Has Ebay had it's day?

[ColinB]

To be honest all the Rails stuff listed on EBay does describe any faults.

[RDS]

@Trevor

Moderator Note:

It is in your own interest to have a unique user name. 

Could you please select the 'View my Community’ in your Dashboard on the Forum and choose a nickname in the ‘My profile' tab, rather than your First name that has been automatically allocated by the system. We had hoped a Forum change was coming to prevent this automatic allocation but a manual change is required at the moment and there will be more than one member with your name. This request together with some other information for new posters is contained in a thread at the top of the General Discussion section called ‘Information for new members registering for the Forum’

[AndyMac1707817969]

It all takes a lot of time and thus costs money to photograph items and there probably is not pay that much them to do all that. It’s great when buyers just buy things, really annoying to get about 10 messages in a row asking yet another question (most of which could be answered by Google) and wanting more and more photos only then to never hear from the majority of them again. Been buying on eBay for nearly 20 years and been selling for about 15 years. A lot of buyers seem to think everyone on eBay is a business, which they are not so don’t know what is right or wrong about any item

Virtually all sellers on eBay have overwhelming positive feedback, Rails currently has 43,932 with just 2 neutral in the last 12 months so they can’t be doing much wrong. It has to be said the majority of buyers leave no feedback. When I sell stuff it’s not items that have been rusting way in an attic for 30 years I meticulously avoid that lower end of the market where the buyers who want to pay next to nothing for everything, who love to complain about it when that do. Buyers who can’t even pay the cost price for postage without complaining are just best avoided, I usually direct them towards their local MP to get them to campaign to have the minimum wage abolished so courier companies can employ people on a much lower pittance and they can get the lower prices that think they are entitled to. It not as if any of them have a clue how much it does actually cost to deliver items but I guess it’s the usual issue of not being able to distinguish between an opinion and a fact. They say there are those who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Unfortunately there is a much large group who know the cost of nothing and the value of nothing.

It must be said, some of the negative feedback is however hilarious, my personal favourite. ‘The seller sent the item to the wrong address, I no longer live there!’

[Will Hay]

To be honest all the Rails stuff listed on EBay does describe any faults.

 

 

It does, yes.

When I last bought a used item the greatest defect wasn't listed.

Hattons list faults, that doesn't mean they describe the condition sufficiently.

Don't get me wrong, Rails and Hattons are two of my four preferred suppliers.

[ColinB]

I must admit AndyMac I have had no such issues, I did have one guy that bid then messed me about. I pointed out that he should have paid me within 3 days at which he told me to cancel the transaction. I did and stopped him bidding on any of my other items. Generally I state in the listing what P & P will be, which normally is what Royal mail charges me. Generally the stuff I sell on EBay is items that I no longer want, so whatever I get for them is a bonus. There again if the item doesn't sell so be it, or again someone messes me about then I just cancel the transaction.

[Topcat2018]

@Trevor

Moderator Note:

It is in your own interest to have a unique user name. 

Could you please select the 'View my Community’ in your Dashboard on the Forum and choose a nickname in the ‘My profile' tab, rather than your First name that has been automatically allocated by the system. We had hoped a Forum change was coming to prevent this automatic allocation but a manual change is required at the moment and there will be more than one member with your name. This request together with some other information for new posters is contained in a thread at the top of the General Discussion section called ‘Information for new members registering for the Forum’

 

 

[Topcat2018]

Re changing user name:- sorry I have been unable to find anything relating to "View my community" or "Dashboard". Simple step by step instructions on how to do this after logging into account would be helpful.

[Brew Man]

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.

 

 

I buy a lot of stuff from Hattons and have never had a problem getting a full refund whenever I have not been completely happy with the item. Occasionally the get desriptions a bit wrong but not often.

Re: changing your user name. Just pull down 'My Account' top right and click on 'Community'. You can change/edit it there.

 

 

[RDS]

Hi Trevor

As Brew Man has suggested above, select 'My Account' then Community/My Profile and you will see a field named 'nickname'.

( Thanks, I will amend my note for future use)

[Brew Man]

@RDS

You don't even have to go to my profile, it's just 'My Account/Community' then scroll down towards the bottom.

EDIT: Yes it's in the tab named 'My Profile' with is shown by default after selecting 'Community'.

[Topcat2018]

Thanks all. Now managed to change my nickname.

[Brew Man]

Thanks all. Now managed to change my nickname.

 

 

thumbsup

[Bulleidboy]

I think Ebay will continue as strong as it is today. I find with many purchases nowadays it's the quickest and easiest place to find what you want - not an auction just a quick access to what you are looking for. With auctions I always look to see what else the seller is selling, I recently bought the R2300 Bournemouth Belle set for a ridiculously low price from someone whose other items were all women's clothes(!!) - the set was as described - almost new and unused - an it certainly looked like it. As has been said by many in earier posts, you don't have to buy or bid, if you think the price is high - go and look elsewhere. Over the years I have never had a bad deal.

[RDS]

@topcat (Trevor)

Thank you but unfortunately Topcat is quite popular for some reason and there are at least 12 Topcat usernames, with various suffixes. The Forum software should not allow this but another user has already got topcat. Maybe you could add a number to the end avoiding 70, 1308, 97, 25, 72, 900, 1959 and 351.

@Brew Man

Thanks I knew that but my solution caters for a time in the future when the default may not be 'My Profile'.

[HornbyKiwi]

I buy a lot of stuff from Hattons and have never had a problem getting a full refund whenever I have not been completely happy with the item. Occasionally the get desriptions a bit wrong but not often.

 

 

I will second this. Bought quite a number of items from their pre-loved selection over the past 4-5 years, have never been disappointed with what I received for my money. Descriptions have been accurate to condition in 98% of cases.

Use Ebay occasionally, but never bought a railway item through them from memory. My usual bug-bear with them is the exorbitant cost of shipping. Many sellers want to use the in-house shipping service (forget the name of it) which, while admittedly very fast to NZ, is simply too expensive.

We have a local version of Ebay here called TradeMe. Was started up by a uni student in his parent's garage at a time when Ebay was already well-established world-wide, including NZ. Much to many's surprise, it took off and has become very successful. The kid sold the company on 10 or so years later for the equivalent of 350 million pounds!

Anyway bought a number of items through TradeMe, both new and used, although it's only a potential seller base of 5 million people so the selection is limited by that. Interestingly though, I did buy a set of Hornby coaches split from a train set on TradeMe, sold to me by Jadlam Toys & Models. Overseas sellers can set up on TradeMe though it is relatively uncommon I think.

 

 

HK.

 

 

[Rana Temporia]

There was a quick article on Rip Off Britain this morning which should be available on BBC iPlayer on a avoiding problems on online auction sites. It reinforced most of the advice given in this (and other) discussions on using eBay et al.

[ColinB]

I am beginning to wonder if perhaps it has had its day. I recently bid on a few things that normally there would be some bidding activity, but nothing.

[AndyMac1707817969]

Sales on eBay were very slow at the beginning of this month but are picking up again now, this is normal, they have been very high through the pandemic. To address a few points

Shows like Rip Off Britain would be better renamed ‘Haven’t a Clue Britain’, really how many times do people have to be told not to pay with methods such as bank transfer etc or to read a contract. All a bit one sided never seems to show anywhere buyers who rip of sellers. Apparently bad if sellers ask too much for an item (subjective anyway) whereas it’s not a problem for buyers to pay a lot less than an item is worth and to actively try and defraud sellers. Have listed items which I have 2 of on both my eBay listings and the other on my wife’s. You get a message on both saying how the other has agreed a lower price and would you match it. Clearly fraud but seems perfectly OK for some. Claiming an item is broken when it arrives but unwilling to return it or provide photos of the damage, their mobile phone does not have a camera and they know no one whose mobile phone does, they just want a discount. Two months ago a guy buys a £15 book from my wife, 3 weeks later request to return it as they can’t afford to keep it. Strange how they managed to buy about another 10 items in-between all of which a lot more than £15.

Seen a Bachmann coach on eBay, one of their Thompson ones which usually sell from about £50+ on for £20 buy it now or best offer. This exceptionally low price did not stop at least one person putting an offer in to see if they could get it for even less, if that is not a rip off what is. About a year ago I noticed a Hornby Murdoch come on starting bid £20 or best offer, someone had an offer in. I knew from the description the seller had no idea what they were selling or its potential value the last having sold for £800. I put a bid on to kill the best offer as I guessed the offer was going to be an attempt to steal it for a bargain. Next thing the listing has needed, the item is relisted and best offer accepted. I messaged the seller saying I hoped they got a good price with a link to the one that sold at £800. Did not take very long for the negative feedback on the sellers account to arrive from the prospective buyer who seems was prepared to rip off the seller having offered less than £100 obviously knowing full well how much it was actually worth.

Overseas postage, yes anyone with any whit only uses eBay’s Global Shipping Programme. As the seller you are only responsible for the item till it arrives in their Global Shipping Centre in England, from then on its eBay’s problem with any delivery issues, they will even remove negative feedback if it concerns the delivery. Selling overseas is generally best avoided though, I do but very few items do sell this way which is good. You not only have to pay fees as normal on the item itself plus the domestic postage you also have to pay the approx 14% fees on the international portion of the postage as well. Ebay set the price of the international postage not the seller but this goes over the heads of many. On top of all of this the seller also has to cover the currency conversion fees for the entire amount of the transaction, another couple of percent. Does not stop buyers asking for discounts to help cover the cost of postage for them.

Second reason to always use the GSP is unfortunately the attitude of some buyers. On top of the usual issues with UK delivery people not being in and not bothering to collect the item, not knowing their own address etc and expect you to sort this out even in countries that you do not even speak the language. There is the issue of import duty / taxes and delivery times. You will get buyers who refuse to accept the item as they disagree with the import duty their country is imposing and seems to think this again is an issue I should sort out or indeed can sort out, maybe a quick call to the foreign office I have no idea. Even using the GSP you get buyers who lodge a chargeback request with their credit card company because the item is a day overdue, again I can do nothing about postal delays but when that happens you just have 7 days to dispute this by providing proof of delivery else you are likely to lose both the item and the money. Any issues, if the seller does not have proof of delivery it’s an automatic refund.

Vast majority of buyers are fine it must be said but it only takes one to make you realise how vulnerable you are as a seller in a transaction to ensure from then on you take every precaution against the few bad ones that are out there. People just see everything from their own point of view and never take the time to see it from the point of view of others. 

People seem to think laws and ethics only apply when it benefits them.

[ColinB]

Oh dear AndyMac you do seem to have had some bad experiences. I must admit when it first started I did get ripped off a couple of times but EBay reimbursed me. Since then I think buying and selling I had only one bad experience where the guy won it but didn't pay. I must admit most times now especially for new locos it generally cheaper to avoid EBay and use Google. One time I wanted some coaches which were really expensive second hand on EBay, I got them cheaper brand new off Olivia of Sheffield. Generally Olivia are expensive, but it just shows how expensive EBay was. The big issue with EBay is they don't charge for reselling the item, so you can put it up for an exorbitant price, if it doesn't sell then relist it hoping somebody buys it that doesn't know the going rate. It is like the guy at motorcycle autojumbles that has had the same stuff on his stall for the last 5 years. I suppose generally I am buying second hand bits to build a loco or selling locos that I no longer have need for. Most of the time I just want shot of the stuff, so I put it up for what I actually want and if it goes higher it is a bonus. A few years ago before prices in the US got expensive I used to buy lots of Triumph motorcycle parts and get them shipped over, generally by boat (USPS don't do this service anymore), again no issues. As for "Rip off Britain", I didn't watch that episode, but if you ignore the sensationalism, they generally are good at telling you what to avoid, you just have to make your own judgement. They also highlight a lot of the "scams" that are going on, again it is very helpful if you know about them.

[AndyMac1707817969]

Colin I buy a lot on eBay and I sell quite a lot, well several thousand items bought and sold over nearly 20 years. Over 99% of people are fine to deal with but I think a lot of this is down to the type of item you are selling and the type of people you are selling to. I would not sell any other item other than model railway and books. You learn to take most of it in your stride, the odd bit of negative feedback you just ignore, it’s an occupational hazard. Yes I have sold items I did not realise some very small bit of detailing was missing but some rivet counter thought I should have known about but I never got bad feedback from them as I always sort out my mistakes. Worst one of all was getting two parcels mixed up, one destined for Austria and the other Australia. That cost a right penny to sort out. You always end up with negative feedback from people whose parcel was stuck in the post, those who think you manufactured the item and decide to review it and not the seller. I currently have one negative feedback for not responding to messages from a buyer who never actually sent any, what can you do. Things that are out of your control, you just ignore them, they don’t affect your ability to sell. If someone wants to buy something that’s great if they don’t because they don’t like the asking price, fine they are not the only buyer in town, someone will come along and buy it sooner or later. Of course you get the odd rude person who thinks someone has died and left them in charge of ‘Model Railway’. You get potential buyers trying to scam you and buyers whom you just want to avoid, like someone asking about a £200 sound equipped loco and then asking questions like how do I make it go.

Learnt from a real world business many years ago, there are customers you want and customers you don’t want and good business means attracting the former and avoiding the later. Yes the average person as a customer might like to think that a business should bend over backwards to pander to every whim but the reality is if are going to end up losing money on a transaction then better to have no sale at all. If 1% of your customers cause you 99% of your problems then you want those 1% to go off down the road to your competitors and make their life a misery. Same is with eBay you have to make sure your products attract the right people, stay out of the budget end of things and wait for the right buyer to come along, it’s a lot less hassle in the long run.

As for Rip off Britain as with most things, by the time it reaches the mainstream media then it’s probably been round for years. Scamming people is fairly easy, if you are telling them something they want to hear they will just believe you. Tell them something they don’t want to hear and they won’t believe you. Whether it is true or not in either case makes little difference. Greed gets the better of most people sooner or later.

[threelink]

Reference Colin B's mention of less than anticipated bidding on ebay items I wonder whether it is simply the effect of the straightened financial circumstances now facing many. I went to a toy and train fair over the bank holiday. It was well enough attended but not many people were actually buying. I am a mean old man and cannot justify huge expense on a hobby but nonetheless anticipated spending a fair bit to replenish my stock of junk and spares. In the event, prices were unrealistic and I spent only £16.00. I refuse to pay eg £7.50 for an old Triang Jinty body, £6.00 a pop for old Triang and Hornby wagons or £9.00 (!) for a GBL Brit (lets face it, an inexpertly moulded, non functionig abomination of a thing). Clearly on this occasion I was not alone. Even with the increase in modelling interest over the Covid pandemic lockdown I wonder whether the hobby is now pricing itself out of the market - or are there too many people trying to turn their hobby into a livelihood?

[ColinB]

The trouble is a lot of Sellers see that the price of new models has gone up so they adjust their prices up as well. The jury is still out as to whether Hornby's new pricing structure is working. I find it difficult to justify some of the new prices and when it comes to EBay it basically is a toy fair where you can't actually see the actual item. So generally with most stuff I have limits which I suspect most other people have as well. I noticed it with classic bike parts, at one point Dealers asked exorbitant prices for second hand bits that were far from new and people just stopped buying them.

[atom3624]

I've noticed that 'vendors' have been adjusting their prices upwards.

The private punter seems to be obliged to maintain a lower ground almost irrespective of the quality of the product.

Al.

[Rana Temporia]

I went to the fair at Bolton a week or so ago and like Threelink noted that a lot of the stalls had raised their prices and noticeably were not selling very much. I was a bit disappointed with the amount of railway stalls compared to what’s there normally.

My only purchases were two cheap Grafar OO coaches that I wanted the bogies off to repair some of my existing ones.

I have bought a number of items off eBay lately as they have been reasonably cheap compared to the last year or so, maybe because people are out and about a bit more. I completely agree with some of the comments above, the dealers are raising prices but the hobbyists/private sellers are getting less for their items which should mean that the dealers will have to re-adjust in a downwards direction if they want to sell stuff.

[threelink]

@atom3624

As a "private punter" who occasionally sells on what he no longer wants, I am perfectly happy to sell at a lower price than a dealer and do not feel the need to push up prices in the hope of making a killing. I am not looking to make a profit from selling stuff, just to cover costs and make a bit of space. Apart form the usual box of bits and pieces, I never sell anything that is less than complete and in full working order. If my last train fair stall was anything to go by, my prices were acceptable to buyers. I would rather sell at a figure lower than a dealer than have to take everything home again. At the the last train fair I did, the stall holder next to me, a dealer, was moaning loudly and bitterly that he had taken only £15.00 over the day. I took over £300.00. I expect that the dealers hate my sort but maybe, sooner or later, they will get fed up with carting stock about and start selling it at sensible prices.