TOPIC:

I just spotted a Monster Beetle on eBay - it's been used so is a bit battered & dirty, and is missing (as per usual) the nose mounted light bar, but overall I'd say with the postage cost included, and radio gear, the price is very fair and should sell quickly.

In fact, maybe I ought to be congratulating the seller on having realistic expectations, posting decent photos & apparently not trying to hide anything - but I won't, as the thoroughly anachronistic use of "she" several times in describing the car has annoyed me

What's prompted this post though is the use of the phrase "From a private collection" in the "condition" field - what the H E double hockey sticks does that mean?

To me, it's meaningless as it stands, so must be implying that the opposite - publicly owned/maintained RC cars, and/or single cars are inferior.

The second part of that may hold some truth, for example when I had only one car, it got used every day & got pretty hammered with jumps, J turns and the like, the paddle tyres got worn down to slicks (& then until they split), rotating parts wore until the tolerances were enormous, any pointy bits on the bodywork got ground away ... but now that I have a few more, even if I did abuse them as badly, the damage would be spread amongst them. However, I specifically remember that my old friend (Steve) also had a Grasshopper that he wouldn't upgrade the motor it, always slowed down for turns &other cars, wouldn't drive over even the smallest of jumps - I just couldn't understand why he wanted to be so boring - so maybe not.

Moving on, has any Local Authority (no matter what form they take anywhere in the world) ever had a fleet (or less) of RC cars for public use? Or even for their own use? I can see why you wouldn't necessarily want to buy a 1:1 ex-police car, and especially not a (company owned) ex hire car or former taxi, but the only even remotely comparable RC car would be the type rarely seen any more - fairground/attraction RC cars. I don't think I've seen such a setup since the end of the 1970's and they don't come up for sale at all frequently, but anyway, you wouldn't use a "hobby grade" RC car for that, the cars are built much tougher, more simply, slower and with much greater battery life to meet the demands of their use by inept and/or deliberately brutal customers.

I think I've worked out what the phrase "private collection" is then: it's a crock

What really annoy me is some of the phrases that ebay sellers use in their listing but in reality:

From a Private collection/serious collector = ??? Sounds great but does not mean anything

Estate find = swap meet, garage sale

Vintage rare find = raise the value, more money

Professionally built = built by you know who

Professionally painted = painted by you know who

Lightly used/ran = you believe that

Stored in a temperature control room/stored in a protected environment = yeah, get real, in the garage or in the closet

Good luck to your ebay finds and purchases!

It's just a monster beetle wich was used by a child during a long time before he received his gameboy.

Don't forget the 'Comes from smoke free household' one. I used to think that was a crock till one day I bought a Wild Willy 1 from a household that wasn't a smoke free household. It arrived in a box, well packed with padding, but after removal of the car I noticed that Willy was missing from the car and was in another small box. I opened the box only to find a small withered body with an oxygen cylinder next to him. I quickly removed him and took him to the hospital, but despite all their efforts, he passed away later that day. They said it was lung cancer caused by passive smoking. I've never really got over it or bought from a smokers household since.

R.I.P. Nodtec's Willy. I don't see the difference between smoke free and smoke full house tamiya parts. My Rcs are so beautyfull at home than at my parent's home.....

My cars are in a cupboard in the workshop so I suppose I'm a private collector. That's good, they'll be worth more in the future because no ones seen them, but then I only have them for fun so I Guess I'm not a serious collector, so that makes them worth less. They've had little use so that puts value up again but although they're well built, they weren't built profesionally so down goes the value again. They're in a shed so that makes them a shed find if anyone went looking, up goes value.
This is all too confusing, I think I'll just keep them because I don't know if they're valuable or not.

nodtec wrote:

My cars are in a cupboard in the workshop so I suppose I'm a private collector. That's good, they'll be worth more in the future because no ones seen them, but then I only have them for fun so I Guess I'm not a serious collector, so that makes them worth less. They've had little use so that puts value up again but although they're well built, they weren't built profesionally so down goes the value again. They're in a shed so that makes them a shed find if anyone went looking, up goes value.
This is all too confusing, I think I'll just keep them because I don't know if they're valuable or not.

Don't forget you store them in a climate controlled environment

nodtec wrote:

My cars are in a cupboard in the workshop so I suppose I'm a private collector. That's good, they'll be worth more in the future because no ones seen them, but then I only have them for fun so I Guess I'm not a serious collector, so that makes them worth less. They've had little use so that puts value up again but although they're well built, they weren't built profesionally so down goes the value again. They're in a shed so that makes them a shed find if anyone went looking, up goes value.
This is all too confusing, I think I'll just keep them because I don't know if they're valuable or not.

I think that we are collecting for our personnal pleasure and remind. Not especially because they are valuable. If it was for that, we weren't collectionneurs. we were dealers or traders

My favourites are ---

Sold as seen due to nature of the hobby... = It's broken.

Untested = It's broken.

Needs a little TLC... = It's broken.

Unfinished restoration project - It's broken beyond any reasonable repair...

"Not sure what this is or if it's working as I have no experience in this type of thing" = A quick look through their buying history will show them as an avid dealer. = It's broken.

Don't forget "selling for a friend" = I will deny any responsibility when it turns out to be broken beyond any reasonable repair.