Is Model Railroading getting out of hand with things


I am a bit like you as my pockets don't go down to my ankles. I have no hobby shops at all and used to get some items from ebay, but on many instances I have seen items sold at prices above retail, and then have shipping on top of that. In recent years, e-retailers have been my go to people. Many sell below retail price also. I was looking for some Shinohara code 70 flextrack and turnouts a while back and saw items selling at 20 percent or more on ebay over the retail price that was discounted with e-retailers. Unless it's an item I just can't find anywhere else, that I just have to have, I pretty well have stayed away from ebay. In many cases I have seen items going at full retail price on ebay, and then have what I would call an inflated shipping chatge added.
 
I buy most of my kadee trucks on ebay in the stores. The prices are quite good, the items brand new and the shipping easy to compare. I really only buy craftsmens kits in auctionsand they are fraught with peril. I only buy them in groups since the prices tend to collapse per unit. Single kits get expensive really fast. I just got three mainline kits for $10.00. With the shipping at $9.00, I viewed that as high and was not willing to bid more than $16.00 on that auction. I was surprised to get it but with the shipping included, it's $6.50 per car. It may be that parts are missing but over the years I've built up a pretty good supply of wood from Northeastern Scale Lumber. I would not dispute that it's a market that can disappoint. I take the disclaimers of "I don't know what these are" quite seriously and avoid them. As to shipping you really have to watch it. I've seen people charging $100.00 in shipping for a single piece of rolling stock. Larceny is alive and well.

I enjoy it though. In some of the bulk auctions, things show up that I don't expect. Over christmas I wound up with a lot of lead cast livestock and figures that were really good quality in a volume way greater than what I expected. I wound up with miniature accessories from companies that vanished in the 1950's. So that stuff is like getting a treasure box. For me, the process is way more fun than actually getting there. I doubt I'll do that in my lifetime.
 
The bonus stuff can really be the treasure in the bulk lots. I bought a " lot of scenery from the 50's" that had a Flieshman 2-6-0 with the tender and a old Rivarossi 0-4-0 with some cool Varney cars with sprung trucks and Kadee's for 40. bucks with shipping. Some of the scenery items were pretty cool too. I guess you never know. Ive been burned with some real junk too. Live and learn.
 
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