Monday, August 28, 2006

My rant...........

Sorry for this.... but I'm a bit annoyed right now and need to get it out of my system.
There is a very large set in the Thomas and Friends range called the 'Ultimate' set. I don't know where it has been on sale in the UK... probably Woolworths as they seem to get some special sets which are hard to find elsewhere and often discount the price considerably.(now I know ....it is at Toysrus.co.uk) I believe it retails at GBP. 119 and it seems to me to be a very good value considering all the trains track and accessories in it. It also has the Cranky the crane set which always seems to attract a lot of buyers on ebay when sold secondhand, and reaches a good price. I refuse to pay over the odds for this though, just because the dealers are hiking the prices up. I have been trying to get an Ultimate set for some time, and once or twice a month they appear on ebay in almost new condition, usually because someone has bought the set for their kids, only to find it is too large to erect fully in their homes.
Often these sets are sold by people in the USA where they get them at the super cheap price of US$100. That is about half the UK price considering the exchange rate, and even less if you consider that their wages are higher than in the UK.
Sometimes they will only accept bids by US residents and sometimes not. The postage may seem considerable, but if one can secure the item for about $60 with the postage added at another $40 it is still cheaper than in the UK.
I though I had got one today, but some 'Dealer' slipped in another $1 above my bid at the last minute. Some may say "all's fair in love and war"....... but I was pretty pissed off. Some of us have to work and need to sleep when the auction is ending, whilst the dealers hover over their keyboards waiting to snatch the candy at the last minute. What is worse is the fact that they then break up these sets into smaller lots, to sell again next week at a big profit.
If you think that money is god and profit is king then I feel sorry for you...... as you have no conception of fair play or fair trading....... and you will never achieve happiness in your life because you will never be satisfied with enough!