There are all manner of sleazy operators on e-Bay. I recently purchased an item with an advertised shipping and handling of $30. I paid promptly by Pay-Pal, and then received an e-mail from the seller asking for an additional $15 for postage "due to the item being heavier than thought and costing more to ship."
I fell for it and sent an additional payment. When I received the item I saw that the actual postage was less than $15, so I tried contacting him by e-mail for 2 weeks with no response. I finally sent a negative feedback.
He finally answered with a very vitriolic e-mail accusing me of being the crook because my winning bid had been less than he paid for the item, and leaving negative feedback about me as the purchaser. I only buy one or two items a year from e-Bay, so I'm not concerned about his negative attitude.
My biggest complaint with e-Bay is the extremely limited space for explaining why feedback is negative -- something like 20 characters total. I wanted to give a far more detailed explanation of what had happened but couldn't.
Quote- On the other hand how badly do you feel when you win an auction at 25% of the retail value?
Still waiting on that one to happen. Most of the stuff I've won has been only slightly less than retail price when you factor in S&H. Some of those I couldn't find anywhere else so I didn't care. Then there's the guys that "don't no nuthin bout trains" , but they know enough to only take pics of the good side of the item so you don't see the missing/broken grab irons/railings/details on the other side. Or the fact that some 3 year old tried his hand at weathering the other side.
Saw a guy selling brand new air tools. Buy it now price-$1. S&H-$45. Same tools I can get at Wally World for $20.
I happen to have bought a lot of HO model railroad equipment in anticipation of building a-make that-ANY layout. For the past 15 years due to job relocations, lack of space or lack of a right of way agreement with my lovely wife, I'm still anticipating laying my first piece of track.
Anything that I bought new...whether I opened the box to peek or not...is still new, as in unused. This may not answer everyone's question as to why somebody would have 'NIB' locos or rolling stock, but I would guess that I might not be the only one in the model railroading world still hoping to have a place to run his/her fleet and collecting equipment as it is introduced.
Last spring, summer and fall I sold off a 25 year collection of 99.9% brand new HO scale locomotive, rolling stock, structure kits and detail items on eBay to finance my move to two-rail O-scale. I had hundreds of individual items that were brand new and unassembled in their original boxes. Yes, there are people out there that buy stuff and leave it untouched in boxes on the shelf for a variety of reasons. I'm one of them.
My eBay listing items were accurate and if there was a problem with something that I knew about I noted it. The couple of times that I made an errror I made good on the item. I also packed things extremely well and charged basic USPS Priority Mail shipping charges without any fluff added in. And if the final packaged shipping charge came in less than what the winning bidder paid for shipping I refunded back the difference.
I also always made it a point to give feedback immediately after receiving payment and never, ever, held anyone's feedback 'hostage' waiting for them to leave me positive feedback first. It's just the right thing to do because once the buyer has paid me, they've satisified their obiligation.
There are honest eBay sellers out there and I consider myself one of them.
Bob - Warren, MI
Most of my purchases have been from LHS's(even MB Klein lists things) that use ebay--obviously usually trying to move stock that's likely been sitting on their shelves for a while. I find the deals all over the place as discussed here. My P2K E8's were fairly pricey--not surprising since Life Like's last run of them in my road was in 2001. On the other hand, pretty good deal for my USRA Heavy BLI steamer since they were over produced, so it really just depends on the item. I haven't been "burned" yet, fortunately.
Jim
shawnee wrote: I've done my fair share of shopping on E-Bay...enough to know the frustrations of being "sniped" on that lovely little loco I had watched for days...but I've become curious...how many of the listings are truthful.."mint in box" "factory new" "never run"...do these people really have hard-to-get, expensive locomotives just sitting around in boxes on their shelves? I dunno, but how many people can there be like that? How can you not run an engine you presumably spent over a hundred bucks on? "well, I just think I'll put this one away for a few years..."I guess me, with my silly ten loco collection (but a nice ten they are!), it's hard for me to grasp that. And it's hard for me to really tell if an engine has been run a bit (not a lot, but a bit)..and maybe it doesn't matter if the price is right, but wondering...any of the experienced MR's here have an opinion/advice on the listing and verification process on E-Bay? Are all these listings pure hype, as i presume?
I've done my fair share of shopping on E-Bay...enough to know the frustrations of being "sniped" on that lovely little loco I had watched for days...but I've become curious...how many of the listings are truthful.."mint in box" "factory new" "never run"...do these people really have hard-to-get, expensive locomotives just sitting around in boxes on their shelves? I dunno, but how many people can there be like that? How can you not run an engine you presumably spent over a hundred bucks on? "well, I just think I'll put this one away for a few years..."
I guess me, with my silly ten loco collection (but a nice ten they are!), it's hard for me to grasp that. And it's hard for me to really tell if an engine has been run a bit (not a lot, but a bit)..and maybe it doesn't matter if the price is right, but wondering...any of the experienced MR's here have an opinion/advice on the listing and verification process on E-Bay? Are all these listings pure hype, as i presume?
I've been buying items on ebay since 2004. Other than overpaying for one Athearn locomotive (yes, an FP45), I think I've had a pretty good experience from dealing there.
All of the items that I've won which were listed as NIB (new in the box) appeared to be so when I received them. I make it a habit to make certain that the seller has a 99% to 100% Feedback record or better. It's not a guarantee that things won't go wrong, but for me it's been a good rule of thumb to operate by.
I've seen models that I've wanted but grudgingly decided not to bid at all because the sellers had negative feedback records with some containing interesting, "Yuck-Town" comments that included failing to ship, item was not as described, item in poor or broken condition.
I'm all smiles as I just won an out of production P2K GP9. Though it was a "Buy it Now" price, imho, it was very reasonable since it was listed as NIB by a seller with a 100% Feedback rating.
So all is not "doom and gloom" on ebay.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
I was tempted by a pair of SD7's and GP7, SD9's on ebay today. A check of advanced reservations show these units are coming this year towards winter. I will wait until then and get it at a discount in the Hobby shop.
Im stalking one item on ebay and the previous bidder bid twice on it meaning he bid a price, got the high bid set and then re-bid entering the maximum bid. Going to be fun stalking this guy to see what his max is.
Ive done my fair share of ebaying as well. and I find it a constant hit or miss deal as well as truth or dare. Ive only been on the train forum for a few months but ive been a ebayer since 2002. My general rule is not depending on the MFRP, but whats the lowest price is I can find it online, or in a store. Depending on the item,( if its still in circulation in the stores) I won't go more that 75% inc. S/H of the price that I can find it for elsewhere. Perfect Example: Amtrak Acela Set: I've seen Joe blow sellers (less then 100 feedbacks) on ebay stating there selling one Acela set NIB and retail price is $349!!! buy now for $275 and the opening bid is. $150 with a reserve! and they give you a link to Walthers website showing the price. Get real !
#1, As its been stated before in this post, Its NOT new! If there not and authorized dealer there is No warranty on the item what-so-ever. so if its electronic ( ie: train locomotives, pda's, laptops, etc.) it looks good in picture but, it does not work when U get it or brakes right afterwords , your screwed even with insurance sometimes.
#2 Research people! If you do your research, you would know U can find it online for sale @ trainworld for $179 and that is NIB w. warranty! and your guaranteed to get the item. This shows U the ebay seller is trying to price gouge people. Not thats hes false advertising but misleading big time in the going price!
#3 high a$$ reserves! most comon give away, they know there robbing people,. Real auctions hold low or NO reserves. I concider anyting with a reserve more than 1/2 the price of what I can find it for elsewhere is a sale, not an auction! Therefore not worth me bidding on it past that point.
just some tips to live by...
With that said I just won 2 Hornby MK4 coaches from and english seller for 20 english pounds total inc. s/h. ($40 USD). Not new but in mint condition.(as he described and pictures showed) and sellers feedback was 100%. I Searched english stores ( 15 of them) and each of these cars retails for about 15-18 pounds each lowest cost +S/H the the USA. So I concider that a good ebay buy.
I have a pile of stuff I have never taken out of the box, including cars and locomotives, as well as kits, that I have on shelves that rival most of the hobby stores around here while I still am working on the new layout. Some I haven't even opened the box. I probably have more stuff than I can use now. Very soon I will make that determination as the first operating section of the layout is nearing completion. Then I will thin the herd. I doubt I would describe it as new. More likely it is not run. If I get rid of any locomotives, I will at least check to see that they run as promised, so they will have been out of the box!
Heck, you run into the same thing at hobby stores as you do on eBay. I've seen old junk priced as collectible antiques, gems priced as junk, and everything in between. If it looks wrong, don't bid. If you get junk, it is your fault. Be discriminating. I have found some stuff because the listing was wrong but I knew what it really was and could act accordingly. Same thing at train shows. Nowadays if you shop anywhere but from the catalog you better do your homework first. Even then...
As far as the NIB goes, sometimes you do find items that the seller has bought the inventory of a toy or hobby shop that was closing. Some of this stuff is pretty old but never opened. I actually got one older loco that was still in the factory shrink wrap.
I had a friend with a train shop. When he was ready to retire, he wanted to sell but couldn't find a buyer that could afford to buy the inventory. As my friend said, the inventory is the shop. So, he was looking to sell all the inventory in a lump sum purchase. It happens.