Modelers, use "Caution" when shopping on Ebay!

[AntonioFP45]

Hello Crew,

First, I've got to say that buying a Walthers Catalog does pay off!

I was browsing Ebay for Walthers Cornerstone series buildings and DPM kits.
I ran across what appeared to be "Sweet Deals" as there's a bunch of these Walthers buildings up for bid. One of them was listed as follows:

"Robert's Dry Goods" by DPM. HO scale. Save over 20%!. It showed a "Buy it Now" price of $11.95. Shipping is a $1.50. Seemed like a good deal for an attractive bulding that fits in my modeling era.

Just before I clicked on it to buy it, I got the feeling that I should check my 2005 Walthers Catalog. I do and guess what I see! The same building on page 525 for $10.98! Same story with all the other buildings.....cheaper in the catalog! So much for the "so-called" 20% in savings! The sharks do swim in Ebay's waters with a smile, indeed!

I'm amazed that as much as I preach "caution" and yet I almost got taken by what appeared to be a deal that was dirt cheap! This is clearly a case where supporting my LHS is the thing to do. My LHS sells at the catalog price, and sometimes even lower! No shipping charges either!

Guys, I've purchased items on Ebay for low prices and have been quite satisfied ovearall. I also overpaid on two occasions. But, be careful and do your research when bidding on items, cheap or expensive! Whether seasoned or Newbie, non of us are exempt from temptation on deals that "seem to be good" at the moment.

10-4, Roger that! [;)]

[simon1966]

Antonio, I agree with the research part. It is a very rare day indeed when the "Buy it Now" price on an E-bay auction is a deal. There are a lot of retailers selling at list or close to list on e-bay these days and frankly, if I am going to pay street pricing the money is going into the pocket of my LHS not some faceless person on the internet.

[ukguy]

Antonio, please be careful what you believe, the Walters catalogue is released once per year (I believe) and prices do not remain as stated throughout the industry, the DPM kits specifically have increased in price significantly recently, and although I agree with your sentiment of 'beware and take caution' also check around the other online vendors for pricing. The DPM kits I bought in Jan 04 for $9.33 are now selling pretty much everywhere for $12 - $14, an increase of 40ish%.
I dont know if Walther honor their catalogue price throughout the year but if they do they will certainly be one of the cheapest I have seen for DPM kits lately.

Be safe & take care.
Karl.

[AntonioFP45]

Thank you, UK guy.

It seems that modelers in my area are fortunate in that my model railroad LHS, Happy Hobo Trains, honors the Walthers catalog prices till the arrival of the new catalog. There is another hobby shop that I visit that prices well above the Walthers prices.

Good advice about checking with other vendors!

Cheers!

[Anonymous]

Not that I'm a rich man, but if I see an item I want on ebay and trust the seller, I've been known to pay a few dollars more for it-especially if it's rare-like the Kato Amtrak P-42 phase III set I recently bought.

I've gotten both good and bad deals in the three years I've been buying from ebay, and have finally learned the hard way to pay close attention to the sellers feedback and also to compare prices whenever possible.

trainluver1

[Anonymous]

Antonio, I too cross reference and for current pricing, the TW ads..

[Anonymous]

If I can find the item I want at my LHS or a well-known, trusted internet dealer, I'll buy it there first. I only get discontinued or out-of-production items from eBay.

I've never seen eBay as a place to get great deals.

[Virginian]

Modelling, just like almost everything else, can be compared to crossing the street. If you don't pay attention to what you are doing you will, sooner or later, get run over. And then you can sue someone.

[leonardbrand]

My problem is trying to buy something at a reasonable price, only to have the seller using another name,keep bidding against you untill it not worth it anymore, and I have found it often better to drive to the nearest shop ( within reason of course) not only do you often have a nice trip, but he often has other stuff you want. yes on ebay you often see a one of akind item that worth having. bid a fair price, only to have someone keep bidding against you untill it's not only not a good price it's outrageous,and quite often it's the seller.

[Anonymous]

eBay is no different than shopping any place else. You need to know what you are looking for and how much it is worth. Then you need to weigh in what it is worth for you to not have to get out of your chair to go shopping - I think that is where a lot of eBay sellers are able to get away with charging the extra buck or two - the convenience factor.

[ort007]

I've noticed that it seems to go in cycles. I'll see pretty good closing prices on something I'm interested in, and then when I check at another date, the bids on similar items are way too high. I haven't tried to chart the trends to see if it depends on the time of year or what. I wonder if it's new folks who don't know the value of something and overbid. After a while, they move on to something else and prices come back down. Who knows.

Ort007

[Anonymous]

Recently I got a good deal on an Athearn Wreck crane and Rotary snowplow, both for 10.00. Then the seller turned around and charged me 15.00 for shipping and handling. I know packaging doesn't cost that much and I've had simular items shipped to my house from the US for 5.00. Seems to me as though the seller felt he didn't make enough on the sale so he decided to 'pad' the s&h for a little extra at my expense. I'll always check the S&H before I bid now.

[Anonymous]

With eBay ALWAYS check the shipping, and ALWAYS know what the item you are bidding on retails for. Easy as that, and you shouldn't get burned.

Bob Boudreau

[fievel]

With so many excellent online hobby shops, I have never bothered to go to Ebay.
I'm just not willing to take the risk. Too many bad apples out there. But if you guys
know how to navigate through the shark infested waters, then have fun shopping!
[:)]

[rlandry6]

I've purchased a couple of things on ebay. Looking back on it, they weren't great deals. No more!
I've had two occurences of identity theft on ebay, both requiring a considerable amount of time and aggravation to resolve, and with very little help from ebay. Those prople don't care as long as the $$$ keep rolling in. There are plenty of on-line retail merchants who offer good products at discounted prices. Most have toll-free numbers and you can talk to a real person if there's a problem. The peace of mind, and lower blood pressure, of doing it this way far out-weighs dealing with the possible, or should I say probable hassles of scouring the online auctions looking to save a couple of bucks. In all fairness, there are probably some honest sellers out there. I'm just not willing to waste my time trying to sort them out when I can buy for the same, or cheaper at a retailer.. My two cents...

[Anonymous]

I would most likely not buy model railroad stuff on E-bay. I would like to see what I am buying. I do not mind paying list price, besides give sme a reason to visit the model railroad shop I go to.

[davekelly]

Antonio,

I read your post very interestingly. The seller you saw has listed a bunch of DPM kits in the past at what I thought was very good prices (his shipping charges are pretty good - $1.50 for one - he used to be free shipping on DPM models). I noticed that his prices seemed to have increased. So I checked the Walthers catalog and yes you are right the price in it is 10.98 for the Roberts Dry Goods. I then checked out the Walthers web site. DPM Roberts Dry Goods is listed there for 14.98 on sale for 13.98. So if you include shipping the ebay guy is still cheaper. His price is also cheaper than Internettrains.com and Discounttrainsonline.com. I'm actually going to buy some MT Arms Hotels from the guy you looked at.

Just thought you guys might want to know.

[Todd McWilliam]

I bought a GP40 Atlas MAster series CNW for 59.00 with 6.50 shipping, my LHS has it for 120.00. I shop e-bay for bargains

[rrinker]

I ALWAYS get the best bargains on ebay.

$23 for TWO powered Walthers FA's? With the original $29.95 price tags still on each box.

$56 for a Stewart F7 A-B set?

$30 for a Proto2000 GP7?

I don't go nuts, I have an idea beforehand of what items cost, and I won't bid such that my bid total plus shipping exceeds what I know I could get the item for elsewhere, either at the LHS or a train show. To paraphrase the signs in many casinos - Bid with your head, not over it.

--Randy

[AntonioFP45]

Dave, thanks for the update.

I'll talk to my LHS and see if they will still honor the 2005 catalog prices.

[davekelly]

Antonio,

No problem. I would think that the increase in price is probably a reflection of the sharp increase in the price of oil recently. I would think that if your LHS has old stock he might still sell them at the old price. If he has to order new stock then he might be losing money by selling at the old price. Looks like DPM has experience a 20-30 increase in price since the publishing of the 2005 catalog.

I still think that DPM is one of the top bargains in the model railroad hobby today.

I'm planning to buy several kits soon to give me something to do during a trip I have to take soon. Gonna buy them from the guy on ebay that you saw. He's got the best prices around.

This was a pretty good lesson in checking things out before jumping to conclusions. I was pretty upset myself at that seller for advertising less than list prices but then finding out that the price was higher than the 2005 catalog. After I order from him I'll post my opinion of his ways.
Dave

[AltonFan]

I think some bidders on eBay get caught up in the competition aspect of bidding, and instead of thinking whether the bid is really a fair offer, they just want to acquire the item ahead of the other bidders. (They want to "win".)

Bidders need to remember: acquiring a $20.00 item for $50.00 is not a "win" for the bidder: it is a "win" for the seller and the bidding house.

[Anonymous]

I shop only on ebay, ‘believe or not’. In Jamaica there aren't any model RR dealers. There is a toy store however that stock a very basic starter set by Horhby in OO.

I can say that I got some fairly good deals even after I factor our customs charges and the sellers shipping cahrges. I bought 2 N-scale OMI P42s in the Amtrak phase 3 colour scheme. I got both of them for under US$380.00 and this is also inclusive of shipping charges. If there's better anywhere else on the internet please let me know because I need two more.
Shopping on ebay does require patience. To avoid getting swindled you have to also check the feedback score of the sellers. The higher the number of feedback as well as their positive feedback average is the better. I would never buy from a seller with less than 95% positive feedback. If they have a negative I would check out what the negatives were about. Added to this, if the seller also have multiple items with some ending days after the one that your purchasing that's I think is also a good sign that they won't risk messing up on your transaction.
Never rush into buying, check for obvious warning signs and also remember to the guidelines given by the host of ebay and you should be fine.
Richard

[Anonymous]

I have watched what I thought were boxcar wars on Ebay recently with athearn kits selling for 30- on up in bidding wars.

Ebay and the Seller wins when a bidding war occurs.

Find your best price you are willing to pay for the item and walk away from it.

I once got a Spectrum 2-10-0 russian decapod for 65.00 last year.

Not too bad of a deal =)

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AltonFan

I think some bidders on eBay get caught up in the competition aspect of bidding, and instead of thinking whether the bid is really a fair offer, they just want to acquire the item ahead of the other bidders. (They want to "win".)

Bidders need to remember: acquiring a $20.00 item for $50.00 is not a "win" for the bidder: it is a "win" for the seller and the bidding house.

Alton:

This is called the "winner's curse" in auction parlance. Yeah, you won the auction, but you paid more than the item was worth! (The term "sucker" comes to mind). Research the item value when determining your maximum bid!

Your best bet when buying on ebay is to bid your absolute maximum ONE TIME just moments before auction close. This way you do not fuel a bidding war by giving away your interest in the item too soon, nor do you give away your knowledge of what the item might really be worth. This is called a "snipe" among seasoned ebay bidders.

If you prefer not to babysit the item to bid like this, you can go to http://www.auctionsnipe.com/ and it will let you pick items from your watch list and place your bid for you 5 seconds before auction close for a fee of 1% of the final item price, with a cap of $10 and a minimum charge of 25 cents.

Using this methodology, I win most of the ebay auctions I bid in, and on the few occassions where I don't win, I'd never pay that much anyhow. And I just plain don't bid on items that are overpriced. I also research completed items to see if a particular model tends to get bid up unreasonably, and if so, I don't bid on those items either.

[jlampke]

"Your best bet when buying on ebay is to bid your absolute maximum ONE TIME just moments before auction close. This way you do not fuel a bidding war by giving away your interest in the item too soon, nor do you give away your knowledge of what the item might really be worth."

VERY good advice for those of you using Ebay.

I bid on an item on Ebay, and won the bid, in April '04. I sent the money to cover the cost of the item plus shipping costs to the seller. The item I paid for never arrived. I contacted the seller to find out what was happening. I was then informed that the seller was actually selling the item for someone else. The story is that the actual owner of the item I bid on sold it to someone else. The person I sent my money to claimed that my money was in a car that was stolen, and so the money was lost. I contacted Ebay to inform them of the scam. They gave me a list of suggested ways to get my money back, such as filing a police report, etc., and basically told me they don't get involved in scams and that I was on my own.
I guess Ebay got their cut and didn't have any interest in the transaction beyond that.

[roadrat]

I don't use E-bay anymore every seller seems to have a shill and if you get scammed e-bay won't help you!

bill

[BRAKIE]

Guys,I have gotten some good deals on e-bay but,found better deals from 2 on line hobby shops.The best thing is to know your prices before clicking on that "great" deal on e-bay.You may find its not a "deal" at all.

[Anonymous]

There does seem to be a tendency for some bidders to push bids up well beyond the list price of an item - I found this recently while trying to obtain some HOm items. Placed a fair bid on a cement silo car (bid a little below retail, as it was mint and unused but old stock) only to find the eventual winner had bid a truly ludicrous amount - must have been well over full retail. The same day I saw an item that I paid £20 for in a store go for £35 - crazy when you consider they're about that much new.

I've also seen some crazy bids for brand new items - like the new Bachmann diesel loco that was selling on ebay for £80+ (Bachmann shipped a small quantity over ahead of the main release), while if you waited a week you could get one from a normal online store for £58... Think my LHS will be getting that sale - their price is lower than the online stores!

[Anonymous]

I have to say that using E-bay from the UK to get US equipment has saved me a lot of money - I picked up a Spectrum 0-6-0st and Spectrum 4-6-0, inlcuding shipping for a total of £66. If I were to buy the Spectrum 4-6-0 in the UK it would put me back nearer £90!

Saying that Internet Hobbies is a very good store - again picked up some Rivarossi coaches, that even after shipping I am still saving a good £30 on UK Prices.

I also picked up a PFM Northern Pacific Y12-8-0 for £95 ($170)- was this a good deal?

Regards,

Stephen.