I make a practice of writing down the various websites which come up during
reading the various messages and when I have a few minutes to spare I have a
look at them.

Today I loked at the Japanese museum of woodworking tools {and bookmarked
for future study} and then went on to look at the ebay and tooldeal
sites.....

Now for the last 30 odd years I have been going to various English auctions
in different parts of the country {I've even visited Southerbys in London}
and every year the quality of items on offer drops whilst the prices people
are willing to pay for cr*p goes up, and each year I think to myself 'it has
finally hit rock bottom', but no, still it keeps dropping - so I consider
myself an expert on what people sell and buy.

I have now been looking at what is offered by ebay and tooldeal, and to be
perfectly honest I have been shocked.   Now I'm not knocking you guys, you
know what you are looking for and are finding the stuff, as is evident from
the various 'gloats' that regularly appear.     No, what I am shocked at comes
under other headings, and if 95% of that was put up for auction over here in
even the most run-down auction house it wouldn't even get a maiden bid.

Now I will not go into the whys and wherefors of peoples tastes, be they
English or American, but if ebay and tooldeal were to auction the lowest
quality items I saw in a recent auction over here they would be of a far far
higher quality than what I have seen on their lists.

Now there is a saying that "what happens in America will happen in England a
few years later" - and I have a feeling that the drop in quality of items
offered for auction over here proves the truth of this saying, you only have
to read the 'gloats' of the guys who have been fortunate to visit us to
prove my point when they describe the tools they found.

I'm sorry, but if I ever come across the pond I won't be bringing back any
tools, more likely it 'll be a supply of 'Southern Comfort' {now that is one
thing that I have to agree cannot be improved on, even by the Scots}.

Mike.