offer a pretty good price for a bulk purchase taking 20 or more kits at a time. Two problems I have encountered are people don't want to pay any type of premium for a hard to find or unique kit. The other problem is tires that disappear after viewing by some people. 

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I am 82 years old and recently moved into an independent living place due to health concerns.  Earlier this year I sold off 48 kits that I would no longer be able to build and got $1076 for them, an average sale of $24.90 each.

They were all 1/25 car and pickup kits, mostly sealed and the usual Moebius, Revell, AMT and 3 Galaxie kits.  I bought bundled supply of 5x7x10 boxes on Amazon and used USPS Parcel Select Ground for shipping (buyer paid $10), I did not offer combined shipping.  Usual delivery was 2 or 3 days, average shipping cost was about $8.

I never had a dispute and was surprised to get repeat buyers, always got excellent reviews.  I was pleasantly surprised with the results, never thought it would be this successful.  I think if you take the time and make good listings (at least 3 pics, accurate description, a few comments about the kits and ship the next day (eBay notifies you that payment has been made), selling a stash can be pretty much hassle free and reasonably lucrative.

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15 hours ago, modelercarl said:

I am 82 years old and recently moved into an independent living place due to health concerns.  Earlier this year I sold off 48 kits that I would no longer be able to build and got $1076 for them, an average sale of $24.90 each.

They were all 1/25 car and pickup kits, mostly sealed and the usual Moebius, Revell, AMT and 3 Galaxie kits.  I bought bundled supply of 5x7x10 boxes on Amazon and used USPS Parcel Select Ground for shipping (buyer paid $10), I did not offer combined shipping.  Usual delivery was 2 or 3 days, average shipping cost was about $8.

I never had a dispute and was surprised to get repeat buyers, always got excellent reviews.  I was pleasantly surprised with the results, never thought it would be this successful.  I think if you take the time and make good listings (at least 3 pics, accurate description, a few comments about the kits and ship the next day (eBay notifies you that payment has been made), selling a stash can be pretty much hassle free and reasonably lucrative.

Yes. I had a guy off $500 forth all. That worked out to $4 a kit. Thank you but no thank you.

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2 hours ago, ewetwo said:

Yes. I had a guy off $500 forth all. That worked out to $4 a kit. Thank you but no thank you.

$4.00 a kit? Holy bat BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH! What a insult. The newly issued model kits at the store can cost anywhere from $20 plus to $30.00 and that's just average kits. No way!! I'll be buried with all of my stash if it comes to that..?°° gonna need to dig a deeper hole!

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They asked to buy them all. I didn't offer a themas a bulk sale. And the thing is most of the people who contact me asking to buy them all for a ridiculously low price. Most of these people call me very nasty names when I say I'm not interested. But that's common now here in the states now.

I wear a mask in public stores because my wife has had a CAR Tell transplant for cancer this past summer and she has no immune system because this treatment wipes it out. At some point she has to start getting every vaccine she has had since being a baby. So if I bring something as simple as a cold home. She could get very sick or maybe die. I treat her to a piece of pizza and a soda after her blood labs on Mondays. As I was walking from the pizza place's front door with the mask on. And the soda and pizza in my hands. This woman slowed her SUV to a crawl with the passenger window down. And with this nasty glare at me made a repeated motion to pull my mask down. The greeter at Lowes said hi to everyone walking into the store and when he saw me with my mask on. Turned the other way and ignored me. Hey. I'm not making some stupid political statement. I'm wearing it to protect my wife. But sadly that's what a mask has become.

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About the $4 offer.  They can offer it, some guys might sell. But once you say “no thanks” there is no reason for them being rude!

Many years ago I was selling my 1960 Buick Electra project car. I had it for sale for $3200.

A guy pulls up with a Hummer with a car trailer on it. I figure he’s that serious.  He walks around the car and says “I’ll give you $100”.  I was startled and of course said no.

Then I asked him how/why and his answer was that I’d be surprised at how many people just want the car gone and take it!

And he wasn’t buying cars for restoration.. he was selling them for scrap metal!  He left with an empty trailer!

End of story was it took some time to find the right buyer! I got my $3200!  But wouldn’t ya know my daughter’s college tuition bill was due for that same amount!  

Edited by Tom Geiger
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What sucked today? I went to Al Raab’s memorial service. He was a friend for 35 years, a founding member of our club and instrumental at NNL East.  A talented builder and caster. 

At our club meeting last month, he had just gotten LASIK surgery and wasn’t wearing glasses. We talked about retirement and he was looking forward to resin casting the 3D printed bodies he designed.

And now it’s done. RIP my friend. 

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6 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

What sucked today? I went to Al Raab’s memorial service. He was a friend for 35 years, a founding member of our club and instrumental at NNL East.  A talented builder and caster. 

At our club meeting last month, he had just gotten LASIK surgery and wasn’t wearing glasses. We talked about retirement and he was looking forward to resin casting the 3D printed bodies he designed.

And now it’s done. RIP my friend. 

So sorry to hear this Tom. It's hard losing a friend. 

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3 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

What sucked today? I went to Al Raab’s memorial service. He was a friend for 35 years, a founding member of our club and instrumental at NNL East.  A talented builder and caster. 

At our club meeting last month, he had just gotten LASIK surgery and wasn’t wearing glasses. We talked about retirement and he was looking forward to resin casting the 3D printed bodies he designed.

And now it’s done. RIP my friend. 

Wow. I am so sorry to hear of Al's passing. My sincere condolences for his family, friends, the NNL East family, and you, Tom. Very sad news. 

I can't say I knew him, but I've email-conversed and I've admired his work. Good enough for me to feel the loss, too.

RIP, friend. 

 

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Todays Irk happened while doing a load of laundry. Apparently the brown pinstriped bed sheets hadn't been washed before and the dye ruined my nice white 16th annual NNL East model show shirt..? no longer white and no longer wearable. ?°°Wish I had a time machine! No, No not the new AMT awb kit, I've got one of those.. 

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6 minutes ago, A modeler named mike said:

Todays Irk happened while doing a load of laundry. Apparently the brown pinstriped bed sheets hadn't been washed before and the dye ruined my nice white 16th annual NNL East model show shirt..? no longer white and no longer wearable. ?°°Wish I had a time machine! No, No not the new AMT awb kit, I've got one of those.. 

So, your shirt now has brown pinstripes? :)

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On 10/20/2023 at 8:08 AM, ewetwo said:

Yes. I had a guy off $500 forth all. That worked out to $4 a kit. Thank you but no thank you.

David, look the other way with all the rude people and scammers. PayPal would give you a chance to reply to a case and you have a picture.  Take care you and Ellen is in my prayers ..

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Used a gluebomb chassis for an initial mock-up on a new build I just started. Everything looked like it fit perfectly.

Then I start using the donor kit and doing minor chassis assembly for a proper mockup only to find out that I’m going to have to modify the rear suspension and lower the front suspension quite a bit.

I know this is the nature of the kitbashing beast but it irked me because I hadn’t planned on doing the extra modifications.

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Working on the Revell '29 Model A Roadster when I discovered the windshield frame is badly warped and broken. It was laying loose in the bag.

Thought I'd try the Revell website for replacement parts. Filled out the whole thing and at the bottom it requests an invoice for the purchase "if available". Well, it's not available but is a required field so you can't finish the request. Arrrggghhh!

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36 minutes ago, TonyK said:

Working on the Revell '29 Model A Roadster when I discovered the windshield frame is badly warped and broken. It was laying loose in the bag.

Thought I'd try the Revell website for replacement parts. Filled out the whole thing and at the bottom it requests an invoice for the purchase "if available". Well, it's not available but is a required field so you can't finish the request. Arrrggghhh!

use a pic of the barcode

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Why? Why do left lane sitters go slower than right lane drivers until you move to pass them? Then they think it's a drag race. Last night getting off of the freeway as we pulled into the right lane to exist this driver, I just past doing well under the speed limit, suddenly thinks he needs to speed up to cut me off. When I started to signal that I was moving over I could see the entire front end of his car in my rear-view mirror, so it wasn't like I was trying to cut him off. I have gotten on a local three lane highway and stayed in the far-right slow lane, set the cruise at 75 mph, I know the limit is 70 mph, but the far-left lane is going 80 mph plus. The point is the drivers in the center lane are going 60 to 65 mph. I'll drive at 5 mph over the posted limit for about 15 miles to where we get off and never have to speed up or slow down. I have tried to stay to the left as required of faster moving traffic but I'm having to move back and forth between the left and center lane to allow the faster traffic to go by. The beauty of multi lane highways is that traffic traveling at different speeds can use the same roadway without interfering with the flow of traffic. The secret is that as the traffic laws state, slower moving traffic should stay to the right. 

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The mighty oak tree may have just signed its death warrant as the roots found the sewer line.....again.  It's a 60 year old plus tree but the original owners planted it over the sewer line out to the street.  The plumber has augured it out but it's become more frequent.  Never really had any problems until the toliet died and it was replaced with a low flush 1.6 gallon toilet.

Our neighbor had a liner put in her line years ago but it was $4k.  I suspect the cost to install a liner would be about the same to take the tree down so I think its time to go.  

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