WJ244I don’t understand how banning photography is going to prevent thefts. I do appreciate that stealing to oder for someone who can’t visit to see an item is made a little easier by being able to photograph the item and send the buyer the picture but at the end of the day most criminals who have any interest in stealing from a museum will know the items they are likely to be able to move on and simply steal them and THEN take photos to send to prospective clients. Most criminals who operate this way have little need of photos or a notebook to work out a way to steal as they are well enough organised to be able to pose as a visitor and work out ways in and out while walking around the place.
I believe the theft that resulted in the ban on photography in the Sussex museum happened during normal visiting hours which suggests to me that someone was very well organised. They justified their ban by claiming that the theft was made easier because they believed someone had photographed the display board to work out what tools they would need to detach the items they wanted. There could be some truth in that but at the end of the day a determined thief will find a way to take something regardless of security arrangements and it is a great shame that the honest majority have to suffer for the actions of a dishonest few.
WJ244Have you read the special conditions attached to the sale. Included conditions are that the aircraft and all copmpnents must be shredded to prevent any reuse and no parts harvesting is permitted. They also have to be de-militarised within 50 miles of Tuscon.
WJ244They say every picture tells a story and this one does it better than most. A great photo.
WJ244The two DC-7’s at Stansted were ex Martinair, PH-DSL and PH-DSO from memory. They were in a compound in front of what appeared to be a fire station together with a Board of Trade Percival Prince and a Whirlwind. They were still there late 70’s / early 80’s and by then the fire station appeared to be unused. In those days Stansted was a very different place and on Sunday evenings the cargo area seemed desolate and incredibly quiet. It was easy to believe that you were the only person there. I don’t think the DC-7’s were ever burnt and probably met with the scrapmans axe when Stansted was tidied up and expanded. I tried to photograph them many times but the sun always seemed to be in the wrong place and the pictures were disappointing.
WJ244Great photos so please keep them coming.
I like all the civil “stuff”. There was a far more diverse range of airliners operating in those days.
I don’t tend to visit the commercial thread as I found it really seemed to cater for modern airliners so maybe a commercial historic sub forum maybe the answer although I am not so sure there is a need to segregate the airliners particularly as many of the older airliners were either converted military aircraft or developments of military aircraft anyway.
WJ244The Tower Bridge visit was in September 1982. Edward Hulton wanted to use a small boat to take visitors to and from the Sunderland and charge an admission fee to help pay for her upkeep but the PLA vetoed the plan as they were unhappy with the safety implications of loading and unloading the public from a small boat.
I must admit I was looking forward to going aboard but the height of the quay and the arrangements at the Sunderland end looked as if anyone contemplating a look round would have to be very confident transferring to and from a small boat and the PLA were probably right to veto the plan.
I have some photos somewhere which aren’t the best as it started raining as soon as we arrived.
Incidentally photography was made much easier by the absence of HMS Belfast which had been moved elsewhere for her hull to be scraped and repainted.
WJ244Oh and put the right top turret back, that’s the B17G one borrowed from the Southend B25 back in 1981…
The B-25 turret never went back to Southend. The story I heard was that enquiries to the film company hit a brick wall as they claimed to have “lost” it. I know that at one time this was a very sore point with the Southend museum management.
WJ244Ebay introduced a free postage rule for some categories, one of which was media which includes CD’s and DVD’s.
Their reasoning was that if you buy a CD from one of the major sites like Play.com or direct from Amazon the item is post free so Ebay reckoned that Ebay sellers should be compelled to compete with the postage terms offered by the big web merchants.
I presume Ebay thought this would result in an overall increase in sales so they could net a nice potful of fees with no thought for the poor seller (private or business) who may well land up out of pocket if the item sold for a very low amount.
Amazon commission fees are huge. I couldn’t even contemplate selling new diecast etc on Amazon as with standard model and toy trade profit margins I would be left with even less profit than the tiny amount I would make selling new items through Ebay.
WJ244Your photo shows Sunderalnd G-BJHS then owned by Edward Hulton who threw huge amounts of money at her but due to bad liuck and all sorts of problems she only flew on odd occasions in England. The Sunderland displayed at the 1990 Great Warbirds Display at West Malling so it is likely that she flew at Duxford the same year.
Ultimately Edward Hulton had to give up on his dream of keeping her flying and she was sold to Kermit Weeks and is now in Florida.
WJ244A quick look through the appropriate ebay category suggests that Private sellers can charge reasonable postage with no problems.
I suspect business sellers have to offer free P+P, so should factor it in to the asking price.Bruce
I don’t understand why Ebay feel it is fair game to charge business sellers higher fees and force them to stand the postage costs on some items.
It could be argued that it is discriminatory ie Ebay are discriminating against sellers who run a business by charging them higher fees and that it may even be unlawful under the Equalty Act 2010 which is very far ranging and basically says everyone should be treated the same. Just need the lottery win to be able to afford the legal fees to challenge Ebay on this one.
WJ244Avion Ancien summed up the dealer situation pretty well but selling to a dealer does give you a lump of money in one go for minimal effort.
I think you will find that Ebay expect you to send books post free in the UK so you need to add the postage costs to the selling price which makes the price less attractive to buyers AND you have to pay commission on the whole selling price. In categories where you add the postage after the selling price the postage element isn’t subject to Ebay sellers fees.
Listing books on Ebay is hard work and there is always the risk of selling the best stuff and getting stuck with the less desirable items which you will still have to store or maybe even give away or dump if you want the space back.
If you go to auction you need to be careful about costs. Some auctioneers charge to list the item in the catalogue then charge you a commission fee based on the selling price which I believe may also subject to VAT and then some also charge the buyer a premium on top of the hammer price as well.
The aerojumble suggestion is also an option but you have to look at table rent, cost of your petrol and the work involved in setting up and running the stall which, realistically needs 2 people to cover each other for getting food and coffee and trips to the loo.
All have advantages and disadvantages. You just have to weigh up which way you feel is best for you.
WJ244I also remeber the stories in Flypast when moves were first made to save Hooton and it seemed that everything was moving in the right direction. I had never understood why everything seemed to go so quiet after what appeared to be a fantastic start and I certainly had no inkling of the sorry tale related here.
Having experienced similar circumstances in a job, as I posted earlier in this thread and also in a motorcycle club which I first joined over 40 years ago which eventually managed to out the people who were trying to take over the club solely for their own financial gain I can sympathise with anyone who has had bad experiences at Hooton or anywhere else.
It appears to be a very sorry tale.
WJ244When Meteor VZ638 arrived at Southend it was covered in acres of faded Dayglo but it was all tape – terrible stuff to get off as it was quite thick and broke into small pieces when you tried to pull it off in sections. Even cellulose thinners didn’t have much effect on the glue. It took ages to strip it all off.
I should think you could use hot air guns now but I don’t remember them being around at that time.
WJ244I remember reading about the Hooton Park project when it forst got off the ground. It is very sad to see things go so appalling wrong thanks to the actions of a few selfish individuals.
On a similar note I worked for a company about 15 years ago that was involved in the automotive industry. The owner wanted to build a Formula Renault Sport single seater race car and run the race car set up as a seperate company. We would run a “works” team and sell customer cars.I was brought on board to run a racewear and memorabilia/ model shop and act as administrator, come dogsbody, for the projected race team. A post I was happy and competent to fill.
The race car was subject to many delays mainly because the owner of the business had so much work running his core business that he never had time to sit down with the race car desginer (who worked full time elsewhere and had a good deal of design experience) to make concrete decisions to move the race car forward.
I suggested to the owner that I work with the designer to make it all happen ie I ordered the materials and parts as and when he needed them and would run around in the van when needed to make sure that we had everything at the right time. I could also keep the owner updated on progress and he could speak to the desgner direct whenever he wanted / needed. The business owner was quite happy with this arrangement BUT the designer said no.
He reckoned that I was setting myself up to become president of the race car company and stated that if the only option available was to work with me rather than the business owner he would walk and take his car design with him. I was astounded as the idea of being anything other than a junior Mr Fix It to make sure the thing got built had never crossed my mind.
The final outcome was the designer went back to umpteen missed meetings with the business owner and the car never got built!
WJ244Take a look at this: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/fees.html#fvf It very clearly states ‘final value’ fees are 10% up to a maximum of £40.00 Nobody would use ebay if it cost £600.00 to sell something for £3.5k would they?
I was a bit surprised by your post as I carefully checked the fees when I was going to list the guitar but you are quite right in that the fees page for private sellers does state a maximum of £40 but I wasn’t aware of this as I have business account with Ebay and had assumed that the final value fees would be much the same.
If you take a look at the final value fees page for business sellers the final value fee is stated as 10% of the sale price for most categories and no cap on the fee is shown.
In view of this it would cost me £600 to sell something priced at £3500 which is why I didn’t proceed with the listing.
This would mean that the maximum final value fee for listing the spitfire seat as a private seller should be £40 in which case from the cost point of view it becomes a viable option but as others have pointed out there can be other pitfalls.
I don’t understand why Ebay feel it s OK to rob those who are trying to build a business by removing the cap from the final value fee for business sellers. They used to make much of the opportunities available on the site to build a successful business but you can’t build a business when Ebay and Paypal together take almost 20% of your selling price in fees!
Bruce I apologise if this is a bit off topic again but I thought the post by Mark V justified a reply.
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