Anyone collect firetrucks?

Uh-oh. You HAD to tell me.....

BTW, just received the AutoCult 1941 Diamond T ladder truck. Hope to post pics soon.

Just checked - it's Feb. 18.

@kenspear Hello, I have often wanted to bid at Vectis, I opened an account with them years ago and spoke to them on the telephone and even over the phone they seemed unable to explain how it works.  Now I may not be the brightest button, but nor am I totally stupid so if you could give me a very simple step by step - without wasting much of your time, I would be grateful. Many thanks.

If you have a Vectis account, that is the first step.You are required to setup your method of payment usually at setup. I indicated payment by Visa. After signon, you can select the auction that you are interested in and place a bid any time up to the auction date.Click on the item that you want to bid on.It will ask you for your bid amount (depending on the current price, you must bid in certain increments eg 5 pounds).It will tell you if you have been outbid.You can bid as many times as you want and will be told when you have high bid. Remember that you can still be outbid up to and including auction close.You can also bid live on the day of the auction. Each item comes up for bid in the order that they are listed.You can see the current bid on your screen and place your bid. The auctioneer indicates last call before the hammer. If you win Vectis will automatically charge it to your method of payment (eg Visa) including a buyers premium (I believe 25% of the sale price). They then can take up to a couple of weeks or more before they get back to you with the shipping costs as they work through the auction items.Its been a while(May 2019) since I won a bid so I'm not sure if they charge your account for the price plus buyers premium and then the shipping costs later.I recommend that you carefully consider your bid amount first because the final cost can quickly rise after considering 25% buyers premium, shipping costs, and foreign exchange on the total.I usually only bid when I am bidding on multiple items in order to spread the shipping cost over multiple items.My last win again was May 2019. I won 2 Brooklins, a '52 Chrysler and "63 Olds convertible (my bid 80 pounds for the two),paid 20 pounds buyers premium and 28 pounds shipping.Total 128 pounds (about $167 US at the time).Also, refer to their website for a detailed explanation. It is pretty good and has a "frequently asked questions"section. Good luck!

@kenspear Hello again,  this is very detailed and you've clearly taken a lot of trouble for which I am extremely grateful.  At the earliest opportunity I shall go onto their site and investigate. Also, I have copied your detailed notes to my e-mail so I never loose them. Again, many thanks.

Charles - Ken is correct on most points, I would just add that they definitely charge at auction's end and the shipping costs later, so watch for that second invoice. And a good point he made is to try to get two or more "wins" per auction to get that shipping cost per item down. The pound has been rising lately so consider that also. I used to use a factor of 2.0 to assess what a max bid ought to be, but 2.1 or 2.2 might be better today. So if I bid 100 pounds on something, it might be $220 when it reaches my mailbox.

Lately interest in old diecasts has picked up. It's harder to find a bargain but there are a few around. And bidding live is fun (if you want to get up early) - love to hear that "fair warning" and hammer clack on the live stream. Another advantage to registering with Vectis is having access to past auction results to aid in valuing your collection, though UK prices don't always relate to US prices. Here is an old Dinky Toy I got from Vectis a few months ago.

I've gotten few things from them, worked very smoothly.  As the posters warned above, the premium and shipping really add up, so be careful!

Just wanted to know that some of us (at least me) read headings literally.   I opened this one to see fire trucks.  Now I know an auction is of interest, but what about this pair?

I usually place a lot of bids (over a 100), but they are quite low. Most times I win a few items; I was burned twice - one time I ended up winning 83 Brooklins (they often list them as 3-4 together, so it was only 20 or so winning bids) and you can imagine the weight of that box! And another time I won something like 120 models, a mix of boxed and lose, and they didn't do a good job packing those unboxed ones. They were basically thrown into a box, white metal and resin together, and most convertibles got their window frames smashed. They did reimburse me for them, though, but still - be careful when buying unboxed models. Also, it's always a lottery - there is only one picture, and sometimes parts are missing and you won't know it until you get it. If you not a gambler -stick to the sellers you know!