WJ244NI-SPITFIRE Just want to emphasise that neither I or anyone that I know has any interest in buying the seat a) because I couldn’t afford it and b) because I will never have a hope in hell of affording the rest of a Spitifre static or airworthy) to fit around it.
My advice was completely impartial and based on my experience of 8-9 years of dealing on Ebay which I always found a great place to buy and sell until the founders sold the site on to new owners who seem to want to make it a site full of big names to try to rival Amazon (who have just announced big losses). The small man has been forgotten in a frenzy of fee changes and fee discount structures designed to favour those with massive turnovers at the expense of the small man who is trying to grow a business.
Personally, for the small seller, I don’t feel it is the great marketplace that it used to be.
WJ244Hi guys, ive looked into ebay and to list it would cost £1.30 + £0.90 per photo so about £10 to list. There is a final value fee of 10% up to a max of £40 so to sell it on ebay would cost around £50. Regards Owen..N Ireland
Please check your Ebay fees again. I used to use Ebay regularly but rarely bother now due to high fees but my other half’s son wanted to sell one of his vintage guitars recently which is worth about £3500. I sold a couple of guitars for him on Ebay a few years ago before the new owners and new fee structures were introduced so he asked me to do some costings.
I couldn’t see any cap of £40 on final value fees. I worked out the fees to sell at a fixed price of £3500 totalled £600 – a very nice fat fee for Ebay. If someone paid by Paypal there were Paypal fees as well.
I could have just put it on and made myself a bit of commission but I felt the fees were way too high and we agreed it was in his best interests to look at other ways of selling.
I don’t believe that Ebay is always the best option now. You may get a bit more than you have been offered by some forum members but you will also pay big fees and have the headache of dealing with buyer who is a completely unknown quantity. I had a buyer who bought a rare model car for £250 but ignored all requests for payment. I still have the model and Ebay still have most of my fees for a non existent sale.
I think Ebay fees are way over the top at 10%.
I used to sell new diecast model cars and aircraft. The profit margin is 33%. You can’t get a lower wholesale price to get a better margin – not even if you bulk buy.
On a model which sells for £43.20 including VAT (£36.00 plus VAT) the profit is £12.00.
Ebay want £0.40 listing fee for fixed price and £4.32 final value fee if the model sells.
Paypal charge approx 4% ie £1.72 making total Ebay and paypal fees for the sale of £6.44 – over 50% of my profit.
This leaves me with £5.56 profit from a £43 sale – not the sort of margin that allows anyone to earn a living so goodbye Ebay I will sink or swim on my own but will get a proper reward for my efforts when I do manage to sell something.
WJ244Been there, seen it, done it, got the T-shirt!
Always amazes me how it can take just one individual, usually of inflated opinion of self worth and with a craving for power, to upset what was a fairly harmonious band of hard working volunteers with a common goal.
Won’t say where, but twas museum, no longer with us, in the South East somewhere or other!
Regards;
🙁
I was thinking along similar lines. One person alienates all the volunteers that have been working since way before the museum building went up.
Not too long after the big, very public, opening the volunteers find they have no worthwhile work assigned to them, are made to feel very unwelcome and are ultimately banned from the museum altogether.
This was a very far cry from the days before the opening when we were told that one of our roles would be to man a stand at airshows to promote the museum and there was every chance that some of us would go along to these airshows in the museum’s very own pre war mini airliner which would either appear as an airshow act or be parked near the stand for the day.
It wasn’t all bad as I did get to learn a bit about aeroplanes but the furthest my feet got off the ground during my time at the museum was when I was stood on the wing of a large post war 4 engined bomber to strip the paint. One of our number did get a very short flight – straight off the trailing edge of the wing and onto the ground but that was about our lot.
Following our departure the aircraft fell into disrepair and ultimately the place closed.
WJ244That is obviously one of the later Mignet desins and not an HM14. The engine doesn’t appear to have any valve gear so it is almost certainly a 2 stroke Scott Flying Squirrel.
WJ244Can’t see any previous note for this one yet.
Seem to remember that the party piece when she was flying was a flypast with one wheel down which was possible because of some unusual arrangement in the hydraulic system.
Seems better value than a Supermarine Swift ( although admittedlly nothing like as significant in historical terms) with maybe a chance of getting her in the air again.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Percival-Sea-Prince-T1-/330679495459?pt=UK_CPV_Aviation_SM&hash=item4cfe08ab23
Also just noticed the ex Dixons scrap yard Blackburn.
The Southend museum tried to rescue this in the ealry 70’s but at that time the owner wanted £250 which was far more than it was thought to be worth then.
At the time it was finally rescued there was a picture of it in the scrap yard, supposedly just before removal, taken by Simon Murdoch which appeared to show the fuselage with a complete set of very knocked about wings propped up on oil drums to make it look like a complete aircraft. It is possible that my memory is playing tricks but I remember it so vividly because at the time the museum tried a rescue it was thought to be only the fuelage that was available and I was surprised that the wings had suddenly turned up a good 10 years later.
I have always wondered if the wings did actually turn up although from what I remember of the picture it is just possible that someone thought they were beyond saving and opted to take just the fuselage.
Also found this which sheds some light on the parts used in the composite G-ACBH / G-ADFO.
http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/york40/acbh.html
http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/york40/adfo.html
WJ244I am pretty sure the North Weald Vampiire WZ507 is undergoing or has just undergone an engine change so maybe the engine from there may be some use assuming it was out of hours rather than damaged.
WJ244I am pretty sure the North Weald Vampiire WZ507 is undergoing or has just undergone an engine change so maybe the engine from there may be some use assuming it was out of hours rather than damaged.
WJ244Wasn’t there an Ebay seller who listed a lot of Eastern European aircraft at one time? I think there was some association with a UK company possibly in the Cambridge area?
WJ244Wasn’t there an Ebay seller who listed a lot of Eastern European aircraft at one time? I think there was some association with a UK company possibly in the Cambridge area?
WJ244I used to visit airfields with a friend whose sole aim was number crunching. He was the one with a car so he had most of the say about where we went and for how long.
I remember visting Elstree in the late 70’s / early 80’s. My friend had disappeared ahead of me into a hangar and hadn’t seen the small shed with “project mayfly” chalked on the door.
I peered into the gloom to find a big radial engine almost above my head. A voice said “come in” and I realised there was someone perched up there working on the fuselage. I recognised the underwing serial WJ244 as the second Sea Fury from the Southend museum which I had known well for years as a heap of bits lashed to the museum compund fence. I assume the person I spent some time talking to was Spencer Flack. At that time I had been spotting for best part of 15 years and he was the first person of very few people I have encountered on airfield visits who had ever made time to talk to me about aeroplanes.
I was a bit poorer than my friend in terms of number crunching at the end of the visit but I was left with experience of a pleasant encounter which I have never forgotten.
In contrast during a visit to France with a coach load of spotters I was the only one who could speak any French so I was given the job of asking for permission at each airfield as the tour guide spoke no French and simply had a letter in French which explained the reason for our visit but he couldn’t answer any questions from airfield owners. I think it was Meaux where the local flying club had been given a Fouga Magister. Once they discovered I could speak some French they went out of their way to welcome us. They pulled the Magister out of the hangar and insisted that I sit in the front cockpit while they took my photo with my camera and then generously allowed all the others to have photos in the Magister as well. At nearly every airfield they asked questions about the hobby which I did my best to answer.
I was a regular spotter at Southend for years but apart from my time with the Southend Museum no one on the airfield seemed to have much time for the spotters – a great shame as it might just have given me the local contacts I needed at that time to try to pursue the career that I always wanted in aviation.
WJ244I used to visit airfields with a friend whose sole aim was number crunching. He was the one with a car so he had most of the say about where we went and for how long.
I remember visting Elstree in the late 70’s / early 80’s. My friend had disappeared ahead of me into a hangar and hadn’t seen the small shed with “project mayfly” chalked on the door.
I peered into the gloom to find a big radial engine almost above my head. A voice said “come in” and I realised there was someone perched up there working on the fuselage. I recognised the underwing serial WJ244 as the second Sea Fury from the Southend museum which I had known well for years as a heap of bits lashed to the museum compund fence. I assume the person I spent some time talking to was Spencer Flack. At that time I had been spotting for best part of 15 years and he was the first person of very few people I have encountered on airfield visits who had ever made time to talk to me about aeroplanes.
I was a bit poorer than my friend in terms of number crunching at the end of the visit but I was left with experience of a pleasant encounter which I have never forgotten.
In contrast during a visit to France with a coach load of spotters I was the only one who could speak any French so I was given the job of asking for permission at each airfield as the tour guide spoke no French and simply had a letter in French which explained the reason for our visit but he couldn’t answer any questions from airfield owners. I think it was Meaux where the local flying club had been given a Fouga Magister. Once they discovered I could speak some French they went out of their way to welcome us. They pulled the Magister out of the hangar and insisted that I sit in the front cockpit while they took my photo with my camera and then generously allowed all the others to have photos in the Magister as well. At nearly every airfield they asked questions about the hobby which I did my best to answer.
I was a regular spotter at Southend for years but apart from my time with the Southend Museum no one on the airfield seemed to have much time for the spotters – a great shame as it might just have given me the local contacts I needed at that time to try to pursue the career that I always wanted in aviation.
WJ244I think Duxfordhawk has got it about right. Maybe we should bear in mind that it is unlikely that many of the Spitfire wrecks that have been rebuilt to fly would have been wanted as museum exhibits. A prime example is the MK1 recently completed at Duxford. The wreck was such a mess that it would have meant little as a museum display.
I know we can get into all the debates about data plate rebuilds but for my money it looks superb, great attention has been paid to the details to make it as near original specification as possible and as a bonus it flies and in time all the new metal becomes “old” metal anyway.
There is a case for keeping some aircraft in museums but all aircraft were designed to fly so there is a good case for keeping some in the sir as well.
Is there anyone else out there who has stood beside aircraft like the Caudron, Hanriot and the later Bleriot at Hendon and wondered just how they looked in the air? True the display cards tell us top speed etc but sight of the Edwardians at Old Warden in the air gives me far more understanding of the vagaries of operating pioneer aeroplanes than any facts and figures on a card ever can just as the sound of WW1 rotaries in the air gives an understanding of the problems of keeping a rotary running that a static aircraft can never convey.
WJ244I think Duxfordhawk has got it about right. Maybe we should bear in mind that it is unlikely that many of the Spitfire wrecks that have been rebuilt to fly would have been wanted as museum exhibits. A prime example is the MK1 recently completed at Duxford. The wreck was such a mess that it would have meant little as a museum display.
I know we can get into all the debates about data plate rebuilds but for my money it looks superb, great attention has been paid to the details to make it as near original specification as possible and as a bonus it flies and in time all the new metal becomes “old” metal anyway.
There is a case for keeping some aircraft in museums but all aircraft were designed to fly so there is a good case for keeping some in the sir as well.
Is there anyone else out there who has stood beside aircraft like the Caudron, Hanriot and the later Bleriot at Hendon and wondered just how they looked in the air? True the display cards tell us top speed etc but sight of the Edwardians at Old Warden in the air gives me far more understanding of the vagaries of operating pioneer aeroplanes than any facts and figures on a card ever can just as the sound of WW1 rotaries in the air gives an understanding of the problems of keeping a rotary running that a static aircraft can never convey.
WJ244Whilst I appreciate the risks in flying any historic aircraft I do feel that somehow aircraft seem to become lifeless when left grounded and static in a museum.
Even on non flying days there is a kind of buzz in the air at Old Warden that comes from the smellls of vintage operational aeroplanes. Even when the doors are open you can stand inside the hangar with the WW1 types and smell the castor oil and dope and it helps to bring them alive.
Much the same is true of the Fighter Collection hangar at Duxford except that the great smell of burnt castor oil given off by rotary engines and speedway bikes is in very short supply at Duxford.
In my view the Comet belongs in the air and I really hope we see her there again in the near future. I notice that there were suggestions in the CAA report on the last accident which may well help overcome some of the problems with the undercarriage and help in preventing future failures which has to make future operations just that little bit safer.
WJ244Whilst I appreciate the risks in flying any historic aircraft I do feel that somehow aircraft seem to become lifeless when left grounded and static in a museum.
Even on non flying days there is a kind of buzz in the air at Old Warden that comes from the smellls of vintage operational aeroplanes. Even when the doors are open you can stand inside the hangar with the WW1 types and smell the castor oil and dope and it helps to bring them alive.
Much the same is true of the Fighter Collection hangar at Duxford except that the great smell of burnt castor oil given off by rotary engines and speedway bikes is in very short supply at Duxford.
In my view the Comet belongs in the air and I really hope we see her there again in the near future. I notice that there were suggestions in the CAA report on the last accident which may well help overcome some of the problems with the undercarriage and help in preventing future failures which has to make future operations just that little bit safer.
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