Dirty Lionel Purchase from Auction Site

Thats the risk one takes whne buying from there. youve got to know that some guy is with no interest in trains iss selling all his dads trains. Well theyre all still in the box so they must be new, right.?.?.? Ive sen much worse misrepresentations like the "functioning" MTH Yellowstone I just finished repairing that was burnt to a crisp inside.

Hi Matt,

Yes, bidding there was a risk and the result could be worse. Sorry to hear about the fried MTH Yellowstone that the seller said was functioning. It is great you are a skilled MTH technician. That would have been a fancy boat anchor for me, ...probably not a very functional anchor, either.

Just because something has tags or a box does not seem to mean much. Even new train cars left in original boxes will rust if not stored well. I try hard to screen sellers, but I did not see this coming. What bothers me most, is, I was planning to pass down a blue hopper of mine to my nephew's family, and this car was to take its place. Now, I would rather keep my old hopper!

Send it back. 

Well the car maybe dusty and dirty but looking at the wheels, there does not appear to have any wear. 

Use a 1/2" - 3/4" soft paint brush to dust it off.

It doesn't appear to be seriously damaged. Seems easier to just clean it up instead of sending it back, then give the eBay seller a bad rating. 

Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't look terrible. It's just a plastic body. I would clean it up no problem, no big deal. It does look like shelf dust. A warm soapy wash would be fine, a compressed air blow gun would be great too. Yes, one takes a gamble buying there, but the reason we do is to get a deal. Maybe you got it really cheap?   I have had good luck buying there myself.

Matt

If in decent shape and if you got it for a good price (value), clean it up and touch it up. Learning repairs or detailing can be half the fun of the hobby. While, fleabay has risks, you can also get very good deals if you know what to look for. I've bought many items this way and all in all, feel I have come out way ahead. But that just me. If you feel you got rooked, contact the seller. Usually they will work with you verses getting negative feedback. Have fun in the hobby and good luck. 

Don't clean it!  That might be original factory dust!

Seems to me you have two options:

1) Contact the seller and tell him you are not happy with the purchase.  If you still want to keep the car, negotiate a partial refund.

2) Contact eBay, open a dispute.  If you and the seller can't reach a settlement, you mail back the car and Paypal refunds your money when the car is received at the seller.

Jim

"New" does not always mean "clean".  did he advertise it as "clean"? Looks pretty nice to me, in fact, I have seen a lot worse looking new stuff come out of the box upon arrival at my door. Just read this forum about problems with new items arriving damaged or "dead on arrival". I would just clean it up and move on. Life is too short to worry about a little dust and  minor scratch on a toy train.

Here I thought you bought some nude figures for your layout.

Yeah a little soap and water and this will be good as new.

If you are going to run it just clean it up.  It will get dirty later on and you will clean it again.  It is a nice car and enjoy it.  Good luck.

It looks unrun to me, so if you would be satisfied to clean it up that's what you should do.  I learned right here on the OGR forum that the best brush for cleaning and dusting trains is a makeup brush.  I got a cheap set off that auction site and they work really well.

However, if you are uneasy about the purchase in any way you should return it.

Pete

Dont see where this was worth complaining about if it bothers you that much send it back .  I would stay away from _ _ _ _ if your standards are that high because its going to happen again.

Looks like an un-run display unit to me. Did you buy it from a hobby shop type guy?

Pull the trucks, give it a bath in the kitchen sink and move on. 

Thank you for the different views. I have enough cars to try to keep clean without buying dirty ones. Yes, dirt can be removed, but this was sold as "new" and there is damage, too. The framing on the orange vertical support is not adhered to the cross beam and is not centered. There is a patch of glue next to it on the cross beam. Also, a fleck of orange paint is missing.

The wheels do look good underneath the dirt. I suspect the body may have taken a tumble off of a shelf at one time and that is likely what damaged the orange ice breaker part.

The seller got back to me and said he bought some train items from someone and this car came in its original box. He assumed it was new, did not open the box, and sold it as "new". He said I can send it back or he will give me some credit. I looked at his other items, and he has a lot of train parts for sale, ...not much new. I wonder who glued this car when the upper support was knocked loose the first time.

Of course, the seller did not mention shipping. The car is not so bad that I would want someone to have to pay all that shipping, but I would not have bought it if I would have known it was dirty and damaged, -even if the wheels have never touched a track. The bargain ended when the car was not in new condition.

I appreciate the cleaning tips. I will likely clean this up and give it to my nephew's family. 

Santafay

I would never advertise anything that I am selling as new. New is suppose to mean not used, in it's original box and unopened. I think the only ones that can truly advertise as new are authorized dealers. When I'm looking at an item on auction, if it's listed as new, I try to determine if the seller is an authorized dealer. However, recently this technique did not work for me. I received items listed as new that were definitely used. The seller took them back.