This is why I always look at TrainBoard Swap Meet and avoid Fee Bay for things that might interest me. You are buying from TB 'friends' who dont really overinflate prices. You can pretty well trust you are getting what ya pay for...and there are no 'fees' or other shenanigans going on. Just pay for shipping...done deal. JMO YMMV
Exactly. This is it. Experience of one person does not mean what another finds can be in fact much different.
That is a double edged sword. I have listed items on Trainboard and Yardsale that did not draw interest at the price I asked, but sold on Ebay for a higher price. In the case of Ebay, there is a larger audience and if the item is highly desireable, the price paid is a worth is reflection of how badly competing members may want it. In the case of the Milwaukee GP30, I find it rather interesting that it went for that high of a price. As I noted when posting the link, I was doing research to figure out a starting point for the one I was preparing to list. In turn, I listed mine at a price that may be high, but I won't know that answer until the auction ends. John
"I can only be a shill if I'm in cohoot's with the seller." While I love a good conspiracy theory, now that I debunked the myth about sellers shill bidding from their own computers, you're saying it actually takes two unscrupulous individuals to engage in (and profit from) shill bidding. "All you have to do is watch and see who does the high balling and then (after the item has allegedly sold) watch to see if the same item shows up again." And how do you account for sellers like me, who have more than one of the same item available for sale? You know there is a very simple way to avoid the alleged shill bidders... While you will no longer be able to obtain your products at "fire sale" pricing, you could purchase "Buy-it-Now" listings sold through "Top Rated" sellers. Just a thought...
This has happened to me...more than once. I bid on something, get outbid, and then the seller contacts me after the 'winning' bidder either 'withdraws' or 'doesn't pay' and offers to sell to me for my max price. Sounds like a duck to me.
I have pleasantly bought and sold a little through TrainStore (before it morphed to Trainboard Swap Meet...) And I know "that online auction site" (eBig?) has some drawbacks. A supporter of the auction site said it [rpvides a larger market and audience. More important to me is the search function. I can search for a Kato diner from their N scale Super Chief set. It may give me some false hits: Kato El Capitan diner, diner Kato lettered for Santa Fe when they made California Zephyr prototype sets, etc. But I eventually found exactly what I needed, even though it was offered individually by Kato as an individual item. When I got on Swap Meet, I can specify scale but I have to go through a lot of random stuff to see if there's anything I want. Am I missing something? Is there a workable search function I can use on Trainboard swap meet?
With the present sales area as set up, no. It is using a standard forum slot. The search engine cannot separate selling type actions, from other parts of the site.
Your statement is not completely correct. I have had people win auctions from me and upon receipt of the item they tell me they did not realize it was N scale. I can refund and file with Ebay and get my credit (hence no fees). I have also had others asking to withdraw after winning due to inability to pay, and I send them a request to cancel the transaction and again, no fees. John
Hey, if anyone had their locomotive come up missing I think I found it, well at least parts of it.... http://tinyurl.com/m5pmgaw
A rare cab forward? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rivarossi-V...485969?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item2ecb7d5bd1
Now even full sized locomotives are being stolen, chopped, and sold on the internet. A sad commentary...
I love this quote "[FONT=Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana]We searched high and low to find anything similar and it just doesn't exist on the internet.". Hey, if we can't find it on the internet it must be rare and valuable. Not a cab forward,not able to test, not with all of the parts (but it is equipped with MT coupler - singular), who wouldn't want it? Oops, just ended and no buyers.[/FONT]
Must have been a sniper. With next to no time it had no bids and I didn't think it would get any...:funny:
Here's another rarity that has a much rarer price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAG...342840?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item3f2b5b4ab8
I'm getting ready to list some N Scale on E Bay. In doing some research I found an interesting but not surprising statistic. There are 74,803 listings in N Scale. Only 10,818 are auctions. That means 63,925 are Buy it Now. That really sucks. To me that means few private sellers and many many commercial merchants. Might be an opportunity. I will see what the Buy it Now price the commercial sellers are asking, then my starting bid will be about 20-30% lower with reasonable shipping. I bet most of these sellers have stores and just list their items and leave them until somebody buys them. Not like a 7 day auction. I look at completed sales from some of the sellers. Many don't sell very many items.
Even among the auctions, it's the same items being relisted every week after week. Clearly, they are asking too much. When I sell I'm interested in moving the item, not staring at it in my Sell list for 10 months. A few rare high overpriced sales aren't going to make you any money in the long run. Don't they get that?
