I have come to a conclusion about ebay!

Usually I only window-shop, but I recently bought my first item through Ebay in several years. Bidding without sniping software seems to be a lost cause so I went with buy only. I happened to go searching for an MTH station and found one at a reasonable price - I was truly surprised. Maybe it will be several more years before I find another deal, if at all lol.

Dave

In light of seller's ignorance of the nature / value of items or their unscrupylous practices, the prudent approach is to do backgroung research before buying. I have not bought anything through EBay for over 20-years. What I am disappointed about is the lack of detailed textual description of items. Alfred

The real criminals with masks and guns are ebay themselves.  We purchased a new refrigerator, and I had a left over brand new water filter for the old refrigerator that would not work with the new one.

So I sold it on ebay.  Didn't try to make a killing or even get my money back.  Just wanted it to go to someone who could use it.  I sold it for $4.  ebay took $1.76 on $4.  It's amazing anyone can actually make a profit selling on ebay.

After a while, if like me you are only interested in certain train-related products, you get to know which sellers are gouging, and there are a few dedicated train sellers who fall into that category. I’m past the point of hunting down more than a very few items and if someone has what I am after I may jump on it if it’s not extortionate because I have nowhere local I can go for certain supplies.

I have to say that the upside of eBay is as a global marketplace for items you can’t source other than online. Case in point is O scale detailing parts, of which there are still hundreds and hundreds out there if you want such things. They have always been available by mail order but online is faster and cheaper (to the buyer) than traveling around on a treasure hunt where the journey could cost more than the product and indeed cost time that you could spend using it.

Now days, most people just figure if it is "old" it must be
"valuable" or a "collectable antique".

I guess that a lot of us must be "valuable" and "collectable
antiques" as we are "old" LOL! LOL! ROTFL!

Plus quite a few "collectors" went and purchased things back
during the "nostalgia craze" and the days of "antique road show"
where things were inflated and touted as "investments". And now
these people are trying to cash in on their "investments".

Not happening! Today's economy is in the dumpster, there is no
"discretionary income" to spend on high/over priced toys or other
errata or hobbies. Heck! Fast food costs the same or MORE than a
sit-down restaurant meal!

Plus, today's younger generation no longer really cares about the
history or lineage of the items or companies that made them. And
they can usually now buy reproductions that are pretty faithful to
the original or get an original at an estate sale for pennies on
the dollar.

These are/were the playthings and happiness of yesterday. Not an
"investment portfolio". (Same with today's trains/toys.). You aren't
going to retire to Tahiti on your "valuable antique" train collection.

Then there is the just plain ignorance factor of people who have these
and don't know what the real value is, so they just throw a dart and
post a price and hope to get a bite. Plus they have to cover the vigory
of *bay, the many and various revenue agencies and even the Pay Pal
and credit card agencies.

It's all part of the "modern" life we live.

  I don't think much of anything has changed.  The wild variance in asked prices is just a mirror of the variance I've seen at train meets over the years - nothing has changed except for the fact that with something like ebay you can see a lot more of that variability in one spot than you could ever see at a single train meet.  As for the why of the variability - I'm sure all of the things mentioned by other posters play a part - ignorance, greed, fear of letting something go too cheap, wanting to recoup the initial cost, etc.