Auction Catalogue Descriptions

This went under the hammer at Boningtons Auctioneers today: Either it is a repaint or I have missed a very rare colour - it was not listed as a repaint in their description. I bought a Guy Van Lyons from Boningtons earlier this year and it turned out to be a repaint. They refunded my money in full without question but I am now very wary of them. Dave

David, At least the wheels have been overpainted as the end of the axles are painted. The only Dinky known with painted axle ends is the 692 medium gun.

Post 11 above is incomplete, having suffered from something before or during the transfer process to the new website. The following is that Post in its entirety and is being re-posted as there is a message in it for everyone, us as collectors, and those who operate and manage traditional auction houses. Greetings! Here are yet further 'classic' auction lots. To begin with, it is a good thing those participating knew what the model was and not what the cataloguer thought it was!! South African Dinky No.176 Austin A105 Saloon - cream body, mid-blue roof, side flash, cream ridged hubs with white knobbly tyres - minor rubbing to roof, slight staining to tyres otherwise Near Mint in Fair card box, tape repairs to one end. Estimate: 70 - 90 Sold for: 110 And then we have this one from the same major auction house: Dinky No.175 Hillman Minx Saloon grey body, blue upper body and ridged hubs - rare issue without blue finish to lower windscreen - see photo - Mint in Near Mint yellow carded picture box with correct colour spot (very minor pencil price mark to end flap). Estimate: 100 - 120 Sold for: 260 This model is a normal issue, admittedly in less numbers than the version with the upper colour across the front of the windscreen, but nonetheless the model is not a rare issue, and the auction house has enhanced the description that resulted in a totally unrealistic, unethical and possibly illegal final price of 260. As with anything these days, eBay, traditional auction houses (even those once trusted), swap meets, let the buyer beware!! Bruce (150) 27 February 2016 #802

Bruce--It appears that throwing caution to the wind is sometimes the best course of action! That seems to be in quite nice condition and a nice color rendition.Best regards, Terry

As indicated elsewhere throughout this website, when bidding online with any auction, be they through a traditional auction house or eBay, the rule is Let the buyer beware! Having said that, I did not follow that rule and threw caution to the wind when bidding online with a traditional auction house in Norfolk! The first image below is for a lot containing a 905 Foden Flat Truck with Chains in red and grey. This was the description: DINKY SUPERTOYS 905 FODEN FLAT TRUCK WITH CHAINS- BOXED No indication as to its condition! And the last two images show the model that arrived after I had given it a nice, careful clean! It was far better than expected. I love the dedication on the top lid of the box! Peter from Uncle George and Mrs Bassett. I wonder who Mrs Bassett was if she was not an aunt?!! Incidentally, the Quality Inspection stamp reads 1 60 FP, January 1960, with the price on the box being 9/6, a price current between May 1959 and January 1961. Bruce (150)20160307/827/1734

Terry - you are quite correct with throwing caution to the wind, otherwise I would have missed out on this great model even with its minor chipping! The box in particular is very nice and shows minimal wear. And of course as I mentioned in my first Post, I think inscriptions written by the giver of the 905 makes it a very personal model and box. The colour is interesting. With this version being the last of the line, it is interesting that Meccano chose not to add a second colour scheme as a possible selling point. All the earlier 505/905 had two colour schemes. Which sort of makes the inscription on the box's side panel rather superfluous! Kind regards Bruce(150)20160308/828/1550

Here is my recent acquisition from an auction house in Somerset, at a cost of 80! [/b]([/b]Yes I know there is a slight quality control problem with mine, but still the model and box was a far better deal.[/b] There are those famous words about let the buyer beware![/b] But it does pay to shop around and not stick to one or two auction houses. Of course, we in Australia are not blessed with the multitude of swap meets that operate in the UK, so we have to depend on auctions.[/b] Bruce[/b] (150)20160308/829/1615

Hi Bruce, this late red/grey version was not the only one to show up in this later box. There is also the (scarcer) blue/grey one, so the colour could really be different from the illustration, as warned for on the box. A more serious matter regarding auction problems now. Some time ago I bought this Singapore Flying Boat at an auction of a very familiar auction house, won by an electronic absentee bid. The description was as follows: Dinky 60h Singapore Flying Boat - silver, red plastic roller - overall condition is generally Good Plus to Excellent, bright example in a Good Plus blue lift off lid box. My bid, and the maximum I set, was based on this promising description. On arrival it was obvious immediately that the tail part was broken off some time and apparently (badly) repaired after that. I was completely astonished that such a very obvious and fundamental damage and repair to the casting was not included in the description. Very disappointed and rather angry I contacted the auction house immediately with my complaint about the bad description, pointing at the fact that I would never have bid at all if I had known of this fundamental deficiency. Apparently they realized at once that they were wrong and I was offered a full refund after having returned the model, or a 40% discount if I still wanted to keep the model. In order to avoid all kinds of possible administrative, financial or physical trouble with returning the model, I chose for the second option and kept the model. Although they have solved the problem in a very reasonable and polite way I keep on being completely astonished about overlooking such a serious problem with the casting of a model of this kind. Some photos attached, showing the ugly and obvious repair and finally my attempt to repair the repair (and the blue/grey chain lorry). Kind regards, Jan

Jan--That is just shocking, what happened to you. It is almost unbelievable that any competent auction house would not properly or adequately disclose the condition of a vintage model such as you purchased. Some of the eBay sellers are very careful to point out any faults, no matter how tiny, while others like to use that 'nearly mint' phrase for almost anything. To me, there is no substitute for lots of high resolution, closeup photographs, showing clearly all areas. Hopefully, your skillful repair efforts will yield a nice display piece! Best regards, Terry

Jan You are absolutely correct with the blue and grey version, and I will be responding to your comments in the 905 Topic! I simply had a seniors moment with my last Post above! It is no wonder some folk do not take me very seriously these days judging on some of my recent Posts!! But to the discussion in hand. I have seen the description and photograph in the auction for Lot 485, and I quite agree with you that there was absolutely no care taken by the individual who catalogued this model and its box. To the contrary, there appears to have been some care taken in how the model was photographed which made it difficult for anyone to see this obvious flaw. However, one thing to the credit of the auction house is the fact that they instantly recognised what had happened and responded immediately by offering you a full refund on the return of the model or a 40% discount should you decide to keep the model. It is marvellous seeing the recognition of their mistake. What a pity the same auction house never did the same for me with that Mobilgas Tanker that was the start of this Topic! I was advised it was my fault for not having asked a question about the tabs to start with and I was also told the description of good matched the condition of the model. (Except the description was in fact good TO GOOD PLUS.) In essence I was advised to just accept the Foden and move on! I guess my treatment matched the distance between Australia and the north of England with no consideration whatsoever to my 20+ years of loyalty to the firm! But it is nice to see that you were treated in a fair, reasonable and responsible manner. That Company has in recent years become a victim of ignorance insofar as staff employed with their woeful knowledge of Dinky Toys as well as their descriptions of lots. Instead of concentrating on unseen defects, they seem obsessed with the obvious that can be seen in the photograph accompanying the auction. Not to mention the often used phrase, still a bright example! Kind regards Bruce (150)20160309/830/1923

Whenever I have had cause for dispute with Vectis I have always found them to be very helpful and fair, never more so than on an occasion last year when I went to sell a model on Ebay that I had previously bought from Vectis. It was a 24J Alfa Romeo and upon close examination the box looked suspiciously like a copy which I hadn't noticed when I had received it from them back in 2005. It was quite convincing, but fortunately I also had a genuine example and I was able to determine the typeface on the repro box was subtly different. Even more fortunate was the fact that the sale photograph was still on the Vectis archive which clearly showed the incorrect typeface. To their credit Vectis gave me a full refund, a full 10 years after the event, without hesitation. I accept I had incontrovertible evidence but I suspect many companies would have simply said the event was too far back in the past. Best wishes, Mark

Mark, I like the positive contents of your message. Except for my deep astonishment about the inaccuracy and inattention, mine was meant to be positive too, as I really appreciated the polite, understanding and efficient settlement of the problem. In fact they did the offer for refunding even before I was able to send the photos above already. Kind regards, Jan