...or rather loosely based on Maurices entrprise. Offer to buy club members 'broken' or 'non-running' locos with a view to reparing them and selling on or breaking for spares.
Boxed or unboxed in any condition we could make an offer based on the actual condition. If they are really poor with bits missing then make a much reduced offer and use them for spares only.
Not really fully thought this through yet but in the first instance get comments from everyone so please fire away.
Mike, I decided to withdraw the proposal, working on, I hope, a more lucrative proposal. Watch this space! Maurice.
I don’t agree Mike. We need to have a startling price which should be our cost and then see where it goes. You have made your position clear, which will be taken into account when we have the discussion. Maurice
Unfortunately I won't be at Doncaster to join in the discussions.
If it reaches £310, is this not testing the market? You would still have the loco and you could offer it to club members at £310 and recoup more of the expense of modifying and the guarantee without the ebay cost.
Yes, this is a market test, will discuss this weekend at Doncaster, but this would be my recommendation. Maurice
So are you saying that you would prefer to sell on ebay at whatever price is reached above your cost value rather than remove from sale and offer it to club members without the ebay expenses?
Hi Mike, I find with auctions that it's best to keep the reserve price as low as possible, once people know it's for sale it increases interest and bidding. So in this instance I would set the reserve at our cost and see where it goes. Eric and I will discuss which loco to use when we meet this weekend at Doncaster, quite likely an AC models Mallard as the base unit. Maurice.
Would you start the bidding at a low figure with a reserve of say £350? After all as you say we don't want to be busy fools. We don't want to give the loco away as the guarantee itself must be worth £50 and ACM are selling rubbish for £225.
I would support the idea completely. I can't offer an opinion on the price, but I would say that not everyone looks ta pre-loved. eBay is a wider recognised site.
NW
Hi Mike, a couple of points, I think £600 is a bit strong, if £295 is right for a Mallard on it's own then say £395 re-named and numbered. The only way to find out is to do one. Maurice
There has been a Hornby Live Steam Empire of India 60011 New & Unused on Preloved for £600 for some time. This is a TMC renamed loco originally a DDE. If something like this is hard to sell then maybe the margins will be tight.
Eric, thats a good idea, that way we find the real market value for a good running, warranted, re-named and numbered loco. Currently we only know the market for standard locos. Maurice
Well maybe the best way to do that is to sell one on Ebay as a one off to see how the bids go since we don't have an auction site. And yes, re-name and number it to see what happens.
I think all of the above relevant and helpul, particulary the value of the OOLS guarantee. I also take Eric's point about the re-naming. I would also suggest that we need to make at least £75 from a loco. So do we think a Mallard on it's own is worth £295 with the guarantee? If we assume £50 for spares and £50 for the person fixing it that we means we need to buy at £125 for a complete loco. That might be possible, from experience so far we can buy better at shows and people selling are prepared to take a lower price than e bay to help the club. A couple of questions:
1, Is £295 the right selling price?
2, Who would be prepared to fix the broken locos, I could have a go, but not sure I'm competent yet?
Nick's point is valid to, we don't want to be busy fools, we should test the market and we have a loco, shall we?
Maurice
By taking Maurice’s formula you would need to buy in a such a low price to make it worthwhile I don’t feel it has the legs ! A lot of work and I for one would not be happy with a cut and shut loco myself, sort of Heinz 57 set up.
We have a hell of a lot to do with what’s we have taken on, do we really want more agro trying to make a few quid for the club?
Sorry to sound negative on this one, some major spares have gone seemingly for good so we would have another situation to source replacement parts on top of the ones we are already persuing..
but............give it a go by all means!!!!!
I think that you are under valuing the OOLS Club guarantee. Any buyer would be able to return the loco should it not perform as expected. This is something that NO OTHER SELLER is offering and should be valued much higher than the prices quoted so far.
I see your point Maurice but how about just a single loco? The sets come with the controllers too which adds to the overall value so let's consider that. The one I bought from ACM cost me £180 so overall it cost me £250 and it is in pristine condition, perhaps I was lucky. But what would it be worth? ACM are selling broken ones with lots of bits missing for £225 and people are buying them! And some bits are irreplaceable such as coal covers and chimneys.
Re-naming locos would probably be very atractive to some but it is a long winded operation that I would not like to do regularly. Note also that the cost of name plates and numbers is around £20 too.
Definitely got to be worth a try to see if it is a viable idea.
The difficult part is putting a value on the “broken loco” so let’s work back from a selling price.
Taking a used Mallard set, one just sold on e bay not complete for £335, some track and instruction booklet missing.
So let’s assume we could get £350 for a running guaranteed OOLS Mallard set. Taking Eric’s recent experience of a Golden Fleece bought from AC Models, cost £50 in parts to fix. That takes us to £300.
We would then want say £75 for the club, we’re down to £225. If a payment is to be made to the person fixing it say £50, then purchase price of £175. I don’t think we would get many at that price when you look at the prices AC Models are getting.
Is there a way to make this work, possibly, we need to add value, how do we do that?
OOLS guarantee has to have a value.
Name and number change would have value as well.
So let’s test the market, take one of the AC Models Mallards we have bought, fixit, name change it; offer it with the name of your choice? Asking price £295 loco on it’s own, OOLS guarantee, no box etc.
Maurice
I would propose that the club fund it and a cut for the person repairing them, the profit going to the club of course. Locos in poor condition could be stripped and bits sold as used if they are serviceable.
I haven't thought about buying prices.
An intresting one!!!
Great idea Eric, would you propose the club funding the purchase? If so what financil limit would you propose? Also need to consider how we would value them. Maurice