Used HO locos

[gevohogger]

Jun 14, 2023 11:05:33 GMT -8 fishbelly said:

I would definitely give it all up and move on to another hobby.

Stamp collecting!

(bonus points if you remember why that's funny in a model railroading context)

[typhoon]

Jun 14, 2023 12:00:54 GMT -8 @atsf5398 said:

Ebay became horrible to deal with, as well as buyers expecting the moon.

I'd deal with Trainz again as they remove all the hassle and stress.

I've sold hundreds, perhaps even a thousand model train items on Ebay through the years, and it became no longer just people cleaning out their basement but this expectation on the part of buyers that everyone is a professional seller just waiting to answer their questions and ship immediately.

Sorry, there is a life to be lived.

If wanting fast shipping and having their questions answered before spending THEIR money is "asking for the moon", it sounds like you made a good move taking 50 cents on the dollar.

[Baikal]

Jun 14, 2023 10:48:00 GMT -8 grahamline said:

Many spouses (and model owners) have been deceived about the real world market value of collectibles including brass trains. My local open and friendly hobby dealer says prices on some of the inflated consignment items in his brass case are set by inflexible sellers. Generally, they get rotated out to another shop after sitting for a year or two.

A large majority of collectibles are like that.  My mom had 100s of 1940s records.  She worked at RCA and had a lot of one-of-a-kind things like aluminum & vinyl masters, drunk Lucy live, WW2 radio broadcasts & propaganda, etc.  About 300 lbs. We moved it 4 times over the years and in the end it was hard to find anyone that wanted them for free.

I'm glad I eBay'd 2/3 of my models off 7-8 years ago.

[grahamline]

Agreed. Even popular collectibles take a while to find the right buyers and disperse. Took the right auction house to sell the MIL's truckloads of Barbie-ania. My British-made 1:43 diecast cars peaked in the '90s and are largely $5-$10 items now. Hundreds of other examples. Once the target market ages out, or is out of money, it's an uphill road.

[Deleted]

Jun 14, 2023 12:18:48 GMT -8 typhoon said:

Jun 14, 2023 12:00:54 GMT -8 @atsf5398 said:

Ebay became horrible to deal with, as well as buyers expecting the moon.

I'd deal with Trainz again as they remove all the hassle and stress.

I've sold hundreds, perhaps even a thousand model train items on Ebay through the years, and it became no longer just people cleaning out their basement but this expectation on the part of buyers that everyone is a professional seller just waiting to answer their questions and ship immediately.

Sorry, there is a life to be lived.

If wanting fast shipping and having their questions answered before spending THEIR money is "asking for the moon", it sounds like you made a good move taking 50 cents on the dollar.

There's a lot of stuff I conveniently left out of the story.

Ebay now issues a nastygram to the seller to ship within 24 hours flat--and sometimes that can be a challenge depending upon the time of day that somebody used buy it now and one's work schedule.

Buyers today have much more power than in the past.  Ebay is now constructed to favor the buyers at the sellers' expense.  Sellers pretty much have no power to give a bad rating to those who may deserve it.  The average buyer is not as honest as in the past.  I always gave people the benefit of the doubt, and issued full refunds if something was "damaged", even let them keep the items, but now buyers are more likely to try to take advantage of a seller, claiming defective, etc. etc.

Buyers complain about USPS shipping charges, as if I had power to set the shipping rates, when I don't charge one cent more than it cost me, ever.  In fact I ate all box and packing charges, and then Ebay takes their commission out of any shipping charge.  In fact Ebay forced us all to go to "free shipping".  Some buyers apparently think we sellers are all just trying to gouge them, which was never the case.

People are so quick to pass judgment nowadays, since Covid, without even reading or getting all the facts.

My local store has sold a lot of trains quickly on consignment, but I also know the kind of customers they have, which tend to be thrifty.  The average store buyer does not want ScaleTrains or Tangent or high end anything, but "cheap" ready-to-roll type stuff; Trainman series whether Atlas or Walthers does reasonably well.

[lvrr325]

You only have to ship in 24 hours to be "top rated" ... you can set the handling time for longer if you want. If you list items on a Friday, only, you can show next business day handling and still have three days to ship even if they pay immediately.

No you don't have to do free shipping, that's nonsense. And if you buy labels through eBay you get a discount on the price. When you print a label you have another 24 hours for it to show movement.

I haven't had an issue with a train buyer in a long time. If you do the answer is always "return for refund".

[Deleted]

It's either provide "free shipping" or they take the 13% out of the shipping you do charge. Either way, the net result is the same--they are taking the 13%. When I didn't provide free shipping the buyers complained about the shipping charges and didn't give me all the stars, which then makes me look not so good.  I received several messages complaining about the shipping charges.

As a result I started grouping freight cars into higher dollar value lots but then they just didn't do as well as I might have hoped.

I was never a top seller--that's another thing they play games to move up certain high volume seller listings in the searches while moving the little guy's stuff down. I most certainly did receive nastygrams telling me I had to upload the tracking number within 24 hours of close of auction.

It was easier for the small guy years ago, but that is my opinion.  I'm also blessed to have a kind friend who sells most of what I don't need to keep locally to in person buyers.  We are almost done--there's only a dozen or so locos left, plus some freight cars.

Yours is a different opinion, and that is ok. You have a right to your opinion.

It is gratifying to be standing there when a local customer is happy they found something that they see as being a deal for them and are just happy to take it home and play with it.  Some then are repeat buyers, and imo that's a win.

[lvrr325]

I've managed to be a Top Rated seller for years and I am by no means high volume. The only hard thing on eBay now is they play games with the visibility so one week an item brings $50 the next week if someone starts it at a dollar maybe it brings $10. I picked up some Lionel because it was cheap Tuesday and I could see in the completed results the price low, the price high, with no real rhyme or reason for the same car in the same condition. So I tend to price in the middle to high end of that range.

[typhoon]

Jun 14, 2023 20:23:25 GMT -8 @atsf5398 said:

It's either provide "free shipping" or they take the 13% out of the shipping you do charge. Either way, the net result is the same--they are taking the 13%. When I didn't provide free shipping the buyers complained about the shipping charges and didn't give me all the stars, which then makes me look not so good.  I received several messages complaining about the shipping charges.

As a result I started grouping freight cars into higher dollar value lots but then they just didn't do as well as I might have hoped.

I was never a top seller--that's another thing they play games to move up certain high volume seller listings in the searches while moving the little guy's stuff down. I most certainly did receive nastygrams telling me I had to upload the tracking number within 24 hours of close of auction.

It was easier for the small guy years ago, but that is my opinion.  I'm also blessed to have a kind friend who sells most of what I don't need to keep locally to in person buyers.  We are almost done--there's only a dozen or so locos left, plus some freight cars.

Yours is a different opinion, and that is ok. You have a right to your opinion.

It is gratifying to be standing there when a local customer is happy they found something that they see as being a deal for them and are just happy to take it home and play with it.  Some then are repeat buyers, and imo that's a win.

You must have used a different eBay than the one I currently sell on.  If you are okay getting 50% on your stuff, good for you I guess.

They don't force you to ship in 24 hours, they don't send a nasty gram if you don't either.  I just got back from a 7 night cruise, with 25 items to ship when I got back.  Nothing about it from eBay.

I charge for some shipping, nothing extra is charged on the ones that I do.   I also combine shipping, and have never had a complaint from a seller.

I have feedback of over 35000, with 100% satisfaction.  



BTW, just because Trainz.com doesn't give you a W4 doesn't mean you are in the clear to declare money earned from their sales to the IRS.  If your income from them is over the threshold, and they get audited, I hope you put it on your tax return

[Deleted]

Compared to the price of items new, in many cases once the Ebay fees are actually paid, and items are shipped, the net recovery of principal on used items would be 50% or perhaps not that much more than 50%.  It's likely better on ebay but not that much better than dealing with Trainz or my local dealer.  It's an awful lot of work to list all the items, photograph everything well, pack and ship them all, and deal with the customers and the feedback, etc.  Trainz eliminated what would have been 70 individual auctions or buy it now listings in my particular case--that is just too much.  I can't live at the USPS; nor do I want to, and my time is more valuable to me.

Oh--I forgot to mention that my Paypal account was actually hacked, so I closed it immediately, and I do not care for Ebay holding my funds hostage all the time for several weeks before I get paid.  I also do not trust them having nearly unrestricted access to my bank account.

Both the local dealer and Trainz are MUCH less hassle.

You are correct regarding the need to keep receipts for tax purposes to be able to document financial losses.

You are entitled to your opinions, but I don't have to agree.  I flat out hate all the selling rules changes that ebay has implemented over the last 10 years.  It used to be a fun way to blow out items.  Now not so much.

[loco8107]

Jun 15, 2023 15:51:24 GMT -8 @atsf5398 said:

Compared to the price of items new, in many cases once the Ebay fees are actually paid, and items are shipped, the net recovery of principal on used items would be 50% or perhaps not that much more than 50%.  It's likely better on ebay but not that much better than dealing with Trainz or my local dealer.  It's an awful lot of work to list all the items, photograph everything well, pack and ship them all, and deal with the customers and the feedback, etc.  Trainz eliminated what would have been 70 individual auctions or buy it now listings in my particular case--that is just too much.  I can't live at the USPS; nor do I want to, and my time is more valuable to me.

Oh--I forgot to mention that my Paypal account was actually hacked, so I closed it immediately, and I do not care for Ebay holding my funds hostage all the time for several weeks before I get paid.  I also do not trust them having nearly unrestricted access to my bank account.

Both the local dealer and Trainz are MUCH less hassle.

You are correct regarding the need to keep receipts for tax purposes to be able to document financial losses.

You are entitled to your opinions, but I don't have to agree.  I flat out hate all the selling rules changes that ebay has implemented over the last 10 years.  It used to be a fun way to blow out items.  Now not so much.

eBay is their own worst enemy. Not just trains either and I know enough people who took a big hit in their eBay sales over the last couple years because of their new policies.

[cemr5396]

I was seriously considering getting into Ebay a number of years ago as a way to get older models that are hard to come by or at least are no longer in production.

It was such a massive pain in the ass trying to get an account set up and actually buy something that I gave up and cancelled the account registration process without ever spending a cent on that platform. I've never been back since.


I have gone back to train show hunting and keeping a close eye on the FB buy/sell groups. There is some good stuff that pops up once in a while and people are mostly pretty reasonable with their prices, on both sides of things. There aren't many people giving away stuff for 50 cents on the dollar but people aren't charging more than what stuff is actually worth either.... most of the time. Most people seem to be getting 80-90% of what stuff is actually worth, and it ends up being a good deal for both the buyer and the seller.

[lvrr325]

With eBay you have to buy it right, to sell it right.

I bought a box with some Model A Ford small parts toward the end of the same live auction I got the Lionel at for all of $5. Because they were in great shape I got about 50% over the going rate, they lasted about a day before selling for $150 on a Buy it Now.

I don't know what the story is on holding money, I guess new sellers they may hold it three weeks because too many rip off artists have claimed to sell things like high end handbags and shipped junk. They don't hold mine, I have it set to daily payout.

I do agree sales are down over say 2020 but you had more people going online then because of the pandemic restrictions.

[typhoon]

Jun 15, 2023 21:20:55 GMT -8 lvrr325 said:

I don't know what the story is on holding money, I guess new sellers they may hold it three weeks because too many rip off artists have claimed to sell things like high end handbags and shipped junk. They don't hold mine, I have it set to daily payout.

Same.  My guess is you are right, there is almost a probationary period for money payouts to make sure the seller is not a scam artist.  It is a good policy.

[Deleted]

I've sold many hundreds of items on my current Ebay account, but I didn't sell for a year. Believe me, they held my funds from this year's transactions for 3 weeks despite my perfect 100% rating, on grounds that I wasn't a "recent" seller I suppose. Bullcrap.  I even did what they said I had to do to get immediate payment, but they didn't do that.

I was just looking at some train books on ebay, and the seller in large bold green print had a paragraph in their listing stating the following:

"It is disingenuous to agree to the shipping charges at the close of the auction and to send an email later complaining about the shipping charges. As a seller I am not involved in setting the USPS/UPS shipping rates."

Exactly proves my point in posts above. I've received several similar emails to what that seller received. Just because it maybe didn't happen to a few of you does not mean those emails do not get sent. Clearly this seller was getting upset about them, as well.  There were other disclaimers in his listing; I merely quoted the brief one that I thought was most apropo.

I would absolutely agree that you have to buy it right to sell it right.  I'm a collector who occasionally sells off trains I don't need.  I do try to buy it right, sometimes still receiving an "employee emeritus" discount at one well known train store.  However, I'm not buying brand new items to resell, and gently used items legitimately are a crapshoot--the ones I think nobody wants may go fast for more than I thought they would while others that truly are in like new, test run only perfect condition, for whatever reason, may not do well.  Even with very good photos from all angles.

I attribute it to some people no longer trusting anybody who isn't a big-time seller.  It used to be different, but a lot of things used to be different in America.

I buy less and less from the evil auction site and more items directly from the dealers who remain.

[typhoon]

Jun 18, 2023 19:14:03 GMT -8 @atsf5398 said:

I've sold many hundreds of items on my current Ebay account, but I didn't sell for a year. Believe me, they held my funds from this year's transactions for 3 weeks despite my perfect 100% rating, on grounds that I wasn't a "recent" seller I suppose. Bullcrap.  

No, a good policy.  If you hadn't sold in a year, eBay knows little about you.  Good protection for both them, and the buyer.

[Frank]

I have been an eBay buyer and seller since the year 2000, back when model trains outside of brass weren’t a big market there. I still have funds held after lengthy pauses in selling, which eBay mentions when you do get back into after hiatus. The simplicity of FB market has me leaning on it more for selling and excess or unneeded models, but items will be up there much longer usually. No big deal.

Haven’t had much issue on the buying end, other than these days the tendency is more toward fixed price listings. The railroad collectibles side is a little better, lots of deals to be had still. Slides, especially Kodachrome of various railroad subjects, have been my passion from day one too, but that market really peaked around 2015 on eBay and you don’t see nearly as much original material any more. There isn’t a good alternative to buying them anywhere else these days either.

[lvrr325]

If you haven't sold in a year eBay doesn't even know if it's you or the account was hijacked.