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As I read through postings on pretty much any subject having to do with purchases , here on the forums, there are those that have said they will not buy anything from an Ebay seller under any circumstances.  I understand their hesitation as once or twice i have made purchase from sellers on that famous auction venue that I have been less than happy with.  Each time i was able to come to an agreement with the buyer.  Another incident caused me to get Ebay involved and I was refunded in spite of the seller's position.  

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 ?.  

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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.

Last edited by samparfitt

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.

Last edited by Bruk

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.  

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

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie
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