Wookman Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Preamble: I recently acquired via BMFA classifieds a rather nice Taranis X9D+. The exact spec I wanted with the hall gimbals and an eneloop battery. I paid the asking price which I thought was reasonable. I then set about acquiring some receivers to go with it. I have bough a few through BMFA at what I thought was a fair price. I have also bought a few though ebay. Most of what I have bid on I have lost as the price has soared. This week two X8R receivers came up. One on EBay, one on BMFA. The BMFA one was offered at what I thought was a fair £20 post paid. I managed to contact the vendor, no easy task when the messenger system was not working on BMFA classifieds, it is amazing what you can find out off tinterweb. The deal was done and it is in the post. The EBay auction for the other one finished last night and the final price was £31 + a not unreasonable £3.50 for p and p. £34.50 in total. A brand new X8R from the UK FrSky dealer is £34.54. There is postage to add. I don't have an issue with using second hand gear, after all pretty much all the aeroplanes I fly are second hand or even sixth or seventh hand. I don't have an issue with people charging what they want to, or people paying what they want to. But surely the point of buying second hand is to save money. After all few of us have infinately deep pockets or infinately long arms. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 But what you have described is not a fault with eBay it is typical of any auction, people get carried away and get sucked into the ‘I must win it’ frame of mind! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wookman Posted January 13, 2023 Author Share Posted January 13, 2023 12 minutes ago, Ron Gray said: But what you have described is not a fault with eBay it is typical of any auction, people get carried away and get sucked into the ‘I must win it’ frame of mind! Totally agree. Ebay do not force anybody to pay more than they want to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Meade Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Not quite the same as an auction - ebay speeds up when normal auctions slow down - at the end! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 The other thing about eBay and radio gear in particular is that the market is awash with counterfeit gear. Due to that I tend to only buy radio gear from a reputable seller, the risk of getting a fake is just too high. Regarding eBay pricing, due to the auction format then the price of second hand modelling goods can sometimes get a bit silly. eBay auctions, as noted above, have got expensive and all too often, the final cost is more than one would want to pay. These days I prefer to use the Buy It Now option. I've had good results from the various Facebook Marketplace pages. I also find that items on the BMFA classifieds are often priced quite high, for what they are, particularly second hand airframes, some of which folks are expecting 75-80% of the brand new cost. For discontinued items that is sometime 100-150% of the original cost, or multiples of that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 I was amazed at the prices of the winning bids at the recent BMFA online auction, for old all those engines which would be impractical to actually use due to having no method of silencing or for R/C with no throttle. I was well out bid on a couple of items I went for. There seems to be something of a bidding frenzy at these events. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 On the high prices for unusable engines front, presumably those are collectors and if a couple are determined to own a particular, long discontinued engine for their collections, the sky's the limit. When I sold off all of my IC engines years ago I got a decent price for them at auction, in some cases even more that I had paid for them. Such "normal", in-production "cooking" engines don't seem to command high prices and I've just given the last few away FOC to worthy recipients who will actually make use of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 I wouldn't have been surprised but there were literally hundreds of them. Who are all these collectors or was it just a few with lots of nostalgia and plenty of spare cash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 2 hours ago, Andy Meade said: ebay speeds up when normal auctions slow down - at the end! Auction 'sniping' 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Reliable radio is everything in RC flying. Why would anyone buy secondhand radio gear from an unknown seller on Ebay? Better to buy new from a dealer even if it means buying something with less features to save money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 1 hour ago, Andy Stephenson said: I wouldn't have been surprised but there were literally hundreds of them. Who are all these collectors or was it just a few with lots of nostalgia and plenty of spare cash. I suspect the number of collectors is relatively small, based on attendance at some of the classic NW area swapmeets some years ago. However I also suspect that many of their collections run to hundreds of engines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 The sad thing is that in a few years time, in all likelihood these engines will be of little or no value as the typical collector will be driven by nostalgia rather than their intrinsic engineering interest. Maybe time to unload if you’re sitting on a few unloved examples? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul De Tourtoulon Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 There is already a few unloading as they are going electric, but at such silly prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 A few years ago when I was building 0 gauge brass locomotives a small tank loco kit came on E Bay at £70. At the time' still in production the same kit was £110 post free from the manufacturer. The E Bay one went for £130 + post and no guarantee that it was complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Acland Posted January 13, 2023 Share Posted January 13, 2023 Many a time I have seen bids on second hand engines exceed the price of a new engine if that person had bothered to shop around online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.