an ebay "go figure" (rant)

[nachoman]

there is a HOn3 model die casting 2-8-0 kit on ebay selling for about 200 bucks right now with an hour left. Sure, these kits are fun, and no longer produced, but when they were produced just 3 years ago, they could be had for about 65$. I have two myself, and know building the kit is considerable work and requires regearing to get them to run well.

Another auction just ending is for a brass K-36 2-8-2 in HOn3. It isn't the greatest brass model, but it is BRASS and prototype specific and no assembly required and it just sold for 222$. This seller had no feedback - beware, but still... the new RTR blackstone hon3 k-27 2-8-2 should be out soon, and I see it advertised for 200$. This is a die cast model with way more detail than the roundhouse kit, and RTR!!!

I just don't get it. I would almost feel guilty selling a MDC kit for that much. Things like this make me wonder if the idiots out there combined with ebay are driving up the prices for everything. Hell, I could go to the thrift store this morning, pick up a vintage oakland raiders tshirt for a buck or two, and list it on ebay as a "rare oakland raiders tshirt" and probably sell it for 25. Or the printer I picked up at the thrift store for 3 bucks last week. Needed a new ink cartridge but now it is perfect. I could purchase similar and sell them for 10s of dollars.

well hell, i could make a business doing that, and do quite nicely. Then I could underreport that income on my taxes. It's the american way!! What the hell am I wasting money on college for? I was hoping to use my geology degree to help society with such issues as stream and groundwaterr management, or landslide hazards, but I just stated that people are idiots, so why should I care?

okay enough of a rant.

kevin

 

[webmaster]

Nacho, I know what you mean.

It's totally psychological, people think that because it's on e-Bay IT MUST BE A BARGAIN!!!!. I have personally seen lots of things, mostly models & tools that have sold for much more than they would cost if you went to the local stores & bought them brand new.

There certainly are some idiots out there!

 

[jim currie]

its because ebay if full of the I WANT IT NOW generation who do not know about or comprehend the idea of comparison shopping.which makes sellers very happy because there is someone out there who will pay over 400$ for a old snap on 25th anniversary catalog

 

[sumpter250]

Ebay........... I think it is not the product as much as it is the desire to "win the bid", that drives the feeding frenzy. Sometimes, a worthless ______ commands an unusually high price, while at the same time, a truly valuable item sells for pennies.

announce1 Hi, I'm an Ebay buyer, I want it now, and I want to win, and I have more money than common sense..............drool tooth1 tooth1

 

[N Gauger]

Being a buyer and a seller (Rating 201 5+ year member) I see your point driven home almost everyday.....

My whole outlook of selling is: If you want this "hoosit" bad enough - I'll list it at a fair and resonable starting price, with a discription that is as accurate as possible without being over worded.... It's up to each and every buyer to "think" before they press the "Bid" Button.... If it sells - OK if it doesn't - I try again in a few months...

As a buyer... I am extremely.. careful, scrutinizing and researching a single item for days before I even think of hitting "The Button" ... I Never "watch an auction in my e-bay" this sometimes alerts sellers that someone is interested - giving them an oppurtunity to bid on the iten, or get a friend to bid to jack the price up...

It's a sad thing.... that it happens all too much....

Also, Snipe programs.. named for the "Snipe hunts" It's a blessing to sellers - but a bane to fair buyers... I always go in and manually bid right near the end of an auction... If I get the item.. Oh cool!!!! If I lose - "there will be another exact same "one of a kind - rare" item... coming along in a month or so LOL

I truly get a kick out of some sellers that advertise One of a kind, rare, exceptional, hard to find etc..... and when you do an "Advanced search" on e-bay (or even on Google) You get 1000+ hits LOL

It's all in the thrill of the hunt It's al for fun.....

Buyer Rule # 1: caveot Empter....
Seller Rule #1 : There's one born every minute" ~~ P.T. Barnum

 

[GeorgeHO]

I have one friend who regularly buys coins and rare metal items on ebay, removes what he wants from the package, then resells his leftovers back on ebay for MORE money than he paid initially for everything!
We had a bookstore, "Biblelotte", that went out of business and sold everything 70% off. One couple drove their Mercedes convertables to the store every two or three hours, bought several thousand dollars worth of college books and research books, and sold them on ebay for twice what they paid. They spent three days doing this and I would guess they made well over $100,000.

 

[ezdays]

This is not an exclusive eBay phenomenon. I used to go to auctions frequently (ya know the kind where you get a number an hold up your hand, wave your number or twitch your eyebrow to bid), and I noticed that from the get-go, people bid crazy. I wondered why they were bidding so much for a very used tool or broken-down piece of furniture, when they could get a brand-new one for less money at Sears. So even during those archaic days of auctions you could never count on getting a bargin when somebody else didn't know what they were doing.

I bought enough stuff at auction for pennies on the dollor to get our business off the gound, the great thing then was that you could actually see what you were bidding on and you got to take it home that very day.:thumb:

No, I don't buy or sell on eBay, my philosphy is that if you get burned once buying, it negates a whole lot of other bargins you might have gotten. Get burned as a seller and you have to sell a whole lot to make up for that loss.:cry:

 

[Russ Bellinis]

It isn't just E-bay. I'm also a car nut. I recorded most of Barratt-Jackson Scottsdale auction and viewed it later. It is amazing what some of those bidders were doing. It was like a "feeding frenzy," and they were throwing down serious money. I especially wonder about the guy who bought the first "Hemi clone" on the first day for $135,000 and then saw original numbers matching Hemis going for less than $100,000 later in the auction!

 

[Wimpy]

When I bid on e-bay, I know what I want to pay, including shipping and handling. I place my bid on things just listed. If I win, great. If I loose, oh well I just saved some money. I will not pay more than $20.00 for a On30 car or more than $25.00 for a porter or $35.00 for a Bmann 2-6-0. I have too many of everything already. Lol

Wimpy

Wiscasset & Carrabassett Ry.
The biggest, littlest railroad, down east

 

[Pete]

When I bid on e-bay, I know what I want to pay, including shipping and handling. I place my bid on things just listed. If I win, great. If I loose, oh well I just saved some money.

Same here - I'll rarely bid again after placing a first bid, unless it's something I'm just feeling out.

And as for selling, sometimes it's great. You can have the same item(s) listed for several weeks with no bids, then all of a sudden you'll have a bidding war where the price ends up much higher than on other items listed with a 'buy it now' price.

 

[Marxed]

most people don't research the values of objects before bidding, with new objects it is a must, but if your buying vintage stuff, sometimes you have to put the extra cash in, for the sake of getting the object, because you never know when it is coming up next... it's allways worth it to shop around, and sometimes its best to wait..


i do admit to slighly overbidding when i started e-baying, but since wisened up

 

[2-8-2]

My wife sells on eBay. She's sold everything from italian charms to iPods. I remember when eBay first went online, and the only product on there were Beanie Babies. Now, even Christie's auction house uses eBay. Go figure.

The appeal of eBay is the bidding and winning. Most people are willing to pay more than what they should just to win the auction, especially if there's a heated bidding battle towards the end. It's not so much the value of the item or who has deeper pockets, it's who wants it more. That's the joy of auctions. In the end, the seller always wins.

Some online gaming friends of mine and I enjoy posting a weekly "stupid eBay auction" on our forums. I've seen people selling nothing...literally nothing...that sold for hundreds of dollars. One guy made this huge sign (it was probably 20 ft x 20 ft) with the word "crap" in large black letters. He cut this sign up into small squares and...you guessed it...was selling pieces of crap. I've seen people selling advertising space, in the form of tattoos, on their bodies. You name it, and it's probably been on eBay.

 

[Glen Haasdyk]

Kevin,
I know exactly what you mean about those MDC HOn3 kits. For two years I've been hoping to find a damaged or peices missing one on ebay and a couple months ago I found one. It was just parts, no boiler, cab or other supersturcture parts and it still sold for over 40$. My guess is that anything labeled HOn3 goes , that's why you see alot of HOn3 in the subject titles, even if it's a building and not a car or engine.

 

[sumpter250]

My guess is that anything labeled HOn3 goes , that's why you see alot of HOn3 in the subject titles, even if it's a building and not a car or engine.

Glen,
"You broke the code!!!!" Oh, the other buzzword is "brass".

 

[oldtanker]

I have bought and sold on Ebay. People go nuts and just have to win a lot of the time.


I collect Wheel Horse garden tractors too. A couple of years ago a guy listed a tractor at a good starting price, no reserve. The bidding went nuts. Then a week later he relisted it saying the winner back out. Same thing and the price went out od sight, about $1,000 more than it was worth. Same story, about a week later it was listed again. About half way through Ebay pulled the item. They found out he was listing it, waiting till he had a couple of bids and then using his wife's account and kids accounts to bid it up. There is another guy who is buying the Wheel Horse story that IS STILL IN PRINT and can be purchased for about $22.00 and list them as rare and out of print. The 1st time he got about $175 + shipping, now he averages $45.

I'm just starting to get back into model railroading and have been looking on Ebay at both HO and G stuff. Seems to me most of the stuff is being over bid.

Just my thoughts on it.

 

[Wabash Banks]

I used to work for a very large auto auction company. I can tell you why people behave the way they do. A real auctioneer creates a sense of urgency. They talk fast for a reason. It gets people more pumped up and when they run through the sale quickly it causes people to bid in order that the thing doesn't get away. Create a sense that you will miss a good deal if you don't act RIGHT NOW and you displace a lot of folks better judgement.
Ebay does the same thing. They create a sense that you are getting a good deal because occaisonaly you do, and in the beginning you almost always did. That mentality has stuck and Ebay has marketed it heavily that way. The end of auction notices and outbid notices work to fuel the urgency. The faster they hit your inbox the more likely you are to bite. Also you have to keep hitting the reload button at the very end to make sure you aren't outbid. It SERIOUSLY ups the urgency level and will cause you to make snap judgements and bid higher than it is worth. That is the goal anyway. Meet those 2 conditions and you have a hot item that will probably sell for more than it is worth.