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unixphreak

The Day eBay Killed RC

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I generally enjoy using ebay. There have been a couple times in the last year where I misread a description and hit the "buy it now". After seeing I made a mistake, I immediately contacted the seller. Both times they refunded me and re-listed. I would have kept what I bought had they said no, but I always feel like it can't hurt to ask.

I do love finding good deals on rc stuff. I've been lucky to have found an old Rough Rider and Ranger XLT fairly cheap.

One bad purchase was with an Xbox keypad last Christmas, some knob shipped it me (listed as new) in a box 3 times its size, no packing, the keypad was out of the unsealed box and the shipping box had a hole in the side. Thankfully it was an easy return through ebay.

Since I have no real hobby stores around me, I am glad it's available, especially when looking for vintage or new Tamiya parts. (Yeah, TamiyaUSA, you irritate me when you list a part as discontinued when you are still selling the kit)

 

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I've noticed over the last year or 2 that RC stuff has generally got a lot more expensive on Ebay. I put this down partially to the weakness of the pound against the USD when buying stuff from outside the UK, but have also noticed  prices rising for 2nd hand vehicles. I think this is generally because there is a limited supply of genuine vintage vehicles, and as is the case with 1:1 vehicles, as more and more basket cases are picked up by collectors and restored, there are fewer and fewer restorable vintage vehicles and so the prices are going to steadily increase. Lets face it, how many people spend a lot of money on getting their vintage model looking and running great, and then thrash it to within an inch of it's life, bodge it back together with home made fixes, and then toss it on Ebay with a starting bid of a £1. So there's bound to be a steady increase in the value of old collectable vehicles as the beaten up models are picked up and restored. 

Ebay is not the only platform for buying and selling models. I've sold quite a few models on tamiyaclub, and acquired a lot of spares and couple of models, and I've never had a bad trade. I also recently sold 2 1/16 King tigers through word of mouth at the LHS, and got more for them that people were prepared to offer through Ebay, so that was a result using 'pre-internet' selling methods. :)

I've looked at models on Ebay and thought 'You're having a laugh at that price', but then no-ones twisting my arm to buy or bid, and if the rest of the world agrees with me it's not going to sell and the sellers going to drop the price if they want to sell. it. If it sells well then it's worth that to someone and I've just got  to compete with that price or be patient and look elsewhere.

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If the prices are right then they will sell, if not then they will slowly reduce till someone thinks its acceptable and buy them. I have seen the prices for nitro Tamiya slowly rise but I also see parts supply drying up quicker than ever. Where as before I could get individual parts I now find myself buying complete chassis for individual parts. This has a knock on effect of the chassis's now climbing in price. Try finding simple things like Tamiya air filter bodies anymore or 1/8 tyres and wheels for the TGX range. You either pay £65-80 for wheels and tyres or dont have any. While I was completing my TGX collection bodies were 4000yen from Japan. Now they are lucky to be less than 10000yen.

I sell a lot through Ebay and have approx 160 listings as I type this. Some of the items I know are unavailable anywhere else but try to set a fair price. I cover my costs for collecting by selling/importing items into the UK that simply cant be purchased or were never available in Europe.

Vintage collecting is a challenge financially and as parts continue to dry up and not get re-released that isn't going to change.

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