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!’

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

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.

Before my time for personal experience but image here of 70012 John of Gaunt departing East Leake with the 5.15pm Nottingham Victoria to Marylebone semi-fast on July 31 1963 https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/great-central-railway-then-and-now

For some reason MK3 Sleeper Coach R40039 is showing as unavailable while R40039A and R40039B are showing as available for pre-order https://uk.hornby.com/products/br-mk3-sleeper-coach-10660-era-8-r40039 I assume just an administrative error

Manufacturing in China means you can’t ‘Give factory a call and see if there are any in store room, else get them to run off a few more!’. If one item such as a specific DCC decoders sells faster than expected then there is no way to get any replacements for just that one version that sold out until the next planned order that probably has a lead time of 6 months and minimum batches means ordering for a range of different locos. They may be the same basic decoder with a different sound file but I doubt very much someone at Hornby is downloading the file to ‘blank’ decoders, this will be done as part of the production run. Not practical or cost effective to just do a relatively small quantity for just one particular loco.

Seems to give you 20% off on pre-orders too.

Now R3892 is showing as back in stock again

I see R3892 VTEC, Class 91, Bo-Bo, 91111 'For the Fallen' came into stock this morning and less than 30 minutes after the email arrived was out of stock again, that was quick, luckily I have mine on pre-order. I see this version says ‘Virgin’ on it which I assume should run with the red and white coaches. I suspect we will get another version of this loco next year with 'East Coast' on it instead along with a batch of the silver / grey coaches it originally ran with.

Been a few items now I noticed being sold in Australia before they arrived here, I assume they must be shipped directly to Oz and not come via the UK. Listing is here, looks a nice model https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125209166984

I see the arrival of at least some of these must be imminent as R3890 Durham Cathedral is currently being advertised for sale on eBay (with pictures) from Australia. Australia always seem to get new items about a week or so before Hornby have them available on their site, I guess shipping times from China must account for this.

Ah yes another useless online review, you would think Hornby would only allow reviews from people whom they have actually purchased the item from their website.

Problem comes if people's principles can extend far past their wallets, there is never a great sign that they do. When it comes to national security against cheap goods from other countries then the cheap goods always win, that is what people want especially in countries where politics is little more than a popularity contest. Been saying it for years, whether its cheap gas or cheap goods the money being sent overseas may well be getting spent on weapons that may one day be used against you. Stupidity beyond belief but that’s public opinion for you, nice legacy for future generations. Maybe it’s taken this current crisis for people to wake up to it but when it’s all over I doubt it will take long for them to languish back into the same old ways. The social cost of unemployment and the balance of trade in this country has never counted for much when it comes people getting what they want for less.

Of course there is the famous Dublo catalogue with the 5 fingered plus thumb father

Again you can never win, send it second class and someone wants first class, send it first and someone else thinks you are overcharging them and why could it not be sent second class. No one wants to pay for insurance but if it goes missing they all just want their money back. Don’t want to pay for packaging but want it well packed. Big advantage of second class, same pricing up to 2Kg, first class is different between 1Kg and 2Kg. If you have to estimate the packaged weight of any item upfront, it’s easier to guess it’s definitely going to be under 2Kg than to say it’s definitely under 1Kg and risk under / overcharging. When I used to charge postage you always got complaints ‘Your postage is really expensive’. How they arrived at that statement I have no idea obviously know the cost of nothing. You had to explain that you did not own your own courier company and had to use Royal Mail just like any other normal person.

Businesses can never win, one customer wants one thing and another wants something else. Where possible always best for any business just to add the cost of postage onto the advertised price of the item and then call it free postage. Customers love it when they think they are getting something for nothing. Business wins two, customer buys multiple items and you get to pocket the extra postage. Works great for me on eBay. People often must search for items which offer free postage and ignore those which don’t even when they are cheaper.

Does Hornby not now use a third part company for distribution of products bought online? The additional storage and administration would cost money. Something I doubt the customer would want to fork out for. When would the warranty start when you pay for it or when you receive it? Sounds like a non-starter to me

Being pre-orders the items may come into stock months apart, you want Hornby then to charge you for an item and then hold onto it for months until the remaining items are available?

I see they are for 2nd radius or greater I guess what you might expect but how close will they couple. Maybe we will see articulated Gresley teak coaches in the future The LMS articulated coronation coaches in maroon and gold with valances that went to America in 1939 and did not come back until 1946, I assume they never ran in the UK in blue and silver. Did the LMS ever have any articulated coaches on the Coronation Scot?

Well we are meant to be using less fossil fuels and are certainly not going to do that is they are too cheap so as usual it might be bad for humans but good for the environment. I do like people’s reaction to this, my energy supplier went bust and I can’t get another deal as cheap as the one I had where the company supplying it went bust because they could not make any money. Live in the country so rely solely on oil and there is no price cap on that so gas consumers don’t know how lucky they are. Starting to miss coal and all that rail freight that went with it!

Unless you are in possession of the actual numbers as to what the outgoings and income of any company is, no one is in any position to make any judgement. If any company has made substantial losses then they may well be dancing to the bank’s tune. Just pulling figures out of thin air as to how much cheaper you would like a product to be is meaningless unless you know what the factory in China is charging Hornby compared to this time 12 months ago. Unless you know something as basic as this how can you say a price increase is not justifiable. The most important thing for any company to do is make a profit else very soon they won’t be making anything. Looking at Hornby’s return on investment it is very, very low but then again they may be writing off old debt from previous years. There are a lot of very well off people out there with healthy retirement bank accounts which Hornby are finally tapping in to with new models instead of selling the same old ones which they have been doing for the last 50 years, that is good news. You also have to ask, how do the cost of models in the 1960s and 70s compare to now in relation to a week’s wages?

Selling anything directly yourself whether on eBay or Facebook you need to know what it is, this means a proper description and part number, if its complete, what condition it’s in etc. If not, it's unlikely to realise any descent price if it does not get returned in search results or is ‘sold as seen’ so assume it is not in working order. When you sell the boot is on the other foot from what you are used to as a consumer, if anyone has an issue it’s up to you to sort out. Putting statements on like ‘I don’t take responsibility for items being lost in the post’ is meaningless. If buyers have an issue it’s your problem. Even if sold directly and paid for with PayPal or a credit card you can still have charge backs against you. The fact you are a private seller and not a business goes straight over the heads of many buyers. It should also be noted just because someone does not pay a lot does not mean they don’t complain if there is an issue, in my experience selling cheaper items increases the risk of complaints, the worst complainers and the items you have most issues with are bought by those who wouldn’t spend the time of day. Although the vast majority of buyers are fine there is a small percentage who are out to rip you off at the first opportunity and as a seller you have very little protection. As a seller you need to take as many steps to protect yourself, if it comes down to your word against a buyer, you will lose.

I have no doubt Hornby have done their homework before running with this.

Should the model shop cease trading you are most likely to lose the lot.

People seem to want the cheapest postage available so why the big surprise if a company then uses the cheapest option for delivery. The different costs in delivery often come down to what the insurance price is not the delivery time. For a small trader you might be 'prepared' to pay for first class delivery but that insures an item for just £50 but no surprise if an item gets lost or damaged the buyer you just want all your money back and the retailer is left to absorb the loss. Even charging £4.20 to deliver a loco by second class signed for insured to £50 never mind the actual value and there are howls of ‘your postage is very expensive’. You then usually have to point out that you do not own your own courier company and have to just use Royal Mail like normal people, its not 'your postage'. I just don’t know what they think companies pay their staff. No doubt again it’s just public opinion which is rarely a result of joined up thinking, a company may be paying their staff a living wage but there is no connection between that and the cost for the service the supply seemingly. Often you will hear the word ‘fair’ being used but that just normally means whatever benefits the buyer.