BOC Size 'Y' argoshield universal full cylinder, ebay - crazy price?!

[T689]

Yesterday sold on eBay...

BOC Size 'Y' argoshield universal full cylinder.

I was interested as not far from me (and obviously no rental, just buy, use gas and then "dispose" of cylinder when empty)

It was starting bid of £60, was £64 minutes from end, then jumped to £102, £104, and then sold for £150!!!

I could not believe the price, as effectively, the purchaser was only buying the gas, but no timescale to use it up, then have an empty (worthless) cylinder afterwards.

Surely if this is what the purchaser was after, a no rental cylinder would have cost much less for the gas, or am I missing something?!!

 

[Bushy_1]

65+vat to refill that size of hobbyweld at my local supplier. £110 to buy the cylinder.

So £190 all in and then get money back from cylinder, -£20 for admin.

 

[Munkul]

I thought BOC only rented cylinders? So in effect, someone is still paying for rental on that bottle...!

 

[Morrisman]

I thought you can’t sell something you don’t own?

 

[pedrobedro]

I thought you can’t see something you don’t own?

I can see next door's car.

 

[Brad93]

I pay £12.84 for one of those.

 

[Welderpaul]

The cylinder has value to someone...if he has a mate/work/whatever has an account with BOC and they use the same gas in the same cylinder sizes he can swap his 'own' cylinder with works and get gas for free, and not pay rental or any other BOC charges. Don't be fooled by the barcode business, there's a very straight forward way round that!

Someone, somewhere will either still be paying rent on it, or will have had to pay for it as a loss.

Ebay used to pull BOC bottle listings in a flash a year or two ago when I tried to shift some that we had claimed off a job and didn't have on hire with BOC. They don't seem to bother anymore.

 

[Munkul]

The cylinder has value to someone...if he has a mate/work/whatever has an account with BOC and they use the same gas in the same cylinder sizes he can swap his 'own' cylinder with works and get gas for free, and not pay rental or any other BOC charges.

Ah, cheeky. Makes sense!

 

[Mikes]

Think they will find that hard to do as for quite a while now all BOC cylinders are scanned for their unique serial number so if it's not one that BOC have recorded as renting to them they will not change it. BOC brought this in to stop this practice as it was costing them a mint in lost revenue. Generally the 'market' for buying cylinders like this fell apart but looks like this purchaser hadn't heard of this. Going to be one very expensive bottle of gas for them. Hope it's a well paid welding job that they bought it for!

 

[Hood]

Think they will find that hard to do as for quite a while now all BOC cylinders are scanned for their unique serial number so if it's not one that BOC have recorded as renting to them they will not change it. BOC brought this in to stop this practice as it was costing them a mint in lost revenue. Generally the 'market' for buying cylinders like this fell apart but looks like this purchaser hadn't heard of this. Going to be one very expensive bottle of gas for them. Hope it's a well paid welding job that they bought it for!

BOC do indeed scan the barcode. The Barcode however, on that particular type of cylinder, seems to be on the plastic collar, it would only take seconds to swap over the collars.

 

[Morrisman]

I can see next door's car.

Damn, dopey spelling mistake corrected now.

 

[m_c]

BOC do indeed scan the barcode. The Barcode however, on that particular type of cylinder, seems to be on the plastic collar, it would only take seconds to swap over the collars.

Aren't the bottles stamped with a serial number/test date though?
I'm sure there will be some point during the test/refill process things get cross checked, whether that happens or gets flagged up, is probably debateable.

 

[Welderpaul]

The barcodes are on a plastic collar which clips onto the neck of the bottle. Said plastic collar comes off very easily. The newer grey plastic valve guards that they are fitted with now (as per ebay pic) would need unbolting to take the collar off.
Needless to say the barcode can very easily be swapped from one bottle to another.
It goes on loads.

 

[Morrisman]

...I'm sure there will be some point during the test/refill process things get cross checked, whether that happens or gets flagged up, is probably debateable.

Maybe the bit where they try to find your account for the refill paperwork....