All examples given seem to fulfill the intention of this thread, but I'd be remiss if I didn't post my own experience. Its all been positive. I bot over 2 years a passel of flex, a bunch of switches, 5 F59s, 2xSd80s, a few Bombardiers & parts, a Passenger platform, Japanese pattern engine, and one Peco dbl slip. Only the Peco dbl slip & Japanese pattern engine were useless; both returned with full credit + return shipping taken care of. And was fully satisfied by costs. Shipping + handling seems high, but always look at total costs & availability before complaining. Caveat emptor always applies even at your LHS & favorite websits. eBay is just fine with me, just another dependable source.
Simply put, it's a pain and a risk. I have had problems before where someone from outside the U.S. wins an item and it is shipped. They get impatient and demand a refund when they don't get it in a week or two. They threaten leaving bad feed back and more. I refund them and never know if they got it or not. Not only am I out shipping and product but my time. Not worth it, sorry.
I've been a seller on e-Bay for 14 years, (1998), mainly to sell my custom painted items. I've had my share of horror stories as well. Recently I listed a set of N scale Road-Railers. They had been in storage for a few years, so I took them out and inspected them, ran them on the layout, took a picture and added them to e-Bay. I put a $60.00 start up bid and a set it as a five day auction. The first time it did not sell, so the next week I placed it on at $50.00. Still a good price for this item. With only a few hours to go, I had no bids, no watchers, then in the final minutes a bid came through. Immediately I had a bad feeling on the transaction that was about to take place. I was right. I shipped the item a few days later and within a week I get an angry e-mail from this woman, telling me how the item was broken and missing parts and complaint after complaint. Her e-mail continued to say how she was going to leave bad feedback and complain to both e-Bay and Pay-Pal. I responded by telling her to return the item and I would A: give her a refund immediately for the item ($50.00) and B: would reimburse her the shipping when the item was returned to me. For that night she argued and told me she wanted both the item and shipping back to me refunded now. I have been scammed by this before so I was not about to do it again. After about 6 kind e-mails back to her I finally stated, "Look, I'm not some big box store like Wal-Mart, I'm a single guy who is trying to thin out his collection. I'm not out to get you or your husband and take you two to the cleaners. I am however someone who has been modeling N scale for some 20 years, I know the product, I custom paint and my work has been published, so your not talking to some newb." Suddenly she was willing to work with my terms. I received the item back a few days and refunded the cost of the return shipping to her. The only thing she was out of was her time. She thanked me, I ignored her, and promptly placed her on my block list so this wont happen again. The item was undamaged but missing parts that were with it when it left for shipping. Guess you can look for a cheap Deluxe Innovations Road Railer on e-Bay soon.
Well said! yes it was plain and simple for me - once ebay started their 'the buyer is always right' campaign, guarenteeing delivery to the customer, all on the seller I found that 90% of all international has no tracking, no delivery confy's, and no insurance - unless the buyer wants to pay the exhorbitant price of express mail. Thus ebay has shot themselves in the foot, halting many future sales from all who now refuse to deal internationaly. I had one person ask me, and when I kindly explained why, he was totally amazed, and saw the point, and said that he finally understood why so many people did not want to list/sell internationaly - was a nice moment (incidently I still see sellers talk about insurance, and how they will not cover any loss w/o insurance, which they cant sell to the buyer anyway. I guess they havent read ebay's policy about the seller's responsibility!) Tim
I do not DISLIKE eBay... but... I've found that the good deals are getting much harder to find. I have bought from some reliable international sources out of Europe and Asia without any problem. I don't SELL anything (yet) on eBay... and based on some of the comments I've read... sellers are getting a bad deal from eBay. There was a time where I could find virtual 'steals' on eBay... right now... the majority of the items are overpriced and could be risky purchases sight unseen.
True, I used to buy undec Atlas and Kato locomotives for $35.00 - $50.00. Have not ordered something from e-Bay since this past Christmas. I found a MTH RailKing B&M SW switcher with Proto 2.0 for only $179.00 and the guy was from my home town (Small world). I try to put a fair price on my stuff, mainly because I only want to handle it once. My attitude is, "Hopefully another modeler will have a use for this". Right now I'm selling a bunch of code 80 track I have no use for and don't want to move. Better to sell it cheap and let someone use it than let it get ruined.
Sad, but very true. For an individual (non-business) seller the time and effort involved, alone, can be a negative. I would wish it to be otherwise. I have only in quite rare instances, (eBaY since 1997), done anything with shipping an item out of North America. With the US postal system trying to reorganize itself and surely making some decision mistakes as they do so, shipping times will be impacted even more with longer transit times. Which will not sit well with the impatient who do not understand that once a package is out of our hands we have no control on how fast it gets to you! Plus I'd bet nor will there be adequate compensation for those slowed times built in from the power masters at eBaY. From where I reside, we know already it will guarantee one more and likely add two days to US First Class. For those who were not users back in their early days, the whole thing is changed so much now as to be almost unrecognizable.
Okay - so I was searching for Lehigh Valley on fee-bay and ran up against our most popular seller - again! Here is his offering (an LL PA1 $109.95) http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-SCALE-LIF...784429?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item27c0a551ed And here is where I happened to run across last nite at a site in FL that grew up in TX [TABLE] [TR] [TD="width: 54"]7077 [/TD] [TD="width: 473"]Lehigh Valley Rd #609 Powered, Maroon Life Like : N-Scale PA-1 - Diesel And which one would you run and purchase??????????[/TD] [TD="width: 78"]$59.95 Available [/TD] [TD="width: 81"]$37.95 [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
I had a buyer in Canada claim the engine I sold him arrived wrapped in a paper towel (no jewel case) inside the shipping box. He threatened to leave bad feedback if I did not refund 50% of the selling price. I replied that I did not ship it that way and if he wanted to return it for a refund, I would agree to that. He left negative feedback and I never heard from him again. I looked at his feedback that he left for others, and there was a definite pattern. Ebay rules forbid extorting feedback ratings, so I forwarded his email with the threat and after having to send another email to prod it along, the negative was removed. If you are ever threatened with negative feedback in this manner, contact Ebay and it will be cleared up (once you prod them to enforce their rules).
I wouldn't purchase from either of them. One is priced to high, and the other list lots of stuff on their web site that they don't have in stock.
Supply and demand. Nothing is forcing you to pay $109 for the loco, unless you really want it really bad and there aren't any available any where else. I would not put any faith on anything I find on ********* website. It hasn't been updated in over 5 years. They list everything they have ever had in the store, be it currently in stock or not. If somebody really wanted one, they would have a better chance to get the loco by paying the $109 than to deal with *********. I don't see why you guys get so upset over somebody listing something at a high price. If somebody is desprate/impatient enough to pay that, then more power to the seller. If you could sell something for $100 that you only paid $30 for, wouldn't you? The clothing stores do it all the time. How do you think they get away with all those 50-75% off sales at Old Navy. Guess what, they are still making money even at the sale price. You want crazy, check this out for a piece of mass produced scenery. The seller listed it at a $10 starting bid. Look where it is now..... http://www.ebay.com/itm/330685284214?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 This is a case of two desprate people. If the seller listed it for $100 starting bid, you guys would be all over it saying how he was trying to gouge.
I don't believe people here are at all "upset." Rather just poking a little fun at what some amongst us do...
Now, now... we see the humor. E-Pay does indeed drive prices due to the competitive attitude to win. Taking it perhaps to an extreme but I've done the same thing when I wanted a particular car...sigh...offering more then it's worth. I was at a swapmeet where you would expect to pay swap meet prices. I found a gentleman selling off his old collection for better then the original MSRP. I knew him and the care he gave his equipment. I talked him down by $5.00 a piece and bought a fair amount of his train collection. I went away a happy customer. Most of the time I approach any purchase Red over Yellow. "New"...will never ring true in these ears and "Used" is what I'm thinking. Unless I know the person... from whom I'm buying train stuff. The newest thing out there is "Unused in the box". I will leave you to your own conclusion.
Must be a slow day over on Railwire....LOL. No one is complaining...I dont see where anyone gets that idea. Poking fun at the idiocy of some of the things that go on at EBay is just that...fun. Be it the ludicrous pricing on some items...whether someone actually buys it or not...or be it EBays newest stupid policies. Ya cant fix stupid...LMAO !! :tb-biggrin:
Why do I post here in the eBay follies thread? I know that when I got back into model railroading in general and N scale in particular, I made some mistakes and overpaid for some items. I would like to help someone else avoid my mistakes. As an occasional eBay seller, I want to help people get a sale and try to help them if they have priced something greatly above what the market usually bears for an item. Sometimes, I just like to expose chutzpah from a cavalier seller. Sometimes it's just fun to goof on something seemingly ridiculous with some internet train buddies. I think it's understood that everyone has their price for something and I have enough of a free market spirit (and a minor in Economics) to say to someone that if they can get a price they are asking - good for them. That van for example, the offeror didn't charge that, the market set the price. I've personally have items sell for greatly higher than the price I've expected. Serendipity. We model different railroads, different time periods, different parts of the country and world. We are even in the hobby for different reasons (I, for example, am more of a collector than a lot of people here) but we can each do our own thing and keep it moving. What I think we have in common is that nobody wants to see anyone pay too much. Very respectfully, Andy Tetsu Uma
There is some jabeep trying to sell a Hallmark brass F3 AB set for $450. His listing has been on since July 2011. Come July 2012 I am going to submit the seller's name to either the Guinness Book of World Records or the Darwin Awards as constituting the most laughable folly of all time.
I know that it's hard for some of us to see those overpriced sillies in our budget when it's 2x 3x or more-x MSRP..... but if it's rare and someone wants it, it's anyone's guess as to what it is worth to someone whose budget may not have much of a cieling, or someone who places a lot of value on that one item for sentimental or other resaons. Of course, it's tough to place poorly-constructed or easily-available-elsewhere-for-less items in that category......
It eases my anxiety to see the replies supporting the obvious, that this thread is and has been, for the most part, a fun poking thread. Now - the quoted is deserving the answer that man normally uses - "But That's Different" - Listing an item for $10 and having a bidding war is very different then listing it as a start of $100, or some way overpriced figure. In my past I have had people pay more for a brand new item, then what it was currently selling for in the store (a RIX Highway Overpass - still available) who can understand the bidding minds - I mean we laugh about the 'Listed Prices' on items in this thread - $300 for a Kato SD - yes its stupid, but if someone wants to buy it - that's on them - mostly no-one does. BTW - Have you EVER looked at Kalmbach Manuals on Amazon? Prices like $300-$600 for a used dumb $19 book. Well that's laughable, and is what we have been doing here, that's all. I just happened to add in an active price difference on the one I listed.
Well I had to go back to get the link to check on the Krauss Maffei. Supposedly it closed out on March 2nd with 0 bids. I wonder if there was any lesson in this?
I left a "Neutral" (should have been a Negative!), for a seller that sent me two "N" scale decoders in an envelope!! the other day, and that feedback disappeared in under 24 hours!!, with no explanation to me as to why Ebay thought that was fair. Seems they only enforce the rules they like.....................
