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EBay madness

Marcyg

By Marcyg,
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Lady_Ava_Hay

Lady_Ava_Hay

Posted
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I must be missing something here. If a Hornby item is listed under Bachmann, it will not be picked up by 'Hornby' searches. If an item is listed under 'OO', it will not be included in 'N' searches. Only the most vague of search criteria would overcome those errors, and then there would be so many items the searcher would lose the will to live before finding them anyway! I do tend to assume that ebay buyers in specialist markets like ours have a very clear idea of what they want, and tailor searches accordingly, to speed the process. Advertisers need to be up to the mark to meet that precision.

 

I think you might overrate the average E Bay buyer somewhat. Experience dictates that a piccy of the item will attract attention and the listing criteria is a bit irrelevant. A lot of browsers also operate in the last hour of the auction.

 

Incidentally if you put the text Bachmann in the listing but list the item in the Hornby category and tick the box for 'search in description' up they all come. True about the N and OO search but I am not convinced that buyers search using that sort of criteria. Even on here, you have been exhorted to enter mispellings to track a real bargain that everyone else misses because they have focussed their search criteria. There are loads of listings that don't enter the N in the box anyway and your search on N would miss them.

 

Missing a couple of nuggets due to search criteria focusses the mind wonderfully. If you enter exactly what you want, model number, gauge etc you will nearly always end up in a commercial E bay shop and pay more.

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Jenny Emily

Jenny Emily

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A lot of sellers spam the search listing with manufacturers' names. The favourite is to add "not Hornby, Bachmann, Wrenn, Trix" etc to a Tri-ang item and so forth so that when people invariably tick the "search item and description" button they come up in every search. Totally useless, as I'm usually searching for just one of those manufacturers because I'm looking for something specific.

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asmay2002

asmay2002

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A lot of browsers also operate in the last hour of the auction.

 

A lot of people BID in the last hour of an auction. They will have found the item well before that.

 

Missing a couple of nuggets due to search criteria focusses the mind wonderfully.

 

Er, if you MISS them how do you know they were there? How would this "focus the mind"?

 

ASM

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dave_long

dave_long

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There are some ebay user sites (ie snipe sites) that have developed much better search facilities than ebay itself. www.goofbay.com has a 'misspelling' search engine that lists things similar to what to you type in, useful in the old Bachmann/bachman/backman issue!

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Kenton

Kenton

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Missing a couple of nuggets due to search criteria focusses the mind wonderfully. If you enter exactly what you want, model number, gauge etc you will nearly always end up in a commercial E bay shop and pay more.

A lesson well learned ages ago.

I find that a well focused search frequently fails to bring up the goods - usually because the seller is unaware of the gem they have and just lists it as a "toy train" or "kit". The only real bargains to be had are those gems that are poorly listed by those sellers unaware of what they are selling. Then to get one up on the others scrabbling for that same bargain you have to be in early with the first and highest bid (within reason) hence all my searches are restricted by "time newly listed" within 24 hr but are otherwise pretty vague and tend to exclude things rather than include.

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Guest Belgian

Guest Belgian

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Reverting to the Xmas Puds - there're a couple of listings (here) (and here) which defy understanding! Why do people do this? Surely they won't sell their items but still have to pay e-bay the fees. At the time of writing there are over 300 of these puds up for sale.

 

JE

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Oldddudders

Oldddudders

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Clearly I am out of touch with others' realities. If, as an example, I want a Bachmann N, then I put together a search that says that. Would I really want to part with money to someone who couldn't spell Bachmann? No - let 'em stew! I found it infuriating enough that there were adverts for N #1864, which is what it says on the end of the box, while their accompanying photo showed that the cabside number is 1854. As it is, I now have 5 different Bachmann Ns in Southern railway livery, and do not feel I overpaid for any of them.

 

As for last-minute bids, well of course. No point in showing your hand until the last hour - if that isn't inconvenient, of course. The exception is that US auctions may finish at odd times, but I've won a few, all the same - enough to make up a fair Rock Island Rocket with brass cars.

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Southernman46

Southernman46

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A lot of people BID in the last hour of an auction. They will have found the item well before that.

 

 

 

Er, if you MISS them how do you know they were there? How would this "focus the mind"?

 

ASM

 

Absolutely - that is the fun of it - exactly the same as a proper auction - the excitement of the last second bid and whether the item is yours or not - sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't - it's keeping things in perspective that is the trick - I normally bid a resonable amount designed to win at the last posible moment :D

 

Won a couple of Bachmann sand opens last week with 5 seconds to go last week - very exciting !

 

Making a massive bid at the last moment just to secure an item is a bit unsporting :D

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John M Upton

John M Upton

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...and Hornby confirms in the new December Newsletter that it will be April 2011 before we see the VEP's. This particular Ebay seller has hijacked account and con man written all over it, moreso with the fact that all is used is images lifted directly off the Hornby website.

 

Having said that there have been cases in the past of model shops advertising imminent models on Ebay to harvest desperate punters before they come into stock hoping that by the time the auction ends they actually have the item in their possession to sell.

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Guest Belgian

Guest Belgian

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Is the 4VEP out. This listing implies they are? At £110 seems a reasonable price too.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Hornby-R2947X-NSE-CLASS-423-VEP-4-CAR-UNIT-/190475899856?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2c593f93d0

Hornby themselves are showing them (today in their newsletter) as not being available until April next year! This guy must be a chancer, claiming to have "more than 10 available" (a familiar phrase in Hattons listings . . .)

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Guest Belgian

Guest Belgian

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This particular Ebay seller has hijacked account and con man written all over it, moreso with the fact that all is used is images lifted directly off the Hornby website.

 

 

I agree, the feedback shows this seller as a young woman who has only sold four items in total in the past, all non-model railway items ( a Ford Fiesta, a dress, an exercise machine and a "Fat Face White Top" - whatever that is.) How does one hijack someone else's e-bay id and then get the money? Should we (indeed, can we) warn her or e-bay that there appears to be a scam?

 

JE

 

EDIT: I see there's a separate thread where the general consensus is that this is a hijack ( thread "E-bay seller fake?")

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Oldddudders

Oldddudders

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Some sellers really can't be bothered to promote their own interests - look at this classic, one of several from the same seller. Note the inspired, enticing title, no picture etc.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dapol-Wagon-boxed-new-/190476795892?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item2c594d3ff4

 

Then there's this contraption - listed under Dapol wagons!

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Train-Set-Remote-Controller-Hornby-Building-Receiver-/280599822002?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item41550d7eb2

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Tay Bridge

Tay Bridge

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Hi all

 

Must admit I think they are all mad too. Some of these daft bids are people bidding up their own stuff under another name to inflate prices. Totally not allowed but difficult to prove. I also always check with Hattons first if looking for stuff. There are some good sellers who have E Bay shops with stuff at fixed prices. That seems to be quite good and often saves me money. However, I would never buy something costing a lot unless I had dealt with them before. I always check their feedback too. If in doubt. forget it.

I have sold and bought stuff for my boat there and grabbed the odd bargain but these are becoming scarce. I put Eberspacher heater in my boat and did a few for other people in harbour and got a tidy profit. Now these things are selling for more second hand than I can buy them new with 2 year warranty. Nuts!

Agree with earlier poster...'fools and money.......'

I just wish I could wander into the old Brain Sherriff shop in Dundee, watch the layout for ten minutes or so, look at a few things out of their box and then buy. Alas long gone:(

 

Still there is always E Bay.....and You Tube! :P

 

Chris

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Re6/6

Re6/6

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...

Pass the chequebook......

 

RARE?

 

or just ....Pass....

 

 

This has been up so many times that I don't think that this tw*t will ever learn!

 

It's like this one that has been put up for longer that I can remember. I've got one of these awful things that is even 'MIB' (brown cardboard!) that I might put up for 0.99p!;)

 

It says in his description

 

PART OF A SMALL COLLECTION AVAILABLE OF BLANK BODY SHELLS THAT WERE REMOVED FROM THE FACTORY WHEN IT CLOSED BY A VERY ANGRY CHIEF DRAFTSMAN !!!!!

He can't have been very good to produce something so awful! ......perhaps that's a little unkind seeing as it was a long time ago.
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