Little Steam Engine That Could

[diggummup]

Just wanted to share this cool little steam engine. I bought this a few weeks ago at a sale for $5. Had a small bidding war and it ended up selling for $95 plus shipping. This past weekend I bought a small baggie full of miniature elephants, around 50 of them. There are plastic, celluloid, bone and a few Ivory carved pieces in there too. I paid $2 for it. I'll post some pics later.

 

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[Mackaydon]

digummup,
Caution: You may not be able to buy or sell anything of any age that is made totally or partially of ivory. All import, export, resale or donation of items that contain ivory less than 100 years old from African elephants was banned by Executive Order from President Obama on Feb. 11, 2014. This means that almost everything made from ivory after 1914 can no longer legally be sold or donated in the United States after May 31, 2014. To prove ivory is antique requires special forms and appraisals that may not exist, especially if the ivory was inherited.
Don.....

 

[ethanfez]

I want to see these elephants! I always love small figurines. I get a turtle anywhere I travel to remind me of my trips.
Also with what the guy above me said if you even mention ivory in your post on ebay it will get removed. I have a beautifully carved ivory lapel pin of monkeys that I can't sell because of that.

 

[diggummup]

Yeah, I'm aware of the ivory restrictions (and all the rest of their bs restrictions) on fleabay. I have many different items that are prohibited from sale on ebay. Doesn't make it/them any less collectible though. I'll get the pics up in a couple hours hopefully.

 

[Junk_Puppet]

I love that little engine!

 

[kcm]

That's a cool little steam engine. Had no idea they would be so collectible.

 

[diggummup]

Elephant pics as promised. There is one bone carved pendant that has a compass on it. One recently sold for $24.95 identical to it.
Some of the others include a couple cracker jack prizes, several bone carved ones, a celluloid or two, and a plastic graduating set that is marked Japan on the bottoms that is in the bag. The are 7 ivory carved ones. Two have slight damage. Here are the pics-


All of them




The one with the compass-





The ivory ones, except the 3 obvious ones in the middle




Some close ups of the ivory ones. Hard to get good shots of the cross hatching because they are so small. The largest one (1st 2 photos) is only 1 1/8" tall, the smallest less than 1/2"-

 

[kcm]

All these years I just simply thought it was wrong to kill animals for their fur, tusks, etc. Then a strange thing happened. I was looking at the pics of your elephants and had some "deeper" sort of sensation. Very sad.

...Of course, just got finished watching a really awesome and touching movie as well!

 

[diggummup]

I hear you and I don't condone the useless killing of any animal, but at this point the damage is done with these pieces. There is a way to tell the animal type of ivory too. I'll have to look that up. By the way, there are several ivory elephants that have sold recently on fleabay. They were listed as bone. If you look, the first 4 out of 5 were-
miniature bone elephant | eBay

 

[kcm]

Yeah, all for "stopping" such practices. However, it's wrong to make something illegal to even DONATE/GIVE! Geez, there are no ends to some sorts of stupid. What's a person to do - be forced to hold onto it, even if they know of someone else who would care for it more?

Sounds a lot like the time when another infamous idiot in the ....well, you know - made gold illegal to own. This sovereign decree isn't too far behind, IMO.

I can understand the "sale" of it though, as there are folks who will try to pass off new ivory as old - not that I'm for "banning" altogether, but at least that part of it makes "some" amount of sense.

 

[randazzo1]

Completely disagree. We unfortunately need a total ivory ban to stop the poaching. I'm sitting on tens of thousands of dollars worth of ivory from our retail stores. There is no other solution. There is no reliable way to distinguish between new and old ivory. A lot of very bright people debated this issue for many years - once you allow sales, you create a market - the market facilitates trade, which encourages the introduction of new product, which in turn requires killing more elephants. Each year we give our ivory to an ivory crushing event. I suggest u do the same. No offense - a subjective view obviously.

 

[randazzo1]

More info below and i apologize if i came off strongly, i never wade into these debates, but this issue is legit. https://www.fws.gov/le/elephant-ivory-crush.html

 

[diggummup]

I hear you and I agree however, you can't stop these savages from poaching without literally killing the poachers, instead of just fining them or slapping them on the wrist with a few years in jail. The ivory trade as large as it is, is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to illegal poaching of banned animals and sea life. The Chinese and other assorted Asians are among the absolute worst abusers, as consumers of most of the poached animal parts in the world. You can't stop these people without direct physical force. That's what's wrong with this country, we're in bed with a bunch of damn Chinese communists when we should be wiping them off the face of the earth. Make poaching punishable by death on certain species on a global scale and I guarantee you'll see a big reduction in poaching.

 

[dogteam]

Toy steam engines are always good on eBay. That Mamod is a nice vintage one. Great find!

 

[dogteam]

I hear you and I agree however, you can't stop these savages from poaching without literally killing the poachers, instead of just fining them or slapping them on the wrist with a few years in jail. The ivory trade as large as it is, is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to illegal poaching of banned animals and sea life. The Chinese and other assorted Asians are among the absolute worst abusers, as consumers of most of the poached animal parts in the world. You can't stop these people without direct physical force. That's what's wrong with this country, we're in bed with a bunch of damn Chinese communists when we should be wiping them off the face of the earth. Make poaching punishable by death on certain species on a global scale and I guarantee you'll see a big reduction in poaching.

I'm with you on the death penalty, but have my doubts that anything would change. And destroying ivory just makes those that have stockpiled it rub their hands with glee, because we're increasing the value of their investment every time more is taken off the market.

 

[diggummup]

I'm with you on the death penalty, but have my doubts that anything would change. And destroying ivory just makes those that have stockpiled it rub their hands with glee, because we're increasing the value of their investment every time more is taken off the market.

I agree and I don't know what the answer is either but I do know it is a serious problem, with China and the US being the main contributors to that problem.

 

[scaupus]

Yeah, I'm aware of the ivory restrictions (and all the rest of their bs restrictions) on fleabay. I have many different items that are prohibited from sale on ebay. Doesn't make it/them any less collectible though. I'll get the pics up in a couple hours hopefully.

Just to note: I saw several sperm whale teeth sold on Etsy.

 

[kcm]

Just to note: I saw several sperm whale teeth sold on Etsy.

Some people consider teeth the same as ivory. But that didn't used to be the case.

In the sense of whale teeth, if a whale is found naturally on the beach, and it appears the whale beached itself, then the finder should be allowed to harvest the same as if it was a big buck found dead of natural causes. Personally, I don't like such trophies. But I'm against forcing those who are collectors from the freedom of doing so.