This question goes out to all that ebay model railroad.
I wondered what you guys and gals have found to be you savings by buying off of ebay.
I figured that in the long run i have saved about 50 percent over the life of my 30 inch by 45 foot ho railroad.
I am not worreid about buying used or new. There are some things like locomotives and dcc equipment that has to be new, but for rolling stock, does not have to be new. secitional track does not have to be new.
I think I have gotten away with this because of all the reading of product reviews, these forums for advice.
My next question, as the quality of HO equippment continues to increase. Are we going to see over the next year or two a larger increase of the used Ho equippment. I know that it is out there, but I have not seen many hobby shops that have a dedicated used section that has ever been worth a darn.
I don’t use Ebay soley for the savings, as sometimes, things are higher there than at retailers. I like to use it too, for hard to find items. There are lots of things there that you just can’t find easily just going to the LHS.
I would agree with you there that it is a great tool. Maybe for no other reason than not to impulse buy.
do anyone else, here are some simple rules that my wife has set for me.
Do I know what I am looking for, then if I do I can look.
What would it cost to buy it new if was here in town. This is not a hard one to win. My LHS is the only one in town, and pretty well run the roost for prices.
What is my max bid
How much is shipping.
This works only when I am not selling anything on ebay. That is also a rule around the house, whatever I sell on ebay and leave in my paypal account is fair game. But if it has to come out of the checking account, then I have to follow those same four basic steps.
To sum things up, I find Ebay to be a great tool to prevent impulse buying. I have a real problem with this at the LHS. I have got the railroad far enough along that now when we buy rolling stock that it is something that we need, and in the road we want.
I dont know if anyone else out there had that same experince, but when I started, I would just buy what ever cars I thought looked neat, I gave no thought to what era it was coming out of, nor did I car what the road name or number was.
Now the RR is up and running with DCC, trying to insitute a car order switch list system, and now all my impulse buys are show their ugly heads.
I buy from eBay quite often but I’m becoming more particular in what I bid on. A few rules of thumb that I follow are:
Stay away from brass. It’s usually way over priced. I saw one Akane brass loco go for $800 which is about $500 too much.
Beware of sellers who use reserve pricing. One gimmick, for example, is to start bidding at, say 95 cents with a “buy it now” price of $65. The $65 price was way over what it was worth so you had no idea where this guy was going with the bidding.
Pay attention to a seller’s satisfaction rating. I got burned by a guy who had lots of bad feedback which I didn’t pay attention to. When he didn’t deliver the model in a timely manner I wrote him a “neutral” rating. The next thing I know he slams me on my rating - made me sound so bad that if I were someone else, I wouldn’t buy from me!
Yes you can get good deals on ebay but the downside is the risk that occasionally you will get burned by a less than honest seller. When that happens, please don’t come on this forum and whine about how you got taken advantage of. We had a rash of those kind of posts a few months back and frankly, nobody cares. It is part of the cost of doing business in that cyber flea market. You pays your money, you takes your chances.
Sometimes you can save a lot. I got some P2K GP38-2s on eBay for between $50 and $60 each. At my local hobby store those would be at least $90 if not more, plus I’d have to pay sales tax. It pays to shop around, and also look at other non-eBay online retailers to see what you can get something for. For example, one retailer has the Broadway CZ cars for around $53 each, so there’s no way I’d pay more than that for one on eBay, even though some sellers are asking more. As others have said, pay attention to the feedback rating. Usually if it’s 100% positive or very close you’re okay. If they have more than a handful of negatives, though, I’d be cautious. Also beware the shipping charges. I am always nervous when the seller doesn’t state an amount. I think eBay should have a rule about that, otherwise there’s nothing to prevent an unscrupulous seller from charging a ridiculous amount of money to ship a $5 item. I am wary of sellers who put the price low but then charge an inflated shipping rate, even when it is clearly stated.
By no means was I hear to complain. I understand where you guys are coming from though in not wanting to hear it.
Just the other day I got two number 6 switches, and they would always short my dcc out, they still had insulated frogs and all, but they are were about 10 years old, even though they still not been out of the original packaging. The seller asked me if I had recieved and and if they worked. I was honest with him, and told him they did not work for my needs, still left positive feedback, this was not his fault, but at the same time he offered a full refund, I refused again it was not his fault, so we settled down on free shipping on my next purchase from him.
Anyone got any thoughts on what the market will be like in 1 or 2 years for used stuff. Ebay or your LHS.
Myself, I would love to see a used retail maket become wide spread. I think it would do alot of the hobby that would maybe be less cost prohibitive to enter as a hobby.
I find ebay as a good source for out or production items. A lot of things are over bid. I see lots of people buying things on ebay for more than they can currently buy the same item from their LHS or Internet Hobby Shop.
I have purchased new/out of production rolling stock on ebay for as little as $2.50. My gripe would be paying $10 to ship a $2.50 item, but I wanted the item and could not find it any where else…
Ebay is also a good source for modelers to sell model railroad items if they are changing eras, scale or upgrading components.
I think ebay is a good modeling resource if the buyer uses common sense in bidding and checking the feedback of prospective sellers before bidding.
I do it mostly for the used items I can get cheap. I bought 3 SooLine GP35’s Athearn Powerd units for around 30 bucks. I usally only try to buy a bargain. I have paid on the average for rolling stock 6 to 7 bucks for rolling stock. I got real lucky about 2 months ago and Got a P2K gp60 for less than $40.00. It’s a matter of timing sometimes. Oh and I bought a AC4400CW Kato for $48.00 and flipped it 2 Months later for more than $90.00 !!! I was lovin that one. Now since I work at the Hobby Town in Florence I try to buy all my accessories and some other stuff there cus I get a fat 10% discount!! Lol But every little bit helps.
My whole loco fleet was purchased off of ebay, and yes I’ ve saved a hell of a lot money from there. I believe the equipment I buy is much cheaper because I buy locos undecorated. People don’t always go after the undecorated models. Not to mention my lhs does’nt alway carry an undecorated model anyway.
You need to watch the shipping charges. People play games with that. You can find an Athearn car for $11 and shipping may be $11 also. Sometimes a $2.50 car may have $10 shipping which makes it no bargain. You can get burned real easily. I have a price limit and do not go above that. There are times I get really good bargains and a lot times I end up wasting my time and getting nothing. As for Ebay I would rather buy online and get things over with. I hate playing games with my purchases.
I know what you mean about the feedback thing. You can go back and leave an assitional feedback over his response to make it clear that he was the bad guy. You don’t want your record tarnished.
In my case ebay is a good place for buying locomotives (plastic and brass) ,it isn’t worth the while for rolling stock (outside of 1970’s vintage Tyco with the splashy graphics-my brother collects them) I can by them from my LHS or have them ordered in for usually a lot less. Brass is very rare and extremely expensive in my area, so a bit of patience and discretionary bidding has usually got it for less than I would pay locally (if I could find it in the first place). Plastic locos are a bit like brass, eg: I bought 2 P2K Canadian Pacific SD 45s for $230 CDN compared to $150 CDN for just one in a local hobby shop.
Although I am in now N-Scale, I used eBay to turn all of my HO. Some went better than expected, some worse. Overall not a bad deal beacuse if you really want to sell it, start it at 0.99 and somebody will buy it. I have also retooled in n scale with the majority coming from eBay. I use eBay to get exactly the fleet I want. My road selection and era are very specific. Avg price after shipping looks close to what I paid last week at the LHS. I also find it to be the best place to get structures again because of the selection. Maybe I’m just too picky…