Ebay high prices.

Its the last days before Christmas, typical holiday price hikes.  Mike

I started seeing these price hikes for these cars during the summer. I saw one car that usually sells for around $60 listed by someone for $130. I contacted the seller and asked if this was the real price since everyone was selling it for less than half of that. The seller simply replied that that was the price.

These aren't rare cars or even very popular ones. I just won one of these cars for $20 on the bay.

My Dad always complains that deals aren't as prevalent as they once were on the 'bay. A lot depends on the road name too.

Prices generally are higher at Christmas time as people will pay higher prices leading up to Christmas. In contrast, during the summer prices are lower and some things go completely unnoticed. This past June I got a brand new lionel legacy Pensy K4 for $410 and a lionel legacy SP Alco PA AA set for $365! There are always deals to be found on the bay! 

If they can get someone to buy at those prices, then I guess it's more power to them.

Have you checked the prices of those North Pole Central dome cars lately? Now that is ridiculous. Asking as much as $350 each. Of course, asking doesn't mean they're getting it.

By the way, I noticed someone just recently listed the cars for the Smithsonian NYC set, all the same issue number I think, for $500 per car, as I recall. 

Good thing I'm a patient person when it comes to this kind of stuff.

I think it is how people are they want to rip people off.

The bay with all it rules still has the ones that are there to rip people off. If you don't know better. there is one particular seller I have a problem with when he goes to mennards then offers the same thing you can get at mennards for about 40% more or has parts for lionel items at about 30 - 40% more than you can get them from Lionel. but he sells stuff mainly because people don't know better. They see the lionel part they need and pay it not realizing Lionel still sells it as normal stock. All I will say he uses a pink ruler.

What I really think is funny thou and scratch my head on is the ones that items don't sell so they relist it at a higher price. Am I missing something here. seen that twice in the past two days one it didn't make reserve so the seller relisted it with out reserve for almost double of what the highest bid was then tonight a 3656 cattle set was listed for $35 and now has it relisted for $40 oh he went down $1 on shipping lol .  

Ebay has too many potential buyers for each item.  The laws of supply and demand are against getting an average or low price.  If you have to have an item ebay is good place to find it but do not expect a low price.

Lower prices are more likely occur if you can find the item at a train met, finding trains in classified ads or placing them seeking trains, Craigslist, OGR or CTT forum members or garage sales (good luck finding trains at GS) and you find the item first.  The price then is up to your ability to bargain with the seller.

Prices asked are often in the clouds as the seller is probing for a sucker.  It must work sometimes or they would not waste time and effort asking them.  Go ahead and bring them back to earth by offering your price but you will not shame them.

Charlie

rtraincollector posted:

...

What I really think is funny thou and scratch my head on is the ones that items don't sell so they relist it at a higher price. Am I missing something here. seen that twice in the past two days ...

Yes... and I have laughed whenever I see that.  The seller is hoping prospective buyers are "watching" the sales expire... And after a certain point, the seller hopes to catch the buyer's attention thinking, "Oh crap, I just missed that item at $X.  And now he went and listed it at $Y.  Better grab it at $Y before it goes any higher!!!" 

I swear... this seedier side of our hobby would be a field day for psych grads doing a thesis!!! 

David

Set your price, watch the bids, when they pass your price, delete the auction.  (unfortunately, I do that a lot)

Charlie I like your idea. I'll just keep trying to "lowball" them.

A seller can ASK what ever they want, if the price is shown up front, nobody is getting "Ripped Off"

And BTW, it is not just ebay where you see ridiculous prices asked, it happens, well RIGHT HERE ON THE FORUM Too!

Recently a member listed many New in the Box Lionel Locomotives, an original TMMCC, Not legacy Big Boy for $3000.00, that is substantially more than the MSRP for the Vision Line BB, never mind the actual "Street Price" for a vision line BB. The same member had several other similarly priced locomotives , such as the TMCC Y-3 for $2100.00, the New Legacy version MSRP's for I believe $1349.99 has better features AND A WARRANTY.

I don't know WHY anyone would buy those at those prices, but the seller is free to ask whatever selling price they like, no one is forced to buy them, and it is unlikely they will. If your selling you price anything however you want, and if you are buying you are free to walk away from any "Bargain" that you don't care for the price.

Doug

I have been an EBAYER since 1999, and and bought and sold many items. I see these high pricing all year long and not just around the holidays.

I think some of the sellers are not collectors and operators and think they will catch someone buying their items that do not know much about the hobby. I think if one is patient and knows what the retail is and what they are willing to pay, there are some deals to be had.

For example, there is a gal selling a new in the box set of standard set of Stephen Girard 400 series passenger  cars for $500 and has very reasonable pricing. Somebody else is selling the same set for $550, however the shipping is $105.00. Really????

 Over the years I have met many great sellers, and got  some great deals. you just need to overlook the items that are outrageous and focus on the ones that come up that are more in line.

JoeG

I too have been an active buyer/seller on the Bay for a good many years and in my experience if your listing doesn't sell, your starting bid was too high or there just wasn't any takers in your price range.  I'm not looking to get rich so I start my auctions at a reasonable opening bid and let the free market decide.  Either way I make a few bucks and I can use the money I made to purchase other things I want.

Chief Bob (Retired)

I buy prewar items and the prices/bids are going very high for 2015, 2014 I was able to get more deals. It might be the economy/gas prices as folks have more money to spend.
The part that I make fun of is when a seller list a common item as "RARE" and that common item was made by the thousands. The other thing is the high shipping cost (as mentioned in the other posts) as the seller does not pay a eBay commission on that and is part of driving the price up. I always look at the shipping cost as part of the total cost of the item. With all this, I still look and bid on eBay, but keep to a realistic price.

I think it is part of the commission. The reason I say is that there were sellers who were doing "Buy it now" for $1.00 and charging $1500.00 for shipping. This an extreme case, it was for a high end steam engine. But other sellers were pricing their auctions in a similar fashion. eBay plugged that hole by charging  a fee for the total amount including shipping. (I'm tempted to get on a soap box about this but perhaps another day.)

These threads usually get deleted before they can take on a life of their own but I'll weigh in since I do a lot of buying and selling on eBay.

The last locomotive I bought on eBay was an MTH Premier Western Maryland Proto-Sound 2.0 GP40 (20-2758-1) from 2007. The retail price was $399.95. It was listed as "C-8, Like New." When I got the engine it needed cleaned up a little and a few detail parts needed reattached - no big deal. After I programmed the locomotive into my DCS remote I checked INFO and the chronometer showed 6:55 and the odometer showed 60.0.

So, I got a practically brand new Proto-Sound 2.0 (3-volt board) engine that's long been out of production for $208  plus $13 shipping. It runs perfect with my other WM GP40 and there was no break-in required since it was already done.

I normally don't chime in on these debates, But! several of these sellers on eBay are hobby shops, even forum sponsors.

The real issue is how the train mfg. are allowing this type of selling. My local hobby shop in suburban Chicago is trying to sell a 4 pack passenger cars for $1000.00 more than twice the suggested retail price. (not a rare set).  when I was interested in buying this set, I asked them why the price was so high and if they would discount. they said no, and that was there asking price.

I finally did purchase these passenger cars on Dash-Market auction for less than half the msrp brand new.

The moral of the story is somebody will buy gasoline for $5.00 a gallon when its only $2.00. that doesn't make right.

    There's a seller on ebay that has connecting pins for K-Line (Lionel) Superstreets. Now, these come in a small (perhaps 3" by 4") plastic bag with a header card and there are a dozen pins inside. I have one of these. You could probably put it into a regular letter envelope and put two first class stamps on it to mail it within the U.S.

   This seller wants $11.00 !!! to ship this tiny package!!!!

   It doesn't cost that much to mail a modern boxcar and he wants $11.00 to mail a small package of pins!! And......he has had this on ebay for many months now.

  Amazing!

John Knapp

Erie, not Eerie

No matter where you go, there are some people who are out to scam / cheat those that are unaware.
Not all EBay sellers are honest and trustworthy.
Ebay does not always have the best prices.

Nuff said.

I make a living fixing those E-Bay bargains!

Buyer Beware

You can buy new FasTrack at retail, auction it on eBay starting at a penny, and still make money.

On the flipside, I love it when I have an item listed for a fair price and decide to use the 'or best offer' feature, only to get lowball offers of about 25% of the listed price.

I just ran into one of those high shipping auctions, where there was a lowball price, and the item was damaged, but I could use it in a kitbash, and it was in a nearby city.  I emailed and said,  "Hey, can I pick this up personally by meeting you in a public place and save me the shipping and you the hassle of packing and shipping?"  That was refused, which made me wonder if the shipping cost was the profit, and I then otherwise became very suspicious of this auction.  Now, I understand meeting might be inconvenient, and, of course, nobody wants to get mugged in a meeting with strangers, but I have both bought and sold items by meeting buyer and seller at their place of business.....one of which was in a large mall.   This would not have worked well for the item I bought out of New Zealand. 

I think another issue driving the higher prices is a direct function of eBay's new cost structure (relatively new at least), whereby they haircut 10% of your final auction price (including shipping) as a fee.  For someone selling a $2K Big Boy, that's $200 right off the top and if one transacts through PayPal, that is an additional fee.  Granted, that's no excuse for charging egregious prices, but still, it has become quite expensive to sell on eBay these days.  Presumably, sellers are trying to buffer their "net take home" by pushing the proverbial envelope a bit when it comes to price points. 

Best,
Michael

Yes prices usually hike high during the season , esp if its something thats rare or people are looking for. But another reason on ebay would be due to the fact ebay/paypal fees are super high. And in order to make anything you have to jack it up. Not fair to buyers agreed.

When ebay reworked the way all model trains where listed and I can no longer look at just Williams or other brands in a single category I gave up on ebay. It's really been good for me......saving lots of money!!!!

High prices?? Asking and selling are two different things. Whatever price the market will bear is what they will sell for. The purpose of ebay is to get the max price possible. Working as designed.  

Uh, have you looked at eBay lately?  When they made that change, I and a whole lot of other complainers on here, could not find anything.  But, NOW,  if you go into O scale and "search", you can pull up categories for the various O brands, including a separate one for Williams.   I don't like the current, configuation, for sure, for I have to search under three categories for other items once found together, and am sure I am missing something.  I told them, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but was crying in the wilderness.

My ebay habit is cured.....ain't gonna go back now!!!! I too told ebay not to 'fix' it....so sticking to my guns!!!

Been on eBay since the beginning as a buyer and seller, 1000+ transactions with 100% positive feedback.  Never had a single problem in all that time.  I posted a comprehensive eBay buying guide for trains a while back, but after putting many hours into it, the thread was deleted.  More than anything, just be aware that there are many types of sellers out there--know which you're buying from so you know what to expect.  At one end of the spectrum, you have those who are selling to put food on their table, and at the other end are those who don't NEED to sell anything at all, so they'll put a Buy-it-Now of double MSRP just to see if someone will bite.  There are many other selling styles along that spectrum.  YOU are in control of who you purchase from, just like anything else in life.  If you see blurry pictures, vague descriptions, or something feels shady, just don't go there.

The best prices to be had for trains on eBay are from private sellers who are unloading a collection.  They don't care what they get for the item, they're just trying to get rid of it.  Search ALL eBay for the item you want (not limited to the trains category, as people often mis-categorize listings), choose to view AUCTIONS ONLY (exclude Buy-it-Now) and sort results by price, low to high.  Work your way down the list of results, and add things to your watch list as you see fit.  Note the auction's end time and place your bid in the closing minutes.  You won't win them all.

eBay takes practice--in the early days, I often overpaid because I thought it would be my only chance to get something rare, which was never the case.  Now when I sell, it's only because I don't want the item anymore, so everything starts at 0.99 and sells for whatever it sells.  Those are the folks I buy from as well.  

eBay is almost never a good vehicle for purchasing newly-released products.  Think about it--what seller is going to buy newly-released products from Lionel/wholesaler and sell it for a bargain when they've got eBay fees also taking a chunk out of their margins?  Develop a relationship with your LHS or a forum sponsor for new stuff.

The worst approach to buying on eBay is an item you just must have, and become blinded by the price and terms of sale. If the price is obnoxious, don't buy it.

I have to say this year I found the few items I wanted for what I considered a good deal.  In one instance a seller nearby was willing to meet me to save the shipping costs, nice guy.  The overly high prices are just that, too high and if one is an informed buyer those listings will be ignored.  I think the appropriate advice for any ebay buyer is "patience grasshopper"

Prices are outrageous only when I'm buying.  When I sell, the seem to be bargains! 

ams posted:

... place your bid in the closing minutes...

Seconds wins. Or loses to someone who paid too much(if you regret losing at the closing price, then your bid was not your genuine high bid). AND, only bid once.

challenger3980 posted:

A seller can ASK what ever they want, if the price is shown up front, nobody is getting "Ripped Off"

And BTW, it is not just ebay where you see ridiculous prices asked, it happens, well RIGHT HERE ON THE FORUM Too!

Recently a member listed many New in the Box Lionel Locomotives, an original TMMCC, Not legacy Big Boy for $3000.00, that is substantially more than the MSRP for the Vision Line BB, never mind the actual "Street Price" for a vision line BB. The same member had several other similarly priced locomotives , such as the TMCC Y-3 for $2100.00, the New Legacy version MSRP's for I believe $1349.99 has better features AND A WARRANTY.

I don't know WHY anyone would buy those at those prices, but the seller is free to ask whatever selling price they like, no one is forced to buy them, and it is unlikely they will. If your selling you price anything however you want, and if you are buying you are free to walk away from any "Bargain" that you don't care for the price.

Doug

Glad you pointed this out Doug as this fella's offerings have puzzled me for quite awhile. He evidently has a large collection of nice older (dated) trains, mostly TMCC and PS1 yet he asks ridiculous prices, often above MSRP. Guess he sells some of it though...

ebay has become more about private "stores" rather than the individual collector/operator selling a few items. It's kind of where ebay wants the business to be. Recent fees and policies are to force that issue.

A lot of these pros put items out with hight "buy it now" prices because they have very active accounts which offer them free listings. I sometimes wonder if they even have the product, or if they'll buy it for $300 and sell for $600 once they have someone take the offer.

I know someone who has a small business doing this for electronic parts, it's basically an excursive in direct marketing writing, and managing a drop shipment supply chain.

But, there are still sellers like us out there. I tend to look at "auction style" only when I browse the new listings, and then only after filtering down to my interest;
   >O Gauge
      >Lionel
          >1901-1944

Tim

Overpriced auctions are not much different than the "knows more than you" guy at train shows ... there's one at a local show I've attended for ~5 years who has been dragging the same bunch of stuff to every show for that entire time.  Loose MPC boxcars that should be $15, he's got them for $45.  Ragged out postwar stuff for top dollar, etc... I've watched him berate anyone who questions the prices.

Scrolling past an overpriced auction is not much different than walking past that guy's booth!  

The thing that I look for is the shipping price,sometimes it is astronomical for the item listed.Last month I bought a MTH Crocodile Proto 3 NIB for a great price,I was the only bidder and the shipping price was very fair.

Mikey

Surprised this post has lasted this long.  

That said, I think it is common sense to know the actual value of an item  and what it goes for in retail stores and the like.  One would think no one would ever buy new items on the bay as retail should be a better deal, but why not?  for example I've seen the new Lioncheif Plus  NW2's going for $20 less than I paid with a nice discount at my LHS.  how they do this, I don't know, but it happens.   In the case of auctions, I've never paid more than 75% of what I would have in a retail LHS and often much less than that.  On the other hand...

When you see folks selling for a high price, there are really only two possibilities.  They think it will sell, or they don't want to sell.  The latter may simply be a nagging spouse saying " you sell those trains right now" and the person then honestly responding " look, no one wants to but them."  As for market  value, thats the fun thing about a reasonably free market.  prices will tend to move higher as demand grows and demand will drop as prices go higher.  Well unless the prices have risen past the budget for the majority of the public already to an artificially high level above manufacturing cost, and are now based simply on how much people will fork over... but that is a rant on another topic.  

JGL