I pertty sure some of us have purchased a few items off of e-bay.What I’am asking is e-bay a better choice than your local hobby store ?
I guess it depends upon what your LHS is like! If I lived near Caboose Hobbies in Denver then I’d never want for anything. Our LHS has some stuff, I buy mostly magazines there, order my stuff by mail. I’ve only sold model railroad stuff on eBay, I’ve never purchased anything but some friends have. They are looking for hard to find items that the LHS would never have.
There’s a reason and use for both I guess.
Bob Boudreau
To me, it’s apples and oranges - I use ebay to buy things I can’t get in my LHS or via mail-order, especially older out of production items. Visiting the LHS is better for new items as you can examine the model before buying, and get a test run. I’ve seen some truly crazy prices on ebay of late - items going for either the same as you’d pay from a normal online store or far more. Certainly it seems that the bargains are now confined to the more oddball models - brands like Rowa (for example) that not many have heard of and that therefore attract fewer bids.
As far as E bay it all depends…I see locomotives and cars go at higher prices then I could buy them at a local discount hobby shop or on line for…On the other hand I have gotten some good deals off of e bay but,I don’t hold it above my local discount hobby shop or the on line shops I use.
To my mind e bay can be a fool’s game if one doesn’t know their prices and end up paying more then they can buy it for at discount on line or at a local discount shop.
You can always go to your LHS like ours, and get growled at unless you are there to buy a couple of $1400.00 brass locos or $5500.00 worth of G-scale stuff for your grandchild, or just tell the surly clerk you bought a brass loco last week and you only need some track, they seem to change their tune. other than that be careful on e-bay.
Lots of variables involed. We have a great LHS, knowledgeable train folk, 10% discount and they will make it
right pledge. At this very moment I’m bidding on a power pack and it’s advertisied with"warranty card" which
implies the product is covered by warranty.
When I asked the terms of the warranty, then & only then did the seller read the warranty card.
“Warranties are not transferable”, so the description is incorrect and the warranty card in-valid.
Oh yes, Larry knows I’m a warranty nut
My local Hobby shop is great at ordering in stuff for me. Its funny, every time I walk in he has a smile on his face, lol. I use both, LHS and Ebay. Ebay is great for finding older stuff that people want to get rid of.
Hope my kids don’t find that out.
Old fart.
Personally, I do more with E-Bay than my LHS for the simple fact my LHS is small in size but high in price. If I can get a good deal on an item on E-Bay, I go for it. I place maximum bids at a reasonable amount - some things I win, some I don’t. But I price it at what it should be.
One other “plug” for E-Bay is that it’s good for finding items that are no longer produced. May have to pay a higher price but if it’s something you really want it may be the only option available. For example, I purchased a Bessemer & Lake Erie SD7 about a year ago. I paid basically the same price for a used item that I would’ve for a new one back when they were originally released.
One other thing about E-Bay, make sure you consider the shipping when figuring a total cost for an item. It could cost you more than what you could purchase the same thing at your LHS.
Brian
I’ve bought most of my locomotive, some rolling stock, some building and a few scenery items on ebay. Also bought my Empire Builder on there. That said, I help keep my LHS in business and there are a few online train stores (www.blwnscale.com for one) who probably will be sending me Christmas cards. It just depends what I am looking for.
Most of my locomotives are not currently in production, so ebay is a good resource for that. If I’m buying in bulk (like flex track), I probably buy off the net to save a few dollars. But for one or two items (which generally wind up being 10-15 items), I drive down to the LHS. I could probably pull something out of Quicken to verify this, but I’d say the model railroad dollars are probably fairly evenly split between the three sources.
One final note, most of my other DCC purchases have been from online specialists, like Tony’s. The LHS carries the stuff, but is not exactly a fountain of information. I’m yet to have any questions about it, but if and when I do, I’d like to feel like I’m asking somebody who knows more than I do.
Unlike the times I have spoken to Microsoft Tech Support regarding software issues!
Thanks to all who commented on the topic I posted on the e-bay vs the lhs Lately I’ve purchased some items and got some good deals on them that I thought I would not have gotten anywhere else,still I not going to knock my Lhs just wanted to here would others modeler’s thought about it.
Ebay is way better than the local hobby shop in many purchases and worse than the local hobby shop for others. For example You might as well go to the LHS to get you Hydrocal at $8 rather than from ebay for $4 then $8 shipping. Then again you might as well buy the new Kato Train on ebay forr $91 rather than the LHS for $119. So there are good and bad things from ebay and LHS
I’ve been happy with ebay purchases, but there was one seller that turned out to be a scammer and lost 120 bucks
be careful. But I continue ebaying despite, too much stuff I want yet, and I find good deals, but some rare items keep selling at high prices, oh well, save your bucks for the things you really want.
I use e-bay a lot as a research tool to find out what the going rate is for certain items. I have an LHS that offers 20% off everything, so there are not all that many deals to be had on e-bay that are better than the local store. I used to buy at train shows, but now almost all my purchases are e-bay (for bargains, be patient!!) or my LHS. E-bay is particularly good for out of production stuff. For example, I decided that I needed a CNW S-2 switcher made by Atlas. I could not find one on the web at all, my local LHS could not order one for me, but got a really good condition one with KAydees already installed for $40 on e-bay. The exception is DCC, where I now get my stuff from Bruce at www.litchfieldstation.com
I just dropped over 400 bucks at my LHS. I took a copy of online pricing with me and they matched it. They may not have made as much as if i paid there retail price- but they made something on me instead of letting the mail order guys get it. I did have to pay the tax , but to me that is a small price for getting it the day I want it.
Not every shop will do this, but at least the guy behind the counter realized that he would get something for the sale I was gonna make anyways, instead of nothing at all.
Both the LHS and Ebay have their strong points,but I will always favor my LHS whenever I can have my wanted items at a reasonable price.When I add up the purchase price,the shipping/handling costs and the currency difference(I live in Canada),the LHS can most often match or even better an Ebay purchase.
Most likely though not all the time,most LHS will offer quite decent rebates on items they don’t have to store,and even more so if your order is of significant value.And you will have much less inconvenience should any of the items ordered be defective or damaged,which can be quite complicated with online purchases or Ebay.
However,I have a few purchases on Ebay so far and have always been happy with the results.But I limit my purchases to out-of-production items,some rare,and other items my LHS can’t get me at a decent price and/or reasonable delays.
I support two LHS’s here in arkansas as best as I can with routine purchases such as paint, kits and parts etc…
eBay helped me get the Walthers Barge and Carfloat which was OOP and I had to win a bidding war for em. Otherwise Ebay has helped me get rid of items not really suited to my railroad… you will not be able to make a living selling on ebay.
With that said, Out of Production items and occasionally much better prices than retail is what ebay is all about to me.
But when I consider where my hobby budget is going, the LHS’s get the lions share. Ebay is about 30% of the money not spent in the LHS’s and unfortunately that amount increases every year in ebay’s favor because it is harder and harder to find that one coveted item you waited a year for.
I just bought a Spectrum Heavy 4-8-2 that turned out to be wired backwards. I bought it at my LHS. Took it back, got it repaired in two days. Runs like a Swiss watch. what would I be stuck with if I’d bought it on E-bay? No thanks, I’ll continue to do my shopping locally (or at another web-page hobby shop if they have what I want). I’ve used the web to purchase locomotives, but only through reputable hobby shops. E-Bay? What am I REALLY going to end up with after the bidding? And if it turns out to be not only a lemon but a bonafide Grapefruit, what do I do about it?
Sorry, gang, give me hobby shops.
Tom .
I tend to use eBay for items that are out of production - I can usually get new items for less if I go direct to a good mail order firm. That said, I know I have dropped over $1000 in the past year at the LHS. That LHS is closing(owner died) and I will be doing more internet/mail order in the future. I now will have to drive 75+ miles to get small detail parts/paint/supplies in the future…
Jim Bernier