Gavin, I think everyone is entitled to voice an opinion here (I hope), but you did quote two people that do their part in historic aero preservation to put across your argument.
No need to keep your mouth shut, just think about your posts and who you might be quoting from.In some ways I do agree with you about the Ebay thing, it is a double edged sword. For most of us it has never been better for finding items that we want for resto projects and collections, which was extremely difficult before, but the flip side is that some of the prices being asked are absolutely stupid as a result of the popularity of Ebay.
At the end of the day though the seller can ask for what they want, its up to the buyer if they want to pay the price.
I totally agree with Pagen01, ebay has brought the shop window of the aerojumble to your living room, where else can you buy items such as a Lancaster instrument panel or a ME262 grip (items listed in the past) from the comfort of your sofa. Okay the prices have gone high but thats the current market, we will have to face that.No one ever complains when the value of their houses go up. Without ebay most of us wouldn’t have access to all this stuff in the first place let alone know that it was ever for sale. Times and technology move on, the areojumbles are few and far between now and it’s never ever going to get any better. My opionion is that ebay is good, Like Pagen01 says everyone is entitled to their opinion and reasons and I totally accept that people will not agree with me. God bless you all and days gone by.
Carvair manual on ebay if anyone is interested:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ATL-98-CARVAIR-FLIGHT-MANUAL_W0QQitemZ260547769535QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Collectables_Aeronautica_MJ?hash=item3ca9db74bf
Thankyou Tridentman on the explanation of the Trident yokes.
Thankyou very much for your response gentlemen, plenty of of food for thought here, I’ll certainly try a few of them out.
Can you enlarge this picture?
Due to recent events of the threat of terrorism border customs are a lot more stringent and sophisticated in checking packages now, a lot of this tuff is being detected aand stopped at the borders and confiscated, sign of times I’m afraid. We are not at the stage of the old bill knocking on one’s door at the moment. A lot of the remaining aerojumbles are not allowing old instruments to be sold (in theory). It all seems downhill at the moment for instruments and panels.
Replica instrument faces are an understandable alternative, but lets face it nothing beats the real thing when it comes to collecting aviation items. I like to think that my stuff has really flown and has had some provenance attached to it and not been fabricated in a workshop for me to pretend it has been the the sky. I hope a happy medium is found somewhere, hopefully common sense will provale.
Crystal Ball time: So what do we see the future holding in store for this past time of collecting instrument panels or cockpits? Will it drive it underground making parts harder to obtain or will there be a free for all with everyone selling their stuff. Is legislation to to get any better for the collectors? I think not, sad to say. For a number of years forum members have been discussing and debating these instruments and it looks like the anti has been upped slightly albeit in Holland. How long before ebay bans these intruments being sold?
In this nanny state I can’t see it getting any better for collectors, dispite the pro’s and cons of any arguement, I think legislation, HSE rules and regulations will slowly tighten the noose around this particular collecting field.
Can you let us know your findings then please Graham, it would be appreciated, Thankyou.
Hyper? That’s worrying !!
I’m wondering about selling my spit panel now and other acquired instruments, I wonder if I be committing any offences by selling these items?
Are we safe just looking at the instrument from our computer screens?
JU-87 Stuka Yoke for you from your living room shop window.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/JUNKERS-87-A-CONTROL-COLUMN_W0QQitemZ160405831482QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Collectables_Militaria_LE?hash=item2558eebf3a