HUGE RC auction

[Raman36]

On 2/5/2022 at 1:10 AM, GeeWings said:

@87lc2  yes, the $50 is a bit weird. It all feels a bit like the auctioneers are winging it. 

It’s not uncommon. There’s a site called Bringatrailer for 1:1 cars and a fraction of each bid goes on a card.  It’s an authorisation and not a charge. It will drop off. 
 

I find the duration of the auction to be extremely long. It’s over a month! Any bidding that takes place prior to the day off will be speculation and excessively drive the price of the kits up.  
 

I have no hopes of getting any kits, I do hope to pick up some bodies or parts however.

[GeeWings]

12 minutes ago, Raman36 said:

It’s not uncommon. There’s a site called Bringatrailer for 1:1 cars and a fraction of each bid goes on a card.  It’s an authorisation and not a charge. It will drop off. 
 

I find the duration of the auction to be extremely long. It’s over a month! Any bidding that takes place prior to the day off will be speculation and excessively drive the price of the kits up.  
 

I have no hopes of getting any kits, I do hope to pick up some bodies or parts however.

Yes, that's fair. I still feel the auction set-up leaves something to be desired in a number of ways.

[87lc2]

Didn't mean to imply I was put off by that, I've done it before with auctions like this (usually for 1:1 cars).  Was more saying I don't think this stuff is nearly as high quality as I originally thought and wasn't worth the hassle.  I still may register once the auction starts, I'll have to take another look through the stuff since I've already forgotten what was there.  I do like the TA02 stadium trucks, they would be neat to have if there was a decent deal. 

[Finnsllc]

I unfortunately think this may not be what we all HOPE it will be; a distribution of stockpiled items that many many hobbyist would benefit from.

As i commented in an earlier post, The Pre Aucton photos certainly do not match the Auction Lot photos. Almost as if the Pre Photos were the bait. 

I dont think at all it was intentional. I think like many of us can appreciate, not everyone is "educated" about anothers passion or hobby. Meaning, Granpop has a ton of these plastic model things he is constantly buying, I dont want them i wouldnt know what to do with them! Lets just sell them. Two weeks later the response is, Wait this is worth $2000 and Gramps has 12 of thers? Whats this one worth? Well ya know what? lets scale down the auction and research all this before we loose money. 

I dont blame anyone. If i died my family wouldnt have a clue that a little bag with a metal thing in it is actually an unattainable part that goes to the unopened still in shipping box with yellow packing straps from rcmart thats on the top shelf behind 20 other boxes and they need to not throw it out.

Just saying, maybe  there will be a second auction ata later date

 

[87lc2]

17 minutes ago, Finnsllc said:

I unfortunately think this may not be what we all HOPE it will be; a distribution of stockpiled items that many many hobbyist would benefit from.

As i commented in an earlier post, The Pre Aucton photos certainly do not match the Auction Lot photos. Almost as if the Pre Photos were the bait. 

I dont think at all it was intentional. I think like many of us can appreciate, not everyone is "educated" about anothers passion or hobby. Meaning, Granpop has a ton of these plastic model things he is constantly buying, I dont want them i wouldnt know what to do with them! Lets just sell them. Two weeks later the response is, Wait this is worth $2000 and Gramps has 12 of thers? Whats this one worth? Well ya know what? lets scale down the auction and research all this before we loose money. 

I dont blame anyone. If i died my family wouldnt have a clue that a little bag with a metal thing in it is actually an unattainable part that goes to the unopened still in shipping box with yellow packing straps from rcmart thats on the top shelf behind 20 other boxes and they need to not throw it out.

Just saying, maybe  there will be a second auction ata later date

 

If they were smart they kept the really nice original kits and will sell them on Ebay slowly to maximize the return.  

[Finnsllc]

8 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

If they were smart they kept the really nice original kits and will sell them on Ebay slowly to maximize the return.  

pretty much what im saying, only because the lots are only a piece of whats there. As others have observed, there could be some issues with the kits that are shown at the moment

[Dakratfink]

I should find out if I can go there in person. I’m not far from Kildeer. 

[Raman36]

2 hours ago, Finnsllc said:

I unfortunately think this may not be what we all HOPE it will be; a distribution of stockpiled items that many many hobbyist would benefit from.

As i commented in an earlier post, The Pre Aucton photos certainly do not match the Auction Lot photos. Almost as if the Pre Photos were the bait. 

I dont think at all it was intentional. I think like many of us can appreciate, not everyone is "educated" about anothers passion or hobby. Meaning, Granpop has a ton of these plastic model things he is constantly buying, I dont want them i wouldnt know what to do with them! Lets just sell them. Two weeks later the response is, Wait this is worth $2000 and Gramps has 12 of thers? Whats this one worth? Well ya know what? lets scale down the auction and research all this before we loose money. 

I dont blame anyone. If i died my family wouldnt have a clue that a little bag with a metal thing in it is actually an unattainable part that goes to the unopened still in shipping box with yellow packing straps from rcmart thats on the top shelf behind 20 other boxes and they need to not throw it out.

Just saying, maybe  there will be a second auction ata later date

 

If you take notice, integrity if only has the NIB kits uploaded, which is totalling 500+ kits. The built kits along with spare parts, body sets have not been loaded yet. I have inquired with them, and they informs me that there is much work to be done! 

[markbt73]

2 hours ago, Raman36 said:

If you take notice, integrity if only has the NIB kits uploaded, which is totalling 500+ kits. The built kits along with spare parts, body sets have not been loaded yet. I have inquired with them, and they informs me that there is much work to be done! 

I had a feeling that was the case. I'll be curious to see how they handle the runners/wrecks/basket cases. I have a feeling that's where the potential bargains will be for someone like me, who doesn't care much about originality, doesn't keep boxes, and just wants stuff to tinker with.

[Mrowka]

8 hours ago, Dakratfink said:

I should find out if I can go there in person. I’m not far from Kildeer. 

Where? I am in Fargo. 

[Dakratfink]

3 hours ago, Mrowka said:

Where? I am in Fargo. 

I’m in Minot . I’ll be traveling through Fargo on the way to and from Wisconsin over the next 2 weeks

[Mrowka]

Should be here in Fargo. Let me know if you want a coffee. 

[Bob Stormer]

Thought I'd comment on this.  This REALLY hit home for me.  Right after Larry passed in 2020, I heard the story and got ahold of his daughter. Nothing about this is speaking out of turn, this can all be found online.  Everything I read about Larry, from his age, to his other interests, Nissan, KISS, motorcycles, his daughters age, and the absolute overwhelming disaster of an RC collection problem of this size really hit home for me.  It was me and what would be my daughter in the EXACT situation when I pass.  I mean this really hit home.  We texted back and forth. I felt somehow like Larry got ahold of me, and knew I'd know what to do.  I know that sounds corny, but that's how it went for me and how I felt.  We texted a fair bit back and forth, I offered tons of fatherly style advice and told her how I'd go about it. I wanted nothing but to try and help set a path for a young woman (could just as easily been my own daughter based on the circumstances).  I offered to come down at my expense to help catalog, organize and appraise it for her and the auctioneer.  This was over a year ago.  I have tons of pics from when this first started, initial passes through the building, different angles, different photos, including all the die cast, which they finally had a massive auction for a few months ago.

I mean this kept me up at night (for weeks), trying to figure out how to help.  I asked my wife if I could send the daughter a few grand, just to to get her through this until it settled. Having stuff like this tied up for years is also a financial hardship.  I have one of the largest collections of vintage RC stuff in the world. I collect 1/12th, 235mm pan car and RC10, Losi and MRP.   little to none of this Tamiya collection was of any particular interest to me.  What was of interest to me, was hoping some day, when it's my daughters turn, that somebody would step up to help her in a similar way. At this level, it's not fun and games, it's a real problem. and my particular problem is likely 10 times worse.  When I say I "get it", brother, I get it.

Larry was not, to my knowledge a hoarder of kits.  Not in the traditional terms.  He had an ebay and possibly an online store, RC depot (you can see some bag headers in some of the photos), he was what we now call a "kit basher" and a collector.  Anybody with a store has at some point pulled a part out of a kit to help somebody out.  I don't know the dates it ran, but there is a thread on this very forum from 2002 where somebody was griping (unjustly) about a small part from Larry and RC depot.  And I see he had business name filings in and around 2010. It's possible he was on ebay selling things as far back as the late 90's.

I never did get in to view or help catalog any of this.  Always somebody with keys to far away and people traveling, etc.  I mentioned she had a decision to make, get into the RC business or sell it all as a lump.  Worst part of that is, NOBODY able to write a 6 figure check is going to just do that without some inspection.  And she wasn't into the store, that was her dads dream, and I think most of us get that. She finally asked about what I'd offer, and I did a few days work and made a 6 figure offer with a bank guarantee.  I don't collect Tamiya, we'd have added it to our store and crossed our fingers it worked out.  She had me talk to the auctioneer and I think we got close to within 40k, but didn't hit it.  I wanted to, but just couldn't justify the risk and time.  This is no donation, you'd be buying a job based on speculation and hope.  My wife was VERY against it, as she already knows whats in front of her when I die, and some of this stuff won't sell for years.  Anybody that could write a decent 6 figure check is in the same boat, you have to figure time as worth something, and in my case I have to pay people to help me.  There will be some great sales, and some stuff, maybe 30% that will never sell.

I mean when you see a stack of 16 matching kits, and 2 are sealed and 14 heavily tattered are not, that raises questions.  Or a case of 6 of something, but all kits are opened, but still in the main master shipping case?  That raises a lot of flags, they've been rummaged through (which others here have noticed) and somebody needs to make heads or tails of it.  Then things like Tamiya plastic parts trees on the wall in a RC Depot bag header on it, zip lock bags in open kit boxes, things with price tags in open boxes.  Or random, new parts out of kits in display cases that the astute eye would say, "hmm, hold on a second".  I mention this because I talked to the Auctioneer again and I said, "Do what you like, but when I see 16 matching kits, 2 are sealed, 2 are opened and don't appear rummaged, and there are 12 hard rummaged kit boxes full of random parts, you can't honestly say, "PRESUMED COMPLETE".  I told him that's bordering on dishonesty, especially given his store, and proof on the walls and online where parts were taken from kits.  This isn't a typical auction where you had a chance to physically view the items yourself, which is what he's used to.  I suggested a statement like (to avoid liability down the road),  "these are open box, we cannot guarantee they are complete, all sales final". Which seems fair.  As a last act of being a Tamiya enthusiast, I can't imagine the dude would want to take advantage of anybody.  None of us has a beef with a man getting a fair price, but no way he'd want it to be done under less than decent circumstances.

And this is NOT a dig on the auctioneers.  Those poor dudes got thrown into a crazy hurricane of a situation and seem to be doing their best.  But now that the auctioneer knows, if he doesn't change the listings to reflect a better description, that's an eybrow raiser.  "Presumed complete", they could very well be,  but "we think it's there" is different from "IT"S ALL THERE". but until somebody that truly knows, I'm more than dubious. Especially when you can look in some kits and see a zip lock bag, or parts with price tags on them, that were not there to begin with.

As an example, you can search the listings, and bring up about 10 rough riders at the same time.  Then open them all to the open box pictures, they are all vastly different.  I hope he changes those statements "presumed complete".  As of today 2-16-2022 he has not. Unless some other Tamiya guru has spent 20 minutes or more on each one verifying contents, I think it's fair to say, in a rummaged box. Especially given that you can see Tamiya kit-bashed parts in bags on walls and the ebay store.

I think the family got **** lucky with this auctioneer.  I've been in the RC business 40 years now, this poor dude got thrown to the wolves. for what a 10% commission and 6% Buyers premium?! For all intents and purposes, this dude is now in charge of selling, listing, picturing, and likely shipping 600 kits with tracking numbers, payments etc.  Shipping alone for one person could be 4-5 weeks.  When I go, I'm telling the wife to do an auction.  Problem is, I collect out of the box and obscure stuff race stuff.  How many people know what a PR7 is if you saw it on a shelf out of box?  Getting to be fewer and farther between on people with that level of RC knowledge.  You just can't know it all.

My .02 and I wish the family the absolute best. It's going to be interesting to watch.

[GeeWings]

14 minutes ago, Bob Stormer said:

Thought I'd comment on this...

Thanks @Bob Stormeran interesting, insightful read and clearly a situation that has made you reflect. Warming too that you clearly tried to help in any way you could.

Like lots of people I was initially excited about the auction and the possibilities that seemed to be on offer. But as you (and many others here) have pointed out, bidden on a number of these items feels like something of a gamble. There is nothing wrong with that of course, one of my relatives has been a sealed storage buyer for many years. But I don't feel this is how the listings are represented and the photographs aren't cataloguing contents well enough. 

So, like you I have concerns with the Auctioneer. I know you don't blame them. But, in my view, you only take something on if you can do it right. I hope they can but it doesn't feel that way to me right now.

[87lc2]

Thanks for posting @Bob Stormer, pretty much confirms what a lot of us have been thinking after seeing the auction finally go live.  There are definitely great deals to be had if buyers are careful, but looks like most of it is not as original as most collectors would like.  Not that its any of my business, but you probably made a good move passing on the lot at any sum.  Would probably have consumed a lot more time than expected and probably would not have the value in the end.  

I have nothing like this collection (or yours), but between the RCs and 1:1 cars/parts there's a lot...I've been thinking about it a lot more lately and have sold more in the past month than I have in years.  I don't want to burden my wife & daughter with my "collecting" problem.   

Thanks again for posting, nice to have some first hand knowledge.  

[markbt73]

The question of "how do they deal with all this stuff when I'm gone" is definitely worth a thought or two. For me, seeing this lot up for sale just looks like a lot of unfinished business, and that's not a position I want to be in. It makes me want to get busy building, and driving, and using stuff up, and wearing stuff out. if I can leave nothing still NIB (including my already-almost-too-many static kits), and no "good" unmolested RC models behind, then it's no problem - chuck it all in a dumpster, or give it away to someone who wants to bother with it.

Realistically, in 30 or 40 years, none of this stuff will have any meaning to anyone but a few 80 year olds whose eyes are too bad to drive them anyway. Might as well enjoy it now.

But the more I think about this auction, the less interested I am in any of it. There are a lot of models here that would be cool to have, of course, but I'm not sure "would be cool to have" is a good enough reason to buy stuff any more, especially when I already have stuff I thought would be cool to have and haven't done anything with since I got it.

[GeeWings]

I think all of what you have written lands with me. This especially:

1 hour ago, markbt73 said:

It makes me want to get busy building, and driving, and using stuff up, and wearing stuff out.

A good mantra I think. 

[A-Baum]

9 hours ago, GeeWings said:

I think all of what you have written lands with me. This especially:

A good mantra I think. 

There's no luggage racks on a hearse.

[Tamiyastef]

I hope to have some luggage racks and no hearse in my near future 

[Juhunio]

11 hours ago, markbt73 said:

.... I'm not sure "would be cool to have" is a good enough reason to buy stuff any more, especially when I already have stuff I thought would be cool to have and haven't done anything with since I got it.

Amen to that! I've just had a reality cull and put a few kits up for sale; I had a few that I was only ever going to keep NIB (re:re kits with blister packs, which are just beautiful things IMO). I then realised that was completely daft, so they're all on eBay now. I've more than enough actual planned builds to keep me busy for a while yet 

[Howards]

14 hours ago, Bob Stormer said:

  My wife was VERY against it, as she already knows whats in front of her when I die, and some of this stuff won't sell for years. 

ha, ha and I thought I had a problem with having a TRF201, Durga, Egress and an Avante under the bed that I should sell but CBA. 

 

14 hours ago, Bob Stormer said:

It's going to be interesting to watch.

Popcorn

[GeeWings]

6 hours ago, A-Baum said:

There's no luggage racks on a hearse.

Have I not shared my plan for a hopped-up 4x4x4 version? 😆

[Raman36]

@Bob Stormer

I have shopped from your store many times through the years. Always exceptional service. So many thanks on your post and shedding some light on this auction. I have been wondering why they have not updated their catalog. Now it’s clear that they are simply drowning.

[Finnsllc]

 

[A-Baum]

2 hours ago, Finnsllc said:

 

Narrated by everyone from the movie Fargo.