Has Ebay had it's day?

[bill7437]

Having bought and sold many items on ebay over the last few years I am beginning to think nowadays that their selection is becoming either overpriced and new items or just simply total junk !!!! Is this because the hobby is declining or that ebay fees these days are becoming dissuasive to sellers ?? Particularly as these fees are also charged on

postage which cost in itself is becoming prohibitive. I would be interested in other forum opinions on my observations..

[Rana Temporia]

I also used to buy and sell a lot on eBay and at one point my hobby was self supporting. I recently made three purchases which are the first for a while and haven’t sold anything for a long time.

EBay is there to make money and isn’t interested in sorting out problems anymore caused by unscrupulous buyers and sellers, so basically you are on your own. Since they split with Paypal they manage all the transactions, and as many people have pointed out they don’t put the money immediately into your account like Paypal did. A nice earner on the interest for them there!

The website is still popular and flourishing but I would welcome an alternative that actually reaches the same number of buyers, maybe they would then have to police the transactions a bit more.

I fully agree on postage and after a few bad experiences I will only send Royal Mail signed for, plus the 20% in fees on the postage. People complained when other people are charging half what I do, my reply is it’s to protect them and me, and if they don’t like it they can buy elsewhere. I always explained this in the text but most people don’t seem to read it.

Now that the swap meets are open again, there are other opportunities to buy and I suspect that prices on eBay will start to drop.

For information, The next Swapmeet I am aware of is next Sunday (24th April) at Bolton’s ground. it’ll be on the Barry Potter website.

[The Doc]

I still buy frequently and sell less frequently. Ebay is still very useful as far as I am concerned, as most of what I buy is secondhand, and often no longer available, such as Ian Kirk coach kits. I have only occasionally bought new items such as locos off ebay, as I prefer the guarantees that well established retailers offer, since they have a reputation to maintain. For new locos and rolling stock you will often find the prices better direct from the large retailers (such as as Rails, Hattons, Kernow etc.), or your local model shop, than you will see from over-optimistic sellers on ebay.

Over the years I have had two or three bad experiences buying off ebay, but several hundred good ones, so for me it hasn't had its day yet.

[RB51]

There do seem to be some ludicrous prices being asked for just about anything to do with our hobby. I rarely use eBay to buy anything these days although I do think it worth the 15% deduction they make to sell things. Gumtree, FB Marketplace and eBUYgumm have been useless in my experience.

R-

[ColinB]

I think the big issue is there is not that much railway stuff out there. Hornby is not making that much of which a lot is overpriced meaning there is a huge surge to secondhand. I agree there are a lot of scammers out there but with EBay I have always accepted there is risk. Whenever I sell stuff I charge, whatever Royal Mail charge me for postage which for First Class signed for is £4.85. I use recycled packaging from the locos and stuff I have bought previously. Some of the prices do surprise me, there are a couple on there that charge ridiculous prices, but according to their feedback some people buy off them, although for the parts I am interested in they don't seem to move them. The big thing that does surprise me is that some people pay more for used items where if they used Google quite often you can get it new for less. I suppose the difference is I am worried about getting bad feedback so I meticulously test all the locos I sell as I don't want them back and I don't sell stuff that I won't buy. I have a load of tender bottoms left over from where I have put the decoder in a Hornby loco in the tender, trouble is for what I think they are worth the postage makes them too expensive.

[Will Hay]

Try finding a bigger audience to sell to or a worldwide marketplace as large.

Yes, like everything it has it's problem but no, it's not had its day.

Oh, and for those that don't know, Hattons now operate an auction site for their used items

[slipalong]

Those of us with long memories will remember when Hornby had their auction site here. I found it very useful as it was designed for the small hobbyist selling unwanted stock. As usual with these things eventually it got swamped with traders and proved too unwieldy so Hornby pulled it, I guess about 12 years ago.

[RB51]

Hattons now operate an auction site for their used items

Brilliant, thank you, I didn’t know about that.

R+

[VESPA]

It was reported in the financial section of the Daily Mail that Hornby are having shipping problems of products. That is the reason new things seem slim on the ground.

[Will Hay]

It was reported in the financial section of the Daily Mail that Hornby are having shipping problems of products. That is the reason new things seem slim on the ground.

 

 

That's assuming you believe anything you read in the DM.

[ColinB]

I don't find that so surprising about Hornby even if it was the Daily Mail. We know they had big issues with the W1, then you have Covid flaring up again in China, then the shortage of containers, so no big surprise. Then there is the fact that they don't release a lot these days.

[81F]

Ebay is not as good as it was as far as private sellers are concerned and significant bargains are harder to get. However, there are several shops on there that I use from time to time whoes prices are broadly in line with the bid online suppliers like Hattons or Rails and sometimes a little cheaper.

For example after shopping around I finally got a 009 Merddin Emrys (in red) for around £20 less than the next cheapest if you include p&p - p&p on eBay seems to be less.

However I rarely sell now mostly because the local post office has sut and I know form a previous dispute that eBay do not consider it reasonable to add your bus fare to and from the post office to the p&p charges.

[Fishmanoz]

They certainly wouldn’t like my bus fare to a UK post office then!

[AndyMac1707817969]

The biggest influence eBay has is it sets the second hand price. Now with eBay it’s easy for any person or dealer to look up the value of anything to see what it has recently sold for. Any train sale you might attend nowadays you can be sure that items for sale have already been picked over by other dealers before the doors open and snapped up probably to be listed on eBay that evening. The idea there will be some replacement for eBay where items sell for less is ludicrous, buyers may think that’s a good idea but as usual self-entitlement and delusion have long since set in, they really think sellers are going to use a platform where there items will sell for less just to please them, really!

When it comes to finding rare items then yes they may be expensive on eBay but at least they are available to those who want to pay that price, sellers only need one buyer for these and it matters not that it’s not you. It’s a sellers’ market and again if buyers want to delude themselves into thinking someone is going to sell them something for a lot less that someone else is prepared to pay for it just because they want them to, they will have a long wait. Obviously there is lots of junk out there, both at train fares and eBay but for those who like that sort of thing then they are in luck, the flip side of that coin being model makers such as Hornby are not going to survive very long selling people just spare parts for locos made 50 years ago.

Ebay is certainly not had its day, I think we will see the demise of train fares and maybe more model shops first. Hornby seem to be concentrating on selling directly to the public these days, they used to have an eBay shop for selling surplus items a few years back. Maybe there is simply not enough model shops left to handle the numbers for a minimum stock run so Hornby have to shift a lot more themselves. Alternatively a longer term plan to only sell directly as a way to lower the price of new items as these could effectively be sold to the public at something near current trade prices.

[ColinB]

The difference between EBay and say a swapmeet, is EBay is an auction site, so basically the item sells for whatever someone wants to pay. As far as my experience is with EBay if the item doesn't sell then it just gets relisted without any cost to the Seller. At a swapmeet the Dealer has to cover their expenses for the day so they are more likely to lower their prices to sell stuff. I have noticed on second hand classic motorbike parts, originally on EBay they were reasonably cheap, then they were listed for extortionate prices, so everyone went back to buying stuff at autojumbles. The advantage of railway parts are they are small and relatively cheap to ship. If you follow stuff on EBay you will notice certain parts don't sell, some I have seen relisted for about 2 years, same as that stall at Kempton Park autojumble that has had the same stuff on it for the last 5 years, yes that one is mega expensive. Yes occasionally you will catch someone out but that is not a recipe for repeat business. As to Hornby, I doubt it really wants to sell direct, it might think so at the moment but generally it is too much hassle. I used to work for the Ford Motor Company and I once asked why we didn't sell direct to the public, I got the answer that it would be too expensive to support. We used to do fleet sales but that is worth the hassle. So Hornby will continue to sell direct but it needs its retailers, even if it doesn't realise it at the moment.

Even now I have managed to pick up stuff for quite reasonable costs it is just knowing what the part is worth and limiting your bids to that value. I have been "outbid" on loco chassis where the final selling price is more that buying the complete loco in a box. Everyone should watch "Bangers and Cash" on the "Yesterday" channel and notice that one week cars sell for large prices, the next week they sell for nowhere near as much. The same works for EBay is just the market is so much bigger, but if of course the prices get ridiculous then the market will no longer exist as people won't bother looking.

[Potterton]

QUOTE "I think we will see the demise of train fares" UNQUOTE

We will never see the demise of train fares, although a reduction in same would be good.

However, the demise of train fairs would be a great shame.

[ColinB]

I stopped going to Train Fairs/Swapmeets years ago. I imagine they will go the way of Autojumbles, the well established ones will remain, the smaller ones where there isn't much to buy will die.

[ellocoloco]

Ebay is my go to model shop and I doubt that's going to change as its far to convenient. As to the inflated prices some vendors ask, nobody has to pay if they don't want to. I have my own idea of what I am prepared to pay for a model and keep too it. Once a year I may go to a show and two years ago I went to a model shop!

[The son of Triangman]

Ebay doesn't set market prices, most trade use Ramsay's guide and toy fair pricing. I do think Ebay is in decline, fees are expensive and postage. It's often cheaper to go to a toy and train fair. I picked up some mint boxed locos at the last fair I went to, they were way below ebay prices.

[Will Hay]

Where on earth are these people claiming 'ebay is in decline' getting their evidence from?

In context, we're discussing the tiniest fraction of fractions of ebay's inventory; model railways, which has gone through a probable unmatched boom since lockdown.

Prices on auction and indeed most websites [just look at the disgusting used prices Hattons think they can justify, for example] have increased, and that doesn't even factor in the massive manufacturer increases by the likes of Hornby.

High demand for the hobby + people buying used rather than new due to high price increases = an increase in used prices.

Exactly the same is happening with cars.

New cars are on huge lead-times, used car prices are through the roof. Does this mean autotrader.co.uk is in decline? 😄

"Ebay is in decline 'cos I can't get an LMS carriage for seven and sixpence like I did in 1996"

hahahaha give it a rest.

[AndyMac1707817969]

It’s worth pointing out that users of this particular forum may not be representative of the hobby in general.

It comes down to what you looking for, there is again another analogy between this and cars. Twenty years ago the price for pre WW2 cars has good, people collected them as it took them back to their childhood. Today the bottom has completely fallen out of that market as that generation passes on. Same with model railways, you can pick up lots of bargains from the 1960s as to be honest fewer and fewer people want that stuff and there was a lot more of it produced. Try and get hold of some of the now hard to get items produced in the last 10 to 20 years and they are like hens teeth.

For me sales on eBay doubled in April / May 2020 and remained high since right up to the beginning of April this year, at the moment there is a slump but that happens now and then when people have other things to do with their money, you just stopped selling and wait for the price to go up again. Then again not depending on it for a living means I can do that.

 

Don’t think anyone uses Ramsey’s Catalogue anymore, model shops such as Rails of Sheffield clearly set their prices based on eBay. Their process invariably follow the latest sold prices. Why would anyone who needed to know an up-to-date value not just search eBay sold listings rather than rely on information form a catalogue printed months ago

[ColinB]

There is a reason for a slump, although I have not noticed it, it called mammoth rises in energy and the cost of living. This eats in to peoples spare cash. As a Classic motorbike dealer said to me at the beginning of one recession, "you can tell when a recession is coming people stop spending money on their hobbies". Actually "Rails" secondhand prices aren't that bad compared to Hattons, I have bought some reasonably priced things off their EBay shop.

[Topcat2018]

I noticed that several contributors have mentioned buying second-hand from dealers such as Hattons and Rails of Sheffield. I've only done this twice and been disappointed both times. Part of the problem is that the photographs on their websites don't show enough detail. I bought an A4 "Empire of India" from Rails and found that the paintwork was very poor and also badly faded. I bought what should have been an A3 from Hattons which had been renamed and renumbered. It turned out to be a non-runner and was actually an A1. The renumbering was poorly aligned and you could still see the original number - 4472 of course!

In fairness I did get partial refunds in both cases.

[ColinB]

I bought a Duchess off Rails via EBay and it was perfect. I suppose you just have to be careful. The box was a bit faded but there again I didn't buy it for the box. Never bought anything second hand off Hattons from their lists it all looks to be bit overpriced.

[Will Hay]

You'd think that Hattons and Rails would realise the more detail you provide the less disputes would arise.

I reckon I've a 50/50 success rate with used items from both of them, and I'm not picky.