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	Restoration Project Buying an old toaster Today it is not difficult to get an old toaster. Just check different online auctions. Type the searchword toaster and you can join the toasterworld. You also could try fleamarkets but it gets harder and harder to find something interesting on fleamarkets. TIP 1: Be careful and don't forget to think about the money you want to spend for the toaster. Set yourself a limit before you join an auction. Believe me... I know what I am talking about. I first just wanted to pay 100 $US for this toaster. But later I really "forgot" this and paid some bucks more. TIP 2: Place your bid at the end of an auction if possible. This will keep the price low. But be prepared - professional collectors will do the same in the last minutes of the auction. Also the beginning of my biggest and first really big restoration project was an auction at ebay.com.... Very Early 6 Slice Toaster [wt. 17 pounds] (item #259232281) Your bid was in the amount of: $271.00 Your maximum bid was in the amount of: $271.00 The auction closes on: Feb-19-00 09:14:59 PST Web location used: http://www.ebay.com After processing all open bids for this item, the current bid price is: $271.00 a very early, heavy (14 pounds) and rusty Canadian 6-slice toaster.... pictures from the auction at ebay.com Money transfer Well first thing after auction is to give the money to the seller. This is really not as easy as it sounds if it is a country in overseas. To transfer money from Germany to overseas is difficult and costs a lot. There are the following possibilities: 1. Cheque: Sounds good, but most of the American banks do not cash German checks from banks they do not know. If they do so, they take a lot of money for this service. 2. Money transfer: Account to account: Easy to handle but be prepared to pay a lot of money. 30 DM (15$US) or more, depending on value of transaction. 3. Cash: Send the money Cash to the seller (but in currency of sellers country). There is no cashing fee, but the danger that the money gets lost. If the money gets lost... bad luck... there is no good possibility to insurance such letters. TIP 3: For money transfer up to 100 $US (200 DM) I always send the money cash to overseas countries. Important is to use a special type of letter (Einschreiben mit Rückantwort für Ausland). Insurance is only up to 50 DM, but this letter seldom get lost! With this type of letter the seller also has to sign if he gets the money and you will get a postcard back, that the money arrived. (costs more or less 10 DM). Shipping an old toaster After the seller gets your payment the seller has to ship the toaster.There are generally two possibilities: 1. Airmail 2. Seamail TIP 4: For shipping of heavy pieces always try to choose SEAMAIL. This will create low costs and shipping will take 4 to 6 weeks from USA to Germany (airmail takes two weeks). Shipping of this heavy thing (totally incl. packing 17.5 pounds) costed 30$ US. Ask for a good packing. Taxes for trading Well... the German government often takes tax for old toasters. There are two different possibilities: If the package is not declared as gift the custom declares it as trading good. Than you will have to pay 2.7 % of the value which is written on the package and additionally if you are unlucky 16 % trading tax for incoming things. So this will sum up to 18.7 %. By the way I was asked to pay 18.7% for this toaster. If the package is declared as gift you will have to pay only 13.5% as "Pauschalierte-Steuer". custom document and letter to the custom Reassembling such on old toaster is a lot of fun, but takes a lot of time. Before reassembling I took some photos of the toaster:

	TIP 5: For avoiding or minimise the tax for toasters let the seller write Geschenk / Gift on the box. TIP 6: For avoiding trading tax of 16%, let the seller write a low value on the shipping box (max 49 $US or 99 DM) and let the seller write Geschenk / Gift onto the shipping box. That packages get lost is not common so the insurance mostly has no use. Of course nobody knows how expensive an old toaster is, so the custom always will take the written value on the box. There is a special German/European law that pieces up to 100 DM (49 $US) are free of taxes. But be careful if you will get a toaster with the Value of 101 DM you will have to pay tax for the whole value. The 100 DM only can be deducted if the good can be divided in several pieces so that the value of at least one piece is lower than 100 DM and the pieces do not loose the possibility to use. In fact this is only possible if you have more than one toaster in one package. TIP 7: Well it is law, but you always can talk to people. Also the custom is sometimes fair and if you have good arguments, perhaps they will change their mind... try to write a friendly letter to the custom to explain why you would like to get some of the money back. Explain that your friend forgot to sign the package as gift if it was not declared as gift and that the value is lower than declared on the package. As you see... trading toasters can produce some costs. So of course you would like to restore an old piece so that it looks nice again. Of course this is only worth if you have an old and rare piece.
	Restoration of the plating If you look at the pictures you easily can recognise: There is a lot of rust and nearly no shining metal. Because of this, the toaster has to be cleaned and given to someone who will give a new nickel-plating to the toaster. TIP 8: To get a new plating you have to check different companies (in German language: Betrieb für Galvanisierung). If you call them with phone you normally get the answer that they handle only big quantities. But no problem... just go directly to a company (small is better than big) and ask the working people directly. They will be happy to get a small extra job and (of course) some extra money for their help. Missing parts This toaster has some missing parts. Heating elements, switches, handles and other parts are missing. So what to do? Handles: In so called "Drehereien" you can get rebuilded handles for 5 DM to 10 DM per piece. Just give an original piece to them. Just choose wood which is hard enough. Afterwards you have to paint the piece On-/Off-switch: Try to find a good friend who sells a double / similar part to you. switch from a toaster with a similar style - seen in ebay.com panel of my toaster where the switches have to be screwed on (measuring in mm)
	Heating/Mica-Elements: picture of old mica-elements Reassembling the Toaster Reassembling this Toaster took about 4 hours. You see. Restoring toasters needs some time. TIP 9: Be careful with reassembling. Don't destroy any parts (heating elements, screws) and don't loose any part (smal screws). On old piece with original parts has a higher value. reassembling the toaster Cleaning parts Toasters which were used often have two problems. The plating is worn because the heat destroyed the plating after a short time (especially nickel plating isn't that strong). During the years the metal began to get rusty. Parts which are near the heating elemnts get black from a mixture of dust and heat. In this case the small ceramic insulators at the bottom of the heating elements got black. TIP 10: If I have some parts which became black from heat and dust during several years I use heating oven cleaner. I spray it to the parts, wait some hours, clean them with water, use the heating oven cleaner again....Ceramic elements could be cleaned with this as often as you want. If you do it too often with plated metal, the plating will be destroyed, because the plating in earlier times were very weak. TIP 11: For dirty parts you can use a special commercial kitchen cleaning paste. In germany Eilfix is known as very good product. Never use nromal kitchen cleaning things like (Stahlfix) because you could get scretches on weak plating. Eilfix 2000