Has anyone else noticed that the prices being paid on eBay for many items has taken a significant plunge of late?
I reckon that it's now easier for potential buyers to find those previously considered 'hard to find' items, and consequently they are unwilling to pay the inflated prices which were being demanded by some swapmeet traders.
It might just be that some common sense is entering the model railway market, and 'used' items are now being viewed as just that, rather than obsolete and therefore 'collectable'.
you are spot on with this.... as many folks would know, I am keen on the old Rockets, Lord of the Isles and Caledonian Single locos. When I returned to the hobby a couple of years ago, these fetched as much as a couple of hundred dollars for a good one - more for boxed and much more for presentation sets. I was asked for a mint LOTI a few weeks ago and was happy to oblige with a beautiful example for $175 - the guy was honestly offended! he showed me auction numbers of items that he had bought - the lowest, which he admitted was a great deal, went for $79. Sure it was missing its springs and boxes, and one nameplate, but the rest was fine.
eBay has simply made it extremely easy for people who wish to, to sell their stuff..... and we can't deny it, many of those in our wonderful hobby are of advanced years (except me of course, I have decided to grow younger) so their children, grandchildren etc. are selling off their collections without concern for their "true value"
Others who know me well here, know my working time is spent in the marketing world - I would LOVE to create a series of ads for a major manufacturer in our field that reintroduces young people to the incredible world they can experience through railway and railroad modelling. This might breathe new life into the industry and encourage millions of newcomers to enjoy one of the world's most enjoyable hobbies. I have the series of ads already 'fleshed out' and production costs would be extremely reasonable. Maybe one day.........
The UK end of Ebay still seems far too expensive when compared to the rest of Europe. Even taking into account the additional distance involved and any possible postage costs, It is still cheaper to purchase from the European mainland than from the next town. Ebay of course makes this quite simple. Interestingly quite often postage and packing fees quoted from Belgian and German suppliers is often considerably less than that quoted by UK retailers. Having quite successfully used Japanese mainland and European mainland suppliers recently with no problems whatsoever, our club members are increasingly buying via Ebay from across the water.
Surely swapmeet traders have considerably higher 'up front' costs than the average Ebay trader. Venues have to be paid for and transport costs have to be recovered. The heyday for the 'toy fair' and swapmeet are surely long gone.
Common sense and hobbies are often the strangest of bedfellows, but who knows. Undoubtedly its often a cheaper and better proposition to purchase 2nd hand from the reputable high street trader who will more than likely be around a week later when the 'bargain' falls apart or support is needed.
Being more or less bound to ebay I must say that I still find prices rather high for almost everything except pure junk. UK sellers do often tend to make their p&p outrageously high - even SOF's like me can read the true costs off the net! Here in France it is cheaper to send to the UK and rest of Europe than internally thanks to a similar postal hike such as presently in train in the UK.
It does not explain why people are prepared to pay such high prices for used items which have new versions available from regular traders for less than 20% more and often without postal costs.
However, I still think that having working models of 30 & 40 years of age says a great deal for their design and manufacture no matter how poor the actual fidelity.
I can't say I've noticed any significant advantage from European retailers on postage charges within Europe..
In fact I've been put off from buying European HO-scale models from some European retailers because of their excessive postal charges, and in some instances their insistence on sending model by insured mail.
I've just today bought a Roco model from Portugal and the (uninsured) postage was quoted at EUR15.00 for an item I expect to weigh (when packed) under 1kg. If I'd been sending it in the other direction I would have charged postage at cost which I believe would have been GBP5.69 (appx EUR8.00).
In anticipation of the new Royal Mail 'size related' postal charges I've just *upped* my minimum UK postal charge to GBP2.70 which will cover anything weighing up to 1kg and anything over that weight is charged at cost, whether sent to the UK or overseas.
That's just what I want to hear having put off selling a lot of my surplus rolling stock until this week. :)
It's probably partly due, as others have suggested, to the fact that a lot of the old Lima output has either been bettered (or about to be) by other manufacturers or are about to be re-released (presumably with better mechanisms to boot) by Hornby. It's the same with Bachmann now having released most of the old Graham Farish range, but with much better mechanisms and/or paintwork.
Also I think that most people are now aware of Ebay and have probably had their fingers burnt once too often to take the risk.
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