After all of the ebay horror stories we all read here, I thought this story needed to be shared. This time I got more than I expected. I recently bought an Atlas late-model loco on ebay. It was advertised as used without the original box but otherwise in excellent condition. Being well documented photographically and having a great price–under $45–I couldn’t resist. I won the auction and awaited my item. When it arrived it looked great, no noticable damage or wear on the wheels. I immediately thought about DCC conversion, so I pulled the shell off to inspect the light board and what do I see but a Lenz decoder already installed! WOW!!! The seller was one of these second had dealers who buys up collections cheap an auctions them off. Probably had no idea what he had. I put it on my programming track, read the decoder address as default 03, changed the address to the road #, then tested it on the main. It runs like a new one. Infact, I don’t think its been broken in. I figure I got about $145 worth of loco and decoder for about $40. Life is good! [:)]
Good deals like that on eBay do pop up from time to time. You just have to keep your eye out and be patient. I’ve gotten a few good deals on eBay, but I don’t think I’ve gotten a deal that good (yet).
I’ve only bought one item from eBay. I lost the auction, but they later e-mailed me that the winner didn’t pay, so they offerred it to me at the price I had bid.
Life is good if you got that deal!! I’ve done okay on ebay, won some, lost some–that’s the attitude you need to have–but I haven’t gotten anywhere near as sweet a deal or surprises like that! That’s great. Enjoy[:P]
You’d better contact the seller and tell him he made a mistake – NOT! [:D]
Every now and then, an eBay purchase favors the buyer. I bought 4 Roco dummy FA’s, and one turned out to be powered. The seller said he realized this after it was listed, and decided not to quibble. I got a good deal out of his oversight. [:)]
I buy stuff on eBay all of the time. My most recent purchaces have been 2 Walthers ADM Grain SW-1’s and 1 Cargill SW-1. One ADM I bought for $70.00 (Hey, I wanted it, OK!!) and the next day I won a ADM and a Cargill for $50 each. Not too shabby?
Now, I need to buy a few Walthers grain elevators to go with the engines…
One time I bought a lot on eBay that included…
-Atlas RS-1 complete Shell (X2)
-Atlas RS-3 complete Shell
-Atlas GP7 complete shell
-Atlas SD24 shell in private paint scheme shell
-Custom SP C415 with chassis
-Bachmann GP30 with chassis
-Athearn SW7 Shell
-Custom Detailed Athearn SW7, both with chassis (X2)
Price? $15!
So, sometimes you can get ripped off, and sometimes you can hit a gold mine.