Post by highwayman97 on Sept 7, 2018 6:20:04 GMT -5
There was not that much US-1 sold in the UK, or mainland Europe, but sets that were sold in these markets do still turn up from time to time.
When they do you can often pick them up quite reasonably, as they are usually common sets and there is also very little demand, as there are few people out there looking for it.
Another issue is posting of those sets. Vendors in the UK are really reluctant to try to post or even get a courier to take a US-1 set in those huge flat boxes! – Therefore most sets here are sold as ‘Collect Only’ which further depresses the sale price!
You may well think that collect only is not a problem in small island like the UK, and whilst we don’t have to cover the sort of distances that you may have to in the US, it does have an effect and with so few people after US-1 it can mean that sets go unsold if there is not a collector near enough!
There were two quite nice sets on sale in Grantham, Lincolnshire late last year, these had been on e-bay twice and had remained unsold. Luckily, we were planning a trip to York, so arranged to call in on the way back! Nice!
Then another lot appeared ‘Collect Only’ in Birmingham, which was near enough to me in the English Midlands to have made it worthwhile. Luckily for me the vendor worked in my home town and kindly delivered them to my door for free!
Most recently a lot appeared in Sussex, which is around 150 miles away, but the journey from here would not have been that nice, going around London. Also the lot was not so good: A common set in a tatty faded box, with a fair amount of damage to some of the contents. However, for spares such as the truck chassis, some track and the loads, it was a good buy.
It sat on e-bay and no one bid, so I contacted the vendor and told him I was quite happy to buy at his asking price, or even offer him more, but please could he could throw away the box and transformer! I would need the residue posted and I was happy to pay for postage rather than spend a day in the car using a tank full of diesel!
The vendor was delighted and kindly threw in the postage. I guess he was pleased to get some interest at last.
Obviously when you buy any US-1 here or in the States you will usually need new tires, often new pick ups, and sometimes other bits, such as guide pins. These parts usually have to come from Over The Pond, but an enterprising guy in France offers tires and pick ups, although these are expensive compared to other dealers in the States. I assume he is buying in bulk from the states and selling it on.
A UK based chum who is also into US-1 sometimes buys spares from USA and we then share the costs.
Although most slot car interest in the UK is in Scalextric, there is a healthy HO scale car scene here too and a number of specialist vendors support that, but so far stock nothing for US-1, apart from Tyco Guide Pins!
James
