Why can't I ever get these suckers to buy my stuff? I always seem to attract the flies that want a $20 MTL or IM car for $5. Of course they dont bid on it and send you a PM after the close of the auction.
That is not at all odd for the Athearn trucks. The $100 one is a bit much but they go for $50 pretty regularly. Remember they sold for $25 when new and haven't been made in 6 years or more and only one run was ever produced. Mack R tractors have just come back in stock but no indication at all of the Mack B's coming back again. It's what happens when there is a big demand and very little supply. These were very well made and the closest thing to them is building a GHQ kit which could take $100 worth of time and effort to get it to the same quality. Keep an eye on CMW cars, the out of production cars easily hit $25-30 each with some odd balls hitting $50 and $100. The Metro mail truck usually brings the best prices.
But who is driving those prices? Is it those who want them for modeling certain scenes on their layouts? Or, are we also competing with a fair number of collectors? I am willing to bet on the latter.
I would have to say that you are probably facing a good number of collectors, as if you need it, then you might be willing to pay more for it.
I really don't think it is collectors. If you look at the bids, there are people with pretty low numbers bidding on these. I think it is more people who need one of these for a scene, don't have the time or tallent to build a GHQ or similar kit, and find it is easier to buy at any price. There are a lot of people out there that consider $100 a drop in the bucket. They spend more than that on one meal so it's not a big deal to pick up that detail item they want for less than the price of a good meal. We have a few customers that come in our shop like that. I have had an O scale customer buy $200 worth of Walthers Goo in one shot. Didn't bat an eye. He showed me pictures of his layout and there at at least 40 Miller Engineering electroluminescent signs on his city scene. The city is full of skyscrapers that consist of 8-10 kits bashed to make one building. He commissioned a bridge to be built that was a $3000 job. The only reason I know about that is he was telling me about how the guy got it 90% complete and never showed up to finish it and get paid. Accept it, some people are in a different tax bracket and that extra zero on the end of a price doesn't bother them.
If you look at the bids,I'd bet it wasn't a case of :"I'm willing to pay that much",as much as it was a last minute "no other idiot is gonna bid 100 bucks on this thing"..I seriuosly doubt that a few years ago somebody else considered that there would be another yahoo bidding $3,000,000 on an X-Box.. Ebay is funny..Ya never know how things are gonna go.I was looking for a Rapido Bobber Caboose for months,they usually go for 25 bucks or more.I hit one for $15.49 Saturday,I bid $15.50,LOL!!
I have seen way too many sellers listing ridiculous quantities of trains in a lot or hoard, with starting prices in the high 100's or even 4 digit price start - i guess they are being lazy and dont want to deal with single listings? And I agree the use of all the adjectives 'rare find, special, dont miss, etc, etc, blah blah fishcakes' is mostly ridiculous, but then again its possibly, in some cases desperation, as I truly believe that evilbay has now messed up the search engines so bad, that its impossible in many cases to actually get something 'normal' sold. Bidding has become so 'rare' that some, including myself, have given up on 'auction' and moved to 'fixed price' with a GTC 'good til cancelled' time limit. Just my latest .02
Bidding has gone away because for sellers it's for suckers. Last items I listed for bid went WAAAY under even discount price. Put the same things up at list price, sold them in a week for more than twice what I got in an auction. Same exact thing, same rd # and everything.
And the really funny part - found this in his description 'PLEASE BE AWARE: WE DO NOT ACCEPT ANY RETURNS' Now a seller can say that, but no-one can stop the evilbay buyer guaranteed promise from evilbay - I wonder how many new sellers, or any sellers have actually read the rules! Cant tell the buyer to buy insurance, but you must guarantee delivery and satisfaction to the buyer. That means if a seller gets over a certain amount for something, the seller had better decide on Insurance for their own protection, and that a seller should be very accurate on the descriptions. - Yeah - right.
The photos are really informative. Especially the one of the back of the package with the custom cut card stock.:rats:
I had an experience with someone who didn't accept returns. I bought an N scale seaboard system 50' boxcar, advertised as atlas, stock picture great deal I thought. So guessed what turned up... an HO seaboard system 50' boxcar, with the base falling out, one truck with old metal wheels, one truck in the box with plastic wheels, and horn hook couplers (even the stock photo had knuckle). Needless to say, I got my money back
OK - so here is one of those gazillion pieces at a gazillion $ http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-SCALE-500..._RR_Trains&hash=item3cd21027ea#ht_1718wt_1043 While it may be worth the price, I think a seller would have more agravation packing it all and shipping it - and it may cost the seller (free shipping) a small fortune if someone far far away bought it.
This is listed as "new" and is priced like it, however, the wheels seem to tell another story. http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-scale-ATL...140579?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item51adbc28e3
Untrustworthy seller That large lot has been offered frequently. Seller has removed several smaller lots from what is pictured and sold them off separately. Seller is also offering some of the more valuable items individually but still includes them in the picture and description of the 'large' lot.
One of if not the crookedest n scale sellers on eBay. I've bought from him a couple of times before learning my lesson. EVERY "new" item I've received from him was used. He uses various tactics to avoid negative feedback starting with, "oh sorry! send it back for a refund" - no refund received, "oh sorry! let me discount your future auction wins by 20%" - next items won were also Used rather than New.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page to the blue writing it pretty much states that everything has been run and isn't new which pretty much conflicts with the statement with the article for sale.
I usually list items priced at for what I want for them and then see what happens. If it doesn't sell, oh well, and sometimes bidding gets crazy. (For example, I recently listed a new Atlas Shay - I did not expect what happened.) Andy Tetsu Uma
