Yep! Atlas did their own SAL GP-9s in 1996, their Items 48326, 48327 and 48328, so that may have messed up the Seller as well, though Atlas' detailing was much superior to Life-Like's.
I see a lot of very over priced listings and wonder just how much of this stuff really sells? I'm amazed at how much some of the older Atlas/Kato locomotives are listed for. Most are with truck mounted rapido couplers. I know Kato makes great locomotives, but when you are buying one made in 1989, about 35 years old, you can really have a hard time finding parts for them, (which I guess makes it even more prototypical because they have a hard time finding parts for their older locomotives also!). At least in my experience plastic parts can get more brittle over time and even though you can purchase the Micro-trains pilot couplers that you glue into place, they can increase your cost $20+. Then when one adds taxes and shipping it hurts even more.
Agreed. There are many items that reappear unsold month after month, even year after year. It makes for a dull experience scrolling through eBay listings and it proves that more than a few eBay volume sellers pay no attention to what they list.
I have read proposals that some folks post stuff there, who actually have no desire to sell it. For them there is some sort of weird status symbol in being able to say they have items listed "For Sale". There are also those who are simply sucker fishing. To see if some dummy will actually bite. These sellers are hurting our hobby, by spreading the impression it is only for those of wealth. My railroadiana aspect of this hobby is a subject which I am somewhat of an expert, having one of the largest accumulations in the world. So having sold TENS of thousands such pieces, I immediately know the seller has no clue, or they are sucker fishing.
Ever since they waived the listing fee it has been a $hit show. There's no skin in the game in listing an item so everybody lists everything imaginable at, often times, ridiculous prices. Nothing to lose! Start charging to list and you'll see this nonsense drop.
They had to do it. Their number of users has dropped, significantly, (roughly about 20%), and also their annual revenues. They aren't smart enough to know much of this is due to self-inflicted wounds and competition by free sites such as Facebook. The value of all the items sold on their site has faltered for several years now, not showing any growth and actually slightly declining from the all time peak, the past five years in a row.
True. Their revenue and earnings have been all over the place. I wonder too if the new requirement of a Form 1099-K be sent to Sellers and the IRS on annual income $600 and above has dampened participation by small Sellers that used to be the backbone of eBay. By the time you get past eBay's ever-escalating fees, "Managed Payments" and recognizing the additional income tax, it's just not worth the effort.
If I was somehow granted three wishes, I would most certainly spend one to wish the "High Speed" Southern Pacific locomotive (as well as all the cars that go with the 'set') into oblivion. That still leave me two wishes to get Kato to make a SP AS-616 and unlimited amount of time, money and space to build a layout...
Personally my second and third wishes would also be to eliminate all the High Speed 'models', just to be absolutely safe. I suspect they're like cockroaches; if you leave even one alive the infestation will come back.
Largest shareholders are: Vanguard - 11.25% BlackRock - 8.45% State Street - 4.6% Pierre Omidyar (eBay founder) - 4.4%
As I Looked at this item. The Smokestack , HeadLight and the Cowcatcher Look as if they came from other sources.. with no regards to SCALE, meaning N-SCALE. It seems to me as how those which place, photograph their Items in N-SCALE they almost end up as TOY LIKE ! Nice try e? seller. Tom
Tom, IIRC that’s the way this engine came when it was new. I remember thinking it looked like an abomination when I first saw it many years ago. I think Minitrix used available parts to approximate an old time engine even though it’s all wrong.
This is not exactly humor..... But I came across this completed auction. $1,600 brass B&O Cincinnatian. Those are not Cincinnatian cars. They look like Rivarossi cars. https://www.ebay.com/itm/305530024101 They sell a lot, so I'm guessing they know little about trains and only went by the box. Someone must have pointed out the error to them. Auction closed. Wow.
In the understatement of the year, I see the eBay header reads "This listing was ended by the seller on Wed, Apr 24 at 1:12 PM because there was an error in the listing". Yep, just an "error" folks, no big deal.
