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Post by SOMECALLMETIM on Jun 30, 2021 17:16:36 GMT -8
Anyone else notice the price people are charging for shipping for slides has greatly increased? Just saw some average quality slides for auction that the list price and shipping cost is already over $9. Getting kinda ridiculous.
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Post by valenciajim on Jul 2, 2021 3:02:55 GMT -8
Anyone else notice the price people are charging for shipping for slides has greatly increased? Just saw some average quality slides for auction that the list price and shipping cost is already over $9. Getting kinda ridiculous. Actually, I am not surprised. Shipping costs have gone up-although not to the point you mention. Also, the cost of using eBay has increased and there probably are a limited number of ways those costs can be passed onto the purchaser. I pretty much stopped using eBay several years ago and the two or three transactions I have done over the past couple of years left a bad taste in my mouth. Everyone had a problem and eBay was less than helpful in resolving them. |
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Post by loco8107 on Jul 4, 2021 11:27:43 GMT -8
Decent deals can still be found on eBay, although fewer than in previous years. I too am waiting for shows to returns so I have an alternative to eBay. That first sentence is so true! And it’s gotten worse in the last year. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2021 9:03:31 GMT -8
As someone who has done many hundreds of ebay transactions, both as a buyer and as a seller, I can say they weren't all what I would consider "good". As a seller, you are prohibited from giving the buyer any rating other than "positive" nowadays which is utter bullcrap. Once upon a time, you could give the buyer a neutral or even a negative (some of which were deserved), and at that time it was a more equitable process for the sellers. Now the process is actually stacked against the seller. The whole process tends to favor the buyer in any transaction, but also when I've had real issues as a buyer, it was sometimes a pain in the butt to actually get a refund. Sellers tend to deny that their model train was anything other than perfect.
Real world example: I recently purchased a big boy that technically ran and technically arrived in excellent cosmetic condition--but it didn't like curves and would derail far too easily (nothing else derails on my trackwork, not even most brass steam)--not much I can do in that instance, as it actually ran on a tangent section of track. Clearly somebody knew they had a "problem child" big boy and dumped it on Ebay but for big bucks. That seller and many others now "refuse to accept returns" (I almost always accepted domestic returns). I knew that fighting to get my money back would be problematic, so in that case sold the big boy elsewhere at a discount to someone who will likely never run it but just will display it.
Other real world example: I recently received a BLI steam engine with a cracked boiler. Seller swore up and down it wasn't that way when shipped (also was an older gentleman with clearly less than ideal vision). It was a big hassle to return the item and get my money back. I ended up having to let him keep some of the money and that was the BEST deal I was able to get. I even sent photos showing the crack...which he said he could not see it...
Finally, I've actually HAD my identity stolen and I have learned the hard way what a pita it actually is to deal with. It was through an engineering firm, who subcontracted data storage out, and all our social security numbers etc. were compromised...
I once joined Paypal years ago as Ebay forced me to do at the time. Wasn't happy about it but Paypal has worked out ok.
I'm NOT making that mistake a second time, especially knowing that Ebay has actually been recently hacked and some people's accounts were compromised. (Paypal has not been so far as I am aware).
You all can do whatever you want; I've had to actually deal with identity theft and credit fraud committed on my name.
My local train store is selling thousands of dollars worth of my trains, and yes, I'm allowing them to take their normal profit margin. It is not ideal for me, but they've been getting the stuff sold (3 big articulated steamers plus a bunch of high end freight cars in just 3 weeks). At that rate, they can continue selling my stuff; I don't need any online places to sell at all. I'm providing them inventory at no cost to them at a time when their shelves are relatively bare of new product, and we are undercutting the price of the new product anyway--so they are telling me all my stuff will sell by Christmas time, which will payoff my Genesis DDA40X coming in December, and my Rapdio SPSF Kodachrome B36-7, plus give me lots of extra cash for Christmas.
So I don't need to sell anything online or at shows.
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Post by drsvelte on Jul 6, 2021 16:18:25 GMT -8
I'm not an eBay fanboy, but really... I've had close to a thousand eBay transactions, also as a buyer and seller (with a current 100% feedback score), and my opinion of the platform is far more positive. As a seller, I've had only one bad experience in the last five years; the seller out-and-out lied about the delivery time and gave me poor feedback. In retrospect, I should have contested it, but I was new at the time.
As a buyer, I've had a few items that arrived that were damaged in transit due to poor packaging. In all cases, returns were accepted without any blowback. In the only egregious case I recall, a seller of acrylic display cases sent me a case which had de-laminated - it was a mess. After several emails, he said he would send me a good case, but he never did. I finally followed up through PayPal Buyer's Protection Plan and received a complete refund. I had to document my claim but it was hardly an onerous process.
Given the volume of transactions I have conducted, a failure rate of 1-2% is more than worth it given the audience of potential buyers that can be reached.
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Post by llxlocomotives on Jul 8, 2021 6:40:31 GMT -8
My experience is like drsvelte’s. For more than 15 years I bought & sold on eBay. Almost exclusively HO trains. I sold on average 200 items per month. Usually things went fine. But periodically there would be issues.
I always said there were no returns. eBay has always allowed a return, which was frustrating for me, but I felt the statement would limit the number of buy & return people. I would also block the buyer if the reason was not justified.
There are all kinds of sellers on eBay. Most know very little about what they are selling. A lot of estate liquidators use eBay as the last resort (during the past year maybe the first as well). To have some confidence in the seller, you need to look at the number of feedbacks & the diversity of things for sale. If he has been doing it a long time & most of what he has up are HO trains, he probably knows his product.
The prices in general are driven by the current market place. In 2000, except for brass, engine prices were under $100 & cars were under $20. Now they are 3-4 times that. Yes, more detailed, more complicated, etc. But that upward movement has pulled along the older units. A rising tide raises all boats.
While there are still older stuff out there, the numbers are falling & that will impact the sales price. A good seller pays attention to what items are selling for and uses that in his thinking. eBay has actually been discouraging auction listings, wanting to be more like Amazon. That has brought in a lot of companies that sell stuff online & in a physical location. They are using mostly BIN & the eBay prices are higher than what they will set in their store.
Sellers who don’t know will put a crazy price out there. There are times of the year when they succeed. That is not the norm.
I continued to look for a better place than eBay to sell, but the world wide reach is hard to beat. Yes, they have rules. Yes it is not free. But if you pay attention to the details, you can make out ok.
Larry
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