Jack Prendergast just sold the Mallard set he bought from us. On ebay. He made £80 profit. It was a "Buy it now" so could probably have got a lot more.
We sell our locos too cheaply.
Nigel your policy to "undercut ebay" is just giving buyers an incentive to sell on ebay.
Listen to the recording of the AGM and hear what Nigel actually said about his pricing policy ref ebay
Adrian
Jack Prendergast bought two locos from the club in April 2023, a Mallard and Scotsman
He paid £495 for the Mallard and then nine months later he has sold it for what appears to be a profit of £80 . . . except we don’t know if it actually sold at that price or if he accepted a lower offer . . .
It looks like he also sold his Flying Scotsman as well for £745. As he paid the club £750 for it that was a loss of £5
Is he a ‘killer’ dealer making a fortune on our back . . . he kept the locos for nine months . . . check out his ‘other items’. . a set of discs for a car . . that’s it!
This year we have sold over 80 locos. From those sales one person has sold two locos that he bought from the club on EBay . . . for a profit of £75 or less . . .
He bought both locos from the club and from those sales we made a profit of £138.75
As just reported by Nigel this year loco sales have brought in a profit of £4,403 and after PAT testing next Monday will be making nearly double figures of locos available to members.
It is not Nigel’s policy to undercut EBay . . . currently we do not have a policy but we do have a way of calculating a fair price for members, both buying and selling.
Nigel is operating within the same ethos we have adopted since we began buying and selling locos. This is to provide a service for club members, not maximise profit on the open market.
As announced at the AGM we are about to present both the sales and the loco service policies on the forum so that these issues can be discussed so you can make your point there.
I would say good luck to Jack!
I will be selling one of mine soon and I will make a lot more profit than £80!!! It will
Not have any bearing on what the club charges but will reflect market forces.
So long as we sell all our locos and make a reasonable margin then job done.
Maurice set the president on pricing our sales on locos and it still works. If we tried to match or exceed ebay prices we would be stuck with a lot of locos. Also bear in mind jack can’t sell with a garuntee so although me made a few bob , any probs, and it’s on his neck.
We have to make sure we shift our locos and not necessarily for the absolute top price. We are based on good value.
There's a good reason Nigel know exacly what he is doing so I would not complain.