Seems I ran across a site a while back but I can’t find it now. Just a place for us to buy, sell, swap stuff.
Getting tired of ebay, paypal , rules, etc. etc.
Thanks
hoyardsale.com is a yahoo group. check it out. i get tons of emails from it but i did find a few goodies and you don’t have to deal with the auction nazis so much.
gomotorbids has some stuff but it is more hit and miss. a guy i know posted a piece about that last one. seems they mixed the N scale in with the HO and he couldn’t get them to make it right. they buy out inventories and sell the items off at auction. you only deal with the one outfit that runs the site.
like you, i am about fed up with e-bay although i still use it now and then but it is my last resort. some guys still think it is great. good for them.
grizlump
I agree with griz,there’s some mighty fine deals on HOyardsale.com
For us wee scalers there’s NScaleyardsaleyardsale.com
Iv’e been watching hoyardsale since the first of the year. Maybe I’m a cheapskate, but I don’t have to take my shoes off to count the good buys I’ve seen posted. I’ve bought a few things without problems, but I have offered to buy several other items, been told by the seller that they were mine, only to be told in a subsequent email they were sold. I hear people complain about eBay, but I’ve been buying and selling on eBay since 1998, and have had VERY few problems. I don’t bid if its not a bargain and if a sellers wants to charge $10 for $5 worth of shipping, I don’t bid on his items. Like any auction, some people pay stupid money for items. Decide what you are willing to pay and don’t bid a penny more!
HOyardsale was created for those of us frustrated with auction sites. You can post items for sale at the price you want to get, if it doesn’t sell you can lower the price and repost it. If you are looking for any particular item you can make a WTB (want to buy) request and someone may have it. Patrick, the moderator, has the site rules clearly posted and does a good job keeping troublemakers out. It costs nothing to join, and you can set your e-mail preferences to avoid getting swamped with messages.
So does ebay. I’ve made a lot of complaints about it but they haven’t fixed it, nor even bothered to reply and acknowledge the complaints. Its getting pretty bad on ebay— if you shop there, beware!
John
I agree,items are often wrongly listed,like N in HO,but I think this the seller’s chore to have his items listed properly.I don’t think Ebay can check every single listed item (there are millions) to see if they’re listed right.This would imply that they know the model train world for instance,wich I doubt.I can only guess that many sellers don’t get what they could have if only their products were listed right.Just the same for sellers who have very poor selling strategy…can’t blame Ebay for this…
Personally,I do use Ebay although I haven’t played the bidding game for over a year,had enough of being sniped in the last ten seconds.However I like the “buy now” option,specially when a item is offered by a few sellers.I don’t get “next to nothing” prices but I think I pay a fair value for brand new items.To me Ebay is a giant online store.
“I’ve made a lot of complaints about it but they haven’t fixed it, nor even bothered to reply and acknowledge the complaints.”
it’s called “stonewalling” and i wouldn’t be surprised to find that the techniqe is being taught in business school.
there are several ways to make a customer go away and quit bothering you. limited access to a human is one. personell who have english as a second language is another.
many businesses are quickly learning what their competitors are getting away with and then they too want to know “where is NO?”
insurance companies and cell phone outfits are prime examples, not to mention credit card operations.
they just hope you will become so frustrated that you accept the loss and go away.
not a rant - just an observation.
grizlump (grouchy german)
Ill have to check back in to HO yardsale then and try it again then. When I signed up for it last, I got real tired real quick trying to go through 20 emails a day or more from postings of stuff I wasnt intrested in. It just got too time consuming reading and deleting emails from HO yardsale so I took my email off the list. Plus, I just wasnt sure how safe buying stuff off there was until posts like this come up. Perhaps its time to reconsider.
Chris.
as for hoyardsale, i have had three good experiences buying stuff there. i do think that it was originally a site where hobbyists offered their surplus equipment to others at a bargain. it seems that lately the type i call hucksters are starting to infest the site but that doesn’t mean they are dishonest, just taking advantage of a free retail outlet. on the whole, i am glad to see an alternative to ebay even though i still use it on rare occasion.
grizlump
With any Yahoo Group you have the option of how you want to receive messages - individually, in a daily digest, or best of all no mail. You read the messages on the Group home page, like I do for 18 of the 20 groups I belong to. For HO Yard Sale, I go to the home page, click on “Messages”, which displays the most recent 25-30 or so. I only open those that interest me, not very many. Then I open the first message and close it. The next time I check in, that message will be highlighted so I know how far back I need to check out the messages.
I recieve the e-mails from HO and N Scale yard sales and open those that interest me…No interest-no open its just that simple and takes a few minutes to look over 30 or more…Of course being a moderator on 3 forums and recieve modeling questions from the forums I am on I check my mail often.
I have bought many things off Ebay and have had little problems. None can be attributed to Ebay or Paypal. As with anything you buy sight unseen it takes a bit of check and double check and a little bit of trust. I always, no matter what site I use, read all the listing. Usually that tells me if they are selling what I think they are. If there is a doubt I ask or pass. Yes some don’t know what the difference is between HO and N and usually that involves structures, but I haven’t had an unresolved problem in that area.
I also check the feedback. I know Ebay has changed their policy, but I only buy from someone who has had many sales or if the item is priced low enough to give me a reason to give a new seller a chance. Also like someone else said I look at the shipping involved and figure that as part of the price I wish to pay. Not as a cost of getting the item as they say I’m suppose to.
All in all I treat Ebay, or any auction site, as a bargain place, not a full priced store. I have Hobby shops for that. If it’s not a bargain to me, then I just don’t bid. Lately that has been the case, not because of Ebay, but because the seller or the buyers have made it that way. It’s still a market and they are getting what the market allows even if it’s more than my market does. I can’t complain about the prices or the sellers asking or the price they get. Like all of us, we would like to get the most for what we have and if someone is willing to pay more than me, then I suppose they can have it. Even the “rare” stuff shows up again sooner or later. So far, nothing I missed has killed me that I know of.
So just set yourself up for the ‘daily digest’. You actually get two, sometimes three or four emails in a day, depending on how much traffic the list is getting, but each email contains a lot of other emails bundled up into it. I find it a very convenient way of keeping up with the HOYARDSALE list without getting inundated with emails.
Furthermore, I use Yahoo! email which permits me the ability to set up “filters” so the email can be directed to another ‘box’ that’s not my Inbox, so I don’t even have to worry about deleting them until I’m ready. They just accumulate in the other box until one day I’m tired of looking at 'em and delete everything out of the box. Real easy.
I don’t know what email service you have but it probably has similar features.
John
Agreed. I have purchased a number of items successfully from HOYARDSALE w/o incident. And I also agree that it seems to be getting more “huxters” these days. But Patrick seems to be doing a reasonably good job of keeping folks in line.
John
HO Yardsale is a pretty good place to buy and sell items compared to ebay. Ebay has priced and nitpicked me out of using them to sell items. I just can’t give them as much money as they want for selling and then be dictated to as to how someone can pay me or how to ship something. I will continue to buy but not sell on ebay, at least for now!
Patrick does a great job with the HOYardsale group. He watches every post and culls accordingly. I have made many purchases and sold a lot of items on the site with no problems. I prefer outright buying/selling to auctions. I’m glad it’s limited to HO only as with ebay N, O and other non-desirable (to me!) things slip through much too often.
The Backshop Group on yahoo is another good place to sell. They do any scale and non-train items like books, DVDs, etc as well.
The railroad dedicated groups are another good place to sell or buy too. Plus you get the added benefit of possibly learning something new about your favorite railroad.
Roger Huber
Anybody have a link to the group?
http://hoyardsale.com brings up a generic page.
It’s on Yahoo Groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HOYARDSALE/
You need a Yahoo ID to participate.
Thanks. [;)]
Hi all—Actually, HO Yard Sale was not created as an alternative to eBay. I created HO Yard Sale in June of 2005 as an alternative to other Yahoo Groups that I found to be cluttered and unfocused. While some had their virtues, it didn’t make sense to me that ALL railroadiana, models, publications, and other items would be offered in the same Group. For some who like variety, that works. I believed, however, that a focused, HO-only Group was the way to go. In August of 2005, I created N Scale Yard Sale as well, eventually turning that over to Kim Saign of Round Rock, Texas.
While HOYS has certainly been (in my opinion) a sucess, I’m still striving to make it better and useful to its 3700 members.
A few months ago we added a complementary Facebook page, and 412 HOYSers have joined us there as well.