rec.autos.simulators

Sorry State Of Diecast

John Simmon

Sorry State Of Diecast

by John Simmon » Mon, 20 May 2002 23:57:06

I went to a local store here in San Antonio today, and picked up a
Sterling marlin 1/64 car and a Hotwheels 1964 Richard Petty Plymouth
(also 1/64).

The Petty car was marked at $19.95 (!for a Hotwheels!?) but the lady
that rung us up got the price wrong, and I got it for $9.95.  Normally,
I would bring such a mistake to the person's attention, but I got a
really bad attitude abvout the whole thing because of the marlin car.

<RANT>
Action seems to think that collectors want to display a freakin beer
bottle on a shelf.  That's right, the Marlin car is ONLY available in
that stupid beer bottle container.  

To get to the car itself, you have to unscrew the bottom of the bottle,
and the car is actually contained on a clear plastic base inside a clear
(very flimsy and unattractive) plastic cylindrical container.

Can you see through the bottle? NO, because it's brown like most beer
bottles are.

Can you display the car with the bottle in some sort of meaningful way?  
NO, because they didn't go to the extra trouble to include a cradle-
mounting system for the bottle itself, and then provided a way to attach
the car's base to the unscrewed bottle bottom and to the inside of the
bottle (or optionally to the beer bottle cradle that they didn't make).

Instead, you get this crappy beer bottle thing you don't need/want, you
can't see the car in the bottle (even if you wanted to keep the bottle),
and the whole damn mess costs almost $40, when all you wanted was the
freakin $10 car inside.  And it's oih-so-collectibly valuable with over
32,000 units produced.

To make matters even worse, I would really like to get hold of the gold
Coors Original car he's gonna drive at the Coke 600 next week, but it's
only available in a freakin beer can container (in 1/64 scale).

This is a suck-ass way to drive the cost of 1/64 scale cars up into the
range of 1/24 scale cars, and I'm taking it personally.  I collected
almost 500 cars in the last four years (the vast majority of which are
1/64), but since they started going nuts with this ***ed up packaging
system, I've dropped off to MAYBE one or two new cars every year.

Last item of note - the Nascar collectible store I went to is EXTREMELY
expensive compared to the internet (or even the stores I went to in San
Diego).  I could have bouth the sterling marlin car for less than $25
online, but the real problem I have is that this guy thinks he can
charge any price he wants because he's "the only diecast place in town
and he can charge whatever he wants" (paraphrased).

That really pisses me off, and he won't be seeing any more of my
business.  The name of the place is Sterling Collectibles and it's in
San Antonio.  Steer clear of there if you don't want to get screwed.
</RANT>

I hope he chokes to death when he goes over the receipts and finds out
that I got the Petty car for $10 less than the marked price.

--
=========================================================
DeMONS/1 for Nascar Racing 3 & Nascar Legends
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/
DeMONS/2 for Nascar Racing 4 and 2002 Season (in development)
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/
RASCAR Roster
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Redneck Techno-Biker & "programming deity"
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Barbarian Diecast Collector (460+ cars and counting)
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/

If you want to send me email, go to the first URL shown
above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame.
=========================================================

Colin Harri

Sorry State Of Diecast

by Colin Harri » Tue, 21 May 2002 00:07:26


Wow, your trailer-park home must be bigger than i thought, John :-)))

Tim

Sorry State Of Diecast

by Tim » Tue, 21 May 2002 00:17:53

[snip]

Toys were more fun when only KIDS played with them.

Target

Sorry State Of Diecast

by Target » Tue, 21 May 2002 00:38:09

Yes, I'm sure his intent was to play with them.
Racer X
Veteran Sim Racer
#4 Corvette C5-R in the GTIC
#24 Monte Carlo in the DORL
Victory Lane-
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1423/

Ed Solhei

Sorry State Of Diecast

by Ed Solhei » Tue, 21 May 2002 03:21:43

64:1 scale Colin... thats the same size/scale I used to play with when I was
a kid :-)))
Now...18:1 - thats worth collecting... but it cost a bundle... :-(

--
ed_

"Colin Harris"

Dixiemand

Sorry State Of Diecast

by Dixiemand » Tue, 21 May 2002 13:13:28

You can probably thank Mr. Wagenhals and his auotship program for that. Gotta
buy the garbage to get the good. Also these folks have to keep up a
"storefront" per action. I collect mostly 1:24 now but EBAY is my friend for
diecast now.
Dan

John Simmon

Sorry State Of Diecast

by John Simmon » Wed, 22 May 2002 06:38:35




> > I went to a local store here in San Antonio today, and picked up a
> > Sterling marlin 1/64 car and a Hotwheels 1964 Richard Petty Plymouth
> > (also 1/64).
> .  I collected
> > almost 500 cars in the last four years (the vast majority of which are
> > 1/64),

> Wow, your trailer-park home must be bigger than i thought, John :-)))

Can you say "double-wide"? LOL

--
=========================================================
DeMONS/1 for Nascar Racing 3 & Nascar Legends
  http://www.paddedwall.org/demons
DeMONS/2 for Nascar Racing 4 and 2002 Season (in development)
  http://www.paddedwall.org/demons2
RASCAR Roster
  http://www.paddedwall.org/rascar
Redneck Techno-Biker & "programming deity"
  http://www.paddedwall.org/john
Barbarian Diecast Collector (460+ cars and counting)
  http://www.paddedwall.org/diecast

If you want to send me email, go to the first URL shown
above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame.
=========================================================

John Simmon

Sorry State Of Diecast

by John Simmon » Wed, 22 May 2002 06:41:25



> [snip]

> >This is a suck-ass way to drive the cost of 1/64 scale cars up into the
> >range of 1/24 scale cars, and I'm taking it personally.  I collected
> >almost 500 cars in the last four years (the vast majority of which are
> >1/64), but since they started going nuts with this ***ed up packaging
> >system, I've dropped off to MAYBE one or two new cars every year.

> Toys were more fun when only KIDS played with them.

I don't play with them. I collect them - I can (usually) buy  four 1/64-
scale cars for the cost of a single 1/24-scale diecast.  Further, you
can display as many as nine 1/64 cars in the space a 1/24 car would take
up.

--
=========================================================
DeMONS/1 for Nascar Racing 3 & Nascar Legends
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/
DeMONS/2 for Nascar Racing 4 and 2002 Season (in development)
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/
RASCAR Roster
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Redneck Techno-Biker & "programming deity"
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Barbarian Diecast Collector (460+ cars and counting)
  http://www.racesimcentral.net/

If you want to send me email, go to the first URL shown
above & click "Send Me Mail" in the contents frame.
=========================================================


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