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!
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!
posted by fred at 4:30 AM
7 Comments:
Hi
You got impressive layout for tomica world. Not sure if you have got the ultimate set, it is actually on sale now at Toysrus UK online selling at 49.99 only (date: 15/12/06)
I agree that we're being ripped off most of the time, I bet these things are really really cheap far east not just US.
Cheers,
Andy
Hi its jake from australia once again. i have looked on ebay too for the set but there seems to be 3 different sets: the ultimate set, the giant set and another giant set that is completely different. i really want to get one as both of you do but i cant for two reasons: there expensive and i dont have a lot of money (but if i find one cheap ill try and get it) and because they are hard to find anywhere.
if you have any suggestions email me at kooltiger2003@hotmail.com
jake
I purchased an Ultimate Set secondhand recently that was originally sold at ToysRUs here in the USA. It appears that some of the parts are missing but is generally in good shape. I would like to find an inventory list for the set as well as a source for some of the parts since TOMY no longer sells them.
g'day
there is 1 for sell right now (auction finish 7pm NZ time 13.02.2011)in trademe.co.nz, currently around nz$48. i'm tempted to bid too, but postage will be about another $50 for me.
Hi,
Nowadays, it seems like it's the complete opposite situation now.(2016) As a resident of the US, it's become impossible to find the Ultimate set or any of the more desirable Tomy sets for that matter. However, you can now find many more listings on ebay's UK site. It becomes such a challenge when I do bid for items on the UK site, because I'm bidding against people who generally live in the UK, so they don't have to worry about an insane postage price on top of the already pricey nature of the motor and rail items. On Gumtree, I saw a listing that seemed almost like a steal: A plastic tub of road pieces and risers galore, another plastic tub of tracks (double and single rail), switches, and a hefty amount of both single-rail and double-rail risers, an extra Elizabeth and Bulgy (motorized), with Caroline, Trevor, and Terrence (non-motorized), 5 different troublesome trucks, a troublesome brakevan, tar wagon, and milk tanker. Along with that came Thomas, Gordon, Diesel, and Hiro, which were all in working order. If that wasn't enough, it came with a brand new Thomas and Bertie Adventure Set, and The Ultimate Set! First version at that! (With red trestle bridges) The Ultimate Set was played with only once too. And all of that went for 70 pounds!! (About $90) However, the listing was set to end after 30 days, which the page doesn't tell you, and when I went to get the lot, but it was the day after the listing ended. It was devastating. I have made fruitless attempts to contact the seller again, but I now think about how much the shipping for the lot would have cost. Nonetheless, it's so much harder to find Tomy motor and rail items being sold online in the US anymore, and it's starting to seems as if the UK is having all the fun.....
I think that if you are living in the US then buying items on ebay from HongKong or Thailand dealers would be cheaper. Much of the rail and sets are made in Thailand.
I thought that the Trackmaster series which is fully compatible was made in the US?
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