eBay strikes again!!

Like most of what he seems to list on ebay, I suspect we'll just watch these roll round and round till the cows come home....or someone is stupid enough to fall for it!

Jon.
 
Jon i realise dealers have to make a profit otherwise there wouldn't be any shops for people to buy from but sometimes i feel some are just taking the urine and having a good laugh at unsuspecting peeps.... i bought a load of G yesterday listed it tonight for reasonable money and quite a bit has sold already and have offers on the rest . im happy i know the buyers will be and the hobby has grown...ok so has my own collection but don't tell Gill
 
I do like the 4-4-0, Sherlock Holmes would have travelled behind this locomotive... BUT IF I HAVE TO PAY THAT MUCH FOR IT THEN I WOULD LIKE IT IN WORKING ORDER:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@:@
 
As infuriating as it may be this sort of thing will continue whether we post about it or not, and whether we like or not.

No point speculating over why they do it (for the money of course), or whether they have a shop or not.

I'm just gonna get on with life and leave em to it.
 
eBay struck for me the other way - my G stuff went for fairly silly money, on the whole. I suspect this may have been because it was (a) modified and (b) I entered the lots too close together, so anyone wanting several items would have been hard pushed to get from one sale to another. There was no shortage of Watchers, which did get my hopes up a bit.
 
I'm finding that in general, prices for LGB on eBay (at least the UK one, and either from private sellers or from the more sensible dealers who are not trying to rip people off) are lower now than they were a few months ago; I've just picked up three pieces of rolling stock for about the price that I'd have expected to have paid for just ONE of them a year or so ago!

A good time to buy, if you want to build your collections up - not such a good time if you want (or need) to sell.....

Jon.
 
Fleabay can be a really strange place for pricing and also for the massive variety of kinds of punters and how they will, or will not bid.

I have been buying stuff and also selling on ebay since about 1999 and have many ideas of how best to sell on ebay.I am always amazed at how all methods can sometimes bring totally unexpected results.

Some time back I had an Aristocraft Santa Fe FA1 ABBA four loco set which I offered on this venerable forum. It was an attractive beast but even at £350 it did not get a sniff so I went to fleabay to shift it along with some other rail items I wanted to clear.
Only two locos were boxed and two of them were the 'older' version.
Well, I expected about £400 or so at most for the whole four loco set which I listed as separate items. I listed them with 4-5 minutes between each item and set the time to be about 6.30 to 7pm across a seven day period. I set each loco at a start of £25
At first lots of watchers but only one bid on one loco. BUT by day 4 the total across all four locos had risen to £475. By day 6 it had gone to £590 and by end of play it had risen to £695 with one loco going for not far off retail...... Chuffed....you bet!

You can never tell what will go, what is the best way of listing as one method will work one week and not get any interest the next even for a similar item with all the same start price, start time etc.
Also you never know if you will get bidders who will fight to get your item or none at all.
Sometimes a 'buy now' works a treat, sometimes people do not like 'buy now' and it sits there festering.

It is just like a car boot sale...............
 
You're quite right, Mike, in that the only sure thing about eBay is its wild unpredictability! ;)

I'm just getting a general feeling, over a lot of watching and a good few purchases, that in overall terms prices (especially LGB) are not what they were a while ago.

Jon.
 
3Valve said:
Price Low - Bid

Price High - Don't Bid

Simples :bigsmile:
Click to expand...

From a buyers point that might be a good policy except....
Aaah but how high is high?
I started the locos, mentioned in my previous post, at £25 which could have been thought of as high by someone who likes items to start at 99p.

I have started items at 99p which then ended up at silly prices (low) I have started items at higher prices and some did not sell but others went on to reach far more than I dreamed.
There is just no hard and fast rule for listing. Except that if you want to get back a retail price that you originally, you are on a hiding to nothing unless it is a rare or very much in demand item. Most times an item will reach what it is worth...sometimes it exceeds expectation, sometimes it is depressingly lower than that.
Dimples
 
Prices for G scale generally seem to have dropped quite a bit with a lot les bidders. Times are hard and the new prices have shot up deterring new people from entering the hobby. It is normally the new people who bid high and therefore it is logical if there are not many new people bidding the prices will remain low.
 
funandtrains said:
It is normally the new people who bid high and therefore it is logical if there are not many new people bidding the prices will remain low.
Click to expand...
Yes Steve and that is because most of us 'old timers (long-time G-scalers) are such stingy gits when wanting to buy stuff...I do include myself in this!
And yes I also do realise this when selling off my kit :laugh:
 
a lot of it i'm afraid to say is the name...... LGB always sells well Bachmann seems to be a dirty word (unless its Thomas the tank) ..... Aristo you takes your chance. but not bad..... ive just listed some LGB this week on quite high Buy.it.Nows as i want the money quick for another purchase and most of it has flown out the door
 
beavercreek said:
3Valve said:
Price Low - Bid

Price High - Don't Bid

Simples :bigsmile:
Click to expand...

From a buyers point that might be a good policy except....
Aaah but how high is high?
I started the locos, mentioned in my previous post, at £25 which could have been thought of as high by someone who likes items to start at 99p.

I have started items at 99p which then ended up at silly prices (low) I have started items at higher prices and some did not sell but others went on to reach far more than I dreamed.
There is just no hard and fast rule for listing. Except that if you want to get back a retail price that you originally, you are on a hiding to nothing unless it is a rare or very much in demand item. Most times an item will reach what it is worth...sometimes it exceeds expectation, sometimes it is depressingly lower than that.
Dimples
Click to expand...

I agree mate it can be tricky to pitch it right as a seller.

Let's see now a few pointers.

Is there shedloads of stuff listed either identical or very similar to yours -
Don't list.

Is there barely anything listed identical or very similar to yours -
List

Is there stuff listed with a stupid reserve or starting bid that no-one's bidding on -
List with lower reserve or starting bid

Is there a massive demand for what you want to list -
List it, go on list it now.

(Remember the daft bids on Triang trucks on ebay after Mark Thatchers Garden Rail Article - Mental)
 
If someone knows the hobby, the new price of stuff and really wants an item they will bid what they think it is worth no matter what the starting price, if it is either a reasonable amount lower than shop price or an item that can't be easily found in the shops. I think the big hike in postage costs as been a factor too.
I've seen quite a few people start at low prices and really get stung recently even with LGB. It depends how bad you need to sell but I don't think I would like an LGB Hartz 2-6-2 to go for £120 or a mint boxed boxcar that cost £70 new to go for £25 but that is how I built-up a large part of my collection!:rolf: It is just not much fun now being on the other side now having to sell quite a lot of models at a loss!:rolf:
It is the younger working buyers who have been hit most although those retired now seem to be feeing the pinch as well. When going to club even events over the past year it quite noticeable that there are no longer many people my age or younger with most into retirement.
 
From the results of my social experiment selling track gauges (adjustable) on Ebay that were nothing more than some threaded rod and washers and nuts that people will buy anything!!!!!
If you need it you buy it if you can get it at the price you are prepared to pay.
These days I don't even put in a bid, or even watch an item. I go straight to Auction Snipes, enter the item number and the price I AM PREPARED TO PAY and sit back and wait to see the result. In about 80% of auctions I win the item... Too simple....
This does not explain the other bizzare behavior exhibited on eBay like bidding over the BIN price.... Schill bidding is also rife on eBay though proving it is another matter. Its all to simple to have multiple eBay accounts set up expressly for the purpose of Schill bidding....
 
tramcar trev said:
Schill bidding is also rife on eBay though proving it is another matter. Its all to simple to have multiple eBay accounts set up expressly for the purpose of Schill bidding....
Click to expand...
When I started to buy modern art for my own consumption, back in the late 90s and early 2000s before I decided to actually 'deal' in it, I used to buy some works from Fleabay in US and Europe. I tended to buy from galleries that were listing but then I read this little book:
"Fake: Forgery, Lies, & eBay," Kenneth Walton
Although I had not got stung, it certainly opened my eyes to what was going on at that time.

Ebay was very 'loose' in those days and all sorts was going on. Now it is tighter and although shill bidding may still happen (one guy got a fine of £50,000 back in 2010 for bidding up his own items using various names), it is far less than back in the day.
 
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