Glad to see you found an honest seller. I recently purchased a Spectrum loco on Ebay and it had split gears. The seller didn't disclose this.
Todd
Last night I was surfing around on Ebay looking for what I need or didn't need and came across a P2K for a buy it now of $16.99. I had to take a double take and read what the seller said about it having split gears. He did disclose that it had one or more split gears, but was not sure how many. The engine was being sold for parts only.
This is one of the first sellers out there on Ebay that I have seen disclosed the gear problems up front for once. Many sellers just sell them with the lite use or new condition, knowing they have gear problems.
I'm sure I did not need this loco, but it was hard to pass up at that kind of price. I still have several packs of the Athearn gears for rehab and just to have for spare parts, so I will get my gears, wheel gauge, and set asid 10 minutes to swap out the gears in the wheels sets.
ICRR