15 years ago, or thereabouts, a good friend bought RM1321 from "daaaarn saaaarf", his first routemaster. It would be fair to say he cherished the bus and went on many adventures in it, notably up to Inverness more than once. It was a very good original and relatively unmolested bus. Time pressed on and my friend had to reluctantly admit that costs were rising, income was falling, and rather than allow deterioration to set in, that he would sell the bus to a good home, specifically, that it would not be exported or converted, and should be for continued preservation. It was made available through the association and was put on the website. Unfortunately the timing was wrong as we were in a global recession and prices were not as high as they once were. The asking price was a very fair £14,000 initially, which was dropped to 12 after a year of no interest or offers. Along comes a chap from near Southampton airport who claims to be a preservationist who wants an original RM for his collection. He drives a hard bargain and gets the bus for 2 grand less.

The day before delivery the radiator started leaking, and rather than bodge it up, we fitted a brand new old stock one as it was going to a "genuine" buyer.

When the bus was being delivered, alarm bells rang for my friend and his mate as the venue appeared to be a dealer. But he was assured that the bus was for his private collection.

Cue a lick of paint and a short while later it's on Ebay for £30,000. Then it drops to £28,500. Then apparantly the chap decides he is keeping the bus after all.

Roll on to last night, and my next door neighbour comes round for a drink or 4. His 18 year old daughter is with him, who has just returned from a holiday in Nice, South of France. She shows me her holiday pictures on her fancy phone. Ferraris and other exotic machinery. Then she says "wait till you see this one, it was parked up at a language school with a black taxi". It's RM 1321.

Be careful who you sell your bus to.

My bus number (if any): RM531

Well being used in Nice is better than being left in field to go green and corrode or shut away and never see the light of day Steve. Whilst owners might like to say what will happen with their buses I doubt its enforceable in law.

Its a fact that buses (and used cars and vans) in France fetch far higher prices than in the UK, recently an RT in the Loire Valley was sold for £20000, and a language School near Nice, might be the same one, have a Leyland PD3 on offer for 40000€. We sold our RML for well over 20000€ and didn't make much on what we bought it for.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960 RMC 1458 RM 1585 and several RTs

Nothing new then, it's been going on for years. London Coaches and Lt used to sell buses with stipulations, such as not to be used for further psv service, but once THAT purchaser sells it on, the agreement ends.

Such conditions are unenforcable in law afaik. I think we'd all like our buses to go to a good home when we sell them on, but money in the bank or bus in the garage with a permanent drain on said money is the option!

My bus number (if any): RML2532;GS67;RT2629;MLL721;MLL738. MFM38 (Bedford OB)