DJ Dangerous

Time to get yourself an O Gauge diesel from Rails of Sheffield!

Sold for €255 plus postage (plus import fees if a non-UK buyer) in the end.

The new Provinciascale range?

Another question, possibly just as important, is one of timing. The A/S website is built using templates and plug-ins, and none of us really know how easy or difficult it may be to apply the various options for the US. Would A/S be better off doing the research over the coming weeks, but not making any actual changes to shipping options until after the 90 day review? That’s certainly a question I’d be asking of myself if given a similar challenge in work. That’s just the forum itself, don’t worry. It’s a common sympton, along with blood pressure fluctuations, losing the will to live, and refreshing ones vocabulary of swear words.

It sounds like A/S are working on having various shipping options available: I assume that, if DDP were a viable option, you’d need to be choosing between the $100 USD flat fee and the 54% and the 30% at the time you place your order. With any luck, import fees for you guys will either drop or stay the same when they are reviewed in three months time. Hopefully, they can get Navarro out of the Oval Office with another fake meeting when it comes to decision time.

It’s the same financially, unless things change. If you pay 30% tax to A/S today, they hand it over and save you the hassle of paying it. If taxes go up, they lose out. If taxes go down, you lose out. Pretty straightforward.

Yup, that’s exactly what I said. You pay the tax to A/S and they hand it over on your behalf, so nothing changes financially.

So in this case, you were looking at paying the taxes on the customer’s behalf, and not collecting the corresponding payment? If so, Hell yeah, sign me up straight away and you can pay all of my taxes and handling fees without charging me.

I don’t think that DDP (Delivery Duty Paid) could really be considered a price adjustment by the seller. DDP means that the tax / duty / tariff is collected by the seller, and paid to your government on your behalf. The item price stays the same, the tax stays the same, what the customer pays in total stays the same, it’s just paid in a different way.

The Ellis Clark Black 5’s look amazing! Won’t be ordering one myself, but it’s great to see a large steam loco with tender on the market. There has been a bit of a vacuum since the Hatton’s A4’s, and they had some mixed reviews, to say the least.

Class 50’s look to be only a few weeks away… Hello Summer 1990!

Absolutely fabulous project!!!

Absolute shit ton of Irish outline on the Rails website yesterday - probably the biggest Irish outline selection I’ve ever seen available!

I see Hornby TT Gauge DFDS 45' Containers (with wagons) on Modellbahn Union. Still no O Gauge nor OO Gauge, booooo!

On the topic of the current tariff war, the tariffs were sold to the American people as retalliatory. That was untrue. Many countries throughout the world, including America, have mild forms of protectionism, and there's a general status quo, 5% here and 10% there etc. The new American tariffs are a first strike against anybody who treats America on a level playing field, rather than kissing up to them. The formula that the American governement used to derive these tariffs was not related to current tariffs, but to trade deficits and trade surpluses, goods only, excluding services, hence they ended up with the embarrassing situation of taxing islands inhabited solely by penguins. They also chose to exclude services, and only use goods, to create this flawed formula. If they have a trade deficit in goods and a trade surplus in services which cancels out the former, then there is a net zero surplus / deficit. Excuse my spelling, but there's sand in my keyboard that I can't quite clear out!

Easy there, @James Regan, nobody is attacking you personally, and there's no need to start insulting people who think differently to you. The new tariffs, to simplify things for the sake of discussion, are an import tax, collected by the American authorities at point of import. Manufacturers and exporters have no part to play. Importers (ie online buyers such as yourself) and American retailers are the ones who pay the tax to the American government. American retailers then have to choose, do they themselves absorb the increased costs, do they pass the increased costs on to their American consumer, do they try to negotiate a better sale price with the exporter that they are buting from, or some combination thereof. American-based individuals importing / buying online also face choices, do they buy less, do they pay more, do they ship to an EU address instead, then collect their purchases in a suitcase, that kind of thing. There MAY be some limited cases where hsome HUGE Chinese companies decide to take a small hit, and reduce their export price slightly. This would mean that the new taxes charged by the American government have slightly less impact on the American voter. But, this would be a small number of cases, in companies big enough to absorb the costs themselves, by restructruring workforces or supply chains involving thousands of employees, and would not entirely mitigate the new taxes charged by the American authorities. That scenario is the opposite end of the scale to A/S / IRM, with ten employees or whatever it is, all UK and Irish based. A/S / IRM would be better off doing nothing than selling at a loss to a handful of customers. It's not about a bad attitude, it's about their being no sense in bowing to the whims of an unreliable government, where the rules and taxes are likely to bounce up and down, and their American market is very small. Nothing to do with Republican or Democrat, nothing like that, just common sense. Hope this helps you understand a bit better.

Well, that part kind of is.

Another thank you, this time to @WRENNEIRE, for his help. The late great Chris Dyer had one of my locos in his inventory when he passed away. @WRENNEIRE, under no obligation, just being his usual helpful self, passed my details on to Chris’s son, who in turn contacted me. We conversed a bit, and today, a very special parcel arrived in the post. Thank you so so much, @WRENNEIRE! This is more than just a loco, now that Chris has passed away, it’s an inimitable piece of our shared history, as Irish railway modellers.

Another care package arrived last night.

I’ll probably leave things as they are, to avoid unnecessary complications. From a budgeting perspective, and being heavily involved in charity work, I understand the importance of regular income such as monthly donations. The ITG should re-think their membership benefits, as there is currently a disincentive to donate monthly, and more than the yearly membership fee. Either automatic membership once somebody donates the required amount, or expanding membership benefits to those donating. I mean this as constructive criticism, nothing more.

Wait, so membership is cheaper than donating, and they get the magazine and I don’t? I had assumed that membership was more.

I’m sticking with the 371 Class for the 69ified 071’s and the 301 Class for the tuned 201’s.

I should really cancel my donation and become a member instead, so!

Sounds like a special offer at Tesco!

How does one subscribe to The Irish Mail? I have a recurring monthly donation of €10 to the ITG, but I don’t remember any options for subscribing to the magazine at the time I started donating.