Crazy Auctions / Prices Thread

[railsquid]

 

2 hours ago, bill937ca said:

Partially assembled. No window glazing. Yikes!!!!

 

Umm, looks fully assembled and is a pretty nicely done custom model of a unique prototype. The pictures show different stages of the build.

Edited January 1, 2023 by railsquid

[cteno4]

That is a unique build. Very nice progression of photos showing their process. Silver is such a hard paint to do at scale. Nice job.

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Some deluded joker wants JPY 9800 for a pair of 1970s Lima British outline maroon Mk1 coaches: https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f1076235375. because they look a bit like the coaches in the train from the Harry Potter film.

[JR 500系]

the E331 series sold for 302,000 yen. yes that's right, 302,000 yen. Simply wowzers. The guy who held the bid for 300k yen must be banging his head now, probably got snipped at the last min by 2000 yen...

[railsquid]

Or maybe they were really really hoping the bid entered late at night under the influence of adult fizzy drinks was not the last one, and are feeling super relieved now.

[jappomania]

so..🥲

https://zenmarket.jp/en/auction.aspx?itemCode=e1075523970

 

 

where should I put this, here or in the other topic "What did you order or the post deliver?" 👀

(still the last one fu...ing Tomix Omiya 200系 and I think I can retire....)

 

mandi!  

Massimo

[disturbman]

Wait, what? That seems excessive.

[jappomania]

On 1/5/2023 at 5:40 PM, disturbman said:

Wait, what? That seems excessive.

 

😭 unfortunately not so much, in the last 2 years I found this one on sale only 3-4 times and the price was around 40-45K JPY for an used/junk item till 55-60K for slightly used

obviously this item is overpriced (original price was around 23.000JPY) if you simply want one E3-2000, the Tohohu decal can be applied on a standard model released from Tomix or Kato, I agree, it was just to complete the collection

the Omiya special sets are nightmare for foreign collector like me and when it was released I lost it because I was "out of order" and now I have to pay a little more (anyway, if necessary I can sell one of my Tomix EVA, but not yet)

now I wait the "unicorn", the last one - 200 K47 93542 - that still missing and I saw only one time till now.......

some Shinkansen models are rare... some are expensive....  but just 5-6 are both things 🦄 and collecting H0 is too much dangerous

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by jappomania

[disturbman]

I just never had noticed that other Shinkansens could reach that high of a price beside the EVA ones

[roadstar_na6]

6 hours ago, disturbman said:

I just never had noticed that other Shinkansens could reach that high of a price beside the EVA ones

 

Excuse me sir, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and saviour the Tenshodo H0 500 Series?

[marknewton]

On 1/7/2023 at 8:37 AM, jappomania said:

collecting H0 is too much dangerous

You reckon? I think you're right! 😂

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

Edited January 8, 2023 by marknewton

[railsquid]

Got 60,000 yen burning a hole in your pocket and need a job lot of "vintage" (sic) 1970s Lima products (and a random EF65)? Look no further: https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h1065118118

 

[Jimbo]

whats up with these ebay sellers?? over priced or just taking advantage of those who dont know? i placed an offer on a locomotive {seller has been sitting on it for over 6 months} he declined  my offer never gave me a chance to change my offer?? so i guess im going to assume that someone finally paid them full boat for it??  i can buy these all day long from hobbysearch or plazz japan for maybe at the outside 50 bucks a pice!! granted 34 bucks for DHL shipping but some things i get in under a week from japan! plazza japan had the same one for 49.95  seller had theirs listed at 99.00 with 10.00 shipping, so we all know where i shopped!  Yes its a Micro Ace god help me lol  well so much for my rant,,

[bill937ca]

Scalpers are a reality of the Japanese model train scene. I think it comes from the Japanese production and distribution system. This applies not only to model trains, but other more commonplace items too. The high cost o land precludes massive warehouses. New products are announced, reservations are taken and the product is produced and moved out to retailers. In some cases if you don't reserve the item you may not be able to get it because it sells out immediately. From what I understand Japanese retailers have up to six months to pay for the stock. This probably replaces the cost of warehousing  in the distribution chain. There are a lot of wholesalers, but when I have seen photos of a wholesalers facility it was no larger than a medium sized store in North America.  After the stuff disappears from the stores, the scalpers show up.  In Japan you could shuffle off checking out small train shops for rare items. There now are online options like Zenmarket that plucks items out of small shops. Stock that may not be moving in their home market.  Some of this information is from Marketing in Japan.

[brill27mcb]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

whats up with these ebay sellers?? over priced or just taking advantage of those who dont know? ...

 

Both!

 

I have not sold things on Ebay, but when I make offers it seems that there is a selling option whereby offers at 80% or higher can be automatically accepted. Maybe below that they can also be automatically declined - I don't really know. So it doesn't mean the item was sold to someone else, or necessarily that the seller made an individual, non-automated decision on your offer. Many of these sellers, both those in Japan and the classic Newhall Station, seem happy to just list these forever, walking off and leaving the hook in the water until a really dumb fish comes along...

 

A conscientious seller would at least check what similar items have already sold for, and then price it somewhere in or near that range. Those that are not conscientious, or are just scalpers, do not do that. They mostly waste everyone's time going through extraneous search results and give novice buyers a false notion that Japanese model trains must be expensive.  <-- my contribution to your rant.

 

If my offer is not accepted and a counter offer is proposed, I tell the seller that Ebay instructs me to make my "best" offer, which is what I have already done. Then I move on.

 

For currently available items, use Hobby Search or Plaza Japan listings as a reference price, then mentally factor in any shipping cost difference. For "no longer available" items, multiply that reference price up by a factor that reflects your desire but also your sensibility.

 

Rich K.

[disturbman]

Honestly, it depends a bit the context. If the seller jimbo is talking about is in Japan, then it's a scalper and their pricing is bad. If the seller is located stateside, then 99 USD that would cost 84 USD to import is not that bad once you factor in they are also giving about 11% to eBay. If they are a professional seller, they are providing a service and need to make a profit/living.

Anyway, the market of eBay sellers is not that of those that prefer to self-import. But not everyone can or want to.

[Jimbo]

its a us seller ive delt with him before an never had any issues ,, it is just a bit strange that the item was pulled before i was notified about the bid?? they never even gave me a second chance bid? i was notified about an hour later that seller turned down my offer, its was listed since the end of last summer no one watching nothing, so i pulled the trigger on it,,  im not upset with the seller its more aimed at e bay, thanks

[miyakoji]

6 hours ago, bill937ca said:

Scalpers

Yeah this is such an odd phenomenon of the last few years (as far as I know).  Shoes, video games, all kinds of things.  Even if I have $x in my pocket, I don't have it when the item's regular retail price is 35% less.

[disturbman]

7 hours ago, Jimbo said:

 it is just a bit strange that the item was pulled before i was notified about the bid?? they never even gave me a second chance bid?

Several things, it could be that the item was not available anymore and the seller had forgotten to take the listing down. It can happen, even more if they are using several platforms to sell. Or they discovered the item was not in shape to be sold.

Anyway, I haven't used the offer system a lot on ebay, but you can set a limit under which offers are turned down automatically. If they took down the listing, you wouldn't get a second chance to up your offer.

You can always write the seller to ask what happened.

[cteno4]

Some ebay sellers are just strange. Ebay still works pretty well, but I’ve found that it less useful/valuable these days for many things I use to pick up there. Covid, of course, created havoc on many sellers in many different ways. But many sellers do see less responsive and items pulled a lot more. Many more buy it now and less auction than there use to be. Prices now on some thing’s definitely not as good as they use to be compared to other sources. Yes they do have the automatic offers refusal if the offer is below a certain level, but that comes right back at you. This sounds more like maybe they forgot the item there and no longer for sale and just declined offer and yanked the item.

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

yes, i messaged the seller an they never messaged me back, oh well i guess they should have just listed as a buy it now,with no best offer,?? i understand mistakes happen, but from a seller ive delt with before an never had any problems with bids or best offer buys, i found very disappointing  oh well i have one coming from plaza japan along with some odds an ends to justify the 34 dollar DHL shipping all is good one could say,

[jappomania]

this one surpassed my TOMIX 93544 JR E3 Treasureland TOHOKU-JAPAN (see above..)

 

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/x1088002601?conversionType=service_page_search

 

and is not yet finished...🤑

 

Ciao!

Massimo

[Socimi]

How about 200€ for a single powered B-train shorty passenger car?

 

https://www.ebay.it/itm/185972882429?hash=item2b4cd8fbfd:g:SKAAAOSwh-JkpTiw

[ED75-775]

https://zenmarket.jp/en/auction.aspx?itemCode=t1101427061

 

I don’t understand the point behind this one... why?

[Beaver]

Sometimes when sellers are on holiday or the like, they push the prices up insanely high in order to put people off buying anything until they return. This can be much easier and quicker than temporarily delisting the item or posting a 'will not dispatch until' notice.

 

See if the price suddenly plummets in a while when the seller returns.