Buy trains from Ebay? What are you looking for?

[Mastiffdog]

I usually watch the HO material several times a week. I mostly buy some rolling stock or a loco here and there. There are some nicely weathered cars from time to time. For me, it is a convenient way to buy some stuff I'd like without running all over town, and most of the prices are fair and reasonable.

How about you?

Dog

 

[belg]

I buy some of the older loco's or rolling stock in Nscale always on the look out for some bargains but they are far and few in between.

 

[Pete]

I've bought the great majority of my equipment and trackage through eBay, and sold some un-needed items a while back.
As long as you know what you want, are willing to wait, and don't jump all over the first one you see, there are many bargains to be had.
Availabilty is the biggest reason, as my nearest LHS (which is 50 miles away) doesn't carry a huge selection of MRR stuff. There just aren't enough of 'us' (MRR's) around to sustain a large inventory.
Price is the second reason. Most times on eBay, the price plus shipping comes in much lower than available here. Last fall, I bought a pair of Kato SD40-2's seperately; each one ran me about $105 Cdn to my door. The LHS had one for $220 (plus $33 tax) I would liked to have gotten them locally, but...I couldn't justify that kind of price. I knew I wanted one of them, and knew the maximum price I was willing to pay so I just waited for one to show up at that price.
That reminds me....I have some more things to list up soon.

Pete

 

[jon-monon]

I've found the best bargains are the items that are slightly broken. I got three switchers for under $20 one time, all working for less than $5 in parts, one is an otherwise costly Athern SW1500. It just needed sideframes and rails.

 

[IAIS 604]

I've bought about a third of my locos off e-Bay. But now that I have all the in-production/post-production locos I want*, I concentrate on unique, usually custom, items.

For example, I recently bought a custom Rock Island GP40-2 shell in blue for an Athearn drive, and then a custom painted Iowa Interstate GP38 (Atlas Master series). Number 604, of course!

* of course, this does not include any new announced locos that are NOT out yet - I have P2K's new GP38-2 and the Atlas' new U30C both on pre-order, in Rock Island colors, of course! But I usually get these directly from internet dealers - even if some of those dealers, like Modeltrainstuff, are also on e-Bay. The internet discounts are usually good enough not to hassle with bidding. Besides, I want it as soon as it comes out!

 

[Pitchwife]

I have purchased a lot of my equipment on eBay, mainly for the same reason as Pete except my LHS is more than 150 miles away. The one thing I learned is to do your homework. Many sellers price their equipment higher than a lot of OLHSs. There are some rare finds out there.

 

[jim currie]

have bought some on e-bay as Pete said dont get carried away the one rule of e-bay i have found is that there will always be another one . the main reason for using e-bay is the same as Clark 150 mi one way 180 mi the other to hobby shop call walthers lhs.have found some good buys in p2k items.

 

[rockislandmike]

I keep an eye out for Rock Island stuff, and other stuff that I can get for a good price, or stuff that you can't buy in the regular stores anymore.

I've acquired a number of my locos through ebay.

(( Ditto what George said for brand new locos that I really want, though - I have the same locos on reserve as he does ))

 

[Mellow-Mike]

I buy from eBay all the time. Not the collectibles as much as the bargains. I collect N-scale, and while I love my local hobby shop, sometimes you can get a better deal on a multiple purchase through an eBay seller. Especially when the seller is liquidating stuff and uses a low Buy It Now option. While I have bought some diesels through eBay, I concentrate more on freight and odd things - like Rapido track and switches - and vehicles.

I now paint and weather modern HO rolling stock to sell on eBay, so I browse the HO lists looking for reasonable cars that my local hobby shop can't stock through Walthers, etc. Trouble is, most of the cars I want are popular on eBay, so I will probably have to go the semi-annual swap meet route locally instead.

Mike

 

[brakie]

Guys,I will not mention the deals I have gotten off of e bay and the money I have saved..There is deals to be had if you watch your bidding and know the going prices for a item for the internet shops,local price and of course mail order..

 

[Pitchwife]

I picked up one very good deal on eBay. A guy had a huge lot of all kinds of model items. He sent me a list of what all it contained that was three pages long. He had a Buy It Now price of $50. I decided that there was enough there to make it worthwhile. I bought it and got a shock when the shipping ended up to be another $50! I had made the deal though, and as I try my best to be honest I went forward with it. It came in three really big boxes. As I was going through it, although most of it was HO, there was some N stuff as well. Not having any use for them, I turned around and put the N items for sale on eBay. Believe it or not I ended up getting my entire $100 back just on those and still have several other HO itms left that I probably won't use that will turn up on eBay again at some point. Wish all of the deals I get were like that.

 

[UPJunkie]

all my rollingstock, loco, Biuldings so far is from Ebay plus i just bought like 34 trees of a guy

 

[GNRail]

Last Second Bidders

I realize it is all part of the game and I am new to the online auction thing but it is really annoying to be out bid in the last 6 seconds of an auction.

After sitting through almost three days of no one showing interest in the particular item to loose it in the dying seconds was a real let down.

I'm not sure if these poeple sit around watching things that close or if there is software to monitor things and outbid at the last second.

Any way that is my ranting and raving for today.

Garry

 

[UPJunkie]

i know how you fell GN it happends to me alot and the wife

 

[rockislandmike]

Both, Garry. You can get software to watch for the end of an auction, and a number of people (including me) prefer to hold our bids until the last minute as well.

I know that p----s a lot of people off, but it's better for my pocketbook in the long run. And since that's the way ebay is set up, I guess I'm just "using the system" as it's been laid out for me.

 

[GNRail]

A few hours later and I have calmed down a bit. I will go back to the well to try again.

Mike

If you wouldn't mind letting me know what software you use I would appreciate it.

Garry

 

[brakie]

Yes,Many wait till the last minute to do their final bidding.I have done that and its been done to me.
This is not dirty pool as it appears..It is just a way of keeping out of a bidding war which in the end saves money.Now if the last few minutes start as a bid war I will back off once the bid goes above what I am willing to pay for a item.If a item goes above what I am willing to bid during the auction its self then I forget about the item and move on..

Guys,I saw a very common Athearn boxcar go for $25.00 in the last few minutes of the auction..Needless to say I watch this in awl as the 2 guys battle it out to the end..I have often wondered what the winner thought when he or she found that same car for $5.50 at the local shops or less at a train show.I still can not believe what I saw.I was watching another item that I was bidding on when this happen..

 

[Pitchwife]

Gary
Did you get the email I sent you about the sniper software?