SingleSeat

You really do need to shop around if price is a concern, and Lambo-tax on interior work is very HIGH. There are also a lot of cheaper shops out there that would do a horrendous job. The key is in finding someone who will work with you throughout, and isn't afraid to re-work it if it's not right. Several of the high end shops known for this kind of work among Lambo owners justify costs reaching between $20-30k for full interiors because they argue, 1) the results speak for themselves/you get what you pay for 2) mastery/experience with the peculiarities common to Lambo interiors 3) customized full-frontal customer support However, I've also seen at least one $20k+ interior on a Diablo that looked like complete dog-ass hell. It was shocking. I've heard prices as low as $6k, but normally it's between $10-20k for the shop that hasn't been passed around exotic owners. The reality I've found is that stitching leather is not rocket science. Of course it takes a skilled effort, but there are more than two people on Earth who can do it. The highest priced shops will sell you on the exact opposite of that idea -- that they have the one guy on Earth who can do it, he's been doing it since 1865, and are you willing to risk such a car with someone else? Some shops can keep their prices very high because many owners are indeed quite wealthy and by accepting the highest prices, encourage Lambo tax inflation. I'm sure a high-end shop owner would argue with me that their margins are too thin on interior work so I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but my answer would be, why don't you just get out of that business? They would then say that they are a full-service operation dedicated to all things Lamborghini out of love and enthusiasm for the brand and it would be immoral to not provide such a service. Call me crazy, but I suspect there's some profit in charging $25k+ for a two-seat sports car interior. There are still custom shops out there that can do work indistinguishable from factory for A LOT less money. On top of that, lots of mom&pop shops that have also been stitching since the Cretaceous and would be thrilled to dedicate their undivided attention to such a car. I know of one shop in Italy manned by experienced former factory types, that can undercut the high end shops CONUS by more than 50%, but you're paying to ship parts oversees too. If price is not a concern, then sure, go with Driven Exotics in CA or Wil de Groot in NJ, etc. The high end shops won't let you down on results.

But does Ferrari realize that their buyers are dying? I've been to Ferrari-club events where not a single owner is younger than 60, and the guys wandering around looking at the cars are in the same bracket. I can already tell my kid considers Ferrari to be an old person's dying car marque and, if he's any window into the future, Maranello has some big F'in problems on the horizon.

Sergio Marchionne must live a bubble all by himself. I never had any desire to own a Ferrari. No problem with the marque, I just have better shit to do and life is short.

Just another day in the middle east, lol. But 21 pages of "welcome aboard" is a little F'in ridiculous.

I know! Maybe it was the camera, but the same lap in the SV looked fast, but brutal. The SV driver seemed to be working really hard, but this run looked so smooth...almost "easy." The car never really seemed to get upset about anything.

STFU YOU GUYS!! You're gonna send Wheels off on an uncontrollable tangent and then shit's gonna get weird!

I'm not even sure why we're arguing about this. Life is never so simple. 1. McCain has always had his enemies. I have too. He even had enemies in his Air Wing at the time of his shoot-down who would jump at the chance to throw him under the bus, just like he'd probably do to them. I'm not saying he is guilty or innocent, or what is valid or not valid, but that kind of stuff is so convoluted that clinging to such anecdotal tidbits only exposes you as naive. Everyone in a single seat cockpit has some element of selfish-asshole to them that is terminally irrepressible. Nature of the beast. What you see at this point has been through so many filters and ulterior motives that the truth is unreachable. Even if you could gain a clearer picture, it would likely be irrelevant as it's always a matter of perspective. You'd be better off accepting that you'll never know the truth rather than faking knowledge. 2. War and being a prisoner of war adds a level of complexity to a man that you can't hope to understand. Have you ever been tortured daily for information to the point of incapacitation? Do you have any training in how to deal with that? Do you have any knowledge of what our enemies are capable of doing or have a history of doing? No? Good, because that shit's fcuking classified. If you think a guy recording a prepared speech is treachery, you've got some crazy-impossible expectations. Every man to a head will come apart at some point, and thinking that there are the brave among us to be emulated who are unbreakable is a John Wayne pipe dream. You might consider that he made this recording after living in captivity, tortured, and starved for almost 3 years at that point. If you have such high standards for men, maybe you need to get your ass out there and show us how its done. I understand agreeing or disagreeing with his work as a senator, but taking such a hard line on his POW performance just tells me that your motives are politically malformed rather than realistic.

You're right that being captive doesn't make one a hero. But I never said that. This guy flew off a boat into that SAM-infested flak forest in a single-engine attack jet on purpose and he refused an early release on purpose to prove a point. That's some heroic shit. It's also true that lots of other guys did that and they're no less heroic. Also true that many others died trying. That he became wealthy is no surprise. I know a lot of fighter pilots who do very well for themselves after the military. Fighter pilots are smart people -- the kind of people who are generally smart enough to do anything they want in life, and the choices arrayed before them are wider than most as a result. Like dreaming little kids, they scoff tradition or practicality and choose fighter pilot. These aren't average ducks who just stumble into whatever. These are people who make grabbing life by the balls into a varsity sport. I don't know of any silver spoons in western fighter pilot culture because everyone in it has to fight to be in it and every day in it is a test. I'm actually pretty neutral on McCain, and he's certainly not a perfect man. The problem is blind criticism. If we're comparing man-to-man, people like Obama are insignificant trolls who have achieved very little by comparison and proven themselves in glaringly few ways. There are far more people in line ahead of John McCain who are worthy of some harsh criticism and it becomes easy to forget a man's trials when they're so long ago, especially with politics as a career choice clouding opinions.

Not sure what point you're making.

I'm not hung up on the wikileaks letter. I'm sure every major candidate in every election solicited the Russians and damn-near everyone else. McCain is an old dude, that much is certain. Some things he says are bound to ring true, while others are bound to cause consternation. I give the man a wide berth because he's earned it, but I acknowledge that he is going to have some different things to say than most of us because most of us aren't 80yo war hero Naval strike figher pilot POWs...I would hope that such men would enlighten us as to what they think. That doesn't mean he, or anyone else, gets a free pass for being the saltiest dog, but criticizing him is a whole different ball game than criticizing a law professor/community-activist-whatever-the-fcuk. I think he willingly opens himself up for criticism because his life has given him an unusually clear picture of the fucks he gives vs. the fucks he doesn't give...hard to see for the rest of us who haven't seen the same things. All-in-all, I'm comfortable with McCain because he's a balancing force and that's how our government should be populated. He's not an extremist and is still a critical thinker, unlike where intellects in our country are headed. What have you seen that makes you say that?

John McCain was shot down over Vietnam by a Russian-made SA-2 surface to air missile. He was a POW for 5.5 years, severely injured, starved, and tortured with two years of solitary confinement. Refused early release before other prisoners when he was used as a political toy by his captors. In other words, brass f-king balls bigger than anyone else on this forum by a metric shit ton.

If you do Priority Mail, USPS has a "shoe box" sized box that would be perfect for train cars. Get a ton of those. Yes, print postage through eBay. It's discounted, ref my first PM on shipping. Dudes. High effort isn't necessary. The most kick ass photos of a train car aren't going to sell it any faster or for more money. On eBay, the item needs to sell itself. Granted, a photo shouldn't look like hell, but it doesn't need to be weapons grade either. Here's an example of a '70s vintage die-cast car my kid picked up at a yard sale for a dime. Simple, point-and-shoot camera on a white poster background, cropped, brightness + contrast. Done. Sold for $20.

You can either save the listing (like a template) or you can click on a "Sell Similar" link in order to just carry over all the details and change the title, photos, and description. Yeah, but there's a balance to be had. Is taking 12 detailed photos worth your time on an item that sells for $7, $6 in your pocket? Bend over backwards for the buyer who is deciding whether or not to spend $250 on a rare locomotive. The guy who is blessing you with his $7 probably doesn't need your highest efforts. Looking at the search results, it's even less worth it for this item because there are now competitors for less $ with comparable items. I'd probably even ditch the $50 BiN, or reduce it to $19.99. Otherwise, you can still take nice photos. Grab a white poster board. Let it lean on a wall so that the back bends into a curve. Viola, there's your studio. If you want to make it pop and don't have photoshop skillz, go to https://pixlr.com/editor/ Use it to crop your image to just the item. Then use it to adjust the brightness and contrast. Lean on the contrast more to see what looks best. When your photo is reduced to a thumbnail in search results, a high-contrast photo pops. That would be the quickest, lowest effort way to make the images better. In general, when you get a full load of items listed, keeping your listings looking sharp and consistent builds buyer confidence. Their hope is that they're buying a diamond in the rough from an honest human being. Their fear is that they're buying something that smells like cat pee and cigarettes. Your photos can strike the balance. I'm afraid the only way you're going to win on this item is price...at least for the next two days while the one listed for less is ahead of you. You might decide to break out more items and start taking photos and list a bunch at a time. Some people will look to see what else you have and take you up on combining shipping to purchase multiple items because this item might not be special enough to motivate someone to buy by itself. The other option is to switch to a straight-up BiN for 9.99 + $7 shipping (or so), 30-day. Some people really want to avoid the hassle of bidding (or they don't understand bidding) and will sort by BiN-only. Be the lowest BiN and bingo, you're the guy who just sold something for more than it has been selling in the last few months.

When you revise the listing, it should be one of the last things at the bottom of the page. If you like, you could add text that says something about buyer paying return shipping and the item needs to be in the same/identical condition. Here are the TRS requirements if you're interested, http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/top-rated.html

I would just do $15.99 opening bid and free shipping and I'd also change the return policy to returns accepted/30-day to start building toward top-rated seller status from the start. It doesn't matter and you can say "no returns" all day long, but eBay doesn't really give you the chance to plant your flag in the ground and pronounce "NO RETURNS!" in practice. Customers can still initiate a dispute and get their money back one way or another, so it's an uphill battle over pennies and ass pain. The benefit to being cooperative is the opportunity to influence a customer to not leave negative feedback. It's not an argument over who is right or wrong. It's a tactic to mitigate risk over time since you're view is the long game and not a $7 item. Most customers WANT the item and will not have a problem with it. btw, don't bank on the view numbers on this example since all of us LP buddies are checking it out, not real buyers. There are only two other comps that have sold just like yours in the last month, so I don't expect this particular item to be in high demand. Yours is the only one like right now, so that's nice.

A LOL/WTF combo! Since we have nominated Fortis to either explain or take responsibility for everything Australian, I submit this. LMAO

Did you mean to post a Dodge Challenger video?

I liked the movie. It wasn't awe-inspiring, but it was still great fun. Disney is doing an outstanding job. All the sets, props, and wardrobe are very authentic and balanced with the CG inputs. It's obvious that they went to great pains to make all of that work. Vader was simply outstanding, and James Earl Jones returned to make it 100% perfect. Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin was CG, but well done. It was a great first hack at CG humans in close-up faceshots, but I have a feeling it will look dated in 15 years. Also impressive were Red and Gold leaders in the cockpits, as if they stepped right out of 1977 and into this movie! They also went to great extremes to tie Rogue to EPIV, from the most insignificant lines of dialogue to the biggest plot points. EVERYTHING was gone through with a fine-toothed comb. The lack of John Williams music became very obvious, so I think they went a little too far there but it didn't ruin it. Hopefully, they'll adjust back a little for the next "story" movie. Rogue was definitely a lot better than TFA. The characters were better developed and understandable. A lot of Rebels sacrificed their lives and this was a major point for the movie to make so there was a lot of death and defeat along the way. However, lacking familiar characters and familiar music meant that it would rely on sets and props to FEEL like Star Wars. It still succeeded and looked like Star Wars, but that's probably the whole point -- that it's supposed to make you look at the same Star Wars from a slightly different angle. The all-critical opening scene was symbolic of this movie's place in the saga, being understated and off to the side. ***SPOILER ALERT*** ***SPOILER ALERT*** ***SPOILER ALERT*** ***SPOILER ALERT*** ***SPOILER ALERT*** ***SPOILER ALERT*** ***SPOILER ALERT*** ***SPOILER ALERT*** ***SPOILER ALERT*** One nod to the geeks was Blue Squadron. Back in the day, the first X-Wing models were painted with blue stripes, which interfered with the blue screen shooting. They had to rework everything on the models and the script to reflect the decision to change to red; i.e. "Red 5 standing by." etc. etc. In Rogue, Red, Blue, and Gold squadrons were all fighting, and most of Blue Squadron rolled in on the shield gate. Blue Squadron was decimated in space, on the shield, and the rest were trapped in the blaze of death on the planet's surface. Hence, now the reason we don't have blue striped X-Wings in EPIV as only Red and Gold were left. Taddaaa. IOW, they were filling holes that people wouldn't even know were being filled. That's pretty hard core.

Allan should get his pics in here. I only have a few, but my favorite is this simple Kyosho Countach, for which I repainted the wheels white. I'll post pictures of the Diablos later.

I share your flair for the Mesozoic. Nothing decorates quite like the Earth's most prolific beasts. Great job!

What model were you looking for?

First looked into that car in 2010. Doesn't look like it has changed at all.

Another option, albeit high end (much more expensive than Taste of the Wild), is Orijen. Also, Costco sells a food made by the same people as Taste of the Wild, called Kirkland Signature that is grain free for about $30 for 35lbs.

I agree with emanon completely. However, a caveat I've seen is when a man is emotionally attached to his job and it would hurt to give it up or leave it in order to follow the wife's higher income when her job demands a move. It's not so much the income as it is the thought of losing all the identity and camaraderie a man may have in his workplace. I just haven't observed the same level and forcefulness of emotional attachment in women who need to leave their jobs when their higher paid spouse needs to upshift. That might put the more emotionally rooted aspects of the hunter in men to the test. Men are more emotional creatures than we get credit for. People can end up filtering that into a man having an income insecurity. This is to say that of course the hunter values his income, but he feels attached to his territory and/or his team as well. The gatherer can pick her shit up and move to a different spot more easily. I don't mean that in a sexist way, as hunter-gatherer implies a division of labor, but that men and women in modern society innately approach labor divisions with different mindsets (while trying to arrive at the same point) just like they approach their jobs themselves differently in the first place.

+1 Taste of The Wild. Dobe with skin issues is in good shape with it, and skin issues are only one benefit. Also contributes to solving other allergy-related matters and propensity to develop anal fissures. Pricey, but worth it.