How could emotion and drama both factor into a blog about R/C cars you ask? Ironically it did one day when I stumbled across a nice looking Hornet on eBay. The Hornet was my first childhood R/C car ever and that kit started my interest in the hobby (insert emotion). Up to this point in my adult collecting career I had been purchasing other kits, but I never found myself interested in used Hornets. Something about this one struck me.
At the moment I stumbled across the Hornet I was in my “buy it” or “restore it” conundrum, but this one seemed to fit the bill. The car was in great condition and it had an unpainted shell so I could get my shelf queen and restore it all at the same time. If you have been reading my previous posts you know that I was about at the end of my phase of buying nice used cars as a way to fast track ownership. This one was the last casualty.
Fast forward some time and it went up for sale on eBay, unaltered (insert drama). Up to this point I had not been very successful in actually selling things for more than I paid for them. This one however, was different. For some reason this one grabbed a lot of attention and had many interested buyers. It ended up selling 2 or 3 times what I had expected to get.
Where is the drama you ask? Well this was my first eBay transaction where the buyer started playing games. The highest bidder backed out of the transaction after the auction ended. The standard eBay process kicked in and the second highest bidder was given a chance. Short story was that I reported the seller and the second highest bidder got the car. However it did rattle my eBay experience some. I always wondered why some sellers would insert quotes like “only serious buyers should bid”. Now I know why.
In the end the build was underwhelming and this was my last search for a shelf queen.
This is a quick guide to my blog series on my R/C collecting and restoring history. Listed in the order of my journey.
Vintage RC Garage 
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