I was wonderin if any of yall buy off of ebay, have you found any good deals?
I buy some of my engines on eBay. Some of the better deals include:
a rare old Bachmann F9 with 8 wheel drive:$10
a Kato SD80MAC:$90
an IHC 2-8-2:$50
I’ve gotten quite a few others, but those were the best deals.
What’s EBAY???
I bought almost 90% of my HO stuff of of them. I found some good deals and also have gotten stuff for outrageous prices. Like FSM kits that haven’t been out for 20+ years. Some I paid $700.00+ for. I got some good KATO deals for $75.00 each, (KATO SD90/43 MAC’S). I have bought PAINTBALL, GOLF, CAR, COMPUTER, BOWLING, ECT. I have also got RIPPED off before. Do a search for several other EBAY topics here. I am sure you will find out what you want.
Normally if I’m buying off Ebay its trains and yes I have gotten some good deals sometimes you get real lucky like I picked up an engine (lionel) for $35.00 and sold it for $125.00 2 weeks later she had a buy it now price of $35.00 so I jumped on it. I have also gotten deals just because there was more items for sale than people looking ( ie best time for lionel usually is mid augest to mid october as a lot on vacation getting kids back to school ect,ect. )
RT
i Have picked a few lide-like proto 2000 gp30 for $30 each
also a Ho scale kato sd90/43mac for $67
My last two major purchases off ebay were three Narrow guage turnouts that I couldn’t get anywhere else and a Proto 2000 CNR FA-1 that I got for about 40$ cheaper than going to the nearest hobby shop.
I bought about 90% of my HO and 95% of my wife’s N scale off Ebay. Well over $4000 worth, without any problems or misrepresentation. Of course, we do lots of research on the item prior to bidding, and know our maximum before the auction ends. Have gotten quite a few great deals. Some examples:
HO Trix Big Boy (new) $300, including shipping.
HO Rivarossi Challenger (new) $163 incl. ship.
HO IHC Premier 4-8-2 (new) $30 incl. ship.
HO Stewart/Kato F7 (new) $35 incl. ship.
HO Accurail UP 40’ boxcars (4 new) $22 incl. ship.
HO Athearn F7 A-B-B all super power set (new) $49 incl ship.
N LifeLike Heritage 2-8-8-2 (new) $135 incl ship.
N Rivarossi Big Boy (used, exc. cond.) $125 incl. ship.
N Rivarossi Big Boy (used, needed motor) $120 incl ship.
N Rivarossi Big Boy (new, mint cond.) $313 incl. ship.
N Kato E8 A-A set (new) $65 incl ship.
N LifeLike E7 (2 new) $15 & 16, incl ship.
(new) MRC Command 2000 DCC with Powerpac, Walkaround and Loco, $53 incl. ship.
(new) MRC Command 2000 DCC with Digitrax Powerpac, 6 Digitrax DH123 decoders and Loco, $68 incl ship.
I have sold some items we don’t need, like wrong era items and excess track, etc. and have generally broke even on what I would have paid for them.
I have noticed recently that prices are getting quite a bit higher, overall. Good deals are getting rarer every day. I doubt I will ever see another Trix Big Boy go for $300! (I keep watching.) I was surprised when I put in my bid and won! I ended up being the only bidder! I am kicking myself for not getting a HO Lionel Veranda Turbine last year when there was a “Buy it Now” for $165!!!
My advice is do a lot of research before bidding! Check out online retailers, watch the prices on similar items and don’t get caught in a bidding frenzy at the end! I have seen many items go way over retail! The winner could have gotten the item for lots less than retai
I have purchased loco’s, rolling stock, track turnouts and numerous structures. I have also managed to get a great deal on a Digitrax Empire Builder set, so that I could expand my Zephyr system. My advice is to be patient, keep regular searches for what you want and don’t be tempted by over priced items. As an example, I wanted to get one of the MRC City and Country sound stations for my kids and visiting nephews to play with in the layout room. They retail for $55 plus. Over the last 2 months I have followed several of them on e-Bay. Most sold for $30-$40. I was able to get one for $22 yesterday. So unless what you are looking for is really rare, there will always be another one come up!
I have purchased slides of E/F units and passenger cars
Ch
I’ve bought models in N, HOm, HO, OO and G scale on ebay. There are good deals there but they very much depend on the time of year - around now prices tend to be lower than around October/November. Buy It Now often represents a better deal than bidding - I’ve bought a few items that way that would have been far more had I bid on them, comparing the price I paid to other similar items.
I bought my Kato SD38-2 off ebay for around 80-90 dollars. Which is nearly 60 dollars less than it lists on the Kato website. I am very happy with it and have no regrets!
John
USE CAUTION
- DON’T JUST CLICK ON BIN ( BUY IT NOW )
- BID YOUR BEST PRICE ( IF YOU DON’T WIN, BID ON ANOTHER ONE)
- MAKE SURE YOU CLICK ON SELLERS “FEEDBACK”
- READ ALL THE NEGATIVES (IF HE HAS ANY)
- SEARCH FOR THE BEST DEAL. (SOME ITEMS YOU ARE LOOKING FOR WILL HAVE MANY DIFFERENT SELLERS)
- READ “ALL” OF THE LISTING
- WATCH OUT FOR “HIGH” SHIPPING ( SOME SELLERS WILL GIVE YOU OUTRAGEOUS SHIPPING TO MAKE UP FOR BAD BIDDS, SO HE MAKES HIS MONEY BACK )
- IF ALL ELSE FAILS POST THE LISTING HERE AND GET SOME ADVISE ON WHAT IT’S WORTH.
Good Luck
Have purchased numerous pieces of rolling stock as well as 2 locomotives (one athearn GP 40-2 and one P2K GP 30) off sellers on Ebay. My experiences have been uniformly good and I will buy again. I feel my best deals have been Atlas HO cars for less than $10. Be sure to confirm what you are bidding on, what type of payment the seller accepts, and how much shipping will be. However, I will not rule out purchasing at other places as well, I have had good luck with Standard Hobby Supply and Trainworld as well, also some of the Hobby Shops I have visited in my travels.
I got an new Atlas Santa Fe SD26 for $56, and a sound equipped B40-8W for $159. There are some good deals around once in a while.
I always make sure that the person I’m buying from has mostly good feedback. Also, if they’ve got a high numeric ranking that’s probably a good bet that they’re safe to buy from. I doubt anyone who is a ripoff artist is going to have hundreds of transactions. So far I’ve had no problems as a buyer.
Another thing to check is to make sure the person you’re buying from accepts a payment method that you’re comfortable with. I prefer PayPal myself, so I generally only look at sellers who accept that.
I agree that traditional hobby stores can offer better value, especially on used equipment. I’ve paid less in a store for an item than I’ve seen identical items go for on ebay. Bidding wars can produce comical prices (well above RRP on used items). Certainly you shouldn’t bid too early - all this usually does is put the price up and lose the item as others are nearly always willing to bid more!
I would have to say I’ve bought the majority of stuff for my HO layout on eBay. I’ve also made about $2000 selling some older engines that didn’t make the cut when I went DCC. I live outside of Jackson, Mississippi and the closest train stores are at least three hours away. We do have a Hobbytown USA, but their train selection is a joke. I have always ordered primarily through places like TrainWorld, Standard Hobby, and Toy Train Heaven. Now almost everything I buy comes from eBay. I have over 300 (positive feedback) transactions and have never been disappointed. There are lots of well known hobby stores that have eBay stores, like Dan’s in Ocala, Florida. These sellers have a reputation to maintain and give dependable service AND great prices. I bought 36 factory assembled P2K Mather stock cars for about $7.00 each! You can’t even find the kits for that price!
I think the one market that eBay has really hurt are the “train shows” like GATS. I attend the annual shows in Mobile, Memphis and New Orleans religeously and have noticed a considerable drop in attendance and vendors. Sellers at these shows tend to price everything like the Hope Diamond, although on occasion you might find a few good deals. Spending time on ebay is like attending a train show with millions of booths and no crowds. I still love going to the regional train shows and always drop at least $300 when I go. In fact, I’ll be at the New Orleans show in about 6 weeks - but I’ll be on eBay tonight!!!
I baught a Mantua 0-4-0 pony engine kit for $35 with full orking valve gear, and a real nice vermont railway station for $12.
This is particuarly important especially for relatively recently released items. But don’t forget to checkout older items too. Sometimes they are still in stock at lower prices than on ebay. Sometimes a retailer will have an item on sale at a price well below the ebay price.
I recently got a brand new in the box micro trains N scale boxcar for 5 bucks, shipped 
Cant beat deals like that!
I frequently look on ebay for stuff that is no long available in stores- not to beat the local hobby stores price. It’s just a way if checking hundreds and thousands of dealers for a hard to find item- (and secondly, an item that (u)I(/u) am especially interested in that is not in high demand.
My layout represents East Texas piney woods. I saw a photo about 1980 of a tankcar lettered “Protex” for a company that transported paper mill byproducts from East Texas for use as a dispersent in concrete. One of my long-term project possibilities was making decals for Protex. Then one day on some forum (don’t remember whether it was this one or Atlas) I saw what I will term a beginners layout, loop of track with a loco and three Protex tankcars. Wrote the guy who had the post and found they were from Model Power. Checked catalogs, on-line listings— the tankcars in question were being sold by Model Power 2 years previously, no longer available.
I found a Protex tankcar on ebay and made a $4 bid. Only bid. Got the car. About $4 shipping charge. Was it a bargain? More so than traveling to distance train stores and shows looking forever and not getting it. And I got the car I wanted. ebay was a good deal for me that time.
I saw some other railroad things that looked interesting at interesting starting prices. Was outbid. Well, it only hurt a little try.
On ebay, I have found some great photo buys–
-a 100 year old postcard of the main street in the small New York town where my greatr grandparents lived.
-a photo of the school my great-grandmother attended in 1877.
-a postcard of the trolley line that used to run in 1910 through the neighborhood where I grew up in 1950
-a 125 year old engraving of a famous distant relative ($7.50)
-a 100 year old postcard showing the old part of Cologne Germany that existed 500 years ago when my ancestor was born there (as it appeared before WW2 bombing), bought from