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johned53
894 Posts |
 Posted - 11/01/2009 : 17:48:41
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Interesting topic. I used to buy/sell weekly, mostly to "flip" locos, and make enough to buy what I wanted to keep.
IMO, the market has changed in a few ways, and so has eBay. It's not as "easy" to flip stuff for a profit. With the higher fees, you have to get "top dollar", and that's harder to do.
Kato made me a lot of money the way they used to release engines/passenger sets. Now, with more releases, and quicker announcements of things to come, there just aren't as many "rare" Katos pulling in the big bucks.
I still buy every so often, but haven't sold anything for quite a while.
eBay/PayPal is a big machine............"It can be heaven, or it can be hell" |
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jagged ben
535 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2009 : 18:06:56
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I hope it is legit to mention that trainboard.com has a "trainstore" section of it's website. I have had several good experiences with buying that way. Also, although I've no experience with it, I occasionally hear good things about the N scale yardsale yahoo group. And you know, MR still has classifieds. Just pointing out that there ARE other options.
quote:
They don't want the person who is selling off his beloved boxcar collection at $8.00 per boxcar. They want to be a retail outlet for large dealers.
The ironic thing is that eBay built its business on the first category of sellers. Having now got a captive audience of buyers, they've made a business decision to squeeze all sellers, and only the big ones can take it. I'm sure it looks good for their short-term bottom line, but they probably are doing long term damage to their business. |
Edited by - jagged ben on 11/01/2009 18:07:45 |
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oldbill_indy
USA
804 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2009 : 19:23:50
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| I have not had any problems buying items on Ebay. I simply do not bid unless the seller will accept a postal money order. I will send them a message in advance asking if they will accept one. Most,if not all,will. |
VICTOR DESERVES HIS ATLANTIC BECAUSE I SAY SO!
My Layout Looks Pretty Good From 100 ft!
All men are not created equal and that is why I need a good repair service or Victor! |
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Kisatchie
USA
2835 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2009 : 19:50:13
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quote:
Originally posted by oldbill_indy
...I simply do not bid unless the seller will accept a postal money order. I will send them a message in advance asking if they will accept one. Most,if not all,will.
I do the same thing. In my experience, most sellers are glad to accept a money order.
Hmm... nobody will take one
of my money orders payable
in Royal Bananas... |
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rschaffter
USA
2093 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2009 : 07:33:44
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Noel Arnold ran a site called Ethical Auctions for a couple of years, but it didn't catch on and is now defunct.
For private sales there is the Trainstore over at Trainboard, and the N Scale Yardsale group at Yahoo groups... |
Cheers,
Rod Schaffter
--
C'mon in! Sit a spell...
http://z11.invisionfree.com/N_Scale_Talk/
On your Layout, do what you think is fun. If it doesn't work, fix it and learn from the experience so you will have fun next time. It's your Railroad. |
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fordhamroad
USA
631 Posts |
Posted - 11/02/2009 : 22:56:20
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-ebid looked interesting. Has possibilities, but of course much smaller than the Other One.
-if you want to continue the old ways of paying without paypal, Thatbay does allow a seller to accept money orders, but only if the purchaser asks, in an inquiry, if seller will accept money orders instead of paypal. Apparently the seller can't advertise that money orders are still acceptable. In the last two weeks, four out of five sellers I contacted "I would like to bid on xxx if I can pay with a money order instead of paypal" indicated that they would be glad to take money orders. A few sounded very happy that I asked. Wouldn't it be interesting if about twenty thousand people did this.
-so I think I will continue to make limited use of Thatbay, using money orders when acceptable. But I do need to ask in advance each time to see if it would be acceptable. It's a bit of a nuisance using money orders, post office, mailing etc. But I don't like to support the monopolists who turned a nice countercultural institution like the Bay into Big Banking.
Roger |
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Zug
Canada
819 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2009 : 16:49:53
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Your right, feebay forbids sellers to from saying they take ANY form of payment other then paypunks, which they do own. You'd think that'd be some sort of monopoly/antitrust type thing... If a seller did, the delete the listing with out warning, and threaten to restrict they're ability to sell again if they ever do it again. I was trying to sell my mother's walker after she passed away 2 years ago, it was only a couple weeks old and because it was too big to realistically ship, I mention cash on pick up, and they deleted my listing and made that threat.
I use to take money orders all the time for my shareware program. The overseas ones can be a hassle because of bank fees, I had one returned by the bank.. and the customer never sent payment by other means.. But otherwise, I've seen money orders from all over the world in the past. But by the same token, I'm not big on putting my address on my website either. So I'm looking for other alternative for payments. Amazon.ca has something that my be useful to me.
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Kent..
author of ZugDCC - Simply the best software for Lenz ExpressNet http://www.kentsoftware.com
Railroad Photo Galery http://www.kenttimm.com/railroad-gallery
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Zug
Canada
819 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2009 : 18:14:47
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To wrap up this thread, I thought I'd post my last email I sent to paypunks a few days ago, needless to say, they didn't have the nerve to answer this time.
quote:
While I don't expect any results from replying to your email, I am only doing to make it clear I find this hold policy of your very objectionable and unfair to sellers. There's is nothing you can say that will make me change my mind sort of this ridiculous policy being removed. I've emailed the buyer and even he agrees this policy is "sad".
When I started my accounts over 7 years ago, I sold some high price items back then, with no seller or buyer history and no feedback stuff.. And got the money on the spot, now 7 years later, with a 100% positive feedback on ebay and not one complaint ever, I'm treated like a criminal by paypal and ebay.
It's clear that paypal and ebay are only interested can catering to high volume sellers and not individual casual sellers. And from talking on online forums, many other people feel the same about this as I do.
I've canceled my other auctions that were running. And have no plans to sell on ebay in the future. I have, btw, I have already have found a buyer and sold those items to the buyer who is very happy with them, with no interference from PP.
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Kent..
author of ZugDCC - Simply the best software for Lenz ExpressNet http://www.kentsoftware.com
Railroad Photo Galery http://www.kenttimm.com/railroad-gallery
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umtrr-author
1983 Posts |
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DanBI
USA
70 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2009 : 08:12:13
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With the ubiquity of PayPal, how have they escaped being regulated as a bank?
They must have really good lobbyists in D.C. |
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Dan
N scale, dabbling in T scale |
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Zug
Canada
819 Posts |
Posted - 11/16/2009 : 20:13:51
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Just a follow up on the paypunks post...
The Aussy buyer got the stuff. left the positive feedback and I finally got my money available to me.
I've gone ahead and bought a NCE PowerCab and computer interface and have started work on the NCE version of ZugDCC  [:-propeller][:-party]
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Kent..
author of ZugDCC - Simply the best software for Lenz ExpressNet http://www.kentsoftware.com
Railroad Photo Galery http://www.kenttimm.com/railroad-gallery
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RANT: mad at Paypal and ebay.. again
