Ebay Experiences


T

thebigj55

New Member
As a new modeler i have discovered eBay for cheap ho stuff. does anyone have tips for seeing if the item is junk? Also i'd love to hear some stories:)
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Buyer beware, as usual.

I've had pretty good experiences, but have had some ones which I was disappointed with what I got (the item was not totally what was described). The people offered to make it right, and in one case, I made the guy make it right (a refund).

Be careful with train items sold by non-train folks. Most of the time they don't have good descriptions, good prices, or good quality stuff. If you have an issue, they may or may not be able to make it right by finding a replacement.
 
I've never had a problem on ebay. Just make sure you know exactly what you're getting. If the pics are blurry, and the description is vague, it's a crapshoot. Check the seller's feedback, and if it's not good, keep looking.
 
All good advice for sure.
I noticed that many things are at hobby shop prices so I just order from my LHS and save the shipping and fees.
I also notice that someone may have an item up for bids at $10 and someone else will list the same item a day or two later for $100. Makes you wonder if they don't check to see what the "competition" is doing...

I was watching for a VIA tail car by Walthers for an upcoming project and hesitated to pay the going rate of $49, then one morning I figured what the heck I'll just go for it.
I did one last search before hitting the "buy it now" button and found one for $11!
Patience pays off.
 
The basic way to deal with e-Bay is know what you are buying. I have had good luck with e-bay when I know what I'm doing and not so lucky when I didn't know the product I was looking for.
Dave
 
Ebay is a nice way to find out of stock items. If you do the "buy it now", you'll usually get a little better deal than list. The best deals are when you bid on something. Unfortunately, quite a few of the new, in the box items are coming from hobby dealers that want their profit. Occasionally you'll find someone like myself that bought something that doesn't end up on the layout and just wants some of their money back. As stated before, one thing to watch for is the shipping price. They tell you up front what the shipping will be. If those terms aren't agreeable then don't buy it.
 
i have never had a bad experience with ebay. i do however want to emphasize what someone already said...try to buy from train folks, exclusively, if your buying train stuff of course. i often shop for non-train stuff on ebay too. i like ebay because they accept paypal. i have a side business that i use paypal for so i can just buy right off ebay and the wife never knows about it. the worse thing that has ever happened to me on ebay (which is really myfault) is i bought 3 of the same car and they all had the same road numbers. it didnt even dawn on me until i got the package and opened it. DUH!
 
I shop ebay 2 ways.........the first is I look for specific items. By doing that, I KNOW what I'm looking for and what the MSRP is. Usually I'm looking for out of production items, and I'll sometimes spend a little extra to get the item. The second is if I just see something that looks interesting. On that stuff, I simply decide what it's worth to me......which may be pretty cheap and place a bid and don't look back. If I get it , great, if I don't, oh well.

I have had only one BAD transaction, where the seller simply disappeared.....but even on that one, I got a call from a detective months later, and they were returning money from the guy. I've had a few "oops, sent the wrong item" problems, but those have usually resulted in an even better deal, either with getting the correct item sent AND keeping the wrong item, or getting the correct item and a refund.. I haven't had any more problems ordering off ebay than I've had ordering online dealers.
 
lately i've been seeing people list the items dirt cheap but then have shipping at $20 or even higher. Really **** me off.
 
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NYSW F45 said:
lately i've been seeing people list the items dirt cheap but then have shipping at $20 or even higher. Really **** me off.
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Well I think this may be against eBay rules, so you might want to report them.

Seems to me eBay recently changed their fees to now include shipping charges too, to get people who do this. And also grab more money from users - they seem to be continually pricing themselves out of business!
 
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Last week I was looking for some sd70m's and 60i/m's and found a guy who had 5 conrail units that he literally just posted with an opening bid of .99. I was cool, i'll sit on these. Then i saw shipping, $30.99 and he lived in PA where unless it was next day delivery would not cost that much to ship. The next day all his listings were gone, item #'s didn't exist when you searched.

I mean if you have a set price in your mind, don low ball start it and then try to make the difference up with shipping. Thast what the reserve pricing is for. If it doesn't sell it doesn't sell.
 
Shipping charges are starting to take the fun out of eBay. So many sellers want to ship Priority Mail only which is fine if you want to fork out the extra dough. I wish they'd offer cheaper options for those of us who don't mind the extra few days and willing to forgo insurance and tracking.

Most of my life I've been getting packages by ordinary mail and getting here when it gets here. It's always been more than satisfactory.
 
yvesmary said:
Shipping charges are starting to take the fun out of eBay. So many sellers want to ship Priority Mail only which is fine if you want to fork out the extra dough. I wish they'd offer cheaper options for those of us who don't mind the extra few days and willing to forgo insurance and tracking.

Most of my life I've been getting packages by ordinary mail and getting here when it gets here. It's always been more than satisfactory.
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I've sold quite a few items on ePay. The priorty mail is not usually that much more than First Class Mail, but usually not much faster. The insurance and tracking is a safe guard for the seller against unscrupulus buyers.

The buyer can request the cheaper option of First Class Mail. Usually, the seller will agree. I've had buuyers that INSISTED on priority mail, even for oversized parcels. As long as they pay the tab, I'll do it.

Rotor
 
i dont mind paying for priority mail. But dont be a jerk and charge me $15 for it and then when it arrives at my place with a shipping sticker on it with a $5.50 charge.
 
NYSW F45 said:
lately i've been seeing people list the items dirt cheap but then have shipping at $20 or even higher. Really pisses me off.
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I used to do that. The reason was that EBay cahrged commisions on the sale price and not shipping. So if you want $20+ for something, you can start bidding at 1 cent and set shipping at $20.

Everything is disclosed when you bid. So I don't see what there is to be upset about.
 
Your kidding me right? If you dont want to pay fees, don't sell on ebay. The fee's are not new. And if I win something at $15 and you charge $20 for shipping and when I get it, it has a shiping stamp on it iwth the price of $5, you bet i'm going to be pissed off. I've called out several ebay sellers who have done that and have promptly received a refund of the difference.
 
When you bid on something, they CLEARLY tell you what the shipping will be. If you agree to the price then you have no right to complain. It obviously won't cost twenty dollars to ship anything in this hobby. My boss just shipped his bicycle to Baltimore from Mankato MN for $45. Surely a car, kit, wonder widget would cost less than half that. Now if they charged more than you agreed to then you would have a leg to stand on.
 
Of many hundreds of purchases on eBay - most of them from the US - I have had may three or four with issues with questionable postage costs.

Where I find eBay very handy is picking up brand new, end of production Atlas and Exactrail stock. It's hard to get here in Australia (I am not even aware of an Exactrail stockist!). I've been waiting for an Altas MP15 in C&I and Crandic from my LHS for month with absolutely no guarantee Atlas will even supply it to my LHS. One check on eBay this week and I've found several of them. This is a common occurrence from my experience.

I buy from "jimstrns" t-jprantle, "zugmeister" and "r.m.bowditch" who incidentely runs an online store as "Bob the Train Guy" All of these have been the most pleasant to deal with and I would recommend them.

I don't buy second-hand/used items so I cannot comment on the issues with buying them. I guess it's the ol' "buyer beware" philosophy.

Regards,
Stephen
 
NYSW F45 said:
Your kidding me right? If you dont want to pay fees, don't sell on ebay. The fee's are not new. And if I win something at $15 and you charge $20 for shipping and when I get it, it has a shiping stamp on it iwth the price of $5, you bet i'm going to be pissed off. I've called out several ebay sellers who have done that and have promptly received a refund of the difference.
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The charge for shipping doesn't necessarily have to relate to the actual postage cost. "Shipping charge" does not indicate "postage cost" - it can include the cost of the box, packing, and delivering the package to the post office. If I offer something on auction and say the shipping cost is $10.00, then that's what you'll pay even if the postage is actually less, or sometimes more. It evens out in the end.

Before you say boxes and packing are free, I've paid for sturdy gift boxes to ship things, and have bought bubble wrap and plastic packing peanuts in the past. Now I have a supply on hand that I've collected from parcels I've received.
 
I have no issue if the seller clearly indicates that the total shipping cost also covers packing materials etc. If it is clearly mentioned in the auction then it's up to me to decide whether I buy from them.

I know to receive an Atlas loco from the US to Oz, it'll cost no more that around $20 USPS priority mail. If it is any more than say, $25 without a valid reason, I just wont buy from them.

Regards,
 
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