The Ebay vent thread.

[MSteele]

I thought i would start a vent thread b/c i have seen lately that everyone has a complaint about sellers buying up models from Wal-Mart and jacking up the price not to mention depleting all the supplys at wal-mart and ECT.

[skunk]

What's ECT?

[cfesmire]

Vent about my experiences on ebay? Do you have a year to listen? I used to like browsing ebay to find unusual or hard to find pieces. These days it's very predictable as to what it is I'm going to find. I'm sick to death of the Boley, Imex, and Walmart pieces (MotorMax, Fresh Cherries, Malibu trucks and cars and Norscot cheapo versions) that inundate the pages of what used to be a very interesting place to purchase fleeting and odd 1/87 scale pieces. Pricing has become unpredictable for buyers and finicky for sellers. Not a good place to conduct searches for good 1/87 scale pieces and equally bad for selling quality pieces.
Sellers that don't want to pay to put reserve prices on auctions, now try to make up for it with high shipping costs. Hyped up sites are selling out of scale garbage are getting outrageous prices with their glitzy marketing giving the phrase "buyer beware" a whole new meaning. I've been an ebay seller and buyer for many years now and as with anything that starts out great has turned south quickly with too many having the hopes of getting rich quick and/or scamming the buying public. I use it anymore basically because it's the only game in town and infrequently at that.
Sorry for the rant but believe me, I've kept it brief.

[MSteele]

skunk said:

What's ECT?

and so on. short for excetera < Do not know if the spelling is correct.

[RAOlson]

I still search e-vil-bay for items, but as Chester stated, there are too many pages of re-sale items and cheap junk. It's still decent for buyers for those few special auctions, as long as you can wait to bid for the item at the last second, as I've been sniped several times.

ePay is horrible for sellers with all the listing/ sold-item fees they keep increasing! Add in the fees for accepting Paypal as a seller, it gets to be ridiculous!

I will admit, I used it recently to make some money on some items, but with the time it took, the money they take, it's just not worth it.
RAOlson

[stanhas87]

Dear All:

Being a multi-scale collector,I use eBay for two things: one,find what I am looking for;two,the pictures from models I just heard of (so I add this to my ever growing files). Besides the so-called cheap items and marketing that says buy...buy...buy,I manage to find very interesting and unusual items whose picture I will put on 'my eBay' and later,on 'My Documents'.As an example,there were,around 1972,only a handful of 1/1 scale AMC Matadors with Manual Tranny;found one for sale,and bingo,part of my files now!!

I also check items in 1/87 scale (I type 1/87 scale) and manage to find nice items now and then;that is right,not much is avaliable.I also go abroad to Europe;in this case,is 'picture hunting' .Paid off,by finding nice photos of the Greek made HO Trucks by AB (Vassilis Brothers).I agree that in the USA,1/87 now is flooded by Malibus and absurdely-priced Motormaxes.

Grell is a line of 1/64 scale cars which molds East German,German and Russian cars.So,since these are avaliable only in Germany or Europe,I can only go for 'photo hunting',because the 'Sold in Germany only' or high shipping charges are frustating.

The ignorance and greed are the two frustating events which plague eBay on my opinion.Otherwise,since I am looking for several items (some are these-called junk) in there and/or I 'hunt for photos' my complaints are at the minimum.

I also have some 'favorite dealers' there and they always deliver as far I am concerned because they deal with the items I want. That,in a way,helps

Long Runt,I know.