I have a bloke wanting me to ship a mower to him, I assume is interstate. I have told him that most transport companies will not ship them but he insists that he has had no issues shipping mowers.He also offered to send me a box to ship it in. I have never tried because I know of the issues. Anybody had any experience
You got it MF, I'm thinking of pulling the plastic off, setting it up as a standard Powertorque and selling the plastics on their own, not often you find an undamaged set. And this bloke wants it shipped to out the back of Cootamundra. I doubt I could even pick the thing up once I put it and the catcher all in a box. No idea what it would cost to post, it wouldn't be cheap seeing I posted a Victa mulching plug to somebody up that way and it cost $27 postage and that including the box probably weighed less than a kg
I found a used but well kept red Vortex in perfect working order (according to the seller) with a buy it now price of $150 within acceptable driving distance ( about 1&1/2 -2 hours each way) over a year ago and regret not getting it. That was a decent price considering how hard it is to find one that hasn't been battered around and has the innovative CSIRO developed blade disc that Victa later cheaped out on by turning to their existing disc with plastic add ons. I wonder if any of the earliest yellow Vortex received the original blade disc?
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
i looked into this some time ago and alot of the transport companies will only pick it up if its on a pallet all wrapped up, best to check with what packingstandard they need it in beforehand
I'm not going to worry about it, just not worth the time I end up spending running back and forth, finding out who has the best price, who will/won't ship it, then mess around packaging it up, then take it to the transport company, end up spending hours and hours just over a mower. It is a pity because I bet whoever buys it will not appreciate the condition it is in. I think I will put the price up on it and it can sit here with the toecutters in the corner.
Or you could just not bother at all and just take it to the tip !! LOL !!
All jokes aside there's never been anything in it money wise in selling second hand mowers if it's any more than cash and carry, but sometimes it's better to see it go to a good home opposed to some rat bag just using it in a gravel pit of a front yard smashing holes into the skirt.
Yes as MF suggested putting it onto a skid and strapping it down will be the best option as that's how I've sent all the Scotty's I've sent to Queensland. I cut the skids down so that it just fits the machine perfectly, but as you said the money involved would not even come close to the effort required. If it's an $800 sale I get it but not a lousy $150 that's for sure.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
Hi Norm, I think you need to re-word your ad With this inclusion "PICK UP ONLY" Or he can organise a mate to come and get it. It's not worth the time and trouble for a small cash sale.
Hi BT, I guess I should have expected that somebody a long way away might have wanted this mower, to me it is only a Powertorque ready to mow lawns but with the plastics in such good condition I should have added pick up only
I have shipped mowers and parts from all different parts of the country and overseas. Unless I have had the luck of the seller having a good freight service on hand (which I have had from time to time) the easiest and fairest way is for the purchaser to select the courier/carrier and identify the packing requirements to the seller. Companies like Pack & Send are not cheap but can organise most things. Most others like E-Go are a case of package the item as per the spec, deliver to depot and the rest is up to them. However E-go does have a pick up option that is very handy in some cases and worth using where an item is a bit awkward size wise. To be honest - if a person really wants it they will organise everything to make it happen.
To be honest - if a person really wants it they will organise everything to make it happen.
Cheers,
Sir Chook
Really. Even if it costs four times the item's market value? So if you saw a 1972 Victa VC Autodrive in exceptional nick listed in Scotland UK, you could obtain it quite easily? Do tell.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
Sir Chook[/quote] a 1972 Victa VC Autodrive [/quote]
Honestly they're overrated IMHO a bit like the as found (very average) standard "186 3 on the column Kingswood sedan" that oddly fetched $15,500 plus 16% premium here in Adelaide at MGS Auctions last Thursday.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
I am not a Victa collector, my interest is pre 1960 Atco mowers. I have had the experience of importing a 1920's mower and it it ended up being a very costly exercise. My ability to achieve this was by having a very good seller who was prepared to clean the mower down completely (in accordance with our quarantine rules) and then I used a service like Pack & Send to pick it up, box it and send it on its way. Would I repeat the process again - not in a hurry given the costs involved but then again I haven't found anything over there that I have said that I must have that. Most of my recent purchases from the UK are parts which can be easily boxed and sent via post or courier.
Shipping stuff around the country can be costly but it depends on what service you use. With most of it, if it can be packed onto a pallet and you use a depot to depot service it is usually not too bad. It is when you need a door to door service that the cost goes up markedly. I have used both and yes for certain mowers I have had to spend more than the purchase price for the shipping. However, my choice to do this was based on the rarity of the mower.
I asked an EBay seller in America once what it would take to send his recently repainted 1984 Chevrolet Impala to Australia and to my astonishment, he made detailed enquiries covering shipping and customs duty details into Australia by the next day. My heart was set on power windows and it had wind ups but looked beautiful inside and out otherwise. I had an obsession with luxury features in American cars then, and the car wasn't old enough black in 2001 to qualify for exemption from RHD conversion, so I passed. I wish I had got it as I love the styling and I learned later that these were essentially the fleet special base model of the Chevy B bodies and most had hand crank windows. Also, paint quality was a weak spot from factory and a respray was a great thing.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I am seriously thinking of stripping this Vortex, sell the catcher and plastics, put the motor on a steel body, sell that and dump the high arch body. Pity but nobody seems to be interested in it.
BT, I jacked the price up because I figured at $100 people thought there was something wrong with it. All my other mowers have walked out the door, everything I have built over the last 6 months gone, but this one has only had one person interested and that involved shipping it interstate
Selling just normal working machines being sent to their death is rather easy, but mower collecting is a dying art form I feel. This because they take up so much of a real estate footprint and the cost in shipping far outweighs the price of the actual machine itself.
Many machines are basically $100 and shipping is more than that thus it over doubles the costing to have something just sitting there for one person to simply look at as not many other folk can accept the passion involved.
Basically it's not like coins and stamps I guess.
Cheers, BB.
I live a 24 Hour lifestyle, but every now and again I seem to fall asleep, well at least that's what my wife tells me.
I mainly want it for the blade disc as it's the only model that carried it. It was supposed to represent a revolution in mowers since the VC160, but quietly disappeared into the ether, probably not helped by the royalty fee for every mower sold and the average consumer not appreciating this hidden feature that really didn't cut grass noticeable better. BB makes a great point that the average person is not going to appreciate it taking up space unless it is displayed in a tasteful fashion with other collectables.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
MF, what are you talking about, the rubber disc, I have thrown a couple of those out recently, probably still a couple left here, but they all seem to have chunks missing near where the blades bolt on
MF, what are you talking about, the rubber disc, I have thrown a couple of those out recently, probably still a couple left here, but they all seem to have chunks missing near where the blades bolt on
This red Vortex has the rubber add-ons with normal blades? If so, someone has removed it's original disc with the stubby blades, OR Victa started fitting the rubberized disc some time through it's production run during 84/85.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I don't know MF, all the ones I have pulled off have all been the same, the rubber disc is bolted onto what appears to be a standard oblong PT blade carrier
Yes, a great video that one Mowerfreak. I should point out for the folks at home that the disc and mower depicted in the video are larger than the actual product.
This reminds me of that famous IKEA hotdog ad ... 'not actual size'.
I think the CSIRO involvement shows that Victa was still interested in ideas at this time.
The disc was a 'research vehicle' that led to all those funny discs that Victa would later use. The disc was not a 'better' disc, but one as efficient as a more convention disc, but at a lower RPM.
Hardly quiet though CyberJack. Here is the ad for the final incarnation of that body style touting their Guaranteed to Start technology -which had already been around for seven years! Perhaps I should put a GTS label on my 82 full crank Mustang! We used to make fun of the ad as kids by making up acronyms like GTB -Guaranteed to Break down. Here's the ad.
Ahh, if only victa had kept producing the thumblatch catcher series, they would be in better shape today!
I have a number of those fluted blade carriers here, I never thought they were aimed at reducing the noise. It is hard to keep up with the huge variety of blade carriers they came out with. No other manufacture messed around with them, they all used either a round disc or a straight bar
1st: At the time I used to cringe at what we used to trot out as 'Aussie identity', these days I look back at it with with nostalgia. These days you'd go a long way to see a piece of advertising of the type with a gum tree in it or a bit green and gold. Sigh.
2nd: This was filmed before computer fudgery of photos and images. That means someone had to march down a taxiway with a lawn mower while a 747 taxied past!
