Another WTH Ebay Moment


I think I could find a way to make a nice pc. of art out of those Shells to hang on the wall in a Trainroom.:D
 
DakotaLove39 said:
I see this ALLL the time.

"VINTAGE ATHEARN FREIGHT CAR KIT"

I thought "vintage" was something more than 20 years old. If it was Varney stuff I'd believe it, I guess.
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At this point, almost all Athearn kits are vintage, or getting really close. 20 years ago would have been about 1993.
 
fire28 said:
I saw this today.... What is this person smoking?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MoW-Boley-N...868719?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item43b1ec662f
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This person has good feedback so I'd guess what happened is someone gave them false info and they went with it without checking first with some real authority.

ebay is a very risky place from which to purchase goods. Back before ebay's rock solid Paypal refund policy and the elimination of posting negative feedback for sellers I lost hundreds on various purchases.

I have a large 100% positive feedback from the early days of ebay and to preserve it I used to let crooks get by with cheating me. I knew that if I demanded a refund many would simply slam me with negative feedback.

Today I have to file a dispute on about 1 out of every 20 purchases.

Whenever possible I buy through Amazon.com (only items sold by Amazon). Amazon even pays return shipping and gives one zero hassle.
 
Many Amazon sellers will not ship outside the US, so eBay is my preferred buying method. With now reaching 1000 purchases I can confidently say I have had 4 items that never arrived to me in Australia and all four sellers sent replacement items (which did arrive) without any hesitation of issue.

What I have found recently is some US eBay sellers seem to deliberately use UPS or FEDEX as an overseas shipping method to deter international buyers. I have come across several in recent times who are selling small items such as decal sheets, MR spare parts etc - items that would take up no more space than a cigarette packet - and quote shipping prices of up to $70-100. When I politely ask if they could just 'pop them in a small envelope or small box, they bluntly refuse and some get quite offended. No loss for me, I just find another buyer.

The machinations of eBay.
 
ebay crazies

I just sent personal messages to s couple of sellers advertising GP ;models in N scale, only they were SD units with six axels. They replied back nicely, and I was nice in informing them or the models. I think a lot of these folks just are not train modelers, and then theres those idiots selling a boley $12.00 vehicle for outragous amounts, and then theres that darn styrene custiom home for $850 which is flat out robbery.
Ebay is ok if you carefully watch stuff, like a great deal on something, until you read the shipping costs.
I guess some folks think we're all fools?:mad:
 
What I find strange sometimes is that I can find the same item twice on ebay with the same shipping yet one costs twice as much as the other.

It's like they thumbsuck their international shipping costs and sometimes it covers the cost of the actual item and it's the reason why some seem so cheap.

Also can never seem to win on items using bidding even if I put my opening bid very high someone still gets higher at the end of the timer, it's like people have tons of money lying around to waste on random items.
 
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I spend a lot of time on ebay looking through various road names for items, probably a few times a week for the past 4 years. I see a lot of repeat items and what amazes me how you can have two identical items in the same condition and one may sell for double the other with same shipping cost.

For example, there was a bachmann spectrum C&O George washington set that sold 2 weeks ago for around $600 with 20-30 bids to get to that price. That set has recently sold for $150-250 from other sellers recently. When you get down to it you are getting a non-sound loco (heavy 4-8-2 spectrum model that pops up frequently on its own for $75-100) and 7-8 spectrum heavyweight cars.

There must be people out there that really get caught up on trying to win a model. I know I listed a bunch of normal 54' Atheran blue box covered hoppers kits one year, most sold for $7-8, but the MKT one (nothing special, not even a special run or rare) went for $25. I was happy, but I searched and found 3 more just like it that had sold with no bids and low price within days.
 
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