Buying on Ebay

It's tough at non-TCA meets where the buyers have little or no recourse.   I was burned once a long time ago on an accessory and now do the following:

1) If the vendor is not a dealer with a brick and mortar store who's website you can visit to verify services, don't purchase engines or operating items unless a test track is available which is DCS or Legacy equipped (if needed for engines/operating items).

2) Even if a box is marked "New" or a vendor tells you an item is "New" ask to open the box to inspect the item.  I had an experience even at York of someone misrepresenting an item. 

Ebay, in my experience,  is good at protecting buyers if an item is misrepresented.  It may take 6 weeks but you will get your money refunded.

-Greg

The train shows in my Cincinnati, Ohio area are put on by the NMRA and they always have a test track for all gauges so the item can be tested before purchase.

Love ebay: have probably made 75 purchases in the last year or two with one bad one and ebay had seller refund my money.

I've seen some sellers on ebay say 'no refunds': unless it says 'for parts only', ebay will get your money back in 99 44/100% of the cases.  Ebay is anal on protecting the buyer.

Just received a Premiere UP sd70ace from a 100% rating seller from ebay...exc price and the item was perfect. Most of my purchases are from forum members though

You run a risk buying from anyone. I laugh at anyone who thinks otherwise.

Ebay does well for the buyer.

I would only ever buy a locomotive* from one of two vendors I've bought from in the past who sell new stuff in the box. Rolling stock, I can fix if something is bad, but that hasn't happened either (with On30 stuff, things don't break so easy as in some other scales).

*I'm not a collector so I have all the locomotives I'll probably ever need, can't imagine ever buying another unless someone makes a On30 Army Baldwin 2-8-2 someday...

That said, I feel more comfortable buying from Ebay sellers than I do from sellers at train meets.  What recourse do I have if I buy something from a train meet seller who either sold me a bad product unknowingly or who's intention it was to make a fast buck never to be seen again ?.  


When I buy or sell at a train show, everything is "AS IS".
Carefully look over the item before purchasing.
The shows in my area have a test track, try the train before buying.

C W Burfle posted:

That said, I feel more comfortable buying from Ebay sellers than I do from sellers at train meets.  What recourse do I have if I buy something from a train meet seller who either sold me a bad product unknowingly or who's intention it was to make a fast buck never to be seen again ?.  


When I buy or sell at a train show, everything is "AS IS".
Carefully look over the item before purchasing.
The shows in my area have a test track, try the train before buying.

Yep, it's not WalMart, people.

Want to be sure you got something that runs well and has assurances attached? Buy it new from a brick and mortar vendor or hobby shop!

My eBay account was hacked, so I closed it. I buy much less there anyway and when I do, its as a guest. I go to Amazon, because its faster if I do not have time. And I am not concerned about feed back. But, I shop LHS's to support them if its more leisurely.  I like options depending on my needs. In SE PA there are several excellent hobby shops.

Mark

For an Australian who models in USA O Scale ebay is great it's really helped me, all the same there are some very good hobby shops in  America to.

But it's the same old story.....

There are ebay sellers who won't sell overseas and there are American Hobby shops that won't sell overseas that's my main gripe, it's very frustrating when you want to buy something and they won't ship overseas.

Getting an inferior product or losing an item is the least of my worries. Roo.

Everyone has a different view of fleabay.  I got screwed big time on fleabay and the guy was an OGR forum member.  I feel very safe buying and selling on the OGR forum.  Never had a bad deal.  My situation as both a LIONEL and MTH tech is I get many calls from people from everywhere asking me to fix the train they got from fleabay.  I flat refuse and that has not made me popular with many.   I have seen horror stories and those problems the bargain hunter ends up with are not going to be my problems.  Yes, some good deals have been scored.   I get many of these calls.  I am aware of the many reasons why people use fleabay.  I am talking about locomotives and nothing else.  If you buy a locomotive with modern electronics and do not know what you are doing, you will pay somebody decent money to hopefully fix them.  

This is a good time for post war guys to buy trains.  They do not have to worry a lot as anyone can fix those trains.  For those buyers, fleabay is a good resource to built a collection.  I do not look for work off the forum but like to run my add to buy inoperative shelf queens.  Any trains I do sell (modern electronics) have been fully gone through by me and I stand behind them.   I wish everyone good luck wherever they buy trains.  

I have been using ebay for 18 years. Most of my collection was purchased off eBay used. Most items I have were made 5-115 years ago and can not be found in the dealer stores. Out of my entire collection I have only had 2 items that I got screwed on. They were easy fixes but received not as described. I have been screwed here on the form before by a fake member and I lost 400$ out of it. I am weary now when purchasing items here on the form.

I have had similar good experiences. I have been on eBay for 20 years now (wow). Was a vary early adopter. Have had thousands of transactions and with enough persistence have gotten satisfaction virtually every time. Just be sure you understand what you are buying. I have goofed a few times by not carefully studying the photos and descriptions 

We all go off our own experiences, but I haven't found buying on ebay to be any different than buying from dealers or from people here on the forum. I've had good deals from all and things that have gone wrong with each.  Some of it is crappy product from the manufacturer, but it is disappointing when a seller misrepresents something - everything sold these days seems to be new old stock or brand new in a box or only taken out of the box for photos. All a bunch of baloney. Still, I as a buyer know this whether I want to admit it to myself or not, and so I take the risk. Caveat emptor, as they say, or rather said. Latin is dead, right?

As to buying from forum sellers being safe, as if we are all in some kind of brotherhood, I purchased 2 items in the last year that came to me broken. And I'm not talking about poorly packed, but broken. I also saw an engine for sale earlier in the year where when I did a Google search to find out more about the model, one of the search results was an earlier post to the forum where the same seller was asking a question about problems he had with the engine. Of course, when it was posted for sale - no mention of the problems but the usual "great runner" banner. 

It's a function of people's integrity which I would bet if you could measure it across selling platforms wouldn't differ from one to another. Some good guys in this world, and some not so good.

Personally I think Ebay is phenomenal. I can peruse items 24/7 and not have to attend any train shows. One thing I dislike is driving to a train show, finding a place to park, pay the admission fee, look through table after table and not find what I am looking for, yet leave empty handed. The last one I went to was a few years back when I was in my early 50's and boy did I feel young!!

Just about all of my purchases were great buys, only a few did I have to send back after it stated no returns due to a mechanical problem not specified in the auction. One thing that I do look for is that they say "tested", or "works as it should".  If you find an item that says "needs a cleaning", "needs TLC" or "not tested", it's best to move on. Sooner or later I will find pretty much what I've been looking for, then of course I'm not really picky. If it has a few scratches or other imperfections I'll still buy it as long as I don't have to return to Ebay and end up buying another part just to return it to operational condition.

MARTY FITZHENRY brought up a very good point.   I believe that buying post-war stuff, from Ebay sellers, is alot safer than buying modern stuff that has electronics inside.  

As BRUK posted, buying from fellow forum members can be risky.  I was disappointed with a purchase I made from a forum member.  I was able to salvage the item however with a bit of work.  

LENNY THE LION pointed out that browsing train meets can be frustrating.  Back in the day, when train meets were pretty much the only way to get a hold of post-war stuff, we were limited to meets and hobby shops that sold used trains.  In those days I found train meets were the better of the two.   Now days I can sit and browse thousands of items, ask questions and take my sweet loving time, to a limit, making my decision.  And as Lenny pointed out, I'm not 50 any more.  

Some ebay sellers will post a Youtube video of what their selling to showing it performs well through all it's functions. I admire a seller who takes it to the next level to remove some of the fear in purchasing on line.

I have bought engines on EBay and haven't had any problems yet. But what gets me is people wanting new price on ps-1 engines and zw transformers that are to high in my opinion. I have also noticed most of these items are not selling. Point is buy at your price or move on.

I have bought a lot of trains from eBay for years. Once I made a mistake and won some slot car track clips that I could not use. The seller was a nice guy and allowed me to return them. Then PayPal was slow to refund me and he intervened and got them to refund.

I won't buy anything with modern electronics on ebay. Period. This year I've bought 3 sets of passenger cars (2 K-Line and one Phoenix) and have had no problems. I also bought a prewar Standard Gauge loco; it was well-represented by the seller, and everything worked out. 

John

eBay is great site to find an item and the choice can not be beat.  But it often will result in a high price due to many buyers bidding on that item plus postage.  If you are fine with the price you get with "Buy it Now" or price you bid and win and with the shipping cost, Great.  The buyer often does not pay sales tax also.

eBay is best for the sellers.  They can set their price or open for bids and normally have many bids to ensure getting the best selling price via the auction.  Then the seller gets the buyer to pay for packing and shipping. 

For the best price one can not beat a train meet unless you luck into a garage sale with an uniformed seller.  Finding trains at garage sales has gotten rare in most places now days.  The choices will be limited to few items and may take lots of effort going to meets or garage sales but some low prices are sometimes found.  Best item choices are had when arriving early and being first to see and grab the item.  Often best prices are the last day and/or last hour of the show where often some sellers will take a lower than desired price rather than take the item home.  I have seen it happen to others and myself.

Charlie

I have been buying on Ebay since 2004 and never had a problem. Got quite a few excellent deals too!

Choo Choo Charlie posted:

eBay is great site to find an item.  But it often will result in a high price due to many buyers bidding on that item plus postage.  If you are fine with the price you get with Buy it Now or price you bid and win and with the shipping cost, Great.  The buyer often does not pay sales tax also.

Charlie

I never had any problems with all of my prewar switchers, most of which I bought on eBay, including 1 or 2 basket cases, but I knew the weren't running, so it wasn't a surprise. 

I did buy a Greenberg's Prewar book from a bookstore that used a different picture to sell with, which I thought was misleading (the cover had a crease from top to bottom). The bookstore offered to have me return it for a full refund, but I preferred to keep it and requested an adjustment in price, which didn't work out.

Charlie...I'm sure you would agree that different times of the year can result in higher prices paid. I prefer buying things from January to September. Once you get close to Thanksgiving/Christmas I try to not to find anything...not always successful at that, though! 

Tom 

In general, I have had very good experiences buying on eBay since 2005, mostly 2-rail rolling stock of various kinds, including both fairly expensive brass and inexpensive but nicely built Athearn and All Nation kits. Occasionally I've ended up with a dog, but that was usually because I didn't look carefully enough at the seller's photos. I have had to request a return and refund only a couple of times (successfully on each occasion). I have complete confidence in several well-established sellers, and I take my chances with the others if the item is interesting and the price is right.

Train stuff Ive bought on eBay is generally a little more beat up than I want but not always. Its the 2nd to the last place I look to buy stuff.

I've always had good experiences with E bay.  I've been buying since 2008 0r 9.

Over the last 4 years or so I have bought train stuff at EBay and only had one bad experience when the sender improperly packed passenger cars and they came damaged (couplers came off as well as 1 wheel set). The seller's response was to fix them myself (which I did with cold weld). It was my fault for not getting right back to EBay but the cars (Williams aluminum Santa Fe) were quite nice and the price, not a great bargain, were reasonable). In the future I will contact EBay for any problems and I will continue to look for stuff from them.

John

I've had over 1,500 transactions on eBay since 1997, mostly lower-priced "collectible" items, such as vintage post cards, 1:43 car models, View-Master reels, etc. Only a small % of them needed to work/operate. About 3 times, eBay had to remind the seller to ship the item. The 3 times a low cost item failed to work, I got a replacement without having to return the defective one. Once, about 12 years ago, the seller went belly-up, and I never got the item, but that was a $12. loss.

There is one thing I collect that I have ONLY found on eBay...stereo/3-D photo slides that people took in the 1950s...so eBay has been a blessing in that regard. Also, eBay prices for other items I collect are often 40-60% less than "show" prices (postcard shows, etc.). EBay also gives the collector an array of items to choose from. I'd be lucky to find 1 or 2 old sand pails or cap guns at a flea market or antique mall. On any given day, there are 50-100 on eBay, in varied conditions and pricing.

That being said, I would think twice before I would buy a $800. electric train on eBay. 

I have had my eBay account for more than 20 years, and have bought/sold quite a few trains during this time.

I have bought several engines during this time on eBay, some of which I have never seen at a decent price elsewhere.  I actually prefer e Bay over small local train shows, as I am very selective in what I add to my collection and it saves me a great deal of time.  (Although I will add that I have never yet been to York, which is sad as it less than two hours away!)

I find that the eBay resolution process had greatly improved over the last 3 - 4 years, and my wife an I have occasionally used it for non-train items.  One caveat about the resolution process is don't start it unless you have the item on-hand to return.  I had one item that wasn't as advertised (incomplete) that I could NOT get eBay to extend the item return by even a couple of days.  This was a problem when I sent abroad on a three week trip.

As a seller, I generally will offer items here first.  If they don't sell in a reasonable time, I will move them to eBay (and possibly Craigslist).  As there are no selling fees (thanks OGR!) I can sell the same item here for a little bit less.

Jim

Ordered, many a item on Ebay but I keep away from those who have very little history.  Mostly from the hobby shops that sell on Ebay.  No issues to date.

I guess the good part about being able to deal with the electronics is that given a good enough price, I have no issue with buying on eBay or elsewhere.  If it's at all suspect, I simply discount the price in my mind the cost of the possible replacement parts and make that my limit.  I'd much rather have the electronics defective than get something that's beat up mechanically.

There's the difference, John.  I can deal with and repair most mechanical issues.  Electronics and I are at odds with one another.

Dan, it's not the mechanical repair that's the stumbling block, frequently it's the parts availability in many cases.  Also, significant cosmetic damage to the shell is frequently hard to totally repair without a lot of work and/or expense.

ebay posts and why my train investment is losing money are some of my more favorite posts!!

Love eBay - My approach when it comes to trains - I almost never shop for anything in particular - just look for potential bargains.

Always have a big pile of items in my watch list...win some, lose some.

Gotta cut down on boxcars though! (sure.....)

I actually I have had worse luck at York on big ticket items than on EBay lately.  Being a TCA member / Seller really has no regard if you are going to get a working locomotive or not. And do not rely on test tables at certain halls. They do not have Legacy and DCS command ready tables.

You have to be smart about it. The first year I was taken by one seller and that's all it took. The following year we brought a loop of track and a legacy remote... sure enough 50 percent of my items had to be returned to York sellers that year. Some actually knowingly had repair them and slopped them together for a quick sale....

 Otherwise I would have brought them home and have had to repair them (Some parts are impossible to find as well).

EBay you have to double check on listings, read everything, study the photos, ask questions and if ANY thing looks to good to be true, it usually is. I usually walk away from it.

After more than 18 years buying on eBay, I have few complaints about a wide variety of items I bought, not just trains.

Literally 99 percent of my transactions have been trouble free. That means the items were described accurately, paid for with convenient terms, shipped as quickly as with any other type of dealer, safely packaged and in good working order.

The other 1 percent? I have had only two bad deals that I can recall: One $5 sale (a HeroClix figure) that was never shipped and one altered Lionel MPC locomotive that the dealer claimed ran well in both directions but in reality didn’t run at all. I had to get eBay involved on the second deal because the seller never responded to messages to arrange a return, but it was eventually resolved nonetheless.

In the early days of eBay, circa 2001, before PayPal transactions became the standard for payment, I faced off against one dealer who insisted on a money order or cash for a $3 decal set. No cashier’s check. No electronic transactions. The money order would have cost me more than the purchase price and shipping combined, and cash was the least secure way to make a payment. And he became annoyed when I didn’t make the payment quickly as I mulled over what to do. Over time, eBay forced dealers to improve their payment terms on behalf of buyers.

The rest of the problems involved no dishonesty. An usually slow-moving shipment from England that may have been caught up in customs. (My U.K. purchases have usually been about as fast as a UPS Ground shipment.) A damaged running gear component on a fragile N scale brass steamer, which the seller quickly resolved with a price adjustment. An incorrect shipment of some board-game hockey players (wrong team) which the seller made right by sending me the correct order while telling me to keep the incorrect one as well. And (to Marty’s point) a 2001 Lionel locomotive that developed a jerky running pattern that wasn’t always present and which my repair shop was never able to smooth out or diagnose.

That’s it.

My forum purchases have been mostly positive, too, but not perfect. One item arrived damaged due to very poor packaging.

I used to love going to train shows, but the drawbacks outweigh the benefits. Yes, you get to see the product in hand, and you may get to see it run, but is what you want there? Too often, I paid $10 or more for admission/parking and $10 or more for gas only to find nothing I wanted, or worse, buying something of marginal interest because I didn’t want to leave empty handed.

I still prefer shopping for O gauge and N scale trains in brick-and-mortar stores that price competitively, but when I am looking for older and used items, that’s not usually a realistic option. That’s where eBay comes in, and my saved searches always make it convenient for me to find out the availability of a certain item the same day it is listed. Can’t beat that.

"After more than 18 years buying on eBay, I have few complaints about a wide variety of items I bought, not just trains.

Literally 99 percent of my transactions have been trouble free. That means the items were described accurately, paid for with convenient terms, shipped as quickly as with any other type of dealer, safely packaged and in good working order."

Yup. Me too. eBay since 1999. I am careful to check the guy's specs; never below 99% Positive (I will make exceptions for well-known hobby shops, such as Trainz). I don't deal with oddballs, bad photography, political and/or religious agenda, "No PayPal", too many Amurrican flags, high s/h (for 2 reasons). And a few other things.

Been ripped of twice; disappointed several times; dealt with damage (got partial refunds) - but literally 90% of my transactions have been fine. A couple of hundred of them since '99. Some big, some 5 bucks in parts.

So, if that makes me a "stupid fleabay customer", I guess that I'm just not all that sharp.

BTW - 2 years ago I sold - at a low price - a Lionel Wabash TMCC Hudson to a TCA member (I'm one, too) at a swap meet. He complained later to the TCA - and he was a liar - about promises I made on the loco. He wanted some money back. Seriously? I practically gave the thing to him. Needless to say, he got nothing. I emailed my own complaint to the TCA "agent" and heard no more BS on the subject. No eBay involved. Just the TCA in a face-to-face transaction. Makes one wonder.

"BTW - 2 years ago I sold - at a low price - a Lionel Wabash TMCC Hudson to a TCA member (I'm one, too) at a swap meet. He complained later to the TCA - and he was a liar - about promises I made on the loco. He wanted some money back. Seriously? I practically gave the thing to him. Needless to say, he got nothing. I emailed my own complaint to the TCA "agent" and heard no more BS on the subject. No eBay involved. Just the TCA in a face-to-face transaction. Makes one wonder. "

Don't get me wrong though, there was one seller at York that literally handed me his Legacy 600.00 engine and said if you want it, take it home, run it and send me a check or the locomotive back. I could not believe the honesty?!

A New Jersey guy trusting a guy from Detroit?!

Well I thanked him and handed him the money right away... the locomotives ran flawlessly, wish I could give him a shout out in thanks!

I have no issues buying from eBay.  I'd say I've only been "burned" once, but it is something I can fix, if I ever get around to it.  In fact I usually end up with my best deals on eBay.  I look for local sellers and ask about local pickup.  Most times they have come back and given me an offer lower than their original eBay listing (Which you can do on eBay, so still all within the eBay terms.).  So I pay it, then go meet them to pick it up, and we end up talking for a while and they offer me other things they have for sale.

Someone mentioned Paypal. This was a real boon to buyers, especially for low price/high volume purchases (like old post cards). Before Paypal I had to go to the post office and BUY a money order. Then use a stamp to mail it. Then wait for the seller to receive it and mail the item to me (hopefully the correct item). Refunds? Good luck. With Paypal, just click the "pay" box. On a budget? Just transfer a set amount from your checking account to your Paypal account every month or two.