Ebay

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The gist is this: even reputable sellers seem to be behaving badly as of late.

They won't be reputable sellers for long.........

[up148]

As I stated the quality of the sellers on EB has changed and the only one I trust anymore is Bill. There's a seller in Indiana who is exetremely well know in O scale circles and he has become a major gouger over the last several years. He's also been dogging Bill's listing and listing the same item for high BIN prices hoping to pick the bidder who lost on Bill's auction...........doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out......I think his behavior is scummy. I don't know him except by reputation, but I kow a couple guys who know well and they've changed their opinion of him.

Packing is a sore spot with me. I like to get compliments on my shipping and always do. I'd rather the buyers surprise upon arrival is that the quality of the product was better and the boxing was the best they've seen. Like most of us who care I keep all shipping supplies from deliveries and have a big arsenal of boxes, peanuts and bubble wrap that I got free.

I don't want to mislead and appear to be a Boy Scout, but I learned at 13 being a sacker in a local grocery store that there is a right way and a dont' give a sh*t way of doing things.

[Pacific Limited]

Listen to this epoch! -Butch, maybe the same fellow? I cannot disclose names.

G22's, eBay, train show, 3 years, Ballon offers, mismatched containers, ruined paint, and dirty secrets passed on to me...

I bought a model I've always loved and missed out on in 2009 from Kohs, one of those amazing G22 gons with the LCL containers off a guy at a 2 rail show.

I trusted the model's integrity off the table; he was not excited about me handling the model to inspect it, my HUGE mistake... it was priced fairly at 650.00 and had been converted to P48. I assumed since I am mostly O5W, I could either replace the trucks or some other process to regain use of it on my layout. I understood that, it was marked P48.

He was from the Midwest, and a cordial and friendly man at the show and we all know him. I paid him in cash after a swap and a deal with another fellow, I am not part of the B-man class and walk around with 50k in my pocket.

I got home after we closed up the show, I was part of the staff and was delighted to have a look at my beloved G22b.

Well, it turns out it was victim to a literal fire-sale. As I found out after a few emails with some friends It was probably bought from the leftovers from Norm's tragic wildfire a number of years back. I cant prove this, but it all makes sense. It had fire retardant or something that had stained and ruined the paint all over it and the containers, Its toast. Whatever the liquid was, it sat in the gon long enough to leave a ring stain for its depth of Maybe 3/4 of an inch, a frosty white line etched into the paint work. Spots on the containers and also the line was around the containers. Here's where the fun starts... The containers were also mismatched. Kohs did 2 different styles, a higher version and a chained lower version. I had both in an even split. Between the nice P48 conversion and cut lever from Norm and his stamp inside the box lid I managed to find an interesting car.

I was told by others in the community these models that were left over from the fire had managed to be sold to other guys that were like this car. Not bad, not necessarily damaged or sort of, but still good models that could be repainted, weathered, and enjoyed yet. That was not what I was after. Lesson learned, please inspect models at shows. Never assume. This car is a basket case, an insurance write off. To a collector, junk.

A few months went by and my continued search on eBay for another to my delight turned out was this same seller, offering another one with the the opposite issue on the containers. My immediate reaction was this must be another from the same owner, so I contacted him and it turned out to be the same seller. I was delighted but the 700.00 price on eBay was out of my reach since I thought I would buy this car and simply combine to straighten them out and resell one. But the paint is trashed... what to do? Here's the deal for me. I'm at 650.00 already for a car that sold new, mint for 600.00 and mine was for all intents, salvaged and a write off on some insurance policy and sold at a fire sale to a dealer for I don't know how much.. a few hundred? Its toast. Even with weathering its stained unrealistically on the outside. "Water spots"... so I need to pay 750.00 (tax, shipping) for another to get my containers right?, and this other car was revealed on the eBay auction having issues, not as bad as mine, but bad. Not mint collectors grade. BT would sell it as-is at a discount likely the same way this seller had bought it. -yuck!

I contacted him, it had been 6 months and I did not know his name and he admitted to remembering me buying at the show, the other one. I pleaded with him to consider trading the containers. At first he said yes, then it was off, then he ended the eBay sale running because it was listed not showing his containers were mismatched. He and I talked again, then he lowered his price to 550.00 off eBay. I was tempted but I really didn't have the money. ----2 years past.

I bought a beautiful 6 dome PSC tank car from him off his eBay to repaint to Gibson Wine and at a premium price around 500.00. I paid him right away and begged him to include the mismatched containers and I would return the others to him. He was OK with that. A week went by, my tank car came and no containers. I asked him, no reply.

Another year went by. Its been 3 years since I bought the G22b at the show. At this point I cannot remember and unsure how, but he contacted me out of the blue! Said he found his G22b and wanted to straighten out the containers. This was a few months ago in March. After the most unusual chain of events, phone calls with wierd results over my private- no caller ID, and so on, he finally sent them in April. God Bless, finally.

They came and too my dismay they too had the same paint damage from the fire retardant, I think??, it may have been just water, but no matter I cannot clean it off, it ate away at the factory paint. Ruined. I cannot sell this car as a decent model. Even weathered in 1970s era heavily, and its the 40s era anyway, look, its toast. Strip and repaint. Its tragic. Even after getting the containers, its still mostly junk. Donation fodder for Youth and Model Railroading here. No way its worth 650.00. Maybe I would ask 225.00, that would be a stretch.

I still as of yet, not returned the containers I have for him. I need to, and I will very soon. But I am still frustrated. Its my fault I didn't examine the model at the show. Absolutely dumb on my part, I trusted him. I had no reason not to. He did not disclose the issues. Or he didn't know? Who does that? I mean its not hard to tell, good grief, anyone who can model P48 can see this car had mismatched containers and salvaged paint.

Well its been 3 years plus. 650.00, numerous emails, strange phone calls, and finally 3 years I have a car in correct configuration with dead paint and now incorrect O5W trucks. Ugh, talk about a joke. The litte guy always pays. This car was a insurance write off and sold at above MSRP.. fraud.

I will likely strip it someday and repaint. I don't want too. I finally got a nice one last winter from Richard Dunn, he's awesome and its just like new. MINT! Thanks Richard. We all miss your dad. Good guy. Both of them.

Caveat Emptor friends.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Packing is a sore spot with me. I like to get compliments on my shipping and always do. I'd rather the buyers surprise upon arrival is that the quality of the product was better and the boxing was the best they've seen. Like most of us who care I keep all shipping supplies from deliveries and have a big arsenal of boxes, peanuts and bubble wrap that I got free.

I have had 1 complaint over my packing and that was it was too much work to unpack it all - I tend to go a little excessive when shipping steam engines,

I do have 1 loco I want to sell but I just do not want to deal with the grief and trouble of shipping it now.