Accucraft Garratt

[steamin56]

There is a bloke selling a Accucraft Garratt on Craigslist London for £1800, myself and my mate have both contacted him and he will only post loco after a bank transfer into his account and wants £150 for p and p. When asked if i could collect loco he got really funny and stopped emailling me. Also when my mate asked about paypal he was told no. It might be genuine but just seems funny he will only sell loco through a bank transfer so you have no comeback if loco never arrives. Has anyone else enquired about the loco and had the same response?

[TonyW]

£1800 is VERY cheap for an Accucraft NGG16, and they normally go for double that. A red loco with the same name appeared for sale on the 16mm Garratt Owners page (half way down http://www.16mmgarratts.co.uk/page4.htm) a while ago and sold for £3500.

Caveat emptor.

[merlin2]

Could be genuine, but doesn't read like it; smacks of a con to me and I wouldn't have anything more to do with it. And if it is what it looks like, I just hope nobody gets taken in.

[90733]

I've seen a similar Garratt for sale on Craigslist as well as a Maxitrax Chaloner, both very cheap. It sounded dodgy from the outset so I sent both advertisers an email. They both replied, with extra images as asked for. I did find it very suspicious that both emails were almost identically worded and arrived within a couple of minutes of each other...
I wouldn't risk paying that sort of money with no back up if the loco never arrived.
Jack

[DLRdan]

Don't bother with craigslist, every steam engine on there is listed by a guy who lives in Lerwick on the Shetland Islands. He has been at it for years, he takes pictures from sites like Ebay and Gumtree and posts them on there, often with the same descriptions. Stick with the old saying, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is!

[Big Jim]

This all sounds very fishy to me.

If I was selling something for close on two grand, I would do everything I could to facilitate the sale. Getting funny with anyone who is prepared to hand over what is well over a months salary for most of us, is not the way to do business.

Oddly enough, if he was advertising it for a grand more it would be less suspicious looking.

Just a thought, does anyone know of any Garratts that have been pinched recently?

[Keith S]

Who in the world would prefer to go to the trouble of packing up and posting a large, heavy model steam locomotive in favour of having it collected?

There is no locomotive. Nobody purchases expensive items under these conditions. Untraceable, irreversible bank transfer, sight unseen, no paypal, no pick-up: no reasonable person would expect someone to fall for this. You might as well make an arrangement to pay him with eighteen hundred individual one-pound coins in a cloth bag with the "£" symbol printed on it, left on the steps outside the Peckham-Rye station.

[Peter Butler]

Unfortunately, there are still some taken in by an offer they can't refuse.
Despite the 'too good to be true' warning,' people are gullible enough to fall for such scams. The only way to deal with this individual is through the process of law, but only if enough evidence is available to prove it!

[James from Devon]

Agree with all the comments. Never throw away your hard earned money like this. There are many locos that have been on my "I'd love to have that" list for years but I would never buy a loco in such a way...if there even is a loco, which I very much doubt.
I like to see a loco in the flesh so to speak unless buying direct from reputable supplier.