Help Ebay Suprize [%-)]

[Anonymous]

I need some help please, I'm new to G scale about a year now, and to this point I have been reading as much material, books, magazines, Internet as I can get my hands on, have gone to one model train show with all scales to get a good taste, I have been buying rolling stock to start my garden layout this spring, retail and on ebay and things I have been very successful to this point. My problem is this, I recently bid on 2 items and won both of the following and I quote the sellers remarks "You are bidding on a used 1986 Burlington Northern box cars, doors open & close, G scale, roof has 2 small chips, Made by New Bright Thank-you for looking" end sellers quote. One was green with chips the other was brown and had no chips The pictures looked fine, looked like what I new as g scale, feed back of seller seamed ok of what I checked there was 62 pages. Thinking I was buying 2 used, and weathered g scale box cars, I waited until they arrived in the mail. I opened the box and to my surprise I pulled out these two little box cars each 10"long x 3.25"wide x 3.5" high with 1" wheel diameter and will fit 45 mm gauge 1 track. My first words were @#$%@#$ are these things. My local hobby shop guy had not seen NEW BRIGHT before and agreed it will fit on gauge 1 track but that was all he would agree to, we were not sure of any thing else scale wise of its proportions to a prototype. They sure look real small compared to some of my other g scale USA, Aristo, LGB, Lionel rolling stock. So is there any one with the knowledge to shine a
" BRIGHT "light on this??? Is it g scale or not???? or did I just get ripped off or what?????

[Anonymous]

Well the seller did say it was New Bright, so he was not deceiving you. The lesson learned from this is that New Bright and some other brands are cheap rolling stock that are primarily sold with Christmas train sets that normally are sold for less than $100 at Wal-Mart or other discount stores. Some EBay sellers will break up a set and by selling them individually can make a nice profit off of the unsuspecting buyer. The quaity names you look for are: LGB; Aristocraft; Bachmann(cheapest); and USA. Before you bid, send the seller an E-Mail asking specific questions about the item. If they send up any red flags, then don't bid. Everyone on this board had bid on something that was not what they thought it was - you live and learn.

[bman36]

Hey there,
New Bright is generally not something you want to buy at any price. As already said it comes out usually around Christmas. It's cheap and nothing near scale. Yes it runs on 45mm track, but that is it. If I'm not mistaken "G" is actually 1:22.5 in scale. New Bright is no where near that. You do have a leg to stand on if it was advertised as "G". 45mm track is GUAGE 1 track. Several different scales will run on that track.. "G" is a scale not a guage. You could tell the seller you wi***o return it based on the fact that it is not "G scale". Hope this all works out for ya'. Later eh...Brian.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by coffinpoint

I need some help please, I'm new to G scale about a year now, and to this point I have been reading as much material, books, magazines, Internet as I can get my hands on, have gone to one model train show with all scales to get a good taste, I have been buying rolling stock to start my garden layout this spring, retail and on ebay and things I have been very successful to this point. My problem is this, I recently bid on 2 items and won both of the following and I quote the sellers remarks "You are bidding on a used 1986 Burlington Northern box cars, doors open & close, G scale, roof has 2 small chips, Made by New Bright Thank-you for looking" end sellers quote. One was green with chips the other was brown and had no chips The pictures looked fine, looked like what I new as g scale, feed back of seller seamed ok of what I checked there was 62 pages. Thinking I was buying 2 used, and weathered g scale box cars, I waited until they arrived in the mail. I opened the box and to my surprise I pulled out these two little box cars each 10"long x 3.25"wide x 3.5" high with 1" wheel diameter and will fit 45 mm gauge 1 track. My first words were @#$%@#$ are these things. My local hobby shop guy had not seen NEW BRIGHT before and agreed it will fit on gauge 1 track but that was all he would agree to, we were not sure of any thing else scale wise of its proportions to a prototype. They sure look real small compared to some of my other g scale USA, Aristo, LGB, Lionel rolling stock. So is there any one with the knowledge to shine a
" BRIGHT "light on this??? Is it g scale or not???? or did I just get ripped off or what?????

Sorry to hear you got stung on e-bay but unfortunately I have to agree with Dontrainman, the seller did say it was New Bright and did not decive you. I dont know WHO is buying this stuff but they sell an AWFULL LOT of this brand on e-bay, is there some Mad-Monk squadron of garden railroaders out there who run nothing but that we know nothing about?

Unfortunatly, its really up to you to know your product, and unfortunatly you found out the hard way that you really get what you pay for. I'll bet you payed around $10 for each car, right? Thats about the average price for New Bright cars on E-bay. New Bright and Echo are made in China garbage that unfortunately is what most people see or think "large scale" is. If your up to the challenge you might be able to repaint or kitba***hem into something usable, MOW cars or something?[;)]

I got an Echo set one christmas and virtually destroyed the entire set by cannibalising parts. The caboose ended up having the body chucked, new trucks added, a new wood floor added now it makes a passable flat car. Similar story with the other cars. The engines got blown apart for parts (cab, domes, stack, pilot, etc.) got alot of stuff for the parts bin. I wouldnt knowingly buy New Bright now because I know what their stuff is like, and now you, are also so armed with this knowledge . Good luck with future e-bay adventures.[:D]

[Anonymous]

Coffinpoint:
Quote from the feedback:
Reply by crumbach: Paid $35.00 for a New Bright Car and then wanted $ back. Sellers be watch out

What I think he intended to say was sellers beware. Beware of who? You. He must be crazy. Last time I checked, you were the customer, paid what you agreed to and got less than what you paid for. I know I will never purchase anything from crumbach. Thanks for exposing this thief. This buyer is going to be aware of him. He seemed to think it was kind of cute that he ripped you off. Sorry you had to learn the hard way. At least you will have some rolling stock you can let the little kids handle without worrying about it.

I suggest you get a copy of Garden Railway Magazine. It is a good reference on what things should cost. I can't be certain but I don't think you will see too much New Bright advertised within their pages.

Good luck in the future and hope you get things rolling in the spring.

Peter

P.S. [wow] vsmith, congratulations on your 1000th post!! [tup]

[bman36]

coffinpoint,
If you plan to buy anything else on ebay take your time. My experience has been that if you miss out on an item, there will be another shortly after. Chalk it up to experience and carry on. Keep asking the questions and we'll do our best to help! Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to those who replied with your comments, I mostly just wanted to let others know who didn't know what NEW BRIGHT was like my self before this wing ding crumbach sold me these cars, mostly for my own satisfaction. But does anybody know what the true scale of NEW BRIGHT really is or is it in fact a ‘' g ‘'scale??????? with its guts sucked out to make it a very small car. I did not want to name names in my comments but as above this guys ebay name is crumbach. And I got into true g scale because I can afford the hobby. The guy got $100+ can $ o well... I just don't really like to be ripped off, I would have payed more to get what I was truly expecting to receive And I only asked for my money back because crumbach auction notes said he did his best to accurately and honestly describe the item. His guarantee is simple: if you find the item to be not as advertised, you may return it with in 3 weeks less any S&H & any fees for a full refund. I was just taking advantage of this guys offer because I felt it was not as advertised.. In the long run its not the money I spent because if you don't make some mistakes along the way you don't really learn anything now do you, I feel the real problem is that he knowingly did this. The problem seams to be with NEW BRIGHT calling this g scale and its not what most people are expecting to get. So I've told 56 people so far who have read this posting an if they tell 56 people and those people do the same. You know what I mean every body gets to know about this guy and what he is really like. And as for the box cars you got to know....... I can see a train wreck coming one day and they fell off a bridge and I'll just tell my train crew just to leave them as a reminder. Any other comments are most welcome thank-you. Keep it on the rail and between the ditches.

[vsmith]

coffinpoint

Welcome to the Wide World of Sports we call G gauge!

New Bright trains ARE G guage, meaning that they run on 45mm G gauge track just like LGB , Bachmann, and the others. They are NOT to scale though anymore than a Tonka Toy or a Hot Wheels is to scale. They are first and foremost TOYS. so as i said , sorry ya got burned. As you get deeper into the hobby you too will discover that New Brights arent the only scale oddity out there. read some of the other "scale" and "gauge " posts on this forum and you'll see what I mean.

The best advice I can suggest is that before you get too deep, you need to decide if you want to model Standard Gauge trains which in G guage are 1/29 to 1/32 scale(USA, AristoCraft, some LGB and Markiln)---or----Narrow Gauge trains which in G guage is 1:20.3 to 1:22.5 scale (Accucraft, Bachmann, Hartland, Some LGB) I only suggest this because once you decide what you want to run , educating yourself and selecting items becomes much easier.

REMEMBER this is important

SCALE AND GUAGE ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS.

Gauge refers to the distance between the rails and that never changes...45mm.

Scale is whatever the manufacturer decides they want to make and is completely seperate from the "gauge" unfortunatly, just because someone calls something g "scale" doesnt really mean a thing. New Bright runs on G gauge track, so does a $3000 Accucraft C-16, but knowing the differnce is up to you as the consumer.

Its going to be up to you to decide how you want to proceed, but dont worry, in the end its a lot of fun.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by pfd586



P.S. [wow] vsmith, congratulations on your 1000th post!! [tup]

Thanks Peter, I posted the big 1000 over on the Trains Forum under "would you believe..." thread, check it out, we have, so far 48 pages of jokes. some real good ones too.[:D]

Later Vic

[Anonymous]

From what i have read, in garden railways less is more or better and whatever you do, do it in a small way first, then your mistakes and changes of mind will only be small to fix up or change. When I first read this I didn't think it applied to me as i wasn't going to change my mind or make too many mistakes; well I was wrong, I did and I have.

I bought a lot of stuff "on special or second hand whether I needed it ot not and to this day I am regretting it. As you go on, your ideas change particularly when you go to club meetings and see what others have done with their Garden Railways.

Nowdays I do not buy anything unless I have a direct need or requirement for it and I do not buy anything that appears to be a great bargain, as usually it isn't any bargain at all. i only buy the best (LGB) and pay what is being asked, it is either new or nearly new without a scratch and from reputable people.

I have great layout 65 m (200 ' or so) It is all LGB on the digital MTS system, it is all set in the Orient with a lot of decorative, gravels or pebbles, Everything works just about perfectly, virtually no derailments or equipment problems or anything like that.

What I did was to get something down and working going around in circles and expanded on that in a planned manner and it is working for me.

I hope your find your way in this great pasttime as well.


Ian J Brown; Kawana Island Tropical Railway.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear about your purchase. I agree that in the future you need to beware of what you are buying more carefully. Definately buy the Aristocraft, Bachmann, USA Trains, or LGB, although if you find a good price for an Accucraft it wouldn't be such a bad thing. those are the biggest, although many other smaller companes exist such as Hartland Locomitve Works and other such ones. What I did when I started out in the hobby was to figure out what I wanted, then looked through all the adds in the year of Garden Railway magazines to figure out what prices seemed acceptable and such. I hope your future encounters go better!