AGREED! If you have to resort to exaggeration then something doesn't smell right. After all, those in the "know" don't need to be convinced, and those that aren't in the "know" don't care. The only reason someone needs to resort to exaggeration is to dupe the unsuspecting. A well-worded Title and Description is sufficient to get across the genuine value of an item. Exaggeration just throws up flags to watch out for this character.
I honesty doubt these sellers are uninformed - they make a living selling on eBay. Besides, some sellers have multiple accounts, where they use one or two accounts to buy items cheap, and the main one to sell them at a markup.
I have or had an Atlas C-Liner. It had a sticker that said that it was display purposes only. I tried to run it and it lasted about five minutes and died.
$300.00 PLUS $6.00 for Expedited Shipping. Such a deal for something that sold for $4.25 with factory air. I guess letting the factory air out increases the value. NO THANKS! Gary
Good thing our military does not operate N scale layouts or they'd probably buy 200 of those $300 box cars
How this one, using another common trick: List everything as a "Special Run" or "Collector" car. http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Special-r...045896?hash=item1c79975808:g:NDEAAOSwA3dYbcfc
And the BN and Reading cars are Atlas, not even MT! Wonder how high the bidding will take the "rare" items
I wonder if that seller could provide a certificate of this "special" run, after all their 100% feedback reputation should be on the line for it.
Well, it went to $134.50 for some time, then went to $185.83 in the last few seconds, on two bidders. The others closed earlier without bids. If these items were truly rare, the other items might get desperation bids if the sellers relisted them at their original high starting bids. But, since these items appear frequently, I don't think that strategy is going to pay off.
Anyway we look at it, someone is bidding and buying these. But, are they being swayed by the wording "rare", or do they know better and set an upper limit? What I'd like to ask you all here is how does one know what limit to set? Do you bid based on your budget, or desperation to get an item? How do you decide what a value of something is, especially if you can't find cross-reference elsewhere?
Answer: all of the above under various circumstances. I try to be rational, and decide how much I want something and then not bid more just because somebody else did. BUT, with N scale item future availability so unknowable, I have paid more than I should to get an item, only to find it becoming available for far less, later on. OTOH, I have sometimes bought something at a reasonable price and then found that the supply dried-up quickly and others are bidding ridiculous amonts on the few that come up, later. It is almost as bad as trying to predict the stock market.
I'm at a junction point trying to decide whether to go H0 or N. My space of 22'x12' is more conducive to N as I could build a small empire in it vs an average H0 layout. But one of the worries I have is exactly what you wrote - availability of N scale items. Event though N has seen a renaissance in the past years, with more items being available from many new vendors, supply is still nothing compared to H0.
I would not worry about N scale. It is thriving. Just have to decide when you want to buy something, and if available price is what you are willing to pay. True, (most) stores don't have gobs of N on their shelves, but there is enough.
Well, that guy with the "limited edition", "mint" (but "used") Con-Cor National Limited set has come back with the same $374.95 price, but as a "buy it now" item instead of an auction, despite the one actually sold at auction by another seller going for less than half that. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Con-Cor-N-S...398769?hash=item2a78bed531:g:TtgAAOSwmtJXWhz8 And the guy who started his bidding at $275 for the same item ("rare" in his listing), has simply put it back up for auction at the same starting price. I wonder if they even know that the same item sold for $183. How much are they giving eBay for each listing, with the latest rules for sellers?
I remember buying these Con Cor sets new in the late 80s. They were not very cheap way back then. The prices on E Bay really aren't that far away from the original prices. That said I stopped buying them because I focused on the Milwaukee and Con Cor wasn't doing much for me. Randy
You can use the eBay fee calculator to get the numbers: http://www.fees.ebay.com/feeweb/feecalculator I think it comes to $35.10 in fees for the $374.95 BIN at $15 domestic shipping.
This seller is seeking a great return on his investment! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-train...192345?hash=item211e6a2059:g:Ns0AAOSwA3dYeNxf I hope I see this much of a return on My collection when I decide to leave the hobby.
He had to make an error because he has several other runner packs with buy it now prices in the $70-$80 range. I think they just misplaced the period.
So that's really $88.25, and they typed it in as 8825 thinking that eBay system would add the period after 88. I suppose eBay could add a HTML5 filter on the price field to automatically make last two digits cents. On the other hand, it would make many more other truly expensive items, dirty cheap if sellers aren't paying attention.