I won a bid for a powered and dummy set of CR SD40-2s for $51 last Saturday. I received the package today (when I won the bid the guy who was selling it said he would mail it out on Tuesday). The service was great, and although this was the first time I bought something off of Ebay, I’ll buy stuff off of Ebay more, I just hope every one comes in like the last one.
Just remember that you deal with a different person each time you bid on something. So
just because you had a good experience this time… Dave
Stick with those of 97% - 98% and above feedback rating. Next thing to look for is how many items a person has sold. Research the item you want. Don’t be afraid to EMail the seller with any question you might have. You might check out the “store” a seller has also if one is listed. And don’t forget to check prices against retail. And most of all as someone on another thread said - “Be Patient, set your price you are willing to pay and stick with it.” If you don’t get it the first time there will most likely be another.
Don’t forget about the shipping & handling. A lot of people will sell stuf on Ebay realy cheap but then hike up the shipping & handling to make money.
My dad and I checked all of the things you said. I’ll only do Ebay if I have to (we looked all over the internet and couldn’t find a CR SD40). We were lucky because when we found it there was only 2-3 hours left in the bidding. Another tip for anyone else who plans to buy stuff from Ebay: make sure the picture of the engine don’t look like a manufactures (or Walthers) photo.
The main reason we bought it was because shipping was free!
As others have said, only buy from people with good feedback (98% or higher), and check how much they charge to ship. I’ve bought a few locos from eBay - won an Athearn PA in SF Warbonnet livery recently, waiting for it to arrive now. Should be here next week - never found a store stocking these locos over here so as can be imagined I was pleased to find one!
I agree. Ebay is great. I’ve bought a lot of RR stuff off there. Never had a problem (except one time I bought a train set and the guy shipped me a different set and it turned out he didn’t the correct set!). Infact just recently I bought a Monogram Big Boy model kit and hope to get it next week. But, I NEVER buy anything from people who say “I don’t know a thing about trains”, or if it’s a loco, “loco is old and hasn’t run in a long time, I don’t have a track to test it on”.
Up until my most recent purchase, everything has gone perfectly. The problem that I’m trying to work out is probably a simple oversight on the part of the person who packed my winnings. I won 9 seperate auctions over a 3 day period, and one of the cars wasn’t in the package when it arrived. I have done business with this seller before, and am not worried about a fair resolution to the problem, because I trust him.
I agree with what the others have said. Before bidding, check the seller’s feedback.
I agree with almost everything said here. I have been on both ends of the transactions (buyer and seller). I really agree with the statement about watching the shipping charges. That has been a popular area to really run up a price. I never buy from someone who does not list shipping charges unless they will state what it will cost me.
I am so made at MR for writing about Ebay. The prices jumped to near retail after that article. Before, there were lots of bargains. Now, I have to hunt and pray.
I buy a great deal of trains from ebay. Ebay is quite good for finding unique or obscure items. I actually prefer to buy from people who don’t know anything about trains because they often have items listed in the wrong category or poorly described. This makes it harder to find for people who are looking for something specific and so you can gets some deals that way. I always check out obscure titles like “train locomotive engine”, “old train set” or “lot of model train pieces”. In general, I’ve had good experiences, except there have been a couple times when things were just thrown into a box and shipped that way (never had anything damaged in shipping because of it, thankfully) and one time I was never sent the train I won (it was only $10, though). But that isn’t something that heppens very often. I even purahced a train from Mexico with no problems or complications whatsoever (I got it today). My best advice is to check out feedback and use your own judgment.
Ebay is great, but last month before christmas I won an athearn GP40 and I’m still waiting for it to come. It was nice cuz it was superdetaled. I sent a money order but I never got the darn thing. It was 40 bucks wasted : (
The guy I bought the engine from had a 100% rating, and he said the engines were in mint condition, and he was right.
i bought a lot of stuff off of ebay in december and everything came in perfect condition. the only thing that took awhile was the Rock Island locomotive i bought because it was like the christmas rush and the guy was selling like 40 locomotives so i didn’t really get to upset. i was upset to begin with but he told me and it was cleared up. i made sure the seller had a very high rating of at least 1000+.
just make sure you buy things with pictures and ask questions if you need to.
I have bought a lot of stuff via eBay, much of it hard-to-find stuff that I was willing to pay more than fair market value for. I refuse to bid on items that do not specify shipping charges, because I like to determine what I would want to pay in total for the item (say, what I’d be willing to pay for it at a train show), then subtract the shipping charge to determine my bid. I’ve been surprised at how many times this has won me the item. I would think that people would bid higher and ignore the shipping, but this doesn’t seem to be the case (maybe it’s just that all model railroaders are frugal). I also refuse to bid on items that do not accept PayPal or other online payment methods, because it is simply too hard to keep track of all the items (I tend to bid in spurts, winning a bunch at a a time) and wait around for checks to clear or whatnot; I would much rather just handle it as soon as the auction closes.