Tim Brien said:
there are several sellers on eBay right now selling off LGB collections at prices that seem to me to be bargains. Unfortunately, lower 48 shipping only. What is it with these people? I would have purchased many items from them but alas, they are reluctant to go to the post office and would rather await the brown box truck to pick the items up at their homes!!!!Many sellers cite too many issues with bad buyers as their reason, but I believe it is the inconvenience of attending the post office that is the issue.</blockquote>Hi Tim,
I have been an eBay buyer and seller for over 10 years now (ID- Jerseytrain). I agree that the USA eBay sellers are making a mistake not selling overseas, I have had very good experiences with overseas buyers and will sell anywhere in the world.I think the problem is the perception that you cannot have proof of delivery with an overseas shipment from the US Post Office. There has been a compatibility problem with the various tracking systems used by each country’s postal system and that of the USPS. The customs form that is to accompany each parcel (CP16 , I think) has a tracking number on it that I previously thought was useless. I recently sold an item to a buyer in France. After a couple of weeks, I received the dreaded “where is my package” email. I plugged in the number from the customs form in the USPS Tracking window on their website and I found the package delivery attempt history (in english) and told my customer. I am not sure if the same can be said for Australia and the USPS, but it may be in place by now.
That being said, if there is anything in the States you need and cannot get, let me know, maybe I can help.
Paul
Tim, I was referring specificly to Buy It Now sellers, I too have seen those actual “auctions” where the starting prices are very low. but those are a definete minority, for every one of them there are 3 or 4 BIN Ebay stores asking the proverbial Arm & Leg. Try a little experiment, go to “G Scale” catagory, look at the total “Items Offered” for sale, then click the “Auction Only” tab, and 2/3 to 3/4 of the items dissappear. only 1/4 to 1/3 of the items offered are actual auctions, the rest are the Ebay Stores offering BIN only. BIN has been a terrible idea from the buyers perspective, it has driven prices up and gives a false idea of what the actual “street” prices things will sell for at auction prices. I routinely now click “auctions only” tab when I go on now, least I get pummeled by $2000 BIN prices for an LGB Chloe or Accucraft Casey Jr.
Actually I have both these engines…wonder if what PT Barnum said was right??? 
Vic…I sell most of my items BIN at sacrafice prices…Only way I can get 'em to sell. It’s also the only way I typically buy after I found out one of my best sources was “shill bidding” on their auctions. Yes you have to weed out the silly stuff but you may miss out ignoring BIN.
Recent BIN purchase was 4 AMS stock cars, NIB…$180.00!
Michael Moradzadeh said:............................................................................................................................................................ Hi Michael... I just got around to reading this thread today .... I feel the same as you do about doing it all for kids.
My primary driving goal in the layout of my system (track starts today, by the way) is the amusement of children. I consider this to be a worthy goal....I wonder whether I can some sort of fun "game" aspect to the whole thing. Switching puzzles seem to be one path....For now, just running around will be good enough, but I am waiting for inspiration to strike.
But I confess I do include my own inner kid as well !!
Switching puzzles are great IMO. I have Alan Wright’s classic puzzle, Inglenook
http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-inglenook.html
semi-permanently set up in the breezeway, and every time I go through there I can stop for a few minutes and do a puzzle. It’s great just to have the trains in there, on the track, and always ready to go - no fussing around bringing them out from the house or putting them away - just grab the controller and fire her up!
I also like Blindingly Obvious Car Routine (BOCR).
http://carendt.com/scrapbook/page89/index.html#BOCR
Developed by Paul Boehlert. I think a lot of kids would get a kick out of it too, but I haven’t tried it yet with youngsters because most of the stuff I do with kids I do at shows and this one’s a bit too complicated to carry around. It’s great if you can do a permanent setup, though.
Over the past two weeks I set up the other end of the Inglenook with BOCR - the breezeway setup is now over 30 feet long…
To represent the eight industries I have used building flats or small symbolic things, such as a Texaco truck for the fuel dealer (Texaco tank car), or a loader for the construction site (gondola). All this is to save on precious space, as I have it set up on table-high benchwork under there.
I’m interested to see how the two features will interact together… I have an open house scheduled for late May, when I’ll find out.
Meanwhile, out back, I have the Garden RR. Among other things out there I have a 20 ft x 10 ft loop for continuous running, which I find boring, but it’s a grand place for kids to play trains. Little ones love to give their toys a ride round and round, through the scenery and over the bridges, etc… I’ve had little children as young as three or four do this, running the trains themselves…
You need a loco and a few character toys such as those little things from MacDonalds. Put only open cars such as 3-4 gondolas behind the loco, nothing fancier… Give a little kid the controls and let them drop their toys into the gons, or not. They usually just do it. Have a supply of farm animals for them, and maybe some freight as well. I have a stash of crates and pipes and logs, etc. I let them run my Hartland 0-4-0+t for this, as it’s reliable, durable, and doesn’t have a lot of detail to get wrecked. The LGB Porter is good too.
I use hook and loop couplers on all my gear because kids can understand and manipulate them easily, and because they work well even on curves. When the couplers do fail, which I find is very seldom, kids can figure it out and fix it themselves. Not so with knuckles, in my experience, even for most adult novices. You can uncouple H&Ls easily with a credit card, a dull knifeblade, or similar tool.
Have fun with your trains, and love those little ones!
Tim Brien said:I coined the phrase ( We ONLY ship to the lower 48 states ) a couple of years ago after USPS did away with surface shipping and only ship by air now. Prices went up 4x's and people thought you were trying to charge to much, Plus over sea's shipping paper work is just to much of a hassle and not worth a Ebay sale. Lower 48 only for this boy.
One seller who pops up often on eBay and is a regular red box supporter here on this forum, will not ship outside the lower 48. Many sellers cite too many issues with bad buyers as their reason, but I believe it is the inconvenience of attending the post office that is the issue. One seller even tried to charge me $10.00 per item simply for the inconvenience of standing in line at the P.O. He lost my business quick smart. I sell on eBay locally and accept the time taken at the post office as part of the sale.
Nicholas Savatgy said:Yep that's the way it goes with many of the eBay sellers. But the "USA only" was in fashion long before USPS changed to Air. And yet and yet, when I order from the US I choose "via USPS" (if I get that choice). Just like I buy from regular dealers, eBay is not even a consideration. So it cuts both ways. ;) :) We all pick and choose, the only difference is if there are no buyers the seller has a problem, unlike the buyer who can always find another seller with the same goods and conditions he can live with.Tim Brien said:I coined the phrase ( We ONLY ship to the lower 48 states ) a couple of years ago after USPS did away with surface shipping and only ship by air now. Prices went up 4x's and people thought you were trying to charge to much, Plus over sea's shipping paper work is just to much of a hassle and not worth a Ebay sale. Lower 48 only for this boy.
One seller who pops up often on eBay and is a regular red box supporter here on this forum, will not ship outside the lower 48. Many sellers cite too many issues with bad buyers as their reason, but I believe it is the inconvenience of attending the post office that is the issue. One seller even tried to charge me $10.00 per item simply for the inconvenience of standing in line at the P.O. He lost my business quick smart. I sell on eBay locally and accept the time taken at the post office as part of the sale.
As always strictly my opinion.
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:Nicholas Savatgy said:Yep that's the way it goes with many of the eBay sellers. But the "USA only" was in fashion long before USPS changed to Air. And yet and yet, when I order from the US I choose "via USPS" (if I get that choice). Just like I buy from regular dealers, eBay is not even a consideration. So it cuts both ways. ;) :) We all pick and choose, the only difference is if there are no buyers the seller has a problem, unlike the buyer who can always find another seller with the same goods and conditions he can live with.Tim Brien said:I coined the phrase ( We ONLY ship to the lower 48 states ) a couple of years ago after USPS did away with surface shipping and only ship by air now. Prices went up 4x's and people thought you were trying to charge to much, Plus over sea's shipping paper work is just to much of a hassle and not worth a Ebay sale. Lower 48 only for this boy.
One seller who pops up often on eBay and is a regular red box supporter here on this forum, will not ship outside the lower 48. Many sellers cite too many issues with bad buyers as their reason, but I believe it is the inconvenience of attending the post office that is the issue. One seller even tried to charge me $10.00 per item simply for the inconvenience of standing in line at the P.O. He lost my business quick smart. I sell on eBay locally and accept the time taken at the post office as part of the sale.As always strictly my opinion.
Like my Daddy use to say “Theres a Butt for every seat”
http://www.largescalecentral.com/LSCForums/viewtopic.php?id=16664
Yes, Nicholas.
I added my 2 cents to that thread on why I’m much happier getting stuff out of Germany. And I didn’t even mention the much better selection/availability.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/nicholas_savatgy/_forumfiles/good.gif)
Wish I could find something to buy from Germany, But no what im interested in is sold here in the USA.
Depending on what you are selling, shipping overseas can be a pain in the butt or a breeze.
The fellows in England and Japan give you more money and a lot less hassle than most domestic buyers for live steam items. the guys in Oz will give you a pretty good price on locos and rolling stock. FWIW, an awful lot of (too many) Americans tend to be cheap, and have a bad attitude. Sad but true.
The only places that I won’t ship to are Eastern Europe, Central Africa, and a few places in Southeast Asia and the cocaine areas of South America
I have had only an occasional bit of pain on international shipping (the worst was a O-16.5/7mm narrow gauge sale to a Swiss guy…oy!) mostly from filling out some bit of paperwork wrong or the like. But like Mik, a lot of problems with folks here.
The counter of this is I have paid through the nose in the past to get large and heavy automotive parts shipped out of Europe. A full set of Citroen DS/ID headlights (buckets, four lamps, hardware, glass covers) cost more in shipping than the lamps. They looked pretty on the car tho… Last time I tried to get a set of Euro lights the vendor in Holland would not even sell to me, stating that I would not pay the shipping (how does he know…).
Anyhow, I have sold stuff on eBay both in and out of the country, and especially with “El GeeBeah”, the English et al will tend to pay a bit more than domesticated folks.
Anyhow Tim, is there anything Euro LGB wise you are looking for…I am having a bit of a clean out in the near future… Granted, I am in the US, but I will ship to those in Oz (I have a few 009 models from there already).
Garrett… Try shipping a 9 foot long pvc tube filled with aluminum rail out of the country, or anything over about 50 pounds for that matter… It ain’t the paperwork so much. It’s the air freight carriers. I think maybe they’re all in the Jersey mob - Extortion Central with a heaping side of 'tude.
The only problem I’ve ever had with the UK is their customs folks sometimes take a week or two to clear stuff, especially during the holidays. Shipping to Canada is usually a breeze. So is Japan. The French, OTOH often act like they are doing you a favor by allowing you to sell to them… a lot like your average 'murrican, but with slightly better manners. The really screwy thing about Oz is it costs 1/3 more to ship the same size/weight package there, as it does for them to ship it here. I guess the planes use a lot more fuel going than coming back? 
For those who are afraid of the customs forms, I haven’t had any yet from the USPS that took more than about 3 minutes to fill out. The short green form for small stuff takes less than 1… fill it out for full sale value, then you can list the stuff as ‘toy train", or "toy train parts’, fill in both addys and you’re done. Just remember to make sure it’s fully insured. Fleabay’s lowball domestic shipping guesstimator causes me more headaches than the international customs forms ever will.
I’ve experienced much of the issue that Tim describes in what appears like very short sightedness in not wanting to ship outside the 48 states.
If there is an item I’m really interested in, I’ll email the seller and kindly ask if I can be allowed to bid, and explain that I’ll pay for obviously all extra shipping and taxes etc. For the most part, these guys to let me have a go.
There are some however who will not let me bid and are quite rude about it. There are at least 3 examples in the last year where I was prepared to bid, yet was not allowed to, and the item went unsold - sometimes unsold over several attempts. Stupid people - they dont realise there is a big wide world out there with money, where the US is doing it tough, and for the sake of not spending an extra 20 mins to deal with the post office, they’re either not selling what they need to sell, or getting much less $$ that they would otherwise get.
The best story is this one -
Last year I saw a Delton Brass CP Huntington on ebay for $1800. I was interested, emailed the guy who told me to piss off. The item didn’t sell.
A month later he relists it for $1600. Still doesn’t sell.
Two weeks later he tried to sell it for $1400, and it doesn’t sell.
Then he tries to sell it for $1000. I email him again and he refuses to reply.
I get my friend in the US to buy it on my behalf, and ship it to me. It was immaculate condition and good running.
I was happy with the price, but had the dick head been prepared to sell out side the US he would have gotten $800 more for it. He lost $800 for being too short sighted to spend 20 mins in the post office. Who earns $800 for 20 mins work?
Almost the same story happenned a couple of months back.
Others however have let me bid and items have sold, even with other international bidders.
Its a global community guys - get over the 48 states only crap.
Many thanks,
David.
David Fletcher said:
I've experienced much of the issue that Tim describes in what appears like very short sightedness in not wanting to ship outside the 48 states. If there is an item I'm really interested in, I'll email the seller and kindly ask if I can be allowed to bid, and explain that I'll pay for obviously all extra shipping and taxes etc. For the most part, these guys to let me have a go.There are some however who will not let me bid and are quite rude about it. There are at least 3 examples in the last year where I was prepared to bid, yet was not allowed to, and the item went unsold - sometimes unsold over several attempts. Stupid people - they dont realise there is a big wide world out there with money, where the US is doing it tough, and for the sake of not spending an extra 20 mins to deal with the post office, they’re either not selling what they need to sell, or getting much less $$ that they would otherwise get.
The best story is this one -
Last year I saw a Delton Brass CP Huntington on ebay for $1800. I was interested, emailed the guy who told me to piss off. The item didn’t sell.A month later he relists it for $1600. Still doesn’t sell.
Two weeks later he tried to sell it for $1400, and it doesn’t sell.
Then he tries to sell it for $1000. I email him again and he refuses to reply.
I get my friend in the US to buy it on my behalf, and ship it to me. It was immaculate condition and good running.
I was happy with the price, but had the dick head been prepared to sell out side the US he would have gotten $800 more for it. He lost $800 for being too short sighted to spend 20 mins in the post office. Who earns $800 for 20 mins work?Almost the same story happenned a couple of months back.
Others however have let me bid and items have sold, even with other international bidders.Its a global community guys - get over the 48 states only crap.
Many thanks,
David.
Unfortunately your case is rare, most people on Ebay from over sea’s cry like little girls when you tell them how much its cost.
I use to ship over sea’s without a problem till prices went thru the roof, plus you have 20 different people emailing for a shipping
quote from different country’s it just got to be way to much of a hassle.
I also had one guy try some funny stuff with customs and then tried to blame me for it, Of course I did nothing wrong.
So no more over sea’s shipping for me.
Hi Hear you Nick,
I’ve never asked for a shipping quote during the auction, people should be able to figure out approximately how much it is themselves. Best thing to do is allow international bidders and just explain that shipping cost will be worked out after. Note that the item is heavy or large and therefore costs will be high.
Thanks mate,
David.
I have had quite a few ‘issues’ with sellers that almost had me looking for an exit from the hobby. To date, I am close to $5000.00, yes $5000.00 out of pocket from unscrupulous ‘gentlemen’ who exploited eBay and the old USPS economy/surface shipping time. At the time, surface shipping took a minimum eight weeks to ship to Australia. The maximum time to raise a PayPal dispute or lodge a complaint with eBay is six weeks. Thus a seller could pretend to ship the item, even sending USPS shipping details and yet the items never reached me. After awaiting the shipping time, I was always unsuccessful with contacting the seller and as usual eBay offered no help. After six weeks, no point in contacting the police as eBa have no records and in reality, the police see eBay fraud as a personal matter, not as fraud.
EBay always relies on trust and these ‘gentlemen’ exploited the trust issue to the maximum. I reported the issues to USPS as these people were demanding shipping costs and then not shipping, which constitutes fraud. Of cause, USPS never responded.
One seller, a powerseller from New Joisey, even relisted my LGB items eight months later. Three times I contacted eBay during his listings and eBay’s reply was , “Mr.Brien, seller XXXXX is a well know powerseller with an impecable feedback and he would never do such a thing.” Of cause EBay mysteriously had no record of my purchases, even though PayPal records proved the case. Other cases, sellers with 100% feedback simply took my money and ran.
I am no fool when it came to purchases and prior each bid, I would thoroughly research each seller’s feedback record, taking note of buyer’s feedback comments as to the quality of their service. I never dealt with potentially shoddy sellers. I considered myself an astute bidder and yet got taken down. These unscrupulous sellers almost ended the hobby for me. This is now many years ago and I generally now stick to ‘friends’ who have proven their mettle. Occasionally, I will risk it with a new seller unknown to me if I really want the item. 99% of the time bids have been rewarded, but alas, it is those 1% of bids that stick in the memory.
The best thing USPS did was cease surface shipping. This basically took the corrupt sellers out of eBay. I have not been taken for a ride since airmail shipping was the only option and to date have received every item purchased. Economy/surface shipping was a money saver, but when making multiple purchases like I was back then, the risks were too high.
Nicholas Savatgy said:Nick, that is complete hogwash! As a buyer, I like to be treated the same way as I would being a seller of an item. I would only ship with the cheapest possible means and that is USPS. No point sending me an invoice from UPS or FedEx with a shipping cost of $500.00 to ship a $300.00 item. If I sent you the same invoice you would tell me to fornicate myself. Does not the same principle apply to you as you would have it apply to me?
Unfortunately your case is rare, most people on Ebay from over sea's cry like little girls when you tell them how much its cost.
Unlike the States, other countries do not have the postal services that you have. The post office is generally a monopoly and courier services are expensive and generally used only by businesses. Your door to door shipping companies like UPS are actually international freight companies that treat every shipment as a business transaction and charge the maximum. In general the same item shipped by both USPS and UPS could be five times more expensive with UPS. In reality, would you pay the exhorbitant invoices that you no doubt have asked overseas bidders to pay? Whose crying like a little girl now?I won’t single out “people from overseas”.
But people on eBay quite frequently will ding you a star or two over shipping, and leave less than desirable comments about shipping costs.
I’ve had it happen several times, when the buyers paid LESS than actual shipping costs.
As a result, I now have FREE SHIPPING. Of course, nothing is free, and the shipping cost is built in to my lowest acceptable price.
But at least now, the a-holes can’t complain about shipping
I only ship to the “lower 48” too. With eBay/PayPal’s policy of offering refunds even when you state “no refunds/no returns”, I’m not about to eat the shipping for something going overseas.
Ralph
Tim, the point is what it is, it cost what it cost Period…No use arguing the point cause that fact is it’s too much $ and to much of a hassle for most to ship out of the states. You seem to think that everyone on Ebay is a dealer and gets special pricing on shipping, Thats not the way it is, more than 50% of sellers on Ebay are just average Joes looking to turn over some stuff so they can buy other stuff. A flea market so to speak. They don’t have an advantage of having UPS,Fedex, USPS accounts for deep shipping discounts, or to have them pick it up at my home like dealers do. Final word for me would be if you dont like it there are others on Ebay that may help you, hog wash nope, truth yup… And a special day to you Sir. Nick
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