I personally don’t have any particular favorite seller or sellers, but rather buy from those with good feedback that offer the best deals. I have however done business with the same dealer several times but only because they just happened to have what I was looking for several times…
Tracklayer
Good rating, accept PayPal, good prices and they have what I am looking for then I don’t care who they are. I don’t have any vendor that I focus on. I tend to go to e-bay looking for specific items, so I search for them and base my decisions on the best looking vendor/deal from what is available. If I have to send a check, or worse still make a trip to the post office to get a MO, I don’t bother bidding.
I have a couple, but some are special as they are clearly deeper involved in the hobby than just shoving grey market boxes, that’s why I dont feel inhibited to plug them here.
For instance, Terry Link (tmrdistributing) has a very interesting website on the NYC subsidiary CASO (Canada Southern), slowly expanded to cover long lot-lists of NYC passenger cars etc. He also runs a terrific Yahoo NYC e-mail list. Every now and then, I order a bunch of cars, parts and kits (all different manufacturers) from him at very decent prices - sometimes I almost feel sorry for his small margin, but he does have a loyal repeat customer in me.
Ed Lorence (bo1827) sold me some RD and IMRC kits and since then shares pictures and news of his huge & beautiful layout and the operating sessions on it.
Also “Martyho” springs to mind as a very likeable person, his margins are, well, better for him.
Bottom line; there are some interesting people out there for whom eBay is an extension of their hobby, or should I say expertise, and its fun to do business with them.
Rik
Don’t have a particular vendor, actually by coincidence, I just bought my first e-bay product (P2K E8) yesterday. As I model a fallen flag not modeled by a lot of people(Frisco), I enter that in the search engine when I log on to e-bay. Having said that, I do look at their satisfaction rating history. Admittedly, I think one is always taking a chance on e-bay(strongly recc. taking out the insurance on any order), but for items like the E8 I just purchased (out of production over 10 years) e-bay may be the best route for getting “hard to get” items.
Jim
anakramer, the favorite spot, trainhaus
Model Trains N Stuff (I think this is actually MB Klein)
Good service thru ebay and also courteous on the phone.
No
Antonio:
Yeah, I noticed yesterday that MB Klein lists stuff on e-bay–found it interesting that they have a Frisco DS-4-4-1000(Stewart) starting at significantly less than I paid for their recent sales price! I don’t know, seems kind of strange to see an internet store selling things on e-bay.
Jim
Ditto the favorite spot, they shipped even when I bought at below their cost, so looks like their honest!!!
T Good is a great one.
I have seen some great models from these few
A1
K
Yes, I’ve noticed that. But of course when listing on ebay at lower than wholesale price we know that the incoming bids will quickly take care of that. I plan on ordering another P2K SD45 from them, but I’ll check ebay first as usual. Even with shipping and handling, I came out way on top with the unit I won on ebay from them. (I think it came out to a total of $54).
Peace.
Have bought from thefavoritespot several times, for nearly two years now and always a good transaction.
Hobby Electronics and Accessories (ebay user DMMWEM) is a great place for electronics bits and pieces (toggles, LEDs, etc.) and again, a number of very good transactions under my belt there.
ScaledStructures is a good one for Walthers items, especially structures of course. Bought my 130’ turntable there, among several other things.
Hobbies 001 (E-Bay store)
Best price on Atlas track I’ve found. Great deals. Doesn’t charge S&H a lot of the time.
Bessemer Hobbies…Lots of rolling stock…
Dan’s Train Depot…Brass and great service
Mazz1133…Lots of NYC stuff
I’ve dealt with “yankeedabbler” alot. Most of my GP7 and GP9 locomotive collection has come from him.
That is not strange at all and is becoming more common. BTW - unless their practice has changed - Kleins starts all of their auctions at $1.
If you will notice the ones who get more than an item is worth ussually start at 99cents with no reserve, gets people to bidding and less ebay fees, 9 out of 10 times this will get you what you want or more but you may get burned 1 out of 10 times so it is the law of averages.
I absolutely do have my favorites; whom I trust and respect as being honest retailers…I also have a blacklist, and forbid myself at even looking at anything they have for sale…BDT
No