The Bay again...

[charlesp]

browsing the Bay again, couldn't help noticing these two:

150248577927

Workshop manual - buy it now price £14.99 !!

New one from British Seagull £10.45

If you think that guy is ahving a laugh, check out:

250249028987

The vendor has a 1965 forty plus. He's sprayed the crankcase, carb, drive shaft tube, gearbox and prop silver, which is a shame as it's the worst type of paint to remove, but anyway, he goes on to say:

'im selling this british seagull 40 plus out board that is in brilliant condition as you can see from my pics ive seen a good one like this sell for upto £400'

£400 is a lot of money, I wish I knew where he reckons they sell for that much.

You couldn't make it up!

[Mark]

You are right - there are some silly prices, but those with stupid buy-it-now figures tend not to sell. I've been quite pleased with a couple of bargains - an almost unused 40plus for £60 - probably the best I've had. And a perfect 102 with clutch, all working for £50.

[Dazeofsteam]

Further to your comments about the seagull manual for a £15 BiN price, I am the sucker who purchased it..

..For a very reasonable £5.99 + 99p P&P.

For every eBay rip-off there are usually 2 bargains to be had. Please continue to spread the word that eBay is a rip-off, people will refrain from bidding and I get to clean up

Ironically, I once saw a guy on another forum who slated a Lister engine for sale on eBay. I was amused to later discover the same guy purchased the engine for a song.

[40TPI]

You are right - there are some silly prices, but those with stupid buy-it-now figures tend not to sell.

Oh I don't know. There definitely has been a steep increase in the top end BIN prices but I feel quite a few have actually sold. A "beautifully" restored Silver Century Plus , with tank, block and transom bracket professionally repainted in gloss black made over 200 GBP just recently. (Why paint the block black and why ever paint a transom bracket? Silver paint was also in evidence and a wrongly assembled float chamber but no mention of new fasteners, gaskets, seals, re-chrome, oil,leads, plugs, adjustments etc.)

There is certainly a wider spread on auction closing prices over what was the norm a year ago. Given the roughness of some of the current refurbs being offered for sizeable BIN prices "caveat emptor" is more relevant than ever.

But it does work both ways and sellers should also be vigilant. An eBay seller detecting bidding interference is perfectly within his/her rights to cancel bids and report bidders.

Peter

[timberman2004]

well now young Charles ....

ebay not so bad ....as i won an engine complete with cracked block, wrong tank, (wrong colour as well), no HT lead, no clamp ...

all in all a bit of a bag of pooh .....but I really did want that Villiers magneto......think you know why

so for £11-00 odd, pretty good

[charlesp]

That's not a bad price for a Villiers Marston type magneto.

Do me a favour, pop the cover off the top and get the JM number off the baseplate (or flywheel rim), jot down the motor serial from the crankcase ( I guessed it was an SD ) and let me know. We're still wrestling with the JM numbers register. All the Marston stuff seems to be roughly in line, but we have this 'black hole' where 4,000 magnetos seem to have disappeared during the war...

I'm not saying that ebay is inherently a bad thing, I've bought some interesting things through it myself - it's some of the people on there who appear terminally grasping. Greed, is after all a part of human nature, but some of the descriptions on there really are appalling.

I'll naturally forgive a vendor who simply doesn't know what he or she has got for an inaccurate description, but some of those who purport to be selling something special have basically sprayed the leg to hide the rust, topped up the oil in the gearbox, and called it 'fully reconditioned'. And some of those who claim a motor has 'never been run' are obviously fantasists...