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A couple of weeks ago I was watching an auction on eBay. There was no
pictures, just a description.
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1631985687
From the description I thought it might be worth taking a shot on it
thinking the statment "Has the rail station and the crane to lift cars and
other things onto the train. The crane comes with an extra train car. " so
it might be a 4555. I forgot about the auction but I had put it in my watch
list. Seeing that it closed without any bids I contacted the seller and
asked about a direct sale. Seller said, sure, meet my opening bid. I
figured why not, every once in a while a gamble is worth taking.
Well today my box showed up.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=70794
Right on the top you can see the train platforms and in it were lots of
yellow pieces. Hmm - MetroStation? Some more digging around, hmmm ... more
goodies. So I started a real quick rough sort of things I recognized.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=70795
Parts from 4555, 4554, 4552, 4549, 4532, and 4564!
After the kids went to bed tonight I set it all out on the floor to see what
I really had. The box had no instructions with it which exactly what I had
expected. I had contacted the seller when the auction was running to get a
list of set numbers. Seller stated - "no boxes, no instructions, no idea as
to which sets they are".
Fortunately I have instructions for all of the sets that appeared to be in
the box. So I spent the evening building.
Here is what I ended up with:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=70796
4554 MetroStation - mostly complete, missing lamp posts, one sign and one
minifig.
4552 Cargo Crane - missing the small tool car (the one w/ small train
wheels)
4549 Road 'N Rail Hauler - missing four 1x2 red tiles (which oddly enough I
don't have any of)
4544 Car Transport Wagon - missing the white car
4555 Freight Loading Station - missing the building
4564 Freight Rail Runner - missing the truck
4539 Level Crossing (#1) - complete
4539 Level Crossing (#2) - missing the tower
6514 Trail Ranger - complete
6562 Gas Stop Shop - missing the tanker truck
All in all, a pretty good haul for $100. ;-)
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring dot com
http://www.nclug.net - North Carolina LEGO Users Group
http://www.nclug.net/ctb - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.brickbay.com/store.asp?u=mpw - Brick Depot
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Nice gamble/haul Mike.
Obviously a risk worth taking, Milissa would say no, too risky.
Enjoy! :-)
Thanx,
Mark Millère
LUGnet # 525
Visit Milissa's LEGO store, Millère's Spares
<http://www.brickbay.com/store.asp?i=MMillere>
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Gee, it seems the seller could have purchased a digital camera, listed that
auction and made enough more than $100 to pay for the camera...what do you
think?
In lugnet.general, Mike Walsh writes:
> A couple of weeks ago I was watching an auction on eBay. There was no
> pictures, just a description.
>
> http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1631985687
>
> From the description I thought it might be worth taking a shot on it
> thinking the statment "Has the rail station and the crane to lift cars and
> other things onto the train. The crane comes with an extra train car. " so
> it might be a 4555. I forgot about the auction but I had put it in my watch
> list. Seeing that it closed without any bids I contacted the seller and
> asked about a direct sale. Seller said, sure, meet my opening bid. I
> figured why not, every once in a while a gamble is worth taking.
>
> Well today my box showed up.
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=70794
>
> Right on the top you can see the train platforms and in it were lots of
> yellow pieces. Hmm - MetroStation? Some more digging around, hmmm ... more
> goodies. So I started a real quick rough sort of things I recognized.
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=70795
>
> Parts from 4555, 4554, 4552, 4549, 4532, and 4564!
>
> After the kids went to bed tonight I set it all out on the floor to see what
> I really had. The box had no instructions with it which exactly what I had
> expected. I had contacted the seller when the auction was running to get a
> list of set numbers. Seller stated - "no boxes, no instructions, no idea as
> to which sets they are".
>
> Fortunately I have instructions for all of the sets that appeared to be in
> the box. So I spent the evening building.
>
> Here is what I ended up with:
>
> http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=70796
>
> 4554 MetroStation - mostly complete, missing lamp posts, one sign and one
> minifig.
> 4552 Cargo Crane - missing the small tool car (the one w/ small train
> wheels)
> 4549 Road 'N Rail Hauler - missing four 1x2 red tiles (which oddly enough I
> don't have any of)
> 4544 Car Transport Wagon - missing the white car
> 4555 Freight Loading Station - missing the building
> 4564 Freight Rail Runner - missing the truck
> 4539 Level Crossing (#1) - complete
> 4539 Level Crossing (#2) - missing the tower
> 6514 Trail Ranger - complete
> 6562 Gas Stop Shop - missing the tanker truck
>
> All in all, a pretty good haul for $100. ;-)
>
> Mike
>
>
> --
> Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring dot com
> http://www.nclug.net - North Carolina LEGO Users Group
> http://www.nclug.net/ctb - Carolina Train Builders
> http://www.brickbay.com/store.asp?u=mpw - Brick Depot
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In lugnet.general, Aaron Gershon writes:
> Gee, it seems the seller could have purchased a digital camera, listed that
> auction and made enough more than $100 to pay for the camera...what do you
> think?
UNdoubtedly! I set FUT to market.theory because this is a classic example
(Nice find, BTW, Mike) of two things:
- that poor listings get poor sales. Time spent taking pics and writing
punchy, accurate descriptions pays off (within reason... sometimes I think I
go overboard :-) )
- that it pays to look for poor listings and do some communicating with the
seller, you may find a bargain.
Nothing we don't all already know but GREAT example!
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"Larry Pieniazek" <lpieniazek@mercator.com> wrote in message
news:GJuxq8.BKo@lugnet.com...
> In lugnet.general, Aaron Gershon writes:
> > Gee, it seems the seller could have purchased a digital camera, listed • that
> > auction and made enough more than $100 to pay for the camera...what do • you
> > think?
>
> UNdoubtedly! I set FUT to market.theory because this is a classic example
> (Nice find, BTW, Mike) of two things:
>
> - that poor listings get poor sales. Time spent taking pics and writing
> punchy, accurate descriptions pays off (within reason... sometimes I think • I
> go overboard :-) )
> - that it pays to look for poor listings and do some communicating with • the
> seller, you may find a bargain.
>
> Nothing we don't all already know but GREAT example!
I think you are absolutely right. I suspect that the seller really had no
idea what the value of what they had was. If you think something is worth
about $100, you certainly won't spend $200 to sell it. To those of us who
know exactly what was in that box, spending a $200 on a digital camera would
have been well worth it.
With eBay adding more categories to LEGO it is hard to find old auctions to
use as a basis for comparison but here are my gut reactions as to what the
seller might have been able to sell these sets for individually had they (a)
had an idea what sets they had and (b) had access to instructions (aka
knowledge of Brickshelf or the instructions themselves). It took me about
three hours to sort it and assemble it all.
4554 Metrostation - $75
4564 Freight Rail Runner - $125
4552 Cargo Crane - $50
4549 Road 'N Rail Hauler - $50
4532 Level Crossing (#1) - $40
4532 Level Crossing (#2) - $15 (incomplete)
4544 Car Transport Wagon - $15
4555 Freight Loading Station - $30
6514 Trail Ranger - $5
6562 Gas Stop Shop - $20
Total: $425
There is no doubt that I got a good deal on this but I took a gamble also.
I dropped $100 in the mail based on a terse eBay description. I could have
just as easily ended up with a bunch of Duplo train (not the electric ones)
parts. Being a train junkie I took a pretty educated risk. I never would
have done this on a lot of castle, space, or pirates. I am not as well
versed in those themes like I am with Trains and to a lesser extent Town.
In a similar veign, I recently picked up about 60 pounds of used LEGO for
$250. It is a mish-mash of stuff, lots of old castle and space parts. Did
I get a good deal on that? Hmm, only time will tell but having made a first
pass through sorting it, I am not sure I did. I looked at this lot before I
bought it as well. It was in 23 one gallon zip lock bags. I will likely
sell off a lot of the castle and space parts (lots of figs, wall elements,
classic space elements, etc.). If I get a reasonable return and get to keep
a lot of the stuff I really wanted, then it was a good deal. Going through
this volume of unsorted loose pieces takes a lot of time though!
There are deals out there though. You just need to be patient and you will
find them.
Mike
--
Mike Walsh - mike_walsh at mindspring dot com
http://www.nclug.net - North Carolina LEGO Users Group
http://www.nclug.net/ctb - Carolina Train Builders
http://www.brickbay.com/store.asp?u=mpw - Brick Depot
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