Do many of you buy things on E-bay? I have found that most items (new, in box) are priced at or higher than the online retailers, but their shipping and handling charges are outrageous. I just purchased 2 Proto 2000 GP9’s from M.B. Klein for $29.99 each plus $5.00 total for s/h. $64.98 for 2 Proto 2K’s seems pretty good to me. Any reason to use E-bay other than to make E-bay and the sellers rich?
Tim
Tim, I’m not much on ebay or anyother auction sight, but thats a personal thing for me. I do have some friends that use ebay alot, they swear buy it, and also I know they’ve got some pretty darn good deals there. There some on the forum here that sell and buy there also. I think if your careful and know what your bidding on you may be alright. Like I said in the beginning, it’s not my thing, and in no way trying to sway anyone away from useing those auctions. Ken
I have used eBay, and agree that good deals are harder to find these days. As you have observed, there seems to be more and more retailers selling things at or above retail. I’m not against retailers selling things on eBay, I just wi***hey would stop thinking the place is full of suckers.
Sure, there will always be suckers on eBay, but not THAT many!
The bottom line is that you must know your prices and bid patiently.
The only way I buy on ebay is to bid lower than what I know I can purchase at a hobby shop or on line. I make my bid and if I win, good. If I lose, no big deal. It bugs me to see people pay way more than what something is worth just to win. Dumb.
i buy about 80% of all my train stuff on ebay. and i sell on there from time to time. if you know where to look, you can get some excellent deals. and, it’s the only place to find items that have been out of production for a long time.
Ebay’s a great place to buy model RR equipment at cut rate prices, but it’s not the only place. Frankly, better prices CAN be had by actually going to one of the mail order stores ($30 for a P2K GP-9 at Trainworld, for example), bnut Ebay DOES have better pricing than virtually any LHS in the country.
It all boils down to how well you’ve researched the price. And when you bid on Ebay, always keep the shipping charge in mind as part of the overall price (I generally don’t bid if the shipping charges aren’t stated). I’ve been buying on Ebay for years, and have never bought anything off Ebay that I could have bought cheaper somewhere else.
It also helps to buy several things from the same seller, all at the same time. Most of my resin freight car kits have been bought on Ebay. The prices were less than MSRP to begin with, and the shipping was a flat fee for up to five kits at at a time. Generally, I’m picking up $30 kits for $16.50 apiece or so.
This topic seems to come up every couple of months, and usually has the same anwsers. FWIW, I bid often, however rarely win. By the time that you add the shipping costs, people usually bid it up to what I could pay at a LHS. I also have found that rolling stock is almost always overpriced when shipping is added.
I have purchased well over half of my engines on Ebay, however. And I just won an auction for two Walthers cars at half price. So if you look hard enough the deals are their. However, as was said above, use it in conjuction with other online sources.[;)]
I agree, rolling stock isn’t worth it most of the time but on engines you can save a ton of money. Buildings and used stuff is great at less then 1/2 the cost. I’ve bought lots of stuff from Ebay but you need to do your research first.
I don’t usually buy on eBay intending to find a bargain - I’m usually looking for items that aren’t available in stores any more or something to repair - I bought a Walthers Dash 8 in this way - front truck pivot was broken so I replaced it with a screw - basically got the loco for about 1/2 retail price with a small fault to fix. Apart from that one, I’ve bought another 5 locos from eBay - some mint boxed, some in need of repairing. It’s definitely a good place to find old, out of production equipment.
e-bay is o.k., but I’d rather buy from a LHS, where I can put my paws on them!! Besides, regardless of what they say, paypal IS NOT SECURE!!! DON’T USE IT!!!
Just about everyone I know thinks eBay is great, but they seem to spend a huge amout of time checking on stuff, bidding on stuff and worrying about stuff. Alot more than I would think it could be worth.
RRding Brit (Matt)has the right idea, if it is something you can’t find easily, or if you are 200 miles from the LHS, then it is a great deal.
Otherwise, i’ll go along with MC229, I want to see it before I buy it.
I check Ebay.ca regularly, and occasionally “win” a unique / rare item, that I think is worth the price ($25 Cdn or less to my door including shipping) - generally Marklin freight cars. Personally I will not buy engines etc because you never know… checking seller reputation is first step when you find that particular item. My purchases have been for fun / interest, with money I can take a chance on, and I’m not spending big bucks. Including my trains and my wife’s scrapbook supplies, we’ve made approx 40 hassle free purchases - no problems so far.
I expect to save about 30 % on each purchase, unless the item is truly unique - pickle tank vat car anyone? still looking…
have been using Paypal for over 4 years now and i have had no problems whatsoever. 90% of the people that have problems with paypal are the morons that reply to fake emails and give out their own information to a non secure site.
I have had pretty good luck with eBay–normally I have paid less for items found on eBay than I find them at the LHS, and generally less than I’d pay at a swap meet. I generally don’t buy nickel/dime items on eBay though–it tends to be where I look for rare stuff, things that I wouldn’t find at a hobby shop or other easily accessible location.
Generally, I stop bidding when the price of an item goes above what I want to pay for it. It’s a safe and effective strategy–I never pay more than I want to pay. If it is worth more than I’m willing to spend to someone else, let 'em have it.
I always look for the deals on ebay and only bid on items that start below retail prices. There is no point to buy it for higher price on ebay than you can get it at a LHS or mail order. A few years ago, the choices were better because there were less Power Sellers. Power Sellers are retail shops trying to supplement their business. They have taken most of the fun out of ebay these days.
If you are patient, you can find deals. Mostly from other hobbist trying to unload excess inventory, to chaning scales. Those are the deals, the ones that start off at $1. Anything that starts at the retail price or higher very rarely sells, if at all.
I’ve used eBay only once yet but watch items every day.I wouldnt bid on items I can get at my LHS though,but eBay is the perfect place to find rare items that are no more available in other ways.However,my strategy is simple…I evaluate how much the item is worthed to me,meaning how bad I want it compounded with the estimated original purchase price,also comparing with other similar available products if any.This allows me to come up with a reasonable fair value,then I take into account shipping fees(I live in Canada) and bid accordingly.I don’t want to rip off the owner but don’t want to be ripped off either.
I accept that I may pay a little more for rare items but never will get involved in a bidding frenzy.I’ll never pay an item twice or more times it’s value simply because there aren’t any available elsewhere,I’d rather not have it.
The primary reason I asked is because I only have 2 hobby shops fairly close, and neither carries model railroad stuff. I guess it’s just not popular around me. Therefore, I have to rely on recommendations from you guys and a lot of research so I don’t buy something from an online retailer that I end up not liking.
Tim
I just got a KATO SD40 IMRL for $53 off e-Bay !!!
(To be fair, it would have been $60 with shipping, but we lived in the same area, so I picked it up!).
I have bought about a third of my 50+ locos off e-Bay.
Some of them have been thru MB Klein, who sells on e-Bay (and internet direct) as “ModelTrainStuff”. The advantage of MTS on e-Bay is that you can sometimes get the loco even cheaper than their direct sales (store or internet)!
The trick on e-Bay is to know what you want to pay for the item and stick to it - don’t get carried away with bidding. In fact, what I do is use a proxy bid - you set a max bid, and the e-Bay computer will automatically increase your bid up to the maximum. This works for me, as if the item goes over my max bid I don’t want it!
The other e-Bay trick I use is to NEVER bid on an item unless the seller has a 99.8% approval rating of higher. And ALWAYS look over the feedback to be sure they are legit!
Doing this, I haven’t been burned in over 30 e-Bay wins.
EBay is a Internet ‘Flea market’ - Open to all - and only as good as the people using it at any given time.
Some Bargains - Some opportunistic dealers - Some opportunistic buyers - looking to score. Can you separate the SALE from the ‘SPAM’? How about trying to RETURN something ??
Biggest problem seems to be human nature - when it can be anonymous -
Caveat Emptor.
can you say Caveat $3.50 Emptor
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5902864810?ssPageName=ADME:B:TB7:US:2
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