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My philosophy is to go in early if the start is low and late if the start is high (close to what I'm prepared to pay). Not sure if it helps at all - probably not. On our local auction site, a BN cannot be added once the reserve is met, so that is why I'd bid early on a low start/NR auction - I'm not one for asking for BN to be added. Besides, these days most sellers are canny enough to let it run once three people have asked for BN to be added.

I'm with Dick on not bothering with rare minters. I'd sooner have something rare and on my wishlist in any old condition. Playworn rarities have a particular charm to them - the kid that had them to start with loved them as toys without thought to rarity and that is something I find really appealing.

Cheers,
Gavin

I simply decide what a particular model is worth to me and put in a manual bid in the dying seconds of the auction. If I win, great, if I don't then it's a shame, but it 's solely because the model went for more than my budget. This method protects me from myself and makes it impossible for me to get auction fever.

Isn't anyone concerned about all that "commotion" in the metal where the 4th line should be? If you blow up the base picture you can see what appears to be letter fragments not ground off all the way and scrape or file marks. Also, no clear picture of the wheels on the other side, or that odd round dimple just below the rear rivet. Just my two cents as I don't seek rare variations unless I get them by accident or at the price of a common model.

Does "mboxmike" have something there...looking at the base in a zoomed image it does show weathering above the '3-line' area, where it normally say..."MATCHBOX SERIES", some similar creamy-brown weathering around the rear rivet area, but pretty much not anywhere else. If the 1st line of text has been ground away, then re-worked into a smooth surface, it would still leave a bright shiny surface and would have to be weathered to match the rest of the baseplate.

I have included a picture of the baseplate and highlighted the area that I think has had some attention and don't you think the worn away paint above the 2nd line of text is too close to that 2nd line of text compaired with the area below the 4th line of text (if this were originally the '4-line' baseplate).



Ghosty.

Maybe I am blinded by one of my favorite variations here, but I think everything looks O.K. with that base to me. The base missing it's paint shows just about what I would expect with that body abuse, normal for a 'Well Loved' Toy. The 'file marks' are all over the writing also, so maybe the camera has fewer pixels than needed for crystal clear viewing like we see on our Forum pictures? You guys are the experts on that, I am feeling Very Caveman on that statement.......LOL kwakers

kwakers wrote: I did not like the smell of all those ultra-rare wheel variations sold today from one Seller that was featured in another Post, so I bid 4 of them very conservatively. To have any one of them and sell it with such poor pictures and with a lousy description is foolish, but all of them in one day? Good luck to the Buyers, I was only close on one of them today......I have no regrets, no home runs, but also no errors....kwakers

I'm assuming that you're referring to this Seller: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261562567054?ss ... 1423.l2649

I was on RED alert on all these models. I sent the Seller two separate questions asking for additional information, background, photos, etc. and NO response. Seller also has a previous feedback (less than 50 total) stating that item sold was a fake. Buyer Beware!!

Bill

durangokid wrote:[I'm assuming that you're referring to this Seller: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261562567054?ss ... 423.l2649l

That's the one! (He got a mention in the "Ebay Hall of Shame" thread.)

Nice spotting Mboxmike,it is something to grasp onto and not noticed by us before.
Thanks for the clipped & enlarged pics Idris.
There sure seems to have been some kinda activity on this baseplate.Just thinking aloud here with uncertainty though and perhaps im looking into something that isnt there.What seems to be text that was "scrubbed" away has got us going here.Is there a possibility that this how a Jag pre-pro base should look.Is there another playworn example to compare? Could this even be an initial proposal to have a 5-line text,presumably accommodating Line-1 "Pat App-No28" , Line-2 "Matchbox Series",etc. Is it also possible that these texts were removed due to licence infringements before getting the Ok from Jaguar.
The yellowing around the area of text is also possibly due to someone doing an acid text to see what texts appear or even possible that a faker used some acid/chemical to try restore the authentic marzac look.
numi

Fetched 590 gbp and won by the previous under-bidder!
numi

numi wrote:Fetched 590 gbp and won by the previous under-bidder!

Odd. Was it not offered to the underbidder first time around, or did he turn it down?