Buying Experience: Winter 2016 - Black Friday Sale!

I must say, this experience could not have gone any better. As an ebay shopper for 14 years now, I know that the holidays can be an excellent time to pick up some excellent deals on merch. Thus, I went on this Thanksgiving holiday week (Wednesday, I think) and found this lovely:

It originally was an auction style listing, sold for $33 and was relisted (not sure why), then it was on for buy it now for $39.99 with $20.35 for shipping. 

I watched it for a few days and agonized over wether or not I should buy it, if I did, would the seller go to USPS/UPS and realize shipping was $85 and cancel the order, am I misreading this and its not the whole house? Whats the deal, yo?! I read and reread the listing, emailed it to a fellow collector hoping at least they would take advantage of this RARE deal (they passed), had my Thanksgiving holiday and decided that if it was still around that evening, then it was meant to be mine so I would buy it. Sure enough, it was still waiting for me, so I purchased it.

Shipped in a box measuring 32x31x18 (small furniture chest), using string tape and plastic straps (handles), it worked great. Usually furniture cardboard boxes can be a softer type of cardboard, so I prefer new Uhaul/moving boxes with nice crisp corners, but this far exceeds the usual boxes ebay sellers use. 

Not sure where they got these, but they are great for moving this mammoth box around until unpacking. I actually ended up cutting into the box side so I did not have to cut the straps. I am storing the house in this box for now until I can restore the house later and will ship it in this box most likely. 

Excellent packing: lots of styrofoam strips and rectangles, lots of clean, large scale bubble wrap, sections of the house were shrink wrapped in plastic to keep all the parts together. 1 door threshold broke, but I am not upset because it could have been cracked already, admittedly, is a very weak spot and I can superglue it and it will never show once the house is set up. 

A little super glue will fix that. 

Even the post covers (broken, brown and incomplete as they were), were bubble wrapped in a separate box to avoid further damage. 

I emailed the seller to let them know I got the house ok, and how much I appreciated the great communication, fast shipping and professional packing. I do all of this and more and have still yet to have one positive feedback for my ebay account when selling these houses, not sure why, but oh well.

I will post pictures of the after, I don't have the time now for a reno, but looking forward to this one. Its a near complete 1979 house, missing just the closet, one small window, flowers and some post covers. So, I don't want to spend too much money on replacement stuff. Everything needs to be cleaned and painted. The walls are VERY yellowed, so I will be painting those flat white. The roofs and floors are likely the most faded I have ever personally purchased, so will go a different color. The doors and window frames are also bleached almost to white, so will be recolored using auto tape (see hardware aisle, pick any color).

Idea one is to reinvent this house with different 70's colors: cream/tan walls, orange roof, medium brown floors, orange or brown doors/windows. While I generally insist on white walls, I would try cream since I am having to paint the walls anyway.

Idea two is to paint the walls crisp white, the roof light grey and the floors light tan. I would paint the doors light grey, and maybe not put in the windows. The planters would be empty or simple. The idea is to emulate a prototype, or "collector's edition" of the house. I was inspired by the high end Lego line of "architect/designer" line. They are all white, without the distraction of colors. It is meant to highlight the architectural lines.