Why is it we love a punt on eBay ?

[hayfield]

For many eBay is like Marmite, we either love or loath it !!

 

I think we all like a bargain, though what defines a bargain could be argued about till the cows come home. Some love to hunt out items which are either well over priced or have claims about the quality/craftsmanship exaggerated, then discuss its (de)merits.

 

In the end mostly the reasons we buy from this platform is we have found an item we want at an acceptable price

 

But there are others like my self who look to see if we can find a little gem others have missed. Usually something which has been miss described, or  badly presented, could be the photo is out of focus or simply listed without too much care, without either no or not much of a description

 

I have just made a punt on a lot for £15 on a lot listed as "Scrapyard Of Parts And Spare Bits ,Brass Parts Motors , White Me ". Strangely enough I bought it as it included a K's HP2M  motor and a Romford Bulldog 5 pole motor, not that I want either but that they will mostly cover the lot when sold. My interest is in two etched frets (NE loco & GWR Flying banana sides and ends) along with some etched W irons and some 9mm or 12mm roller gauges, plus some other bits.  I must confess I bought it more out of curiosity and most will be eventually be sold off, just have not decided on the keepers

 

So why did I buy it ? curiosity, fun, compulsive buyer, 1st buy for 4 weeks so may be suffering withdrawal symptoms !! or opportunist

 

Why do you like a punt ?

Edited July 28, 2023 by hayfield

[Halvarras]

A few months ago I was looking for a Replica Railways Mark 1 FO for a specific purpose, ended up on eBay of course and came across a 'Replica Railways BR maroon GUV parcels van' (or words to that effect), on offer for £16.50. Er......Replica never made a GUV so what was this? Examination of the photos revealed a Lima GUV fitted with a Replica 57' powered chassis! These normally cost around £65 - quick, grab it!

After a fortnight or so's waiting it arrived.........as a bog-standard Lima GUV (I thought the parcel seemed unexpectedly lightweight......) I suspect the seller had belatedly realised what he had and had spent 10-14 days finding the one he sent me, to fulfil the order. I suppose I could have returned it as 'not as advertised' but decided I'd be on a sticky wicket with that so, since the model was in excellent condition, the price was OK for a tidy Lima GUV and (luckily) I didn't already have a maroon one I kept it, bolted on a spare pair of Triang-Hornby BR1 bogies fitted with Hornby metal wheels and small Bachmann couplings, fitted Lanarkshire Model Supplies coupling hooks, repainted the black plastic ends black (to hide that moulded plastic swirling effect) and applied some old MTK dimensional data transfers, which Lima omitted from their model (I think I know why - they referred to the photo of W86470, the one they modelled, in the late 1970s David Larkin/Bradford Barton softback book on BR parcels vans, which shows a vehicle so filthy the dimensional data was almost invisible. Almost......) So I'm happy with the outcome.

 

Oh well, TBH I had no real purpose for a powered 57' chassis.......and anyway I keep telling myself that I should actually complete a few projects (preferably all of them!) before I take on any more, so I dodged that one.....but the temptations seem to keep coming!

😜

[MarkC]

1 hour ago, Halvarras said:

A few months ago I was looking for a Replica Railways Mark 1 FO for a specific purpose, ended up on eBay of course and came across a 'Replica Railways BR maroon GUV parcels van' (or words to that effect), on offer for £16.50. Er......Replica never made a GUV so what was this? Examination of the photos revealed a Lima GUV fitted with a Replica 57' powered chassis! These normally cost around £65 - quick, grab it!

After a fortnight or so's waiting it arrived.........as a bog-standard Lima GUV (I thought the parcel seemed unexpectedly lightweight......) I suspect the seller had belatedly realised what he had and had spent 10-14 days finding the one he sent me, to fulfil the order. I suppose I could have returned it as 'not as advertised' but decided I'd be on a sticky wicket with that so, since the model was in excellent condition, the price was OK for a tidy Lima GUV and (luckily) I didn't already have a maroon one I kept it, bolted on a spare pair of Triang-Hornby BR1 bogies fitted with Hornby metal wheels and small Bachmann couplings, fitted Lanarkshire Model Supplies coupling hooks, repainted the black plastic ends black (to hide that moulded plastic swirling effect) and applied some old MTK dimensional data transfers, which Lima omitted from their model (I think I know why - they referred to the photo of W86470, the one they modelled, in the late 1970s David Larkin/Bradford Barton softback book on BR parcels vans, which shows a vehicle so filthy the dimensional data was almost invisible. Almost......) So I'm happy with the outcome.

 

Oh well, TBH I had no real purpose for a powered 57' chassis.......and anyway I keep telling myself that I should actually complete a few projects (preferably all of them!) before I take on any more, so I dodged that one.....but the temptations seem to keep coming!

😜

TBH, I think you'd have been well within your rights - "not as shown in photographs"...

[TheSignalEngineer]

I occasionally buy job lots of assorted bits or sometimes single packets at a good price. These are used for when I get kit built models needing attention. As well as Ebay I scour the boxes of odd stuff at toy fairs and shows. Before Acurascale announced theirs got an ABS Banana Van with a bit of damage to the brake gear and on EM wheels for a few pounds. I already had the bits needed in my spares collection.

I also often pick up slightly damaged kit built wagons for a couple of pounds and repair or make them into something else. Last time out I got a SR long wheelbase mineral/loco coal wagon, an LNER 12T van and an LMS fish van with scratch built body for £5 the lot. The wheels were worth more than that.

[The Johnster]

eBay can be a time sucker if you don't watch it, or rather if you do...  I don't bother with auctions, been lucky once or twice but my failure rate is high and it takes up too much of your time and attention, so I restrict myself to Buy It Now.  As I'm a poverty stricken pensioner and the Bay is sometimes the only source of things you might want that are no longer in production, I do check it out occasionally, and keep an eye on stuff that might be a bit off the wall like kit or scratch built locos and stock.

 

A good example is my 'trident' home signal, required after a track relaying needed a home with brackets reading to left and right hand diverging routes.  Ultimately I'll build a proper one, at around the time I acquire my long-delayed round tuit, or perhaps Dapol will produce a working lit version, but as a 'placeholder' I decided I wanted an old Crescent toy version to 'do for now'.  Found one for a tenner on the Bay, and bought it, painted it up a bit (matt black around the base of the post, the brackets, and the platform) and gave it a ladder and some whitemetal final finials.  It's not finescale modelling but it fills a gap where a finescale model should be and hopefully will be one day, very much in the 'do for now' spirit.

 

 

 

Here's 8497 running around some stock using the colliery reception loop, with the right hand bracket board off.  Main board reads to platform road and left hand to the goods loop.  As I say, it'll do, for now, the gap is visually filled, and it didn't cost the earth because it was scratched up 'unrestored' example that I had to put a bit of work into; tidy ones go for three times what I paid...  I'm thinking about trying to replace those horribly overscale wires and counterbalances, though.

 

eBay is really useful for this sort of thing, but I can't be doing with auctions unless it's something unsual that I really want and I can't 'Buy It Now'; too much stress and bother.

[Steamport Southport]

I think a lot of the "bargain" lots disappeared during Lockdown. Too many people were bidding ridiculous amounts on things that would normally go for a fraction of the price.

 

It seems to be slowly getting back to normal now.

 

Still no bargain wheels though. I used to get loads from eBay. I'm afraid I'm not paying £8 with P&P for a pair of Maygib wagon wheels that have been in someone's loft for thirty years when I can get brand new ones from Gibson for £1.70 per axle with free postage over £50!

 

I also miss the job lots of name or number plates. Things like 5 LMS nameplates for £10 or 5 GWR numberplates for £5. Often there was only one you really wanted and the others were bonuses. Got a few of those. 

 

Buy, yeah, I love bidding on things. Quite often get a bargain as it's things nobody else seems to want.

 

 

Jason

[BR traction instructor]

If/when a need/want arises I'll Google the required item(s) to see what availability there is. Sometimes this is via Ebay and sometimes not. I prefer to buy it now and make my own decision re whether the price is acceptable but have also made offers and won desired items recently. Any shenanigans tends to be on the Ebay route too, with one seller recently taking my money and then saying that he couldn't find my item but he wanted to show it as sent to get Ebay off his back. Obviously, I got my money back and was fortunate to still get what I wanted almost immediately afterwards from another seller but I could have managed without the aggravation.

 

I certainly don't regard Ebay with any affection...it is merely a tool to achieve an end result.

 

BeRTIe

Edited July 29, 2023 by BR traction instructor

[hayfield]

14 hours ago, Halvarras said:

A few months ago I was looking for a Replica Railways Mark 1 FO for a specific purpose, ended up on eBay of course and came across a 'Replica Railways BR maroon GUV parcels van' (or words to that effect), on offer for £16.50. Er......Replica never made a GUV so what was this? Examination of the photos revealed a Lima GUV fitted with a Replica 57' powered chassis! These normally cost around £65 - quick, grab it!

After a fortnight or so's waiting it arrived.........as a bog-standard Lima GUV (I thought the parcel seemed unexpectedly lightweight......) I suspect the seller had belatedly realised what he had and had spent 10-14 days finding the one he sent me, to fulfil the order. I suppose I could have returned it as 'not as advertised' but decided I'd be on a sticky wicket with that so, since the model was in excellent condition, the price was OK for a tidy Lima GUV and (luckily) I didn't already have a maroon one I kept it, bolted on a spare pair of Triang-Hornby BR1 bogies fitted with Hornby metal wheels and small Bachmann couplings, fitted Lanarkshire Model Supplies coupling hooks, repainted the black plastic ends black (to hide that moulded plastic swirling effect) and applied some old MTK dimensional data transfers, which Lima omitted from their model (I think I know why - they referred to the photo of W86470, the one they modelled, in the late 1970s David Larkin/Bradford Barton softback book on BR parcels vans, which shows a vehicle so filthy the dimensional data was almost invisible. Almost......) So I'm happy with the outcome.

 

Oh well, TBH I had no real purpose for a powered 57' chassis.......and anyway I keep telling myself that I should actually complete a few projects (preferably all of them!) before I take on any more, so I dodged that one.....but the temptations seem to keep coming!

😜

 

 

Clearly here there is a clear claim that the item sent was not the item advertised. The second photo may have been downloaded in error (a motorised GUV?) unless the photo clearly shows it being fitted to said GUV body

 

eBay fiercely polices misleading/inaccurate lots 

 

Having said this the other week I accidently listed a Wills 1854 as an 1866 !!, I did state that what was on offer is in the enclosed photo, clearly a typo 

[hayfield]

7 hours ago, The Johnster said:

eBay can be a time sucker if you don't watch it, or rather if you do...  I don't bother with auctions, been lucky once or twice but my failure rate is high and it takes up too much of your time and attention, so I restrict myself to Buy It Now.  As I'm a poverty stricken pensioner and the Bay is sometimes the only source of things you might want that are no longer in production, I do check it out occasionally, and keep an eye on stuff that might be a bit off the wall like kit or scratch built locos and stock.

 

A good example is my 'trident' home signal, required after a track relaying needed a home with brackets reading to left and right hand diverging routes.  Ultimately I'll build a proper one, at around the time I acquire my long-delayed round tuit, or perhaps Dapol will produce a working lit version, but as a 'placeholder' I decided I wanted an old Crescent toy version to 'do for now'.  Found one for a tenner on the Bay, and bought it, painted it up a bit (matt black around the base of the post, the brackets, and the platform) and gave it a ladder and some whitemetal final finials.  It's not finescale modelling but it fills a gap where a finescale model should be and hopefully will be one day, very much in the 'do for now' spirit.

 

 

 

Here's 8497 running around some stock using the colliery reception loop, with the right hand bracket board off.  Main board reads to platform road and left hand to the goods loop.  As I say, it'll do, for now, the gap is visually filled, and it didn't cost the earth because it was scratched up 'unrestored' example that I had to put a bit of work into; tidy ones go for three times what I paid...  I'm thinking about trying to replace those horribly overscale wires and counterbalances, though.

 

eBay is really useful for this sort of thing, but I can't be doing with auctions unless it's something unsual that I really want and I can't 'Buy It Now'; too much stress and bother.

 

Clearly if you dislike trawling through lots of lots, then eBay is not for you. But once you have saved an item to your watch list then there is no further action. What stress is involved ? none at all as you either win or loose. Rarely have i found anything at a decent price as a "Buy it Now" .

 

Recently I bought a Branchlines kit for £45 when the RRP of £118, but I needed to replace both the wheels and gearbox. Still a reasonable buy as I have a spare gear box and coach wheels. 

 

Still if I want either an item or a spare now and have none in my spares/parts boxes then I go to a retail company direct and support the trade

 

Still the less people on eBay the less competition

 

 

[hayfield]

7 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

I think a lot of the "bargain" lots disappeared during Lockdown. Too many people were bidding ridiculous amounts on things that would normally go for a fraction of the price.

 

It seems to be slowly getting back to normal now.

 

Still no bargain wheels though. I used to get loads from eBay. I'm afraid I'm not paying £8 with P&P for a pair of Maygib wagon wheels that have been in someone's loft for thirty years when I can get brand new ones from Gibson for £1.70 per axle with free postage over £50!

 

I also miss the job lots of name or number plates. Things like 5 LMS nameplates for £10 or 5 GWR numberplates for £5. Often there was only one you really wanted and the others were bonuses. Got a few of those. 

 

Buy, yeah, I love bidding on things. Quite often get a bargain as it's things nobody else seems to want.

 

 

Jason

 

 

Jason

 

I think prices did go up during lockdown, simply market forces. Some rare items do still hold their higher prices and despite seemingly less items of interest (to me) being listed prices have dropped. I hoovered up lots of wagon and coach wheels over the years and probably have more than a lifetimes supply, I also have trays of spares all of which has been built up buying lots of various sizes over the years 

[hayfield]

6 hours ago, BR traction instructor said:

If/when a need/want arises I'll Google the required item(s) to see what availability there is. Sometimes this is via Ebay and sometimes not. I prefer to buy it now and make my own decision re whether the price is acceptable but have also made offers and won desired items recently. Any shenanigans tends to be on the Ebay route too, with one seller recently taking my money and then saying that he couldn't find my item but he wanted to show it as sent to get Ebay off his back. Obviously, I got my money back and was fortunate to still get what I wanted almost immediately afterwards from another seller but I could have managed without the aggravation.

 

I certainly don't regard Ebay with any affection...it is merely a tool to achieve an end result.

 

BeRTIe

 

 

BeRTle

 

I keep hearing about all these bogus traders on eBay, thankfully dodged them so far. But I am not interested in the RTR market. All my dealings are with the kit market and I must say virtually all the sellers and buyers I deal with are honest and upright people, but I certainly keep away from high price buy it now sellers and the expensive RTR market. 

 

I quite often send a message thanking the buyer for the transaction, I always message my buyers confirming the item has been posted, quite often I get messaged back

 

In 20 years I have only had to make 3 claims and I think most if not all were for damaged goods. 

[Neil]

20 hours ago, hayfield said:

I think we all like a bargain, ......

 

..... Why do you like a punt ?

 

I originate from Yorkshire so of course I like a bargain. These days I cruise around the cheaper end of the listings (lowest price plus p&p for me) and usually pick up the broken but repairable stuff. At the moment I've an Airfix 31 (£9.00) on the workbench, there's a Hornby loco drive A3 (China) waiting it's turn for attention (£30.00) and a Hornby A1 (£30.00) recently finished. Frankly if I have the skills to make a good model out of 'spares or repairs' material I'd feel a bit stupid paying big bucks for something off the shelf. I do occasionally find mint stuff at bargain prices, Heljan 02 (£65.00) but I only drop in to ebay very infrequently. It helps that these days my model making philosophy is that it's the big picture which counts rather than obsessing over details, if it looks right then it is right. Here's what I mean ....

 

 

I should also mention that my focus on ebay isn't just about the trains. These two structures come from the Fair Price Models shop on the site.

 

 

 

Both have been altered from the standard kit, but the basic shell with door and window details provides a cracking base from which to proceed.

[Halvarras]

3 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

Clearly here there is a clear claim that the item sent was not the item advertised. The second photo may have been downloaded in error (a motorised GUV?) unless the photo clearly shows it being fitted to said GUV body

 

In the underside photo the embossed 'REPLICA' name was clearly visible on the bogie keeper plates. It was not described as being motorised. If the seller knew what he had surely he would have described it correctly and could have asked say £50, so I assumed that he priced it up on the basis of a quick assessment, unaware that Replica Railways never made a BR Mark 1 GUV. Surprised though that he didn't wonder why it was a bit heavy for a GUV and wasn't very free-running....!

 

If he had described it correctly at £50 and sent me a bog-standard GUV, now that would have been a different matter - but then I wouldn't have bought it in the first place, it was only because I thought it was a bargain I couldn't ignore.

 

I'm with @The Johnster - I don't buy that much off eBay and have never bothered bidding for anything, just settling for 'Buy It Now' (if available). I keep a regular eye on certain pre-owned sellers and can usually make an on-the-spot assessment of whether the price shown is reasonable or not.

 

If really undecided about something (generally, not just on eBay) I have often used the ruse 'If it's still available [e.g.] next Monday I was meant to have it' - does anyone else do this? The cooling-off period very often results in a cold-light-of-day reassessment and rejection of the whole idea - at which point my bank account heaves a sign of relief! 🥴

 

 

[Steamport Southport]

Another one who doesn't really buy RTR from eBay apart from if it is spare/repair. 

 

I was hoovering up Hogwarts Castles at one point before Hornby made the new Castle. Loads of broken ones were going very cheap and usually in the toy section so most modellers weren't seeing them.

 

It was the Hornby version of the Airfix Castle painted red. Even the tender was pretty good and useful. I ended up with about five or six that were fixable and loads of spares.

 

Things like this, but for a lot less. They even have wire handrails and sprung buffers!

 

 

Hogwarts Castle

 

 

 

Jason

[andyman7]

18 hours ago, MarkC said:

TBH, I think you'd have been well within your rights - "not as shown in photographs"...

 

4 hours ago, hayfield said:

Clearly here there is a clear claim that the item sent was not the item advertised. The second photo may have been downloaded in error (a motorised GUV?) unless the photo clearly shows it being fitted to said GUV body

 

eBay fiercely polices misleading/inaccurate lots 

 

47 minutes ago, Halvarras said:

In the underside photo the embossed 'REPLICA' name was clearly visible on the bogie keeper plates. It was not described as being motorised. If the seller knew what he had surely he would have described it correctly and could have asked say £50, so I assumed that he priced it up on the basis of a quick assessment, unaware that Replica Railways never made a BR Mark 1 GUV. Surprised though that he didn't wonder why it was a bit heavy for a GUV and wasn't very free-running....!

 

If he had described it correctly at £50 and sent me a bog-standard GUV, now that would have been a different matter - but then I wouldn't have bought it in the first place, it was only because I thought it was a bargain I couldn't ignore.

 

I'm with @The Johnster - I don't buy that much off eBay and have never bothered bidding for anything, just settling for 'Buy It Now' (if available). I keep a regular eye on certain pre-owned sellers and can usually make an on-the-spot assessment of whether the price shown is reasonable or not.

 

If really undecided about something (generally, not just on eBay) I have often used the ruse 'If it's still available [e.g.] next Monday I was meant to have it' - does anyone else do this? The cooling-off period very often results in a cold-light-of-day reassessment and rejection of the whole idea - at which point my bank account heaves a sign of relief! 🥴

 

I completely get it, I was much more uptight when in my teens/20s and had little money (...or life experience...) but having now spend over 30 years enjoying the cut and thrust of fairs, ebay, auctions I am far more inclined to look at the big picture rather than obsess over more minor ups an downs. As @Halvarras notes, he may not have got the out-and-out bargain that a 57' Replica chassis would have yielded but if he can use the coach and the price was fair, it saves a load of hassle to bother with a return and you can argue that life's too short.

In my case I look back over 30 years of some incredible bargains, some so-so and some where in the end I paid too much. In some cases descriptions were definitely 'optimistic' whereas others have produced items of much better quality than implied or stated. This doesn't mean I'll never return anything or raise an issue but I'm far more willing to be relaxed about things these days when it all in the end balances out

Edited July 29, 2023 by andyman7

[hayfield]

13 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

 

 

I completely get it, I was much more uptight when in my teens/20s and had little money (...or life experience...) but having now spend over 30 years enjoying the cut and thrust of fairs, ebay, auctions I am far more inclined to look at the big picture rather than obsess over more minor ups an downs. As @Halvarras notes, he may not have got the out-and-out bargain that a 57' Replica chassis would have yielded but if he can use the coach and the price was fair, it saves a load of hassle to bother with a return and you can argue that life's too short.

In my case I look back over 30 years of some incredible bargains, some so-so and some where in the end I paid too much. In some cases descriptions were definitely 'optimistic' whereas others have produced items of much better quality than implied or stated. This doesn't mean I'll never return anything or raise an issue but I'm far more willing to be relaxed about things these days when it all in the end balances out

 

 

I was simply agreeing with the previous poster that  if necessary they had a good claim, as what they received was not what they bought

 

As I said I have only had to resort to a claim 3 times at most in 20 years mostly due to items being damaged in the post when/due to being insufficiently packaged.

 

Agree life is too short and quite often I just repair minor damaged items as kit built models are prone to shed parts not stuck down properly to survive posting. As you say by the law of averages every now and then a hunch goes wrong, and as you say it goes with the territory of having a bit of a gamble in having some fun

[Sjcm]

My bidding falls into a few areas and I use Facebook marketplace as well which I guess is the Wild West version of eBay imo but had some great bargains off there over the years

 

1. Stuff I want. Rarely bid on the individual item and usually comes with other stuff I can sell on.

2. Stuff I can sell on. If I see something  say a job lot of loco's that is seriously underpriced then I will bid just to flog them on. That can include any sort of gauge or manufactuer, in fact the more obscure the better

3. Spares. Mainly to help shift 2. or parts to get things i'm keeping running.

4. Oddities. I am prone to the odd cheap impulse buy in OO/HO just for the hell of it. These are almost always knackered  A while back there was a lima german ho electric loco looking  very sorry for itself. I wasn't going to bid because it had a broken pantograph and a snapped off buffer, but I received a best offer for 6 pounds so thought what the hell. Didn't fancy my chances of getting the parts but somehow I came across a lot containing all sorts of random stuff including a lima chassis (with the right buffer!) and two pantographs. Cost me about 9 pounds, but I sold the other pantograph for 6 and the working lima chassis for 10 pounds, so I got a great running model with directional lights for basically a fiver. Okay, so it's probably worth a tenner  but I'm not selling  and I enjoyed fixing it😂

 

At the moment 1,2 and 4 are not being bid on due to the amount of stuff I need to get out the door. Currently about 20 loco's alone😱. I guess I like fixing stuff up with a bit of the obsessive collector thrown in, and eBay is great fun for that.

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by Sjcm

[Nearholmer]

Because I have a taste for old 0 gauge stuff, and all the dusty shops that used to sell old stuff closed down years ago, it’s worth a look, and I’ve found some very worthwhile things that way, and, so far, barely any disastrous purchases, but you do have to really know what you’re looking at/for, and really know what the genuine market price might be.
 

Non-specialist dealers selling BIN seem to be the ones who get prices very wrong. They either price miles over, thinking that what they’ve got is rare/special when it isn’t, or miles under, because they don’t recognise things. I got two “Hornby” tank wagons from a person who seemed to specialise in house clearances for £18. One was indeed Hornby, French Hornby as it happens, and worth about £5, but the other was a very sought after Bassett Lowke that will sell for £150+ in the “complete, straight, but sun damaged litho on one side” condition that it is in. Some specialist dealers also use eBay to set high price benchmarks, to “pull the market up”, without expecting to sell things. But, as I say, overall pretty content, especially now that pandemic prices have ebbed away.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Nearholmer

[GWR-fan]

My experience on eBay, mostly as a seller is that people only purchase items if they are cheap or cannot be sourced elsewhere.   Sometimes as a seller one gets a very jaded view of humanity.  I even had one buyer complain that I charged him five cents more than than the actual postage cost.  I did not charge him for the packaging nor the five kilometre drive to the post office plus my time in sending him the item.  I normally sell my items at below what others charge as they are surplus to my needs and I want them gone.  I am sure that people do "punt" on items,  but unless very cheap they pass on them.  Punting assumes a degree of risk.  Do these punters acknowledge this risk when assessing the item received?

[Sjcm]

7 hours ago, GWR-fan said:

My experience on eBay, mostly as a seller is that people only purchase items if they are cheap or cannot be sourced elsewhere.   Sometimes as a seller one gets a very jaded view of humanity.  I even had one buyer complain that I charged him five cents more than than the actual postage cost.  I did not charge him for the packaging nor the five kilometre drive to the post office plus my time in sending him the item.  I normally sell my items at below what others charge as they are surplus to my needs and I want them gone.  I am sure that people do "punt" on items,  but unless very cheap they pass on them.  Punting assumes a degree of risk.  Do these punters acknowledge this risk when assessing the item received?

Well I think you buy and sell modern RTR? Not a market I would bother with due the fragility of the stuff, the attempts by the manufacturers to make them hard to fix, and the cost of the parts so would never dabble in your Hattons bargains with my knowledge/skillset which seem on occasions risky to me. 😉I tend to punt on older stuff that is more robust but usually isn't tested so yeah there is a big risk I guess, but if I get a load of lemons that's my fault. One safeguard I find is looking at the sellers buying feedback and if they are obviously a railway modeller themselves I tend to steer clear if they are selling stuff as not tested/non runners as I think it's highly unlikely they haven't tried to get them running and know they're kaput. I go on the pictures mainly and if something is missing I'll pass if I know the part is hard to come by - what's the point in getting a bargain with a missing part if the part costs 2/3rds of the bargain? The other thing is the manufacturer - I'm going to leave well alone mainline/earlybachmann/replica stuff because even mint boxed there could be all manner of problems with axles etc, and of course certain models with inherent faults/motor types which you know have a high percentage of failures. I always bid low when I punt on a worse case scenario both in value and the risk it is broke, and if I get outbid that's fine by me but it never ceases to amaze me the prices some things go for given the other sellers have the same information and risk factor,.Often for the same or more than a "guaranteed" mint/ working item would go for.

[hayfield]

13 hours ago, GWR-fan said:

My experience on eBay, mostly as a seller is that people only purchase items if they are cheap or cannot be sourced elsewhere.   Sometimes as a seller one gets a very jaded view of humanity.  I even had one buyer complain that I charged him five cents more than than the actual postage cost.  I did not charge him for the packaging nor the five kilometre drive to the post office plus my time in sending him the item.  I normally sell my items at below what others charge as they are surplus to my needs and I want them gone.  I am sure that people do "punt" on items,  but unless very cheap they pass on them.  Punting assumes a degree of risk.  Do these punters acknowledge this risk when assessing the item received?

 

 

I clearly state my charges are for post and packing !!

I explain what company is used and service provided (recorded or Special delivery) as justification for the price, one person only has remarked on postage costs. My reply is if you don't like it don't bother to bid

 

As a buyer I would much rather pay a bit extra to ensure it arrives in one piece.

[hayfield]

6 hours ago, Sjcm said:

Well I think you buy and sell modern RTR? Not a market I would bother with due the fragility of the stuff, the attempts by the manufacturers to make them hard to fix, and the cost of the parts so would never dabble in your Hattons bargains with my knowledge/skillset which seem on occasions risky to me. 😉I tend to punt on older stuff that is more robust but usually isn't tested so yeah there is a big risk I guess, but if I get a load of lemons that's my fault. One safeguard I find is looking at the sellers buying feedback and if they are obviously a railway modeller themselves I tend to steer clear if they are selling stuff as not tested/non runners as I think it's highly unlikely they haven't tried to get them running and know they're kaput. I go on the pictures mainly and if something is missing I'll pass if I know the part is hard to come by - what's the point in getting a bargain with a missing part if the part costs 2/3rds of the bargain? The other thing is the manufacturer - I'm going to leave well alone mainline/earlybachmann/replica stuff because even mint boxed there could be all manner of problems with axles etc, and of course certain models with inherent faults/motor types which you know have a high percentage of failures. I always bid low when I punt on a worse case scenario both in value and the risk it is broke, and if I get outbid that's fine by me but it never ceases to amaze me the prices some things go for given the other sellers have the same information and risk factor,.Often for the same or more than a "guaranteed" mint/ working item would go for.

 Sjcm

 

I am with you all the way on all but one point.

 

As you say if I have a punt and get it wrong then its down to me. However like all buyers I make a judgement on what I can see, but also the description !!!  Errors/mistakes I can live with, deception I will not, to date I have never had an issue

 

Also I never look at feedback when buying, as eBay in my experience upholds it rules to both buyers and sellers,  But I have said it before most sellers of model railway kits and parts have been easy and fair to deal with, simply a nice bunch 

[Sjcm]

15 hours ago, hayfield said:

 Sjcm

 

I am with you all the way on all but one point.

 

As you say if I have a punt and get it wrong then its down to me. However like all buyers I make a judgement on what I can see, but also the description !!!  Errors/mistakes I can live with, deception I will not, to date I have never had an issue

 

Also I never look at feedback when buying, as eBay in my experience upholds it rules to both buyers and sellers,  But I have said it before most sellers of model railway kits and parts have been easy and fair to deal with, simply a nice bunch 

 

 

I find most of the descriptions of the items I bid on are along the lines of "found in loft, the red one with the big wheels makes a buzzing noise on the rails" so not much help.😉. Occasionally you get the deliberately imo "vague" descriptions which is a red flag.

 

I always check the feedback not so much for negatives - anyone can get the awkward buyer or be left down by the post man and get a neg - but to get an idea of the seller. So a guy whose buying feedback consists of 3 pages of buying fishing equipment is unlikely to know if something is broken or just needs a clean. If he has 5 pages of buying railway stuff, then the description saying "untested" is very likely untrue. Likewise a dealer in  general antiques/tat is again unlikely to be an expert, wants to move it on ASAP, and is therefore susceptible to a cheeky best offer.

[hayfield]

7 minutes ago, Sjcm said:

 

 

I find most of the descriptions of the items I bid on are along the lines of "found in loft, the red one with the big wheels makes a buzzing noise on the rails" so not much help.😉. Occasionally you get the deliberately imo "vague" descriptions which is a red flag.

 

I always check the feedback not so much for negatives - anyone can get the awkward buyer or be left down by the post man and get a neg - but to get an idea of the seller. So a guy whose buying feedback consists of 3 pages of buying fishing equipment is unlikely to know if something is broken or just needs a clean. If he has 5 pages of buying railway stuff, then the description saying "untested" is very likely untrue. Likewise a dealer in  general antiques/tat is again unlikely to be an expert, wants to move it on ASAP, and is therefore susceptible to a cheeky best offer.

 

I have just bought some brass etches, including 2 x 0-4-0 or 4 wheel bogie chassis plus an loco body etch, described as a group of whitemetal castings, I will be very disappointed if the castings arrive and not the etchings !!!  I guess whatever arrives will technically be wrong?

[Sjcm]

10 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

I have just bought some brass etches, including 2 x 0-4-0 or 4 wheel bogie chassis plus an loco body etch, described as a group of whitemetal castings, I will be very disappointed if the castings arrive and not the etchings !!!  I guess whatever arrives will technically be wrong?

Yes but I presume you looked at the pictures and know more than the seller does which is how I like it when buying. Thing is, there are people in the kitbuilding section like yourself who pretty much have the skill set, knowledge and equipment to fix anything so the risk is less. Then there's the rest of us who can diagnose a fault and bodge a fix or buy a part. Then there's a growing(?) % of modellers judging by the repair video's on youtube who any sort of basic electrical or mechanical repair or service is akin to witchcraft. I sold a motor the other day and I spent literally hours fielding questions from 2 potential buyers asking how to fix them so they didn't have to buy mine😂. Not that I minded to be honest, but if I'm buying I'd much rather buy something off them than you😉