More eBay Humor

OC Engineer JD Jan 16, 2009

  1. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Right on Boxcab -- an early N classic from Arnold Rapido/Revell Rapido, their Item 2302 I think. I have one in C&NW. No way this Seller's going to get anywhere near $50 for it, unless a collector's just gotta have it.

    http://www.trovestar.com/generic/zoom.php?id=124809
     
  2. Boilerman

    Boilerman TrainBoard Supporter

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    I also have a NIB Con-Cor N scale kit 680 - Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant that I purchased back in the early 70's and have never assembled it and due to my layout being in the steam to diesel transition era will never use the model or several other models that are too new for my layout's time frame.
    I will probably just hold on to it and the others to see in my grandson would want them.
    I never thought that the Nuke plant model would be worth $100.00 to $150,00 in my life time and probably it still is not in my thinking!!
     
    Hardcoaler likes this.
  3. PGE-N°2

    PGE-N°2 TrainBoard Member

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    Got to love the sellers who post ten freight cars together in one listing for a fixed price and then say in the description 'sold separately'.

    What happened to ebay being an auction site, not a strictly for profit site?

    Open a hobby store if you want to go into business and build your local economy.

    And nice tactic of avoiding paying individual listings for all the items that you are selling separately.
     
    mtnbimmer likes this.
  4. Mo-Pac

    Mo-Pac TrainBoard Member

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    Honestly I don't blame them, due to the cost to list each said item individually. I used to enjoy listing items on the site until the prices shot up.
     
    mtntrainman likes this.
  5. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Yes, ridiculous indeed. I can't see how a Seller profits selling single cars at low prices. Add in time spent photographing, listing, packaging, driving to the PO and standing in line, it makes no sense. I think eBay itself is a hobby for some Sellers.
     
    MK likes this.
  6. Maletrain

    Maletrain TrainBoard Member

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    That "nuclear power plant" model doesn't look anything like the Three Mile Island plant. Without any cooling tower, it would look more like the original "Peach Atomic Power Station" unit 1, down river. That operated only from June, 1967 through October 1974. But, it started construction shortly after 1958. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peach_Bottom_Nuclear_Generating_Station . The reactor containment building would require some mods, but, I doubt anybody would know that if they had not been there. A railroad track does parallel the river, near its edge, across from the Peach Bottom site.

    BTW, a properly scaled model of a big natural draft cooling tower would be something like 2-to-3 feet tall in N scale.

    It is funny that the public seems to think (maybe because the media thinks) that nuclear power plants are synonymous with those large natural draft cooling towers, of which Three Mile Island has 4. But, those big towers are used on coal and oil fired plants as well as nuclear plants, and many nuclear plants don't have those. In Maryland, a lot of people think they are seeing the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant because they are seeing the big cooling towers at the at the Chalk Point oil/coal powered plant on the other side of the county. (You can see them from quite a distance.) The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant doesn't have any type of cooling tower.
     
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2020
    Mo-Pac likes this.
  7. brokemoto

    brokemoto TrainBoard Member

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    ...............never mind that they ain't no Minn-knee-tricks, them is Arnolds.....................




    He admits that he does not know much about what he sells. That is a pretty good price, assuming that everything is in order. Further, he lets you know that he smokes. That seems to be a touchy point with many e-Bay buyers, these days.

    Girlfriend smokes. I do not. I used to smoke, but gave up the habit in 1998. Girlfriend got some neutral feedback on a couple of things that she sold. Every time, the buyer mentioned that he was satisfied, item as described, postage charges fair but mentioned the smell of smoke. She even had one buyer send back something without authorisation. It was obvious that the buyer had opened the padded envelope, immediately stuffed the item back into it, put it into another envelope and sent it right back to girlfriend. Girlfriend tried to ask her what was wrong and why she returned it without authorisation. The buyer refused to answer and curtly told girlfriend to refund her money plus return postage. She figured that this one was going to be trouble, so she balked. Buyer submitted it to FeePay. Girlfriend answered the complaint and, mirabile cognitu, FeePay actually understood her side of the quarrel. The buyer had returned it without authorisation in violation of her stated return policy. FeePay did ask her if she were willing to do anything to help resolve it. Girlfriend offered to refund the purchase price only, not the postage either way under the condition that buyer agreed not to leave any feedback. This was how it was resolved. From the content of the e-Mails from FeePay, we deduced that they buyer had smelled the smoke.

    This taught me a lesson when I started to sell. I put a statement on my seller template that informed people that someone in the house smoked, but that it was not me and that the smoker did not smoke around the trains. If I sold something that was really old that I had acquired when I still smoked, I did mention that. There were a few people who let me know that they would not bid because of the smoking.


    The LL plastic frame FAs had that funny looking weight that was masquerading as an alleged "fuel tank". Both powered and dummies had it. That was one of the few flaws on that model. Other than that, the detailing, lettering and paint jobs were pretty good. The drive was a bit dated, but it did run well. It would pull every piece of rolling stock that you owned up a helix with a fifty per-cent grade and six inch radius curves. LL did upgrade that one to a split metal frame. It did not issue some of the roads in metal frame that it did in plastic (no WMs), but, you could fit those onto the metal frame with a minimum amount of work. The metal frames did have something that resembled the actual fuel tank.




    You run across that all the time, even at shows. I once scored a Kato F-3 for very little money because it was in a B-mann box and the seller was not paying attention. He thought that he had beat me because he was selling me a B-mann for a jacked up price. When I sold something on FeePay that was not in the correct box, I put that into the text of the auction.



    It is an old Arnold model of what is alleged to be a Baldwin one thousand horsepower yard goat. As you can see, it is worse than just crude. If I recall correctly, only one axle on each truck (the model, not the prototype) was geared. It ran poorly. In short, it was JUNQUE.






    I have noticed that the prices on FeePay really have jumped, of late. Items that were going for twenty dollars at shows are now at sixty dollars or above. I am not paying even fifty dollars for a LL plastic frame DL&W E-8. Those LL plastic frame diesels were selling for twenty dollars NIB in cutout bins at shows, until COVID-19.
     
  8. SVRailroader

    SVRailroader TrainBoard Member

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  9. jtomstarr

    jtomstarr TrainBoard Member

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  10. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    jtomstarr likes this.
  11. jtomstarr

    jtomstarr TrainBoard Member

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    All,
    I know this isn't ebay I thought it should be mentioned here. N Scale Supply - Preowned Check out where it states Model .... since when did EMD produce a ALCO ? Lol.

    Tom
     
    Hardcoaler likes this.
  12. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    That source is usually pretty reliable. Probably just a typo. But it does read such that one can't help but be a bit amused. :)
     
  13. jtomstarr

    jtomstarr TrainBoard Member

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  14. MK

    MK TrainBoard Member

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    Hardcoaler likes this.
  15. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Gives new meaning to "depressed center" ....
     
    Kurt Moose and MK like this.
  16. jtomstarr

    jtomstarr TrainBoard Member

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    I think it was someone's Half - Hearted attempt to have a GREAT NORTHERN Steam Turbine !

    Tom
     
  17. brokemoto

    brokemoto TrainBoard Member

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    If it had a clear cover on the box, it might have been left out in the sun. I had that happen to some RR HWs once. Can you say "instant bashing projects"?
     
  18. jtomstarr

    jtomstarr TrainBoard Member

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    Last edited: Oct 17, 2020
  19. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    mtnbimmer and Hardcoaler like this.
  20. brokemoto

    brokemoto TrainBoard Member

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    What did he do, put it into a bucket of paint and leave it in there overnight? I have seen some hideous paint jobs in my time; even done one or two myself, but even I never did anything that awful.

    For five dollars ninety nine it might be good for parts, but, I would not pay anything close to his opening bid for it.

    This one actually has seven watchers:

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/N-Scale-Co...462896?hash=item1f13a36a70:g:RDwAAOSwb5xeSdAH


    Here is one that is much better for about one third the price:

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/N-Scale-Us...439181?hash=item2649d4c94d:g:uqcAAOSwxElfh5pe


    .............and for a trip down Memory Lane, an old Hacksaw Ben shell only, which makes the price mildly silly.............free shipping, though...................

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/N-Scale-Ak...988783?hash=item48ef830e2f:g:PD4AAOSw~dxfe7l7
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2020

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