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| REA Truck For Sale on Ebay https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19166 |
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| Author: | Mike LaBouliere [ Thu Dec 01, 2005 7:04 pm ] |
| Post subject: | REA Truck For Sale on Ebay |
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Railway- ... wItemCheap hopefully this one will find a good home. If anyone on here buys it let me know I like to keep track of the old RR trucks. BTW there's a REA truck for sale in the nationwide Old Car Trader publication its in the back but for some reason its painted red and white. instead of green |
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| Author: | rrmuseum [ Thu Dec 08, 2005 10:18 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: REA Truck For Sale on Ebay |
Mike,The REA truck is on its way here to the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona, PA. It will be restored and join our Pennsy R50b REA Reefer and the local NRHS Chapter's REA boxcar on display here next season. |
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| Author: | Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:20 am ] |
| Post subject: | "What To Do When eBay Has An Artifact For You....." |
First, my congratulations to the Railroaders Memorial Museum for taking the initiative to secure this relic and, we presume and hope, to restore it for presentation to the public along with the hitherto-largely-untold REA story. If I may ask (and feel free to say "no" if we can't), precisely how did this acquisition occur, aside from the obvious "we bid on eBay"? I am asking this strictly as an exploratory lesson in "What To Do If an Artifact You Really Want For Your Museum Collection Ends Up on Ebay With No Warning". It's not the first time, nor will it be the last, and learning from your experience can most likely help other institutions and operations.Did a private individual buy it for donation, or does the Museum have some funds for acquisition? Or, for that matter, a "Friends of the RMM" group?Who made the decision to pursue this, and when? Did someone call and ask if you would like this if s/he purchased it on your behalf, or did the Museum ask a benefactor known to be sympathetic to such a cause? Or was the "hat" passed quickly with a few phone calls?How will restoration be handled? Will it be professionally archived and then backdated precisely, or will a restoration shop just take delivery and crank out a shiny new piece? Might it end up running? I see there are supposedly more parts the eBay seller has to sell towards restoration..... And seeing as the truck ended up in Iowa and probably has been through heavens-knows-what, there might be a case for a compromise between painstaking historical restoration and simply functional "make it look good" restoration.Seriously, I might try to talk one of my groups into contributing to the restoration of this truck if I have more facts and data at hand. Be sure to write up a press release for Trains' and R&R's respective preservation columns! |
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| Author: | rrmuseum [ Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: "What To Do When eBay Has An Artifact For You.....& |
Thanks and we are looking forward to the arrival of this addition to our collection.Sometimes we do get donors that purchase things for us and in the past the Horseshoe Curve Chapter of the NRHS (our defacto "Friends Group") has helped with acquiring items. In this case, the Museum used some of its "discretionary" funding that I try to set aside each year for instances just like this one. We have made a number of Ebay purchases this year, mostly consisting of PRR china that we needed to round out our new upcoming exhibit in our D78 Dining Car.I saw the post on RYPN letting everyone know the truck was available and, as Director, made the decision to aquire the piece if it could be obtained reasonbly. I'm blessed with the authority to make those sorts of decisions on my own when necessary. I don't have miles of red tape to wade through when wanting to make this sort of requisition. In this, and in all cases, it is important to remember that we did stay within the confines of our collections policy in making this purchase and did not purchase it simply to have it wither and die on the very long list of projects we have here in Altoona already. With our collection already consisting of one of the most complete PRR R50b REA Reefers in existence, and the local NRHS Chapter owning a REA boxcar, this made complete sense for us.The restoration will take place here locally and most all of the work will be done by local volunteers and craftsmen. I'm sure we will pursue funding or sponsorship from businesses that either would make sense to have their name associated with the finished exhibit (UPS, FedEx, local LTL Trucking Companies) or donations from our friends in the local autobody supply and collision repair industry.My guess is our desire will be to make it as historically correct as possible to the date it was delivered to REA. It is also our plan to have it run and be used in parades, etc. We are blessed with a very mechanically-inclined and talented core group of volunteers led by the President of the local NRHS Chapter who owns an auto repair business. Would I call what we are going to do a "painstaking" restoration? I would think not. But will we endeavor to make it as true as we can to its original fabric? Most certainly.We will issue a press release upon the trucks arrival here. Arrangements have already been made with a transport company to get it here from it's home in Donnellson, Iowa at the Fort Madison, Farmington, and Western Railroad.We scour Ebay constantly and while the "cat is now out of the bag" a bit, we don't usually trumpet the fact that it is the Museum bidding on an item. Those who know us well, know when we are bidding on an item and tend not to bid against us.For others, I would encourage exactly what you had suggested earlier. Either have a fund set aside for these types of purchases or have a list ready of friends of the organization and their individual interests in the hope of making a good match with a donor when this opportunity arises. We try to be ready with both. |
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| Author: | Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Thu Dec 08, 2005 12:42 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: "What To Do When eBay Has An Artifact For You.....& |
Mr. Cessna,Excellent answers and news all around. With the explanation that one of your supporters has an auto-repair business, things seem to make much more sense. It shifts from "cool!" to "can you think of a better home and opportunity for this piece?"The only other potential question I think I can ask is the one everybody fears: How do we (as a group) prevent predatory or competitive action that ends up doing nothing but driving up the price?Just to fabricate an example, supposing Illinois Railway Museum, an interurban museum, the Railroaders Memorial Museum, the B&O Museum, the Friends of the RR Museum of Pennsylvania, and private benefactors wanting to acquire it for their respective museums all managed to take an interest in this lot and start bidding. It's a free market, and aside from a reserve not being met and subsequent negotiation with the seller occurring, there's no way to prevent the price going to $10K and going to an admittedly-lesser museum--such as some junk collection where the truck will sit out for another several decades rotting. Certainly, there's no loss if Richie Rich buys it for the Friends of the XY&Z Museum rather than the museum itself spending for it, but what if even the XY&Z Museum is forthright enough to say, "er, really, that'd be better off with the Altoona museum"? Can they say that to Richie Rich's face without making him feel hurt? Or is the only solution to take it, sit on it until Master Rich passes away, then discretely de-accession it? I know of museums that have faced exactly that dilemma, including several I have worked with/for.In theory, it should be enough for Mr. Cessna or any other museum to basically step up and say "we want this piece", let him get it off the market, and then let inter-museum negotiation begin. And as long as I'm dreaming, let's have the Pennsy T1 running around the Horseshoe Curve on an excursion.The real danger with eBay is that from the time an artifact like this appears to the time a decision and appropriate action has to be taken, there's a maximum of seven (or maybe ten) days, often less. As Mr. Cessna noted, a "bureaucratic" museum, such as most state-run museums, unless it establishes a working relationship with an outside group with an endowment, hasn't a prayer of reacting to such an opportunity in time. And in the case of one such state-run institution, I have been told that the employees/curators are now expressly prohibited from even making any desires for additions to their collections known at least officially! (There apparently seems to be some kind of oblique, farcical hinting game used instead: "gee, that's a nice artifact.... [whistles].... sure would go a long ways towards interpretation in a certain collection..... [whistles, looking at ceiling] We don't have anything like that in our stuff.... [whistles].....")And realistically speaking, $800 plus shipping plus restoration, minus possible local sponsorship and donations, equals a drop in the bucket compared to other projects at Altoona and the Curve. It's a bargain.Time to go lobby our NRHS Chapter treasurer............. <:-) |
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