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I use eBay cautiously. I never bid on items at or above retail. I never use anything but a postal money order. I pay the charges for shipping and insurance on some really valuable items as well as delivery confirmation. Occasionally I find a needed item at buy it now and I snap it up. I spend some time each week doing nothing but planning my purchases and working out what goes onto my railroad. I also bid on a budget so I am very careful what I bid for. I am in close contact with two hobby shops near me and occasionlly buy items cheaper than what ebay has. I once bought a riverossie heisler for about 110 dollars versus 3 times that in retail value. The 2-6-6-6 is stubbornly stuck at 350- I hope to see lower prices on this someday. I have considered selling off two good engines because they take up room best used by other engines. I find multiple copies of these same engines at wildly different prices so I choose to wait on these sales. eBay nickels and dimes you to death on the various fees for listing, selling an item so I may just keep the engines and seek a local sale. Another thing I have learned is last minute "Sniping" I am a sniper and I am not ashamed of it. I purchased a item several times this way. What happens is that I am at eBay 10 minutes before the item closes. at 2 minutes I throw in a bid to see if there is others bidding. Once I secured the winning bid I get the item. If however the bidding takes off within 2 minutes I double the current bid plus 1/3% (Be sure this is the AMOUNT you are able to pay. Once you submit a proxy bid (Ebay bidding to your maximum) you are legally bound to pay. I wait until about 34 seconds before end of auction and slam the large proxy bid in. This kills the current winning bidder out and does not give them the time to figure out the new winning bid and the auto bid keeps up with them. I rarely have to fight for a item. Once I witnessed a Athearn Open top Heinz Pickle tank car sell for $65.50. This is in the Mint, unbuilt form. Who ever had to pay that kind of money must really really want the kit. (Retail price in 2003 was about $5.60) Another thing is brass. Anything brass people fight for. I once saw a junk brass engine sell for several hundred dollars. I felt sick becuase to me that is a waste of good money. Once in a while something good pops up from the past. Two words... Grab it. I have a tyco water tower and coaling tower kits for maybe 7 bucks total. This saves me at least 40 dollars of what a nice kit or built up offerings by walthers and others. After they were built they are ready for service and one of these won a small award in a model contest. Never use Pay Pal. Never give your credit card out. Never use western union. ALWAYS do the following: Email the seller with questions, be ready to send a money order next day after an auction ends. Ask for mailing address of shipper. Print out your sale to be enclosed with money order. wait and wait some more. It will take about 10-12 days to get the item. Sometimes not as many days. Stay in touch with the seller. Once you recieve the item check and make sure that it is what you want. When you are satisfied, leave a positive feed back for the seller. There is a growing number of sellers refusing to sell items to anyone with less than 100% approval rating. And certain sellers will not accept payments such as credit cards from malaysia or other areas due to piracy and fruad. There is alot here but it can be very good supplement to your hobby once you decide what to bid on and at what maximum price. Do not bid retail or above check your prices with your LHS, catalog etc. Good luck
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