More eBay Humor

I am slightly more tolerant than this BUT I do believe that the seller and buyer should have a communication before any feedback is posted.
IMHO again.
Mike

 

Hi Mike,

First, let me say that I have purchased more than once from you and always been completely satisfied.

You posted:

Basically, I agree. But, it is a really mixed bag how pre-feedback conversations go with various sellers. Some bend-over backwards to please, well beyond what I was looking for. One promptly gave me a $3 partial refund for telling her about the repurcussions of her packaging, which were minor and I said so in the PM. I actually sent her a personal check for $3 because there was no way to undo her refund with e-Bay. Another included a nice additional item at no cost because I had to bring to his attention that his item was not shipped. His assistant had noted damage and not shipped it, but had put it aside and lost track. The guy not only found an undamaged version of the same item, but included the extra and promptly shipped as soon as his attention was drawn to the lapse.

I am guessing that is ONE of the ways that sellers deal with a stacked-deck that allows buyers to get a refund very easily.

BUT, on the other hand, I have experienced sellers who obviously were not ethical in their descriptions of the conditions of their products, and they continue to misrepresent the situation duriing correspondence. They seem paranoid about a buyer "holding them hostage for feedback" if they are getting a criticism and have not yet seen feedback. Instead of trying to please, they attack the seller's credibility or even his ability to do business over e-Bay. So, I think providing postive feedback with a minor criticism is a better way to go with that type, so long as I am not asking for them to do anything FOR ME. But, I don't know which type of seller I am dealing with until I start.

All of this seems to have lead to "inflated" ratings of sellers. So, as I mentioned before, I don't place much faith in "100% positive feedback" ratings of sellers. In fact, I just had a bad response from a seller this week, who has "100% positive." Only after having an issue with him did I even bother to check his feedback. Yes, it is 100% positive BECAUSE HE GOT 2 NEUTRAL FEEDBACKS REMOVED. Based on my own dealings with him, I seriously doubt that he has never created negative reactions among any of his buyers.

So, my take-away as a buyer is that postive feedbacks are seen as imperitive, and are highly inflated by e-Bay requirements and policies. But, buyers are pretty well protected with a money-back guarantee of SATISFACTION.

To me, 100% postiive feedback is NOT an requirement for me to bid or "buy-now." If the item is what I want at a price I am willing to pay, I will give the seller a chance unless he has some seriously negative feedback that seems legitimate by the way it is worded, and the seller's reply seems inappropriate.

BUT, once a seller impresses me as being unethical, or even surley, IN A DEALING WITH ME, he has lost my business. However, I am not going to go out of my way to try to change the e-Bay universe with comments or feedback to warn others, because that deck is stacked against the buyer, and because my ego is not in it and I have more important things to spend my time and attention on.

So, my message to sellers would be that MOST buyers are not too impressed with "100% positive" nor much deterred by something less than 100%, so long as the seller treats them OK and e-Bay maintains its easy refund policies. And, as Pete's post has demonstrated, sellers who "ban" buyers for minor criticizms inside postive feedback are raising red flags for their potential future customers.

At this point, even if I knew Pete's seller name on e-Bay, I would still buy from him UNTIL he gives me a reason to not trust his integrity, or he questions mine when there is a glitch and I call his attention to it.

Steve

 

To get back to the humor in Ebay. Try searching N scale dummy locomotive. Will the High speed GP 35s ever go away, there must be 20 or more for sale at any time on feebay.
BUT they are listed many time as RARE and VINTAGE.

 

I haven’t sold anything on eBay yet, but I do my best to give people the benefit of the doubt. There is no reason to go into a rage over a possible misunderstanding. As a contractor I used to run into people who there was just no talking to and I found that most of the time just a little backing off did the trick. Also making it completely clear of ALL the charges or fees beforehand so that you don’t appear that your trying put something over them does wonders.

Once I did a lot of remodel work on an old movie theater and when I gave the owner the bill immediately upon competition, he went completely nuts. I didn’t say a word and just drove away after picking up my tools. I then went back the next day and asked him how he was feeling. I'll tell you I was a little surprised when he did a complete turnaround and started laughing as he wrote me a check.

 

If and when you decide to, you'll probably find that it's just not the optimal way to have a good time. Most sellers and buyers do their best but there are those bad apples... as there are in the rest of life.

 

I for one am ready for some EBAY Humor !!!

Mike

 

Yes me too!

 

I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I look at the number of junk Bachmann 4-8-4s being sold for well over a 100 dollars. Most of what I see are the older models that are guaranteed to have split gears or soon will have. Bachmann doesn't even list these on their website anymore. I don't begin to understand how folks can keep selling these that were originally around $40 or $50 for $140. There are write ups ad nauseam about their problems all over the web yet they keep popping up for sale and somebody keeps buying them. I am still shaking my head in mystification.

 

Not N, but Half Zero....guy I have come to know bought a Daylight and another NOS Botchman of evilbait. Yup, older with split axle couplings.
$25, send it in, non-dcc, get a new one. Or, spend $80 and buy a new chassis from Botchman and cobble it together.
On this high-speed Reader's Digest engines and cars....a month or so ago I gave a whole box away with three engines (in original plastic boxes!), almost every car in the series, plus some regular N, track, tunnel portals, and some new, never opened Botchman e-z switches, just to get another box out of my office.

 

The reason they sell for $100 plus is people are uninformed about the older versions. Bachmann still sells these and they retail for over $170.00. They have gone through a half dozen revisions since those horrible white box loco's and the result is, they don't run half bad. The problem is, the shell hasn't changed in 20 years, except for a very recent retool which just copied the old and made it crisper. You can't tell them apart by pictures on the internet so people think they are getting the new one for a steal.

http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=265_372_374

 

So how do you know what is good and what is not? I don't buy any Bachmann Diesels at all, but I see people buying the N-scale Steamers all the time. I currently only buy brand new ones with factory decoders now, but a few on eBay have caught my eye although i have no idea if I should buy it or not.

 

How about this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-ga-HALLMA...673?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ae503e549

The E5s are pretty nice-- as far as Kumata's go.

I thought the price was a bit high. And then I noticed only the A listed.

Now, writing a book on Kumata locos, I have found some strange things. Always learning.

So I asked the seller if there was a B unit (on the outside chance KMT actually sold A units alone.). I also thought to ask for a photo of the box label.

As you can see, the B unit is indeed missing.

So he is selling the "set" missing the B unit for a hugely high price (for one loco).

The A by itself is worth maybe 100 bucks IMHO.

 

He never used the word set.

I don't think he is trying to mislead by lying. No. He clearly says it is an A unit.
It is just an odd auction.

 

A lot of the older Bmann steam could be turned over and the gears viewed through a slot in the bottom of the chassis. Doesn't reveal a split gear but it does reveal the color of the gear, white is bad, black is good. Then there is the mechanism and side rods which have under gone a number of revisions. Plus the electrical pick-up has changed a number of times as far as the pilot and trailing trucks. In short one needs to not buy what they can't see. Fuzzy small photos makes it hard to examine anything. Seller usually doesn't state the latest release in a description and may themselves not know.

Unless you are able to view close up and armed with some of the descriptive facts from the Spookshow site it is best to pass on that bargain. And if it was of those things one has to have rather add a few more dollars to the purchase and buy direct from Bachmann's web store or one of our sponsors who carries the loco. There are a few strictly Bachmann dealers on the web who carry the most latest stuff but buying that loco and some of the others on the Bay is an extreme buyer beware warning. You don't know what the age of the loco is and what version unless it is something like the 2-8-0. The wide Wooten firebox is the older version with bad gears. Standard firebox is the newer version of which the first release is the best. A lot of old stock is being dumped on the bay from defunct LHSs to estate sales.

 

Thanks John, That's a wealth of information there. I going to save that to my notes. Thanks again.

 

In general for standard Bachmann (not Spectrum) locos: the white box and the "clamshell" box = not good.

The two-piece hard plastic box = usually better. I have a standard issue Bachmann steamer from then that ran just fine and spent many hours circling my display "Starter Layout" at shows.

If the box isn't shown in the listing, don't assume anything.

And unfortunately, there are exceptions.

 

OK, back to our regular programming... this "reindeer feed" car sure ain't going for "chicken feed."

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271760425259?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT