Model Train Journal

...to our hobby of model trains during this huge and significant upset to world society due to the myriad effects of Covid ?

Having next to no effect at all on my personal activities here at home; probably building more and writing more than ever before.

Real effect on getting to shows and meets that are cancelled - unable to sell off the excess "stuff", and to meet up with many people; that socialization factor.

OTOH, I'm in a Zoom (or other system) model train meeting 2-4 times a week with a lot of those same people and then with a lot of people I've never met before, so new faces and names, and contacts all over the country.

Other than shows and meets my train life goes on. Actually probably getting a little more done than normal.

A lot more SPAM emails about INSANE sales at some of the larger mail order/internet sellers. I did get the LioneChief Plus with BlueTooth at a great price so I can tolerate the SPAM. Miss the shows.

chuck wrote:A lot more SPAM emails.......

Have noticed an uptick in the junk/spam mail folders.......but old solution still works: select all; delete.

More active than I've been in many years, but mostly because I'm retired now and we have finally settled into a new (and hopefully) long term residence. We are both setting up our hobby rooms and getting organized and fulfilling a bucket list item. My only fear is that we can stay healthy and enjoy it for many years.

This is our 22nd year of retirement. Other than the virus problem my only regret is that that my layout has been mostly finished for several years
so I have only little detail stuff to do. My eye problems have made this type of work very difficult and slow to do.
A few years ago I started selling off some stuff at the Savannah train show and am signed up again this year but don't know if it will happen.
These are not complaints. I'm actually a little surprised and pleased to still be around.

This might help explain what is going on with Game stop and the stock market

What you need to know about GameStop’s stock price chaos
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... eddit-faq/

HONDO74 wrote:This might help explain what is going on with Game stop and the stock market

What you need to know about GameStop’s stock price chaos
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... eddit-faq/

Thanks, Robert. I understood a little of that.

This is going to be fun to watch.

Silver surges as Reddit army turns to commodities
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55882758

Silver prices leapt to a five-month high on Monday on social media calls to buy the metal and emulate the frenzy that drove up GameStop shares.

Shares in a handful of smaller Australian mining firms surged as small-time traders bought en masse.

Argent Minerals, Boab Metals and Investigator Resources leapt more than 15%.

Coin-selling websites also reported unprecedented demand and flagged delays in delivering silver.

Silver rose as much as 7% to $28.99 an ounce, its highest value since mid-August.

The moves are the latest example of small-time traders buying stocks and other assets that large Wall Street funds bet against, resulting in large losses for major investors.

Some users in the Reddit forum Wallstreetbets argued that silver is a heavily manipulated market, and a surge in the silver price could hurt large Wall Street players.

"Think about the Gainz. If you don't care about the gains, think about the banks like JP MORGAN you'd be destroying along the way," said Reddit user RocketBoomGo, in a widely circulated post.

The recent GameStop surge, which was also fuelled by retail investors, was also seen as a revolt against large institutional investors.

Unlike GameStop, which was a loss-making gaming retailer that many investment funds had bet against, Silver has seen strong growth over the past year.