Stop Press- Winter 2011 news
‘DECEMBER INTO 2012’
The remaining unique Train Packs that all came from a single owner collection have now all been reduced to clear. All of these are BR, or ex GWR, and all are virtually unique as the original owner had the locomotives renamed and renumbered to create a collection of models not available ‘off the shelf’. For those buyers knowing what they require or wish a unique present for their loved one, they are now great value at £120 including free UK postage. For a unique locomotive and 3 matching coaches, this price is very good and once they’re gone they’re gone.!
The Autumn trade-buying season unfortunately took a while to warm up with very few quality items coming onto the market. One collection of approximately 40 items has just been received and these items will be in the shop as soon as we can get the models photographed and described. Some of these will be retained for our own collection but all of the others, mainly DCC and analogue locomotives, will be coming on-line very shortly. Our stock is therefore increasing again and to make your buying decision even easier, a lot of models have been reduced to make them even better value for money than before. As always, if you see something you want, get it now because there’s no guarantee that another one will arrive just as you need it!
It is apparent from recent ‘trade only’ sales that anything in less than top-notch condition is mainly unwanted and the serious money is going towards anything mint and boxed. The price disparity between the 2 quality extremes is therefore growing and with bank rates so low, a better long-term investment return is possible from high quality MIB examples. It is therefore likely that MIB models will increase in value as demand currently out strips supply. DCC model availability is also slowly increasing but again, customer demand remains high for these models. The main manufacturers are therefore running short production runs to enable them to offer an ever-varying cross section of models. This attracts more prospective consumers to the market but a reduced availability means it’s best to buy it when you see it because if you don’t, some one else will! These models are therefore fast moving stock and as it is rare for us to have 2 models of a specific item, once it’s gone, it’s normally gone for good. With some of these new DCC models edging closer to the £200 mark, many collectors are priced out of the new retail market and revert to the pre owned domain to save some money.
Free postage on all deliveries to UK Mainland addresses continues and this will also apply to our latest acquisitions. This includes the recently reduced train packs and with virtually all of these unique, if you require a train pack that will be impossible to obtain anywhere else, now is the time to secure one.
If you do buy an item, it is extremely important that you follow the prompts at the check out procedure. This will mark the item as sold and so stop other buyers from trying to buy the item you have just bought! Regrettably some of our models will never get into the shop as many of our customers give us wish lists and as soon as we get something that’s on their list, invariably it gets snapped up without delay.
We are still trying to obtain more Hornby live steam items but these are fetching extremely high prices and are cost prohibitive. We do have the Mallard Live Steam complete set in the shop at the moment and will try to add to the range as soon as we can.
We are also gradually expanding our sales onto the Ebay conglomerate. The fees they charge are high but the exposure they generate is just as big. To offset these charges, free postage is not available on the Ebay items so if you don’t want to bid and require free postage, the ‘samicarken’ shop is the place for some retail therapy!.
As always, thank you for your interest, custom and attention.
Ken & Carol
aka Samicarken ( also trading on Ebay as Samicarken2011, howerdeyeknow & daisydukeon-line )
