"Click Bait"
I Can't Do This Any More!
I can no longer buy the vintage Plarail sets that may have a rare item that I really want. The reason being is that a lot of the plastic of that time is no longer any good.
Case in point:
Recently I purchased a vintage set to get me a rare bridge that is no longer made and very hard to find. The set came with many other things including blue track. The set had several pieces of blue track that are no longer made and I was hoping to sell those to recoup some of the expense of getting what I want. Well...all of the blue tracks are so hard and brittle that when you go to use them they crack and break easily. Most vulnerable is cracking down the middle between the rails and the track coupling snapping off. No I have received old blue track in bulk purchases before that I just threw away but this one really hurt. Luckily, for me, this only affected the blue tracks and the other items have not deteriorated. Since the track was not yellowed or discolored in any way I ruled out the UV rays of the sun so my conclusion is that plastic making was in its infancy then and they had no idea what would happen to their processes over the long haul or how to combat the affects and the plastic they used in the blue track became hard and brittle.
I Can't Do This Any More..............unless, of course, the set is so cheap I can't refuse the impulse to buy it.