Got this K-Line railcar on eBay. No wonder it doesn't light up. The wiring is fried even onto some of the plastic. There was a strong short in here at one time or other. Looks like it got wet at one time because of rust on metal parts.
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Flood damage or this car lived in a very damp place. I emphasize with your disappointment. If you opt to keep this car, consider replacing the illumination with LEDs.
Sorry to hear of your problem with your purchase on Ebay, I know I have been there a few times myself. The good news is that if the seller did not mention the problems, you can dispute the sale based on misrepresentation of the item. I have had that happen and the seller not only had to take the item back, but pay for return shipping as well. I hope you can get this resolved in your favor soon.
Bobby Ogage posted:Flood damage or this car lived in a very damp place. I emphasize with your disappointment. If you opt to keep this car, consider replacing the illumination with LEDs.
The disappointment is I will have to take time to repair it and that will take some patience to rewire the thing. The LEDs is a good idea.
I use eBay a lot (too much), and have been presented with such a situation only a very few times. If the item is still desirable, but overpriced due to unknown (by me) condition, I have asked for a partial refund. So far, everyone has done so.
Most eBay sellers are no more or less honest than most buyers; he might give you a partial refund, which saves returning it and could turn it from "not worth the money" to "an inexpensive project car" - which you'll improve, anyway.
I sympathize.
Y'know - lemons, lemonade, blah, blah....
And how much you paid.
Looks like the wire was fried by a derailment that placed one roller on the center rail and the other on the outer rail. If you rebuild the car, either place a Polyfuse in the line that connects the rollers, or if you are using LEDs, add diodes from each roller, pointed together, to stop roller-to-roller current.
Dale Manquen posted:Looks like the wire was fried by a derailment that placed one roller on the center rail and the other on the outer rail. If you rebuild the car, either place a Polyfuse in the line that connects the rollers, or if you are using LEDs, add diodes from each roller, pointed together, to stop roller-to-roller current.
Good info. Thanks.
D500 posted:I use eBay a lot (too much), and have been presented with such a situation only a very few times. If the item is still desirable, but overpriced due to unknown (by me) condition, I have asked for a partial refund. So far, everyone has done so.
Most eBay sellers are no more or less honest than most buyers; he might give you a partial refund, which saves returning it and could turn it from "not worth the money" to "an inexpensive project car" - which you'll improve, anyway.
I sympathize.
Y'know - lemons, lemonade, blah, blah....
I agree. And it might take more time negotiating than to just get it done. I do usually expect used stuff from eBay to be a little rough around the edges. I would have preferred this to be just some burned out bulbs but this car and another both have the problem.
ebay and other similar sites are great places to pick up stuff just as long as you remember the old "caveat emptor". This looks like a great fixer upper project to me! 
-Eric Siegel
Lemons and lemonade...
Years ago there was a big recall on some K-Line Passenger cars. The original Ringling Brothers cars the TCA cars and others. They were a fire hazard.
Scott SMith
I put a PTC into stuff that I'm converting to LED's, solves the problem illustrated here. I've found a few with cooked wires, most just have the insulation melted, they don't get to the point of losing conductivity.
Thanks.
Make the repair and move on with your life.When you buy at auctions there are no guarantees everyone knows that..I thought.If one purchase goes bad..your still ahead any way.Nick
Last year I purchased a D56 building that arrived with a broken part and also there were some cosmetic issues that did not show up in the online photo and was proof that the building had had some other previous damage. Since I got the item at a bargain price, I decided to try and fix it myself. I also left neutral feedback. Well, that neutral feedback got the seller's attention and they offered a complete refund without having to return the item for a change to a positive feedback! I guess feedback has its payoffs sometimes.
BTW, the repairs went well and I am very pleased with the final results as the piece has been on display for two Christmas' straight now.
Big Jim posted:Last year I purchased a D56 building that arrived with a broken part and also there were some cosmetic issues that did not show up in the online photo and was proof that the building had had some other previous damage. Since I got the item at a bargain price, I decided to try and fix it myself. I also left neutral feedback. Well, that neutral feedback got the seller's attention and they offered a complete refund without having to return the item for a change to a positive feedback! I guess feedback has its payoffs sometimes.
BTW, the repairs went well and I am very pleased with the final results as the piece has been on display for two Christmas' straight now.
That's really not how you should handle this.
If something does not arrive in satisfactory condition, open a claim. That's the protocol.
At least reach out to the seller. Anytime a buyer expresses dissatisfaction, I suggest they open a "not as described" case.
Opening a claim is a benign act - and not like "throwing down the gauntlet" - it gives both parties due time to reconcile the issue - and keeps eBay in the loop - making it easier to do refunds, etc.
Feedback bullying is not a great approach and can leave you open to negative feedback.
If you had opened a claim - in all likelihood you would have had the same outcome - (Refund + Keep Item) - but you could have left the seller positive feedback for rectifying the situation in a righteous way.
That passenger car was left on the layout, with transformer plugged in, and lightning hit a tree near the house. I have seen that several years ago and I asked the person if the house got hit by lightning. He said a tree near the house got hit, and the transformers were plugged in.
Like Gunrunner said, gut it and put LED lighting in. When you are rewiring, take the trucks off and completely rewire. If you don't, you could have a direct short.
C W Burfle posted:I think folks are rushing to judgement. I'd have to see the EBay listing first.
Incidentally, this sort of thread is the type that I think is banned by OGR policies and standards.
I can't find the for sale rules, they seem to go missing every so often, but I am pretty sure they are against posting links to ebay auctions or posting your items on ebay and then linking to them from here on the OGR forum. I think discussing something you bought there is ok, especially if folks are giving advice on how to repair or fix a problem with something. It is also ok to say 'ebay' in your posts, just no links to ebay auctions. Of course, I could also be wrong here?
I can't find the for sale rules
As far as I know, there is nothing in the for sale rules about discussing EBay woes. If the moderators decide to delete this thread, it would be covered by the Terms of Service (TOS). There is a long history of posts relating to EBay being purged from this site.
Big Jim posted:Last year I purchased a D56 building that arrived with a broken part and also there were some cosmetic issues that did not show up in the online photo and was proof that the building had had some other previous damage. Since I got the item at a bargain price, I decided to try and fix it myself. I also left neutral feedback. Well, that neutral feedback got the seller's attention and they offered a complete refund without having to return the item for a change to a positive feedback! I guess feedback has its payoffs sometimes.
BTW, the repairs went well and I am very pleased with the final results as the piece has been on display for two Christmas' straight now.
You got it at a bargain price and still left neutral feedback? I do not know the whole story but I would have contacted them before leaving any feed back many times people sell things not knowing what they are selling and are more than happy to try and make it right. It is amazing how many times neutral or negative feed back is left over an inexpensive item usually less than $30.00. There are very few actual auction items anymore most are just sellers trying to sell things at a fixed price. Very few things are started at $9.99 with no reserves.
C W Burfle posted:...There is a long history of posts relating to EBay being purged from this site.
There are two reasons why we delete Ebay threads:
This thread does neither.
Thanks, Rich. That is what I thought about promoting the sale of stuff on ebay, but I wasn't aware of the part about someone paying too much. Thank you for the clarification. Also, I think the For Sale rules are missing from the For Sale forum, at least I couldn't find them earlier today.
CW, I might have missed it, but I didn't see anything about ebay in the TOS when I went through it a while ago. I do remember seeing something about it somewhere though.
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