Tonight, I took a mind-numbing stroll thru 62 pages of HO Lot offerings on E-Bay. (no, I do have a life, so stop laughing!) What I found was…nothing special, that I could not otherwise find at the quarterly swap meet I attend in St. Pete. Train set diesels, train set rolling stock, someone’s junk described as “rare” or some other hyper adjective, and would someone explain to me why a box weighing less than 10 ounces would require shipping costs of over $ 10.00? Maybe it’s my inherent sense of frugality, but why are there sellers on E-Bay thinking that they will get big bucks for Model Power passenger diesels or steel track pieces? Cedarwoodron
Yea, the word “vintage” usually guarantees at least a 50% increase in the asking price. As a variation on the old adage: “One man’s ‘vintage’ is another man’s junk.” [(-D]
Tom
Possibly an example of the “greater fool” theory – the buyer was dumb enough to acquire the stuff in the first place, surely there is a greater fool somewhere …
But even at real live swapmeets one sees things being sold, and for prices, that can only make you shake your head. And sometimes at the end of the day, they’re gone!
Dave Nelson
I ran into this a few months back at an antique shop in Fort Langley. Only place in town that had trains of any shape or colour (at least according to the sign in the window). What a letdown to get inside and see the star of this particular Tyco-and-Tomy-themed show: a well-used Model Power shark-nose – thirty years old if it was a day – with a $65 price tag on it. If it’s gone, there’s a greater fool than me out there.
You missed a lot and most times, your search needs to be specific. I did a search on ebay for “ho trains” and came up with 117,874 items covering 2356 pages. (no, i didn’t look at any of them). Like others have said and I agree, one person’s junk is another person’s treasure. Also, look at the time of year. Most dealers (sellers) are waiting for the christmas holiday shopping season before they list their items.
One more thing, not everyone charges an arm and a leg and some have free shipping. Some days you just gotta be patient for an item. When I sell on ebay, I list shipping for what it is. Shipping Priority Mail is what it is. Sometimes it’s not the weight, it’s the size of the package and where it’s coming from and shipping to. Shipping in/out of canada to/from USA costs more.
Yes, I do get a kick out of “vintage”, “rare”, “must see” when there are 4 or 5 of the same items on the page. If it was “vintage” or “rare”, how come so many are listed?? [D)]
Here’s another old saying: “A fool and his money are soon parted”
I would forget the mystery of shipping charges I can’t work that out.
I find the description rare strange I have been searching for Hornby VR Z brake vans for specific trains I have.
These are a genuine rare beast far less than normal Hornby Product made.
Yet I have found the ones I need out side Ebay at somewhere between sensible price and collector madness
When they Show up on Ebay its always Collector madness prices and not a word about the genuine rarity of them, And some fool pays the mad price.
It really is a Know your product world which is why I don’t bid on certain brands if I don’t have a sensible price basis to work from.
An interesting one I saw was ready to place glass houses C $4.00 seemed reasonable to me a few items further down the exact same green houses same condition still in wrapper US $10.00 that made me wonder.
Because the difference in currency is not a lot and I could not see a glass house being worth $10.00.
I don’t know how the weird Ebay mind works
But I don’t look unless I am looking for very specific Items and can’t find them from normal second hand sources.
All defiantly in the weird world space.
regards John
I buy old stuff at train shows for less than eBay. And that’s before the shipping charges. I guess a lot of folks don’t go to train shows.
I have bought some stuff at antique shops, but I find a lot of over priced trains there as well.
But if I ever decide to sell stuff, I’ll start with eBay!!
Enjoy
Paul
As both a buyer and seller on eBay, I have to say that eBay bashing is a misguided notion.
As a seller, it is the best source, bar none, for reaching a nationwide audience of potential buyers. I have gotten very fair prices for the items that I have sold and it has proven to be a win-win situation for both me and the buyer.
As a buyer, I have been able to find items that I want at a glance. The odds of finding these same items at a train show or in a local newspaper classified ad are too great to calculate.
As far as shipping charges are concerned, for anyone who has priced shipping charges via UPS, FedEx, or USPS Priority Mail, they are not cheap. It has less to do with weight and more to do with the dimensions of the package. And, if you are going to package the item securely for shipping, the size of the box used for shipping will be decidely larger than the original box in which the item was packaged.
I suspect that if you actually conducted a survey of eBay sellers and buyers, you would find a much higher level of satisfaction than if you ask the opinion of casual observers who haven’t actually used the web site.
Rich
It think Rich has a number of good points. What do you find at a train show or flea market? LOTS of stuff you’re probably not interested in. Try searching for specific items, rather than asking it to return every HO item listed. In that respect, ebay is better than a train show as it allows you to find out pretty easily whether it’s worth the price of admission, without having to pay the “cover charge” to get in the door. Now if you did that and still have to paw physically through every item, sometimes it’s just not worth it compared to the price of admission on ebay.
It’s useful to talk about what to look for in terms of what are indicators of something that’s worth bidding for. When I list items, it’s almost always with a 99 cent opening bid. Why even bother looking at that “vintage” Tyco car with the $10 opening bid? This includes brass and other things that will bring decent prices.
Look at the number of people bidding on an item. Probably more than one if an item is priced right to start with, which is why I open bidding at 99 cents. I almost always get a decent price for things, as a 99 cent opening bid brings in enough bids to get serious bidders willing to pay what they think it’s worth interested.
I also charge pretty much actual shipping costs and never charge a “handling” charge. If there’s a significant difference, like more than a $1, between actual costs and what I listed, I refund it to the buyer. Ebay has improved the software over the years, so it’s easier now to figure what the costs will be, although there’s still a bit of guesswork depending on what the weight of the packaging is. I offer alternative shipping methods, so you can choose parcel post vs Priority Mail, for instance. I wish shipping were cheaper, but buyers have to face the fact they do need to factor in shipping into what they bid. That’s $10 Tyco car is probably not worth bidding in if the buyer will charge you $15 to ship it. Move
As far as train set quality items going for bigger bucks than what you’d expect, well…it only takes one buyer to see some value in the item that goes beyond 99% of buyers’ opinions.
As far as shipping, I think Rich made a great point. The dimensions of the package determine price as much as weight.
I have not sold on ebay yet…but while at my local post office, I investigated the prices of those nice white, red, and blue striped boxes and was amazed at their cost. As near as I could tell, if I just shipped a small box to a neighboring state, empty, it would cost 8 bucks. The employee said that you can get the boxes cheaper online.
So if the seller is not savy in locating suitable small boxes, the shipping price may be higher than you’d expect if you’re judging the item by weight.
If you think the HO scale area is bad, take a look at the G-scale area – Rare Collector’s Item; Limited Production; Antique; One-of-a-Kind; and anything with the LGB brand name are priced at triple or quadruple a reasonable price.
The high shipping costs are the seller’s way of avoiding e-Bay surcharges – price the item low and e-Bay gets a smaller fee.
Not any more. eBay caught on to that practice and now charges a selling fee that takes into account the shipping charge.
Rich
24 Model Railroader magazines fit in USPS flat rate box and that is a bargain as shipping something that heavy would be much more otherwise.
Excellent example. Even if a seller doesn’t say they offer shipping options other than Priority (it’s the default shipping method when placing an item in auction), ask them BEFORE the auction’s end if they have cheaper shipping options.
Rich is correct, ebay now charges their percentage on the shipping costs, too. There’s no real incentive for the seller to try to make money off shipping anymore, although many seller’s didn’t do that previously, either. Just keep looking for someone who charges reasonable prices.
This reply was from another forum on the almost same topic, in this case some joker selling a large scale passenger car with severe smoke damage from a fire and still wanted a BIN price of $345.00
…Now you guys are beginning to see why I think most Ebay sellers are smoking their old boxes in a pipe!
True no one is forcing anyone to buy it at that price, but the problem is that when every OTHER seller sees prices like this they want a piece of the action and tend to follow suit, resulting in a 70/30 difference between BIN and straight Auction listings, with the BIN prices often well over MSRP.
It creates a hostile environment for buyers like me as I am convinced most all Ebay stores are just greedy hucksters with no clue what their stuff is really going to sell for, I know this because as a seller, who lists starting bids for what I consider is the REAL value, being based on watching what similar items in auction have actually sold for, knows what a buck is worth these days and it ain’t much. I have seen item after item, being offered for low asking bids, go unsold, what often does sell is at such a low starting bid as to not even break even, alot of times it just wont sell, period, despite being something you would consider desirable and at a reasonable price… NO ONE is going to shill out big bucks just because someone THINKS its worth so much, but this is COMMON now among 75% of the Ebay stores now.
BIN has been the WORST thing to ever happen to Ebay because it enables stuff like this to become commonplace…
Gotta disagree with vsmith, at least in part.
The BIN feature is great because you don’t have to wait around 5, 7, or even 10 days for the auction to end only to be sniped at the last second. If you want it, you buy it.
On line hobby shops price their items appropriately because that is their business. The problem BINs on eBay are almost always the result of resale shops, so-called estate sellers, etc. who have no clue regarding FMV for locos and rolling stock.
Sorry, vsmith, but I think that your post only adds to the myth that eBay provides a hostile environment for hucksters and ripoff artists. In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth.
Rich
One big difference between perusing tables of someone’s kid’s (now in middle age) old train set stuff and seeing it advertised on E-Bay is that no one is fooled as they walk past and disregard that stuff on vendors’ tables at the swap meets, but some are easily fooled by the “gems” described as being “sparkling” on e-Bay! I am not a basher of E-Bay, as I have found a number of good things there on the HO website pages (and continue to do so), but that Ho Lots subsection- man, what a bunch of nothing! But, excuse me, I need to place a last-minute bid on a bunch of non-descript freight cars with rcrudded-up plastic wheels and horn-hook couplers that are slightly warped because of having been left next to the furnace in the basement!(sarcasm)…and I hope to pay top dollar for them!!! Cedarwoodron
The ‘Buy It Now’ entries are the only ones I bother looking at. Free shipping on them doesn’t hurt.
For out of production items you can’t beat Ebay. I’m on it everyday and have picked up countless items at way below market value.
Thats true that BIN can be quick and that is nice not to get sniped, but for a lot of things you better have a Trust Fund to dip into because you will be paying more that if you simply went to an online dealer and bought it and shipped it from there. I know this because I have done that and saved money instead of buying from the way over MSRP prices set by the Ebay store jokers. If it works for you, great. I have had a different experience, maybe you should try large scale for a while, most of the jokers seam to be concentrated there.