Trainz's eBay 2 rail listings

Ed, you should never actually "drop out" of the bidding as you should actually never be in the bidding until the last few seconds of the auction. Bidding before then exposes your expert valuation of these pieces, exposes you as a potential bidding rival, and ultimately drives up the final/winning bid amount.

Please disregard all of this when bidding on my auctions.  Thank you.

And, if they would take a little better care in shipping, some of us might even bid on a few items!

NEVER be in the bidding on eBay until the final seconds of the auction.  All you're doing is driving the final price higher!

Just my opinion, but those Trainz people sure seem to make a LOT of technical errors on many of the items that they list for sale on eBay. One tends to get the impression that they really have no clue about scale model railroad locomotives.

Rob - that may be your bidding approach - I use a different one.  If I'm interested in an item I enter a very low starting bid. Late in the auction I'll raise it to what I think the item is worth to me.  I dropped out of the 5 car lot auction not because the price was unreasonable, but because at that price I didn't want the bother of reselling those cars in the lot I wasn't interested in.  I don't see how entering a low initial maximum bid in any way reflects my perhaps questionable "expert" valuation.

Ed Rappe

There's simply no reason to do that unless you are "stomping"(cancelling with a low bid) an unreasonably high BIN price to give you a chance at the item at a lower price without someone else coming in and buying it out from under you at the full BIN price.

This is getting off track - the point of my post was to share observations on grouping items in mixed lots, poor photographs, and inaccurate descriptions.  A thread on eBay thread bidding strategies might make for an interesting discussion.

There are some serious discussions on several other forums concerning the very high likelihood of trains being damaged in shipment. This is the #1 issue with these people regardless of what they know or don't know about what they are selling. They don't seem to care enough to box the items correctly to protect them so you're not going to get what you bid on anyway. 

This is definitely a buyer beware situation with anything high value or collectable like the Fischer cars.

Butch

Indeed.  There are a number of listings that group either freight cars or passenger cars together with trolley cars which limits my enthusiasm for bidding for that lone trolley in the mix that they aparently do not recognize or do not care about. 

Your total job is too photo toys and place them up for sale on ebay. 10.00 dollars an hour? down south more like 7.50, maybe, now add the fact the persons doing this know absolutely nothing or care about what their doing its just a job right. and this is what you get, if you answer one question you sort of should answer them all so answer none, and just think how much they lost by bundling the fischer cars ,sure hope that cat runs out of money soon and some more pop up. An just imagine the state of an incomeing estate misboxed items are listed improperly and matching items end up where they don't belong cause the employee/associate ,employees have rights, knows nothing about the difference between an oil tender or coal or even which wat its attached to an engine seem like throwing money out the door.

Yes indeed...Trainz is a major buyer beware Ebay seller for us Model Railroaders to be aware of....watch out for this one guys!!!!!

Bob

I agree that most items should be listed individually on auction sites.   This does make it more difficult for the seller because they need to ship to multiple addresses, etc.   However, I think it is worth it unless unless the the item is part of an obvious set.  

Good packing is an art which takes time and a lot of effort.  The reason that there is so much reported shipping damage is probably that sellers don't make the required effort to package items so that they will survive rough handling.  Based upon extensive experience, it takes from 15 minutes to a half hour to properly pack an O gauge car or engine that does not have its original box.     

On the flip side, most buyers expect free shipping these days.   Sellers loose a lot of money because of today's high shipping costs.  This is especially true when the cost of boxes, bubble wrap, and the time to properly pack something is factored into the equation.

Suppose a seller buys an O gauge car for $50 and resells it on an auction site for $100.  In most cases people would think that this is a good profit on this sale.  However, this sale actually looses money for sellers.  

The auction site takes 15% ($15), shipping costs are $20, and boxes and materials are $5.  The seller's out of pocket cost for the sale is $50 + $15 + $20 + $5 = $90.  The seller's gross profit on this sale is $10.  This doesn't account for the time it takes to take multiple photos, write a description, pack the item, ship it and correspond with the buyer.  

It is not worth it for the seller to sell this item.  This is the reason that I stopped selling trains on eBay.  

Joe

quote:

There's simply no reason to do that unless you are "stomping"(cancelling with a low bid) an unreasonably high BIN price to give you a chance at the item at a lower price without someone else coming in and buying it out from under you at the full BIN price.

IMHO, there is another reason to place a low bid. Some buyers will contact a seller, to try to get him to cancel the auction, and make a direct sale. (Some don't care about rules or ethics)
By placing a bid, the seller is made aware that others are interested in the lot. The watch count is not good for this. People watch auctions for various reasons, the count is not a good indicator on whether there is any real interest in buying.

I am with Ed - if I want something I place a bid for what I would pay for it, considering shipping as part of the cost.  If I win, it is often at a lower price than my max bid, and if I lose, I lose big time.

Take that Lobaugh Mikado.  I would have paid $300 plus shipping for that, even with the lousy photos.  So I bid $300.  It went for $420.  My bid had nothing to do with the runup, all of which happened in the last couple of minutes.

Besides, this way I do not have to worry about it - I either win or not.  I can go do something else during the last minute frenzy.

 I don't see how placing an initial "place holder" starting bid is incompatible with a late in the auction (sniping approach).  I use the first to keep it on my radar screen and it effectively doesn't get incremented. I have virtually no expectation of winning with that bid. Near the close of the auction (and after reflection on the item's value to me is)  I'll enter a max bid for what it's worth to me. I don't use sniping software to enter the late bid, but I see no reason I couldn't.

I like to think of myself as a model railroad builder, not a train collector, and don't live or die with my acquisitions.  If I win on eBay fine, if I don't perhaps I'll see it at a

Chicago or Strasburg show.  I do enjoy window shopping on eBay except when Tranz ................

Ed Rappe

I only bid on something I'm interested in in the last 5 seconds or so and then only what I'm willing to pay for something.  I loose about 80% of the time, usually by one bid i.e., the next increment wins.  That's OK with me.

Just lost the first K-line F40PH I have seen in more than a year that way.  Oh well,  somebody wanted it more than I.

Ya Know. There is no right or wrong way to bid, only the way you prefer to do it. Whoever wants it the most is going to get it anyway. 

Butch

I do the same as Ed sometimes. I plunk in a low bid on something I'm interested in. I don't worry about it, go on vacation, or whatever. If I win by chance, then great, I got it for the lowest price I'd have paid anyway. Like others have mentioned, I don't have to be there in the end. There have been times when I thought I'd wait until the end and I forgot about the auction altogether. You can save a squatload like that. Did the study include that?

Putting in the bid does often pique my interest, though, and I'm less likely to forget the auction. This is typically because I'm potentially on the hook to owe somebody money and I want to make sure that gets taken care of. If the auction by chance does stick in my mind, maybe I will reassess the bid. I'm usually not dorkin' around on e-bay too much figurin' this and that. The amount you guys are talking about saving or overspending just doesn't matter.

In case anyone is interested, my Ebay bidding is simple.  I see something I would like to purchase, think about the maximum I am willing to pay, and place the bid.  If I win, i win.  If I lose, i lose.  Simple.

Was it Trainz that just had that brass O scale coal fired Vanderbilt tender that went

for over $200, that I wanted to upgrade my three rail Russian decapod with, by

swapping out the wheelsets?   I wondered how it got out there as a stray, but would

have loved to have been able to get it. That one off the Lionel 0-8-0 is too small.  Guess it belonged to one of the locos in the original posting above.....? 

I've found that it really doesn't matter what bidding strategy I use. 

If I bid early for a tracking bid, by the time I get around to bidding it's beyond my budget.  If I wait until the last few seconds, it's already beyond my budget. 

Too many people too willing to spend way more than me to "win".

Colorado Hirailer

Both Max Gray and later US Hobbies imported KTM locomotives from Japan in the 1960's time frame.  It was not-uncommon for them to import extra tenders for separate sale. Standard Max Gray practice was to separately box their engines and tenders. That explains how someone at Trainz without knowledge of the prototype could pair a NYC locomotive with a PRR Lines West tender.  I wouldn't be surprised if a NYC H10 tender shows up in a future Trainz listing.  As a general comment, you can usually see several brass KTM tenders for sale at O scale 2 rail shows like O Scale West, Chicago Mid-West, and Strasburg.

Ed Rappe 

as someone who buys and sells on ebay it amazes me the different ways people buy there. some bid early some during and of course the last second guys who seem to always beat me out. i think the best bet would be if you guys would not bid at all and therefore it would make it a lot easier for me to win! just an idea.

on the trainz auctions it amazes me that someone in charge doesn't pay closer attention to what is listed how it is listed and the pictures taken i especially like the tender rear against the cab you just know there's a lot of thought there. 

as someone stated it's more like 7.50 an hour in the south trust me its not what they are paid as i closed an auto repair shop in tn and one of my employees left a trans inspection plug on the rack when i asked him as he was lowering the car why the plug was on the rack he said "you can't expect me to put all the parts back on" yes his last day and yes paid more than 7.50 hr. its people don't care anymore. so the owner supervisor has to supervise to make it happen.

People don't care anymore is right...sad but right.  As for auctions I bid what I am willing to pay and if it goes beyond my max...so be it.  I don't bid on everything just select things that I want...usually I get out bid but hey, that's the way it goes. 

And, for those looking for their missing tender, there's now a listing with 4 tenders and 2 hoppers,  

Ed, thanks for the info about Trainz.

I just wish eBay had a separate section for 2 rail. I hate wasting time looking through all the 3 rail stuff. They now have a section for On30. Why not create one for 2 rail?

Tranz swings and misses again - this time listing a powered brass interurban trolley as a passenger car. Are those door stop UPA-B-B  E units really Max Gray - or were they just found in a battered MG box?  This is like O scale archeology.   Can anyone identify them?

Ed Rappe

Somewhat tricky, but you can restrict your eBay search to drop out 99% of the 3-rail stuff.  O Scale Brass Imports drops most of it out.

I have a bookmarked search that starts out O Scale- Lionel-mth- HO-H.O. - you get the idea.  I further restrict it to items above some $ number to drop out the small parts.

keystone ed i'd say the A unit is an adams & son casting and i think the B units are baldwin

i'm sure the uninformed will bid these up since they are rare max gray units. that should be the surprise of a lifetime when they get a hernia taking them out of the box. at least when mom's SUNBEAM MIXMASTER's motor goes bad they will have an ideal replacement.

as i said before someone needs to take charge but maybe some people will get a good deal because of no one paying attention

I agree - nicky has a better eye than me, identifying the B units.  Only reason I looked is I thought Max had never done an E-7.  I love these old doorstops, but have too many.  They come in about four flavors, including 17/64, 1/4" scale, cast sides, and fabricated sides.  The B units also came in aluminum.  Some E-6 kits had etched nickel silver sides.

The Baldwin can be IDed by the lack of proper roof curvature.

B unit roofs have proper curvature.  These things are a mess.  Opinion.

This is my idea of a good doorstop - still needs handrails and horns, and maybe windows.  Runs great.

Thanks Bob.

well thats me!!...that how I win 98% of my auctions..bid at the last few seconds..plus having a fast laptop helps too....My 3rd rail S2 turbine I won from trainz had it listed as duplex..lol...acouple of there auctions they mixed PRR Q2 and PRR T1 tenders..The Q2 had the T1 tender and T1 had the Q2 tender...somebody there dont know there trains very well....

 I guess my Weaver post could have been added here!

It was listed as three rail. It has two rail wheels and may have been set up for stud rail. I wouldn't have known that as I've never seen stud rail. (thanks Ed!)