I’ve been dealing on ebay for many many years. If not for ebay, I wouldn;t have half of my train collection, possibly less than half. I’ve also bought and sold other non-railroad items. Have yet ot be ripped off, either by not getting what I thought i was getting, or by someone bidding on what I was selling and not paying. Key seems to be paying attention to what people write in feedback. Good, clear pictures, and well-written descriptions usually mark an honest seller. Fair shipping prices, and clear simple terms.
Your absolutely right. But in this case it’s sort of supply and demand. Atlas flex was in short supply and when I saw the track on ebay from a seller with almost 250,000 feedback with a 99.2% good rate, I jumped. The only fault of mine is that I wasn’t a bit more patient and waited a couple more days to buy from MB Klein. Which I did.
That’s not what I ordered and it is not similar to Atlas. Yes it has brown ties, but if you hold it in one hand and Atlas in the other it is rather obvious that they are quite different. This MP that you call it is like Micro Engineering track. I have tried ME and am not a big fan of it.
I think it was second hand, but all the add-on parts were included. Best part is it was upgraded with a QSI version 7 chip by someone before I bought it.
It runs, but I’m not the owner anymore. I sold the shell (it was PRR) a few years ago and used it under one of my BN units. I since picked up a soundraxx-equipped Souther GP7 for $60. Swapped the Southern shell to the QSI chassis and Sold it for $100 to a guy in my MR club.
The soundtraxx chassis only needed an axle swap and the capacitor secured (previous owner said it made weird noises) the capacitor was hitting the driveshafts. Just moved it up and taped it out of the way.
I’m in the same league with Randy. I probably get a dozen packages a week, my Ebay score is 100% out of 1150 transactions. I have never had a regret and only once, when a seller re-wrapped the plastic around a Genesis F-3 and got the gearbox oil all over the paint did I have to make a comment back to the seller. For the most part I make purchases at extremely favorable prices.
Things get crazy and I’m more amused than anything else when I see extreme bidding on an item. I was going to comment here last week on this Tangent HO B&O gondola that went for $85!!!
Mind you it was at this price a day or two before the auction end so buyers had time to see if it was available elsewhere (it IS at MB Klein and they have three at $30! http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Tangent-HO-Beth-Gondola-BO-p/tsm-10917-07.htm ) the seller wasn’t trying anything funny (he sold several at about this price) and there was 8 bids on it so it wasn’t some fluke.
I just have to chuckle at the gullable buying public! P.T. Barnum was right.
I seen a nicely finished BB B&O GP7(painted handrails,capitol domes and numbers in the number boards) sell for $73.00.14 bids…
There was a P2K B&O GP7 for $55.00 BIN available at the time .
My best deals on e-Bay has been BIN prices…As a example 2 P2K Seaboard System GP38-2s for $130.00($65.00 ea)…That’s two for less then the street price of a Genesis GP38-2.
If people would take time to look they can still find great deals on e-Bay but,they seem to get caught up in bidding and that drive to win causes them to overpay.
Indeed! You can sometimes get incredible buys on Ebay, especially with BIN. About a year ago I was having my first cuppa joe one morning & went to the HO pages to browse. When I saw the very first item on the page, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Someone apparently had no clue what they had. The listing was for a PAIR of Atlas/Kato GP-7’s, Bangor & Aroostook #'s 562 and 570 in 1950’s blue/gray scheme. Brand spanking new in boxes, never opened, complete with warranty cards & all. The BIN price for the PAIR…$40.00!!! I’ll bet it was the fastest sale that guy ever made!
They’re far & away my favorites & the work horses of my fleet. Smoothest, quietest running locos I have.
I will agree with many of the people posting that eBay has some very good deals and then there are some that are just plain outrageous. As I don’t have a LHS in my town and there are times when I am looking for OOP items at times, eBay sometimes is my only option. (One of my recent purchases was an Athearn BB 34’ flat end hopper.) I do order from Walthers and a shop in Billings on occasion. However if I am only looking for one thing those options are not practical. Caveat emptor is a good phrase to use when talking about eBay. If you are not sure on something, ask lots of questions. If the seller is interested in selling their item they will answer those questions to the best of their ability. I have even sent a few unusual questions to sellers in my day. (Most recent was for a picture of the underside of a coal load as it was to be converted to a woodchip load with styrene extensions to be put on the underside.)
I live in Canada and will not buy from sellers like Trainz who use the “global shipping program”. This system automatically adds “import charges” to the cost of shipping.
There is no duty to be paid on model railroad products imported from the US to Canada.
I bought a Williams scale-size Hudson for $350 from Trainz.com. I later discovered that it had some problems (bent screws, loose low-voltage regulator, stripped out threads in one of the pickup rollers) that led me to believe that the loco had been dropped and damaged slightly. Come to think of it, one of the marker lights was broken off the boiler front. Also, the tender wiring harnee developed a bad connection. I managed to fix everything, but ended up spending about $80.00 on parts… I wouldn’t buy from Trainz again.
I have had a recent experience that was exceptional with Trainz! Delivery was fast to Europe. Item was as discribed costing 50 times this track. They provided this return policy as well. As a businessman I have issues with individuals who reach a compromise to their satisfaction and then continue to “bad mouth” the other party. This person had already received the goods, was too cheap to adhere to the return agreement, was allowed to keep both the good and the bad and received a refund for a positive compromise. He then takes it upon himself to show up on this site after the deal was made-judge thyself
I don’t understand why you would have a problem with how I went about things. First, they did not send me the right items. I’m entitled to receive what they advertised and nothing more. Just because their return policy states one thing, it doesn’t mean I have to abide by it. It was nice of them to do it my way, and I did give them a positive feedback for it. That’s how they were able to save face. I also thought I would give a little heads up to others. As it turns out a majority, which you are not one of, did have a bad experience with them. I wonder if you would have done the same if your transaction did not go well. And being in business, you should know that sometimes it’s good business to go off script. And you call me cheap, that $24 was spent for a gift for my daughter.LOL. The $3 that cost them for the bad track was probably written off as a bad debt.
I’m so sorry I didn’t do what you thought I should of done. First, I want to apologize to you and Trainz.com for I have gone about this bad transaction the wrong way. I should of returned the items I did not want before I got my refund. And I promise to abide by the rules and policies of any company when dealing with them. I hope this is to your liking. If not please let me know and i will try to improve on it.