Quote from: Cunardqueen on May 08, 2012, 01:02 PM
As a frequent seller (and buyer) there are a great many reasons why this is so., and when l get longer l will try and explain my reasons....
Looking forward to that, Myles!
In my early days of QE2 cruising, long before ebay started, l always liked the souvenirs, and as such bought many and various souvenirs. As you can imagine over the years a fortune has been spent in the logo shop. My first voyage if truth be told l hadn't really planned to do any more, so l stocked up with gifts and stuff for family and friends, then when l came home thought they were perhaps too good to give away, so kept them all, and really it started from there. the shops were always a place l looked at first to see what new things they had bought out, and generally made sure l bought one of everything, sometimes bought two.It didn't help but on one trip the purchases were rung through with a staff discount, so l bought more, which l lm sure wasn't what the sales man had in mind....
As was the case of the farewell trips, l ended up buying 8 of the pull along souvenir bags for the various purchases, and some of these were dispatched ashore at Greenock, laiden with stuff. right now lm sitting with 7 of these, still with the tags on, sold one last month ! Trouble is they are too good to use.
A lot of the things l sell are, if truth be told, duplicates. Some people might only have bought a few items as a mementos, l did tend to go overboard, and still do with souvenirs. and that, lm afraid was my one weakness onboard was the logo shops, Ok so some folks thought they were expensive or tat, but l quite enjoyed these things.
The photos also,lt used to make me smile when people who had forked out for a QE2 cruise then choked on buying a professional portrait photo, l must have every photo taken onboard during the years,and if they had a promotion on with the albums which they always did, that might explain why l have 15 of these in various sizes some signed, some not, wooden and plastic, and some lovely ones from my early days.
Moving house recently has unearthed boxes long since packed up and full of QE2 things,undisturbed for 15 or so years.
With the advent of ebay,it does allow people to buy or sell almost anything, and right now as we speak people are actually selling direct from the QM2 onboard. As lm sure you will notice some of the stuff on ebay are made up items with the only connection to the ship being that it features a photo of QE2,and some examples listed now are to be honest copies, and very bad copies at that. How the seller gets off with it l dont know. But its ebay so buyer beware!
What is funny is when l look at what l have sold over the years, l have been quite lucky,a couple of examples, the 87 Maiden Voyage coin covers, l had two of these onboard, one has remained unopened, but Iv picked up a few extra going very cheap and indeed 7 year ago sold one with a profit of £45.00 . But do l really need four of these? and if one isnt going to be opened after 25 years well what hope is there for me.
The lifebouys (life rings) Iv actually had 3 of these the first one l picked upfor £100 9 years ago it was later resold for 8 times what l paid for it and ended up in Germany, the other one was a buyer collects, which narrows down the buyers right away, ironically to post them was only about £15.00 and really in very poor condition, the seller did eventually agree to post it,it was sold several years later again for a large profit,and that money was ploughed back into more souvenirs onboard. Ok so some might say how can you sell such an item as that, well, I enjoyed it over the time l owned it, but really the material did start to dry out and it was better to allow someone else to appreciate it. and it went to a very good home.
Harrods in the good old days sold nice quality items with the QE2/Harrods logo,the door stop captains l bought one a year for three years because l liked them, then bought the green man Harrods bear doorstop. Ebay wasnt around then,but its tempting to pop one up and see what it fetches, like l say do l really need three of them when they are in a box doing no good whatso ever?
The t shirts, owing to the good ships glorious food there is no way l can ever fit into ones bought away back in the 80s, but there's no way l can put them out, or put to charity, last count there were around 20 of them all different, l did have the notion of getting them framed, but again they are in a box, one of many l hate to say just sitting there.
The Final Crossings they had the very limited Tandem crossing whisky decanters for sale, l think these were about $250 each quite nice but no mention of what whisky was in them, the sales staff hadn't a clue,They were very good to me, in that l had a very quick sneak preview of the farewell crossing items, and in the fact l wanted two of them they did kindly hold two back for me in the mad sales rush. I know l would never get the money back on these if l sold them.But again its nice to have one for the whisky collection, and the other was given as a gift,Both signed by the Captain. and both will never be opened,but then a whisky collector never really opens what he has.
When l look at a lot of the stuff on ebay l can say gosh l had that, or sold that, or its in a box somewhere.Only once did l ever think oh l wish l had kept that. When l do sell some things, over the years l seemed to have acquired what l think is a very good buyer base, with several Cunard staff right upto two Captains who have made purchases and l think its testament to the buyers that l can post the stuff out to them and they will settle up,but then the QE2 lot are very trusting and honest. It happened with two buyers, rather than post the item out to them, we exchanged actually onboard QE2 herself. It really is a small world out there!
In the Farewell year it really was amazing just how many people would email with their stories of the items l were selling and how much they loved QE2 and how sad it was that she was going so early,but we know that anyway.
Only last month l took a trip down to Devon to collect an ebay purchase, Salute to a Queen, the seller wouldn't post it, she did offer to break the frame and send the print rolled up in a tube. I negotiated a very good deal on the basis l would collect it from the other end of the country. And l did just that, as fate would have it won a prize of a nights stay near to where she stayed, the seller had the print all wrapped up and dropped off at the hotel,I just had to get it upto London to where l was staying before getting it on the sleeper train back to Aberdeen and onto Elgin, It arrived home safely, l unpacked it,marvelled at it,took a photo of my other print, exactly the same ! which was bought onboard some 24 years ago re wrapped it and its away upto the attic. Do l really need two of the same prints, No! but it was going for such a stupid price that l couldn't say no. some might say its a crazy thing to do, and they might well be right....But its QE2 and she has that effect.
In some small way lm only a guardian of what l have, and as such its nice to pass ownership to someone else,but really for me the main mementos of each of my cruises were not what l bought, but the memories, and the memories of sailing on what is for me a very special and loved ship is something l cannot put a price on,They cannot be sold, only shared. So next time you see something from QE2 for sale on ebay it might just be from that idiot Cunardqueen........
Topic: QE2 Items on Ebay (Read 150253 times)
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Jun 09, 2012, 04:41 PM