Sometimes eBay is a must

[johnb]

My buddy Andy is always looking for Pacific electric models on eBay, and he sent me a link to this mega lot of Miniatures By Eric shells, I came real close to pulling the trigger, but I could not justify it. I asked the seller about possibly splitting it up, and they informed me of more lots to come.

I wound up buying two of these lots, the first one was four 1000’s, three 1451’s, plenty of decals and 16 brass poles! The second lot was a pair of Shapeways Baldwin Freight Motors, and my childhood dream of having an N Scale model of 1624 is all but here. I have an order in for six TomyTec chassis from Plaza Japan, I strongly recommend ordering directly from their site than through eBay. I was also able to track down one Bandai B Chassis #4 for the Freight Motor, which has been difficult since they have not been made since 2015.

My current roster (built and waiting) is one 500, a 600 (Hollywood Car), five 1000’s, an 1100 (Built, 1124), a Portland 1200 (1252-1263), a 1445 and three 1451’s. I am seriously thinking about making one of the 1451’s into 00157, a line car that still exists at the Orange Empire Railroad Museum.

I also added poles to 1445! Thanks again Volkmar!

[videobruce]

Is the negativity with eBay due to price or quality less than advertised, or both?

[dem34]

Is the negativity with eBay due to price or quality less than advertised, or both?

More so the quantity of Unscrupulous sellers combined with the mounting fees that take ever larger bites out of any profit to be made.That said there are quite a few good shops that use the site and sometimes its the only way to get something that's been out of production for any meaningful length of time.

[Dave V]

I just haven't had any of those bad experiences people talk about and I use eBay a ton. But I'm also careful by using (mostly) venders I've used before or venders who have perfect or very nearly perfect feedback from a sufficient sample size of customers.

Thank God for eBay or I wouldn't be able to do HOn3 at all.

[johnb]

Is the negativity with eBay due to price or quality less than advertised, or both?

I got 6 Tomytec chassis for the same price on their website that I could have gotten 4 from their ebay store...same company

[thomasjmdavis]

Congrats to @johnb for his great find.  I have had similar luck on a few occasions, but in recent years, I think my only real find has been the buildings by hdcustomdesigns (IIRC). The days when you could pick up a box of 10 carbodies for $20 are over.

Is the negativity with eBay due to price or quality less than advertised, or both?

Caveat emptor.

Most "buy it now" is vastly overpriced.  I think honestly that a lot of it is just scam- somebody has a website or shop and sells the item for $35.  But they figure if someone is crazy enough to buy it on eBay for $50 and pay $10 shipping on top, well, why not.  As of yesterday, of something like 120,000 N scale items for sale in North America, only 5300 were auctions, and most of those had an opening bid higher than the going price at discount retailers.

Other than that, well.... I am down to a watch list of 17 items out of the 120,000 N scale listings- so they really have very little I am interested in.  The days when individual modelers selling their surplus trains, and manufacturers or shops selling overstock, being a major part of eBay's listings is long past.

[sd45elect2000]

My buddy Andy is always looking for Pacific electric models on eBay, and he sent me a link to this mega lot of Miniatures By Eric shells, I came real close to pulling the trigger, but I could not justify it. I asked the seller about possibly splitting it up, and they informed me of more lots to come.

I wound up buying two of these lots, the first one was four 1000’s, three 1451’s, plenty of decals and 16 brass poles! The second lot was a pair of Shapeways Baldwin Freight Motors, and my childhood dream of having an N Scale model of 1624 is all but here. I have an order in for six TomyTec chassis from Plaza Japan, I strongly recommend ordering directly from their site than through eBay. I was also able to track down one Bandai B Chassis #4 for the Freight Motor, which has been difficult since they have not been made since 2015.

My current roster (built and waiting) is one 500, a 600 (Hollywood Car), five 1000’s, an 1100 (Built, 1124), a Portland 1200 (1252-1263), a 1445 and three 1451’s. I am seriously thinking about making one of the 1451’s into 00157, a line car that still exists at the Orange Empire Railroad Museum.

I also added poles to 1445! Thanks again Volkmar!

Trolleys are addictive..

[peteski]

I got 6 Tomytec chassis for the same price on their website that I could have gotten 4 from their ebay store...same company

Same thing is on amazon.  Search for some specific item, and you will usually find dozens of matches with the price (for the identical item) ranging from ridiculously low to outrageously high!

[mmagliaro]

My personal more recent angst with eBay is that searching for things you need has become increasingly difficult because they keep changing the search algorithm and rearranging the categories and user interface, and none of these changes has done anything but make things worse in my opinion.
As for pricing and seller reliability, I say buyer beware.  It's pretty obvious that a lot of people sell stuff on eBay without having any idea what they are selling, and some of them sell items for more than you can buy them retail.  But heck, look around the web a little before you buy.  I don't think I have ever been actually cheated by anybody on eBay.

[Cajonpassfan]

+1 here! Their new and improved search functions suck big time...
Otto

[peteski]

+1 here! Their new and improved search functions suck big time...
Otto

Yes, bunch of us have been commiserating about this since October in https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=52830.0 .

[Cajonpassfan]

Well, sorry if I missed  the commiseration boat
Otto

[peteski]

Well, sorry if I missed  the commiseration boat
Otto

I suspected that, so that's I figured to point you there, so you could see all the kvetching, and some ideas on how to deal with the "new eBay".

[wm3798]

I still browse regularly, but I'm at the point where some of the things I've collected are now a little long in the tooth and need to go.  I'm not sure I want to unload a bunch of old cheap stuff and have 12% of that skimmed off the top.  Plus I'm not crazy about the new payment system.  I liked when PayPal said I had the bones, and I could feel good about making the shipment.  It's all bass-ackward.

I sold a few things on Facebook marketplace, but the only ones I'm happy with were the ones where I asked for PayPal.  Facebook makes you manually send the tracking number to let them know you've made the shipment before they release the funds.  Of course, that instruction is in folded up tightly in the bottom file drawer in the basement room behind a sign that says "Beware of the Tiger", so I had no idea I needed to do that.  So, Zuckerface is sitting on $47.50 because I unwisely took the package to the post office and promptly lost the receipt with the tracking information on it.  The good news is the package arrived, so the buyer was happy, but the seller is staring wistfully at a bottle of Monkey Shoulder, and wishing that $$ was in my account instead of Facebook's.

Grrr.

[basementcalling]

I used to browse Ebay almost every day, or at least check my saved search and watch list.

Now I don't even have any active items in my watch list and haven't for a few months.

Their loss. I don't really NEED any of the stuff on there.

I stopped selling completely though, as I think more than a few folks who aren't dealers but wanted to unload items they no longer use have done. Haven't found a suitable replacement either.  I was thinking of taking a box of old MT cars and Kato engines to Timonium this weekend, but given pandemic impacts on attendance I may just wait till the next show when the worst of the Omicron surge should be behind us.