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Before I bid on ebay for a model railway engine I want to know two things. One is the brand new price now, or when last sold, and the other is what examples of the same engine have fetched on ebay in the recent past. I imagine that many of you do the same thing.
I was recently looking at the completed listings for two Bachmann engines and even went back to the original advert to look at some details. In one case I was surprised to find that the actual highest bid was much higher than that recorded in the completed listing section.
I checked several others and quickly found two more such discrepancies and none of the three are small differences. Here are the results of my research which only took 15 minutes. Finding three in this short time suggests that there may be many more.
5th Dec Bachmann standard 4MT tank - completed listing says £35, actual highest bid £50.97, i.e. 46% higher
9th Dec Bachmann Ivatt 2-6-2 tank - completed listing says £17.50, actual highest bid £23.05, i.e. 32% higher
13th Dec Bachmann standard 4MT tank - completed listing says £46.55, actual highest bid £62.19, i.e. 34% higher
So it seems that in some cases, merely looking at the completed listing can give you a totally false impression of what model railway engines fetch (and of course it may be true of other items as well). This will be of interest both to sellers as well as buyers as a seller might be put off advertising an engine if they get a low idea of what it would realise.
I hope that other members of this forum who use ebay will benefit from this.
Cheers, Robert.
I was recently looking at the completed listings for two Bachmann engines and even went back to the original advert to look at some details. In one case I was surprised to find that the actual highest bid was much higher than that recorded in the completed listing section.
I checked several others and quickly found two more such discrepancies and none of the three are small differences. Here are the results of my research which only took 15 minutes. Finding three in this short time suggests that there may be many more.
5th Dec Bachmann standard 4MT tank - completed listing says £35, actual highest bid £50.97, i.e. 46% higher
9th Dec Bachmann Ivatt 2-6-2 tank - completed listing says £17.50, actual highest bid £23.05, i.e. 32% higher
13th Dec Bachmann standard 4MT tank - completed listing says £46.55, actual highest bid £62.19, i.e. 34% higher
So it seems that in some cases, merely looking at the completed listing can give you a totally false impression of what model railway engines fetch (and of course it may be true of other items as well). This will be of interest both to sellers as well as buyers as a seller might be put off advertising an engine if they get a low idea of what it would realise.
I hope that other members of this forum who use ebay will benefit from this.
Cheers, Robert.