Hi , I been reading about peeps bashing eBay but I have had better service with eBayers than Hobby stores on the net . For example , http://wholesaletrains.com/ I ordered some HO track from them on 2/18/06 and I know some of my items will ship in 5-7 days but it has been 11 days . Also e-mailed them and have not got a response yet [:(]
Every eBay sale I have had has been easy and quick service .
Joe
The problem is, e-bay isn’t one vendor, it’s millions of vendors. Most I would wager are honest and ethical people but there are plenty of scam artists working there too. The problem is, you don’t know who you are dealing with and the only way you find out who the scam artists are is when you get burned. When you are dealing with an online vendor, they are dependent on repeat customers to stay in business. They have an incentive to treat people fairly or they lose a customer. An e-bay scam artist doesn’t have that concern. They just post their ad and wait for the next victim. Feedbacks might give some clue but many buyers are reluctant to leave a negative feedback for fear of getting a negative one in return. I don’t know how many times a victim has remarked that so-and-so head a 99% positive rating. With e-bay, the trade-off for great deals is you are occasionally going to get scammed.
I’ve used E-bay hundreds of times over several years and never once had a problem. Obviously, I use some common sense. Someone who wants $15.00 shipping for a single car is either dense or mercenary, and I want no part of either. A 99% credit score might be great if someone has 100 transactions and one of them 9 months ago was a negative that seems a little unjustified. But it might be completely terrible if they have 10,000 transactions and the 100 negatives were all in the last three months.
Regardless, that’s simply my experience. I’d agree that I’ve had more bad experiences with online stores than with E-bay, but others could truthfully say the exact opposite. I don’t think there’s any guaranteed venue anywhere (yes, inluding the LHS).
Bottom line: Common sense is your best defense. Ignore it at your peril.
I’ve only bought items off of ebay six times. Things that could be found nowhere else. I’ve paid reasonable prices with no problems and good service from the ebay vendors. Two old TLC kits I bought twere listed as “appears to be complete”. They were complete but with broken rods and cracked frames. Neither seller mentioned broken parts. However I expected these parts to be broken as the old TLC kits seemed to come that way when new or those parts would break as soon as you touched them anyway. So I bid only what I thought would be reasonable for a kit with damaged or possibly missing parts in first place. To me “Appears to be complete” means the same to me as “it maybe incomplete” or “it’s all there but something might be useless” so I got what I anticipated and was willing to pay for. I expect honesty from people only to varying degrees. Still I don’t like ebay much as I just don’t care for bidding process. I don’t see it so much as a place to find extreme bargains but as place to locate hard to find items particularly old kits or brass. Bruce
Ebay is a dream come true for modelers of any scale (or hobby for that matter). Assuming you check the feedback of the buyer carefully (meaning look at past transactions and responses from buyers), there is very little to worry about. I have over 500 transactions dealing with trains alone, and I’ve only had small problems like delayed shipping in all that time. Usually I find the people who bash ebay, have rarely or never even used the service, or don’t follow the simple buyer beware rules of doing business there.
Jeff
CTFF! CTFF! Abide by this simple rule, and your problems should be lessened greatly on eBay: Check the freakin’ feedback! As a general rule, I do not buy from someone that has one negative review to fifty positive reviews. I rarely buy from a seller that has less than fifty reviews total. This has led to a pleasurable eBaying exprerience for over four years.
Matt
I have had nothing but great deling on eBay, I agree its one of the best things the hobby has had in along time. You have to know what your looking for has well has one it looks like before you bet. Look at the Walthers catalog to see just what it is your betting on. Also read the full description of the item you are bidding on. Look for word like as is, so far all my bids the person on the other end has stated right in their add if there missing part, paint chips, etc.
I also we not buy if the seller does not use Paypal, because this gives you just a little added protection on your purchase. Happy bidding to all and to the rest let them eat cake. Well something like that.
Same here. I do buy a lot from my LHS but I also buy from E-bay. Since I started buying from E-bay I have not had a problem as of yet. Why do I buy on E-bay? Simple. I can sit here at my desk and surf literally thousands of items. Every day I see something I never even knew existed. I don’t have to drive 80 miles to look for something and find out it’s not what I wanted or they don’t have it… Photos attached to E-bay items are invaluable. Ok. So it’s a few $'s more, but most often it’s less. Calculate your time, gas and wear and tear on your car. Even at the increased shipping costs we have to pay now it is a bargain. So far I’m on a roll. Even if I get burned once it’s not like I was buying an item valued at thousands of dollars. Most often it’s less than $75.00. Most vendors are honest. Let’s face it the internet has changed the way we shop especially for the items most hobbyists are looking for. So if you want to support your LHS go ahead (I do) but don’t pass up a good deal when you see one. Just check the feed back and decide accordingly.
Hey jlrc47, I love your signature picture. Back to the Future III, my favorite of the BTTF trilogy.[:D]