Episode 8 - ebay job lot. I paid £72, did I spend wisely?

There must be hundreds of items you need to complete a layout.
I look out for these on ebay to avoid paying full rrp.
Any items I don't want go back into ebay as my joblot.
I paid £72 for a box - did I make a profit?
Music by Purple Planet www.purple-planet.com

[@simonhirst9246]

So far have got £65 out of what I have sold. Still some more to sell.

[@ngaugeonashelf4417]

What he said!

[@nevillehubbard7347]

​@@ngaugeonashelf4417 sorry, this didn't show up on my favourites for some reason! Fascinating stuff, and a good eBay bargain!!! Have you sold it on yet? The track is doing an impression of a snow covered landscape!!! Looking good though!

[@ngaugeonashelf4417]

@@nevillehubbard7347 I get the same thing with some of the channels I watch. Sold £65 worth so far. Still got more to go. Creating a little pile of stuff. I haven't used any of the posters yet, I will get round to that and sell the rest. I doubt I will use many. I've been on my old knees since 5 working out the lighting. Time for tea!

[@davidberlanny3308]

Hi Simon, I'm sure its horrible stuff to use but your layout looks transformed with the landscaping done - look carefully, one of those little figures will undoubtedly be Capability Brown!! Onwards to the painting, you need to get your grass seeds in quickly or those cows are going to go hungry!! I'm sure you will have done well on your job lot both on your initial purchase and to sell later. We have been disposing of my late father in laws collections over the last few years (coins and stamps mainly, but also lottery tickets of various types even telephone cards) I would have sold them as a job lot but in the end my brother in law (recently retired!!) offered to sell them piecemeal and over time he keeps finding buyers for the most innoucous lottery tickets. In amongst all that I came away with a small boxed set of UK uncirculated coins (1986) and a quotation for coal shipped to Malaga (4th June 1901) at a price of 8/ a ton shipping, Prime Newcastle Steam Coal went for 13/6 per ton plus 1/ per ton export duty. I read last night in Steam Railway that the Severn Valley were hoping for a decrease in coal to something in the order of 200 Pounds a ton in order to make there line viable. Have a good one!! PS: I have a box of keyrings ex-father in law (about 5Kgs worth - maybe more) ..... Ideal for N Gauge 😁😁😁😁

[@ngaugeonashelf4417]

I think I've done okay out of that box full. I've used some already. Also I've now got a 'Ron' who will be inspecting my work and moving about the layout in the Tardis to make sure I'm doing it right. At the moment he is steering a barge down my canal. Next week he will be insprcting my lighting on my first completed station. Collections are very difficult to move. You either get rid of in a job lot or individually. My Grandfather had stamps and toy cars. In the end they were not worth a lot. Stanley Gibbons had been over pricing stamps for decades and then the bottom fell out of the market. Same with cars. The vintage stuff was worth quite a bit but the modern stuff wasn't worth a bent penny. Far too many made. Coal is a real issue now. Especially coal good enough for steam engines. We are sat on roughly 350 years worth of coal and now import it! And what we import is crap compared to our own. The more we chase renewables the more I think we will end up digging it up again. Renewables being so unreliable. That's my 2p! I'll let you keep those keyrings. I'm sure you will find a use for them 😂😂😂

[@ParkinsonsWalks]

You are a wise old bird Simon, I think the layout will be transformed once you get some paint on it. Keep them coming. Ron

[@ngaugeonashelf4417]

Not so wise - just my Yorkshire blood! Ebay is littered with things from projects that people have never finished far cheaper than retail price. It would be crazy not to pick these up.

[@Wickford_N_Gauge]

Hi Simon, that was some thrifty web surfing 🏄 I do miss the excitement of an Ebay purchase 😩 since Brexit, it's not worth the postage and customs hassle to get to Ireland 😢 Hopefully you picked up enough "gravy" to get that extra loco 😉 Very best wishes from the Emerald Isle ☘

[@ngaugeonashelf4417]

I got some very good deals just before Christmas as nobody was bidding on them. I waited 2 months to put my discards on ebay and so far have made £65 on those. And there is still more to sell. I bought a Minitrix Brittania cheap and serviced it. Sold it at a profit. Bought another one just before Christmas very cheap. Non runner. Sorted it and tripled my money on that one. Now a third has arrived. Needs a service. I might keep this one. One thing I like about Minitrix is I know how to service them and make them run really well. No spares available though so I don't buy broken ones. Unless there are 2 for sale I can turn into one. For the moment I have all I need or want. But I'm sure that will change. Always does. Cheers

[@TheHeritageLine]

Hi Simon, interesting video, I often do the same and look for job lots and another worthy search is rakes of coaches or rakes of wagons and again sell on what you don't need. Happy searching! All the best Tony.

[@ngaugeonashelf4417]

Hi Tony, I will have to do the same with coaches. I need some now. I bought a loco off ebay and the seller included 2 coaches which were not in the advert. I can only assume that they had failed to sell and he just threw them in. I got 2 houses that way too. Bought one and 3 arrived. I'm building up another job lot to get rid of now. Cheers

[@PaulSmith-pl7fo]

Hi Simon. I've seen a few "mystery box" videos and came to the conclusion that they were a waste of money, time and energy. You mentioned that this was a job lot, so I guess you *were* aware of what you were going to receive. Much of what you rejected was of poor quality from what I could see (I'm afraid you need to refine your holding-up-to-the-camera technique. Most items were out of focus. Some were just coming into focus when you took them away. The remainder *were* in focus, but again they were whipped away too soon). I also think you may have over-valued the signs at £5 per sheet. All things considered, you didn't do too badly. Good luck with the resale of rejected items.

[@ngaugeonashelf4417]

Hi Paul, it wasn't a mystery box. I saw all the photos on ebay so I knew what I was getting. That's why I could work out the retail value of what I was getting and could put in a bid that was appropriate to that value. Digital cameras are not very good at auto focus. I have the same problem on my golf channel as well, mostly into a bright sky and low sun. Some of the stuff was complete crap, I was after the animals and people most of all plus a couple of the vehicles. I priced the signs on what I've seen sold on ebay, £5 a sheet. Whether I get that from what I don't use I don't know. What I do know is that I've sold most of the stuff I didn't want plus a few other items I had for £65 so far. I've almost covered my entire outlay and still have stuff to sell. I started my sale very low and with an hour to go it was at £17. I didn't look again until it had finished and had jumped to £65. The world is strange. It seems to me that a lot of 'job lot' items go round and round. Bits that people don't want get piled together, somebody extracts some value and then sells them on. I will probably have 2 more job lot sales before I've finished this layout. At the moment I'm buying non runner locos and giving them a good service and then putting them back on at a profit. I'm just about to fix my third one now, I may keep this one though.

[@stephaniebean4824]

Promo*SM 🤔

[@ngaugeonashelf4417]

I don't know what that means.