Some of you probably spotted this already,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/290622837227

Ok the price is currently low, but here we have a seller with several thousand feedbacks to his name, and he's an Ebay store so he's no stranger to auctions or to model trains.

Do we put this down to inexperience with Marklin or does he have a side-job as a used-car salesman? (no offence to any car sales executives here - present company excepted)

If this is "very good condition", I'd hate to see what condition it would take to describe something as 'average' ??



Let's see what this goes for. If cheap enough I'd be interested myself.

Cookee

The tender is in pretty poor shape. The loco itself doesn't look so bad.

I agree 100% with Markus. This kind of "Zinkpest" (if you want to call it that) is the absolute least of your worries. It can be removed with no traces.

I would say the locomotive is in pretty good shape...the incorrect pick-up shoe bothers me more.

Paul

Hi John,

look at http://www.ballistol.com/ . I just put it on a cleaning cloth and polish the flour away.

Regards

Markus

According to my trusted Koll and my (very) limited knowledge of german, "zinkpest" affects models from 1935 to 1942. G800 was produced between 1950 and 1954. As Markus pointed out, the loc is affected by what is described in Koll as "weisse, kristalline Korrosionsschicht" that affects models from 1947 to 1955, especially the tenders of F800, G800, HR800, and SK800. (Koll 1997, pages 22-23.) My apologies if I mistranslated something, again my german is very very limited!

In terms of the condition of the loc, once again we can see that "one man's trash is another man's treasure", and there is nothing wrong with that... Some people want a model in their collection, and will buy what they can afford, others will prefer not buying unless they can afford a flawless model. In this case I agree the term "very good condition" is a stretch (you surely have noticed the broken sides in the front, most likely a kid who liked to let the loc fall or liked to do various experiments with a hammer ), but I don't think the seller wants to mislead: there are enough good quality pics to really describe the model.

Cheers,
Ricky

Hi Paul,

the same Mr. Koll showed a craked ST 800 as sample for "Zinkpest" in his catalogues. Zinkpest at Märklin ended around 1950 for the first time...

Regards

Markus

It is also possible to slow the effects of actual zincpest on the metal, but this requires much more work. It is possible to treat the metal, fill the cracks, and sand it flat to prevent further warping. Of course the parts come out not looking quite right and sometimes can be very weak.

Paul

Markus & Paul are absolutly right. It is not zinkpest and this can be easily fixed with some care. Nevertheless I wonder if part of the coal which you should find in the tender is not missing. In that case, it would be more difficult to fix that problem properly.

You bring up a good point...I think it is more the responsibility of the buyer to be informed about the product. For instance, if a seller offers an extremely rare Marklin train for sale yet describes it as "Marklin junk lot," we should not fault the seller but be happy that we have found something very rare because we have the knowledge to know exactly what it is. Same goes for the condition of an item -- it is really subjective to describe condition and I think it is better off if the seller just provides accurate photos for the buyer to judge.

Paul

Hi Cookee,

That's a great steam engine. While it is a common production model and not very rare, you bought one in near excellent condition with box, papers, and accessories. I believe having the "complete package" adds a lot of value to the model and it is always fun to see how they originally came. I believe that model was part of the Marklin "Better Toys" range. I have several of the "Better Toys" special catalogs for the UK market and in one of them it describes the labels. The "Better Toys" labels are color coded. I guess the blue labels are for steam engines (I don't have the catalog on hand right now).

As for the G 800, I hope you find one for to go with your original box.

Best regards,

Paul

Thanks for the web address, is there anything other than ballistol that might work? I currently live in Phuket Thailand and have a SK 800 tender that is in rough (well played with) condition. Would a regular gun oil work?

Thanks

Robert.

Well somebody won that "crusty" old Marklin Lok for $US380.
I would have thought an oil treatment hard to paint over.
Anyhow that money would have been better spent on a new M30050 in my opinion, but I'm very happy with my M39230 MFX with full sounds that I paid approx $US341.00 on ebay from a German dealer. Better model all round and two years warranty Or my M39010 for the same price from the same dealer, and then he also deducted the German Mwst
Yes I know its a totally different class of Lok but it's a Marklin Steam Engine bought on ebay

PS Nice example igf2 and lovely steam engine Steve, I'd sell the G800 box, for the best price you can on ebay & save yourself the anguish of bothering with a less than perfect G800.

Probably very good condition (it is also marked C6 on the top square part) is not inacurate. However the white dust is more than what I would be prapered to take. Where there is that dust the paint is gone underneath. Rubbing too much and depending on what you use may make the the paint become very glossy which is not how that tender should look like.

As someone mentioned one pick up is not the original and the origuinal one does not seem to spring properly. missing coal, missing box. I have bought one in better condition with half box for less and while not common these engines do appear from time to time. I would'nt have bought that at that price. But some people sometimes get tempted and don't know sufficient or they simply wanted it regardless. So they haveto pay the price for their inexperience or whim, I know because I've been there too many times.

While on the G800 and the F800 (metal tender) I agree the white dust is quite normal and not necesarily a sign of zincpest. I would always look twice on other models that show any sign of that dust Anything of anybrand that was made prior to the 50's is a candidate to have it. In some cases even articles made in the 70's could show it (not Marklin). Surprisingly the zincpest in Marklin was replaced by some plastic items that were prone to warping, the 3070 and 71 are clasic examples but there are many freight wagons, switch boxes and bridge pillars that suffered the distortion problem.

Cookee

One thing I've learned over the years, German sellers aren't stupid and to return the highest profit on their sale items they've found a way of maximizing it.
Another good example is: train sets, some of them or most of them are one off items.

I've seen a whole loco being dismantled and each part was sold separately.
To some extend it can be a flop and you are left with parts which are not sold or required by buyers on the other hand you can count your profits made from all the parts outweigh the profits if you've sold the loco as 1 item and I can assure you are well in front selling it in parts even if you have parts left over.
Their philosophy is: nothing gets thrown away, nothing is offered out of the ordinary, if money trasnactions costs them moeny they will not offer it unless they can pass the costs on and if I remember correctly it is against the law

As mentioned above the same goes for train sets and I've seen them being dismantled bejond the loco, carriages, controllers, tracks and turnouts.

So unless you adopt the chinese way of dealing and selling items, nothing is wasted.

John

Geoff
Yes it's the same problem in the coal bunker. I'm not so confident about the problems on the side. It's looks like pest to me. But it's well outside the era. There was a poor G800 that sold on eBay 2 weeks ago for $A177 unboxed so that gives you a good base price. I bought my boxed G800 at Sandover swap meet 5 years ago for 300 pounds and is better than this. If anything buying prices have come down in my opinion. You could fix up the box.
Roger

ST 800 v1 (1947-1950) with zincpest

http://www.ebay.es/itm/2...trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/...&hash=item3cc3bfc925
Here is another one on Ebay
Its look like it need a good cleaning job