Seems like it's becoming harder to find that great deal. And what's the deal with the seriously jacked-up pricing you see a lot there now? Like right now, for just under $11 in shipping, you can pick up a Kato C44-9W (non DCC even) for the bargain price of just a tad under $270. And these sellers seem to post a lot and are apparently doing great. What gives!? Seriously....what the heck gives!?
You are not alone in being baffled. The only theory which comes into my mind is the general consumer has simply become stupid.
Two sayings spring to mind... "There's a sucker born every minute" and "One mans junk is another mans treasure"
I wrote E-Pay a letter in response to a survey I took. Telling them they had vendors selling yesterdays junk at today's prices and that can't be helping their overall image. I never did get a response. Truth, is they can't fix it. It is what it is. Old saying says, "Let the buyer beware" and so he or she should be. If the item is indeed hard to find, unavailable at your local hobby shop and it's something you can't live without, then go for it. One plus, there is legitimate hobby shops selling on E-Pay. I would suggest you search them out looking to them for your modeling needs and purchases. As a warning, there are shills working the prices using automatic bids. You can set your highest bid without pushing the bid up to your limit. In other words you will be bidding against other modelers until they out bid you competitively. A shill can work the mechanics of this quite nicely. Long story but I did run into such and reported it. Whistle blower~!
Barstow Rick, Not only should eBay not interfere with overpriced listings, but they do one thing really well, which is laissez faire, or leaving sellers alone. The law of diminishing returns takes care of those who unskillfully research and/or price their respective items. If they are indeed overpriced, let the market bear the brunt, and the item will be unsold, leaving a very strong message to the errant seller--know what you are selling and look up the value before you list it. I am selling some stuff now, and only after years of experience at shows, swap meets, sales hobby shops, and on the last activity before listing them, I use eBay to locate comparable items before determing price. Most good N scalers know their stuff, such as what is classic, old, new, vintage, etc etc. I never try to second guess the N scale community out there simply because either by knowledge or research, they know the respective value today more than ever.
It used to be that shilling was resolved by immediate banning. I have doubts these days. Did they do anything? (If even possible?) I always wonder....
Nothing has been done that I know of and I may never know for sure. Duly noted: He's still participating with what appears to be active bids, when this one vendor auctions off something. Let's just say he hasn't outbid any potential buyer, that I'ma aware of. Backing up a nano second, it is interesting that all the cars that I bid on, were resubmitted and ended up on E-pay in less then a week's time. This after being outbid by unsaid person. Do you see it? Noted: The next time around the prices or starting bids were set higher. However, the cars have inherent flaws in them and to ask more then the original MSRP, rubs me the wrong way. It is what it is!
LOL I Got It! OOP's I just let off a fresh one but sometimes....it smells like something crawled up in there and died. After everything I've ever said about E-Pay. Yes, I saw something I couldn't live without. Now, I'ma the proud owner of a Intermountain SP, Articulated, Cab Forward or "Back-Up," as I prefer to call it. Lucky for me the owner took real good care of her, as she runs sweet. The final bidding price that sealed the deal, was very reasonable. I wish more sellers could be like this gentleman. Oh, and I got bit by my own lack of observation and purchased an old Atlas E-7 in the SP Bloody Nose Paint scheme. I would have never paid out that much..... if I had seen it in person. I told the seller to enjoy the monies I sent him. Over paid! Cha-ching. Hurrumph! Florida, you are so right. By the way what you selling? Tehachapi, it was your post that got me started. Prices in some cases are way off the mark, out of the ball field and beyond discernible reasoning. A bunch of shucks and shysters.
Speaking of E Bay... I havent bought or sold on e bay for 4 plus years. Today I get an email from them... Dear mtntrainman We noticed that you haven't signed in to your eBay account for quite some time, and we'd like to invite you back to buy and sell again. eBay's a great place to buy what you want, and sell what you have. Unfortunately, since you haven't used your eBay account for a while, it will be deleted if you don't sign in within 30 days from the day this email was sent. Really hate to see it go... N O T !!!
I don't know how great they're doing... but I can say that my "ignore list" grows larger each week. One, ahem, participant changed IDs and crawled back into the listings returned. That will be fixed.
I would sign in and then put something on the watch list just to make them carry the incremental overhead. Yeah, it's a trivial number of bytes, but why not?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291004563237?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:VRI&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2661 It's HO scale, but I think you can still appreciate it :teeth: Out of curiousity, I checked his other listings. Didn't take an actual count, but I would guess that half of his rolling stock looks just like this, missing at least one or both trucks and looking like a refugee from the under-the-train-show-table-take-what-you-can-grab-for-a-dollar. All for a similar $12.95 or something like that (FREE SHIPPING though!). This particular item ended unsold and is now relisted. And he has 100% feedback. It's real easy to get pee'd off at this sellers, but I don't take it seriously any more. I use ebay to buy and sell when I can, because it's - in my mind - like a giant swap meet. Lots of great sellers and lots of stinky ones. Still deals to be had and still a source of stuff that's hard to impossible to find anywhere else. My biggest gripe are the FEES. Now THAT I take seriously!
eBay still monitors shill bidding and suspends or cancels violator's accounts. Of course they can't catch everything but you are never going to stop all the butts of this world. I have to agree. I use eBay to get a feel for the market and it gives me a wider audience and there are some pretty astute N scale buyers out there. I know I get some repeat bidders on my Kadee-MT items because I try to list accurately, take good photos, start at a fair price, and use free or low shipping costs. Then too, sometimes the market, especially auctions, is strange. I've had an item not sell at one price, I relist it an a lower price, and have it bid up higher than the price it didn't sell at. I often see this at car auctions - sometimes the right buyer or the money doesn't show up and sometimes multiple folks want the same thing. Andy Tetsu Uma
I would rate this as "optimistic"... http://www.ebay.com/itm/INTERMOUNTA...287842?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item3f2ae061e2 ...particularly considering that the original price sticker ($199.95, also optimistic these days) is still visible on the box.
♫It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.♫ I wouldn't worry too much about it until there are no signs of the trend reversing by the end of February. (At which point the "Out with the old; in with the new." "I've spent too much during the holidays!" and "It's lost that new toy smell." periods have hit.) Edit: I forgot to include the "I need money for the holidays!" period.
This being one of my most frequented threads here, has anyone seen this bargain? http://www.ebay.com/itm/181245052250?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 Uninformed trying to make fast buck? Or trying to make a fast buck on the uninformed? New Ray battery operated toy set listed as Kato... Nobody is biting yet. Great feedback to boot...
I often wonder if some folks never look at this, before they bid. There might be a rare instance where taking a chance is worth while, but....
It is in England, and shipping is expensive, but has shipping gotten THIS expensive? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...8117195&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:3160#shpCntId
