Plastic Bags and Piddly Bits!

I wonder how many complaints erupted on social media over this eBay listing without people first clicking on the item details to read the description I wrote.

I don't know why, but sometimes I just do. After reconfiguring my former cement plant to fit onto Philden Beach, I realised that the structure had been wrapped in what is now considered to be vintage plastic shopping bags. Remember those ubiquitous grey plastic bags your groceries once got packed into at the supermarket before we decided that it was no longer environmentally friendly and replaced them with the green fabric reusable versions which are equally as toxic but will instead take 100 years longer to decompose in landfill? Well, as I scrounged for the last of my model railway stuff that I was prepared to part with to raise funds for a final locomotive purchase for Philden Beach, the evil genius got to me, and I listed it on eBay under the model train section with the following item description.

*VINTAGE* Plastic shopping bag - LOOK NO HOLES! - Rare! suit Auscision SDS HORNBY

Buy Now Price $465.23

Be the envy of the world with this vintage plastic carry bag for all your model train needs! Can carry locomotives, box cars and coloured sawdust!

Now that I have your attention... hopefully I’ve given you a giggle and an excuse to look at my other genuine listings as I’m desperately trying to complete my Australian model railway on a budget of zero. Thanks to the stuffed Australian economic climate and being self-employed, the only way I can afford to complete the final touches to a shelf layout that has taken 4 years to build is with a good old-fashioned eBay sale. Anything I can do without has been listed and priced to sell, and there’s plenty to choose from.

So, tell your friends. Share this ridiculously priced listing and hopefully I can get there!

If you are seriously interested in the bag... it will be well wrapped to withstand the post, (seriously), and delivered along with a mystery book signed by myself. (Yes, I am a real-life author and lifelong model train tragic).

Well, in the first night of being listed it received over 200 views. Of more concern is the 19 people who are watching this! The plastic bag may still be for sale, but it did bring a spike in sales that night for all the piddly bits that totaled up to over $300. So, in pursuit of a fourth and final sound equipped locomotive for 'The Beach' I am now over halfway there.

What was pleasing were the number of wonderful messages I received through the eBay app. It seemed that a lot of people got as much of a giggle out of reading it as I did in writing it!

This listing is so hilarious and made my day! Thank you, and sorry for the $2 offer. 🤣

Thank you for this! I've just finished reading it for the third time and still can't stop laughing.

$12 for postage? What a rip-off! 🤣 This made my week.

Can't get the eBay Plus voucher to work otherwise I'd buy it!

Awesome! Thanks for doing this for all the Karens!

I'm glad it got the laughs it was intended for. Producing my series of Philden Model Railway books has drained my hobby fund for the next few years, and the current Australian economy has kicked me in the guts while I was down, (thanks Australian Government and Reserve Bank for ruining the hobby for so many).

But Onwards as the late model railroad guru Jim Hediger would have said. My sense of humour has prevailed, the cement plant is almost reconfigured and in place on the layout and I shall soon afford to finish Philden Beach with one final model purchase thanks to the generosity of the good folks who have supported my eBay purge. As for some of the treasures that were carefully wrapped inside the plastic bag, you'll have to click on my eBay listings to see what one-off items I have listed now that my Australian HO scale journey has come to an end.

Full listings can be found here!

Until next time... (look, no holes!)