Searching For That Lost Treasure

Friday, March 30, 2012

Searching For That Lost Treasure

     My wife Heidi and I were walking our dog Buddy, when we bumped into our friend and neighbour Larry. We chatted a bit, and Larry then mentioned that he had some toys. One thing led to another, and so I dropped by Larry & Ethel's house after our walk with Buddy.

    Like everyone else, we all are looking for that great treasure or  want to sell something on E-Bay. 

   I'll get back to Larry's toys, but first a slight personal anecdote.

 I had a collection of  Canadian Plate Block stamps that my father encouraged my brother and I to collect. When my father passed away, and then my mother years later, we divided whatever was left in out house that we grew up in. My brother Michael, took the American stamps,and I stayed with the Canadian.

   For those who don't know, a plate block is simply the 4 stamps with the additional paper edge around it. In Canada, there would be writing indicating the Canada Printer, and sometimes even a number.

I collected plate blocks for almost 45 years, and then stopped. When Canada Post started to sell stamps with a portrait of myself that I could send them and have made into stamps,  and then started to sell American stamps with Micky Mouse on them, I know it was time to stop buying. Also, in the late 1990's, the newly-elected Liberal Government at the time took a Conservative Government proposal  and gave us a "present". It was called the GST or the "goods and services tax". We, the citizens got nailed left right and centre. 

   We even got taxed on stamps. To make matters words, not only  did our federal government start collecting,but our provincial  government(your state) as well . To add insult to injury, our provincial government taxes us ofter the feds do, so they tax a tax!

   I remember when older people would ask  for a 35 cent stamp, and would have to pay 40 cents.
I had trouble understanding the concept, so an 85 year old lady was certainly not going to get it!

Now, normally I'm impatient, but here was a great example of the government gouging us, and hitting the weakest people of all  - the poor and the aged. This was just about the Net took hold, and of course, many older people either can't afford the Net or computers, so they still write.

   Coming back to my collection of stamps, the fact is that I couldn't sell them. I had a vast collection of as I said from having collected over 50 years. I started to try and sell on E-Bay  at a 30% premium over face value. No interest at all! Then I tried selling at face value. Still no offers. Whomever would buy th collection would be making a 15.5% return, since they wouldn't have to pay the GST taxes. Still no offers.

I was soooooo mad, that when I say someone selling Canadian stamps at a 20%  reduction in face value, I bought them. My wife now uses them for her mail. Of course, sometimes, you have to put 10 stamps on the front of the envelope! Of course, I wanted to buy more stamps to get "justice" on the government, but my wife said "no more stamp buying!".

Now let's get back to Larry. I dropped by his house after my wife andI had walked Buddy, our dog. Larry was, of course eager to show me some toys he had, and an interesting box camera that I think is from the 1930's. Of course, we all know what happened to the typewriter records, tube tv's and of course the camera. He had many other toys, but I carefully chose what I though were the best of the lot.

Search # 1:

 A Solido Minibus # 4405

When I did an E-Bay search for active listings, only Great Britain sellers showed up on my search. I think this toy is European made. You can do the research if you want.

The starting prices were $ 1.78 - $ 7.96, with the prices having been changed to the American Dollar from the UK Pound.

Search # 2:

 An old Box Camera

Ensign Speedy 2 1/4B Camera

This camera again is European in manufacture. More specifically, it was British.

It's most-likely from the 1920's-1930's and took what is (soon to be "was") roll film.

The width of roll film is 2 1/4" (6cm), and for this particular camera, the length would have been  anywhere from 2 3/4" - 3" (7cm-8cm)

If you think of the average pocket camera coming with 12 megapixels or my camera, a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) coming with 18 megapixels, we think that that is great.  You can purchase medium-format v]camera for $ 30,000 or used in the range of $ 4,000-12,000 and they will produce anywhere from 12 megapixels - 60 megapixels.  Now that's megapixels.

However, if you were to scan a negative form the above camera, that's if you could find one, and then scan it at least 600 dpi, you'd come up with a file of 120 MB (megabytes), and you could easily make an enlargement of 30" x 40" (76cm x 101 cm) and the detail would be super and screaming out at you!

The starting prices were $ 14.32. - $ 35.00, with the prices having been changed to the American Dollar from the UK Pound, as this was a British manufacturer.

Search # 3:

 American Train Signal

Railroad Blinking Warning Signal

My brother and I used to have a Lionel train set when we were young. We never got to the stage where our whole house was filled with trains, and when we moved, I assume my mother must have given the neighbour's children our toys! I think my toy gun with bullets that you placed caps in would maybe be a good item to sell on E-Bay, but I digress.

There is a huge market for toy trains, and when I was in Toronto 2 years ago to search out old toys, I went to an antique toy show. One half of the convention cetnre was set up for model train afficianados.

So this last item that Larry had given me to check out surely had to be "the" great prospect! When you do a search on E-Bay for trains, you come up with at least 30,000 listing on a slow day!

I found only 1 listing for this exact model and the seller was asking a starting price of $ 22.95 US.

I phoned Larry to given him the news. Sorry Larry, but no great treasures today. 

I told him that for E-Bay homework he had to do an "advanced search" for already-sold toys or expired listings

I hope I didn't perk Larry's interest too much, because for sure he'll be looking for that "lost Treasure of Sierra Leone"

Oops, sorry everyone, I'm mixing my movies (Humphrey Bogart) with my E-Bay toy searches.

Time to go for supper!

So I hope you liked my try at comedy today.

As always, thanks for dropping by, and you're always welcome to be a guest writer on my blog.

And wherever you are, have a great weekend if it hasn't yet started, and for those whose weekend has started enjoy the remainder.