Ebay and Trains

[Jetrock]

I have bought quite a few things via eBay--rare traction books, a pair of brass Birney trolleys, and one-of-a-kind or rare items. For more mundane purchase I prefer to hit the local hobby shop, but eBay is pretty good for the oddball and obscure stuff. Traction modeling would be a lot harder without it.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dougal

Sorry about your trainset 4884bigboy.[:O]

Thanks for your simpathy..........oh well, it wasn't that cool anyway. Oh yeah, that was a good piece of advice about old (real, prototype) train parts. I see them on there all the time. Better check to make sure they're not stolen.[:0]

[dragenrider]

If someone would take all this information and compile it, you'd have a heck of an article for MR. It would answer a lot questions, too.

I've had only good luck with eBay. And it is indeed a great place to find the odd, unusual and out of production items. The problem is sorting through all the useless Tyco and Life Like from twenty years ago.

[Anonymous]

I have had enormous sucess using eBay. I've won a lot of old and out-of-production items as well as paper, etc.

Two things to consider:
Be very specific about what you want when you search and try several variations. (That also means , learn the abbreviations, like "LLP2K" because the real model railroaders out there will list things in that way.)

And...make some intentional misspellings in your searches. You'd be amazed how many items out there are not spelled correctly, which means they won't come up in a search, which means you may be one of the few to bid if you make a mistake in your entry. Best example, although it's pretty common: "Atheran."

[Anonymous]

Also be careful who you buy it from. Some people will have a really nice piece of equiptment but will say "I don't know a thing about trains". I heard of someone who bought a really nice loco but when he got it it turned to be "gutted".