What is up with Ebay?


Flaps, It certainly might be that auto parts are selling well on Ebay. Others areas, might not doing as well! I would also agree with you that buying on Ebay is a buyer's market, if you can find things you want, that aren't over priced!

Per Flaps: "No one wants used beat up crap with lousy pictures and slow shipping and other issues like a lousy listing with almost no info, too many issues to list with some sellers. I think Ebay is just fine if your selling something worthwhile and something people are generally interested in as well as you ran a nice auction, good pics, ship quick, aren't overcharging on shipping and so on. Plus you can find stuff on there from all over the world, you just would never get any other way. Just my two cents , Chris / Flaps"

I've been active on Ebay on and off since March of 2002. In that time , I've only sold 291 items, not a million in sales by any means. However, I have 100% positive feed back and I only charge actual the shipping costs. I'm not guilty of selling used beat-up crap; or, any of the other charges you make. I have things for sale right now, that I consider to be at "give-away prices" that are not moving! I also see page, after page, after page of Model Train items items for sale on Ebay that have no bids and likely will not get any. Despite your opinion that things are "GRAND" on Ebay, that's not what I'm finding in the areas where I sell stuff. Could it be that globally things on Ebay might be O.K.; but, on a local level, not quit so much?

I have 31 years of business ownership! I think my perceptions on what is going on in my little neck of the woods, are pretty much spot on!
 
Your probably correct, I know die-cast airplanes and cars are selling ok, and Car Parts sell real well, Trains I might not know, just seems like what I am looking for there are tons of buyers, I keep losing auctions. Was trying to get HO Acela Amtrak Cars, they get bid on a lot, PRR descent cars get bid on a lot, Milwaukee Road Hiawatha Skytop Observation and most items like that I have a hard time winning since I am on a self imposed budget :)

Chris

Flaps, It certainly might be that auto parts are selling well on Ebay. Others areas, might not doing as well! I would also agree with you that buying on Ebay is a buyer's market, if you can find things you want, that aren't over priced!

Per Flaps: "No one wants used beat up crap with lousy pictures and slow shipping and other issues like a lousy listing with almost no info, too many issues to list with some sellers. I think Ebay is just fine if your selling something worthwhile and something people are generally interested in as well as you ran a nice auction, good pics, ship quick, aren't overcharging on shipping and so on. Plus you can find stuff on there from all over the world, you just would never get any other way. Just my two cents , Chris / Flaps"

I've been active on Ebay on and off since March of 2002. In that time , I've only sold 291 items, not a million in sales by any means. However, I have 100% positive feed back and I only charge actual the shipping costs. I'm not guilty of selling used beat-up crap; or, any of the other charges you make. I have things for sale right now, that I consider to be at "give-away prices" that are not moving! I also see page, after page, after page of Model Train items items for sale on Ebay that have no bids and likely will not get any. Despite your opinion that things are "GRAND" on Ebay, that's not what I'm finding in the areas where I sell stuff. Could it be that globally things on Ebay might be O.K.; but, on a local level, not quit so much?

I have 31 years of business ownership! I think my perceptions on what is going on in my little neck of the woods, are pretty much spot on!
 
I think the MR items that sell high are often in the area of limited edition runs from the past. I've found myself paying more than I should for an engine that hasn't had a production run since 2008 and there aren't any to be found. At the same time, there are plenty of Genesis Big Boys and Challengers available, and the sellers wanting to get big bucks for them are just sitting there with no takers. The same product listings that are reasonably priced go pretty quick, even in a bid situation.

The other area of items that just sit there are pretty much junk items. I see page after page of those funny yellow Union Pacific hopper cars. I don't recall UP ever having a hopper car that color or anywhere near that color. I don't see how one could give those away, let alone get a good sized price for them.
 
I used to do quite a bit of selling and/or buying, but two things have sort of put the kabosch on my trading.
1. The silly "shipping costs" that people tack on to their listings. Priority Mail on a $2.00 item.
2. The silly "fair value" price that eBay has decided to add because of the silly shipping prices.
3. The USPS stinks! What happened to Parcel Post?
 
I'm puzzled by the fact that few of you agree with my assessment of Ebay. That's O.K. as I see things differently than other do, quite often. Specifically, when I look at various lists of items for sale at Ebay, I put the emphasis on Time: Ending Soonest, so I'm looking at items at the end of their auctions. I have my count at 50 units per page and see maybe 1 to 2 items have bids! Whether; or, not this lack of bidding is how it is for all the stuff for sale on Ebay, I don't know and don't really care as I only sell things related to hobbies and so that is where I am coming from. What I see, is what I base my opinions on. I also find that it is a buyers market for hobby items on Ebay. However, there are so many items that are at retail; or, higher prices and even ridiculously high prices, that a buyer should know what a hobby discounter is selling the item for, before bidding; or, hitting the BUY IT NOW button!

Good luck to all and best wishes!
 
I used Ebay for the last several model train purchases. I have to stay off it for a while to stay focused financially. I have fairly specific interests and my era is the 1920's. So my process is to find an item I am possibly interested in. Then I determine if it's era appropriate, and what is the max price I would consider for it. I put everything that passes the test on my watch list. When an item goes over my price I take it off the list. Otherwise I usually snipe the bid. Some of best deals I find are BIN.

I am a little disappointed in my Bachmann Decapod (it's a bit noiser than the decoder) and the sound decoder unit for it(sound technology has greatly improved since). But I only invested $130 total for both.

I have found great deals on John Allen's Gorre and Dephetid line rolling stock.
As the Romans said caveat emptor, buyer beware. I have seen alot of junk for sale too. People bundle a bunch of cheap and even broken train cars together and want $50 or $100 because 'it's alot of trains', when it should be pitched in the trash.

Captain of Industry
President of Lancaster Central RR
President of Lancaster & Western Maryland Railway
 
e-bay does one thing well: It brings a large group of buyers and sellers together. I've bought a lot of brass on e-Bay and sold a few things. By and large, my experiences have been positive. Do your research, stay away from stuff with poor photographs and sketchy descriptions. Look at closed auctions. Yes there are plenty of overpriced items and a lot of junk, but the same can be said of any swap meet!
 
I used to buy on EBay but no longer have any interest. I started getting inquires about the non-existent television sets I was selling. Informed EBay and they took no action or could care less. Then I started getting email inquires about my account at the same time EBay issued warnings about fake EBay emails.

Didn't need the hassles.

Greg
 
I had a little spurt of eBay activity this week. I went looking for a cheap engine for my 9 year old and came away with one that better fits my time period and a center flow hopper. The center flow had one car pictured, but a different car described in the seller's description. The car I received was actually different than either the picture or the description. The car received actually works out better as it is already painted for the road name I originally wanted and I got it for the price I wanted to pay for a car I was going to have to repaint.

Sent from my SM-S920L using Tapatalk
 
Well, I just had my second bad experience with an eBay seller in 10 years! The seller lied at almost step. They said my compete order was shipped in one package, it wasn't. They said the remainder would be shipped the next day when I called them out. It wasn't. I notified them to cancel the order and two days later then they ship the remained and say they can't cancel the order. So, I refuse the shipment, and now they claim it was never returned. And they have been so slow in dragging things out it's past eBay's guarantee date. The seller, BuyDMI out of Florida, now says - tough luck bud.
 
Well, I just had my second bad experience with an eBay seller in 10 years! The seller lied at almost step. They said my compete order was shipped in one package, it wasn't. They said the remainder would be shipped the next day when I called them out. It wasn't. I notified them to cancel the order and two days later then they ship the remained and say they can't cancel the order. So, I refuse the shipment, and now they claim it was never returned. And they have been so slow in dragging things out it's past eBay's guarantee date. The seller, BuyDMI out of Florida, now says - tough luck bud.
Email Ebay about it. They will fix it. Ebay sides with the buyer 99.9% of the time and usually don’t even ask you questions.
 
It depends on items advertised. The things I'm interested and put in my watch list, a lot of that stuff does get bid on and sold. I still bid on Buy it Now items and get stuff. Just recently I found the totally sold out Wheels of Time SP bulkhead flat car in a number I didn't have - grabbed that puppy BIN.
 
Email Ebay about it. They will fix it. Ebay sides with the buyer 99.9% of the time and usually don’t even ask you questions.

Totally agree with Skipjacks! Contact Ebay about this problem and my guess is it will get remedied. Ebay needs buyers for the whole thing to work; so, if a buyer isn't happy, Ebay is pretty "Johnny-on-the-Spot, to side with the buyer and attempt to fix the problem!
 



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