Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I thought this might be a good thread to talk about the tips you use when buying on e-bay.... to either really get the most out of your purchase, or to weed out any potential problems...ect
having just lost another engine to presumably a snipe bidder, I was wondering what are your approaches to buying (I'll save the selling for another thread)
some of the things I do to get the best info about the item is....
1. any engine I'm interested in, I "ALWAYS" enlarge "EVERY" photo & look it over carefully, even if several photo's look similar.
2. if not mentioned , I always ask if the heater works (if electric)
3.if a part is missing that should be there , I'll ask the seller if they have it (& describe it ) in a message, this has produced dividends many times.
4.when the purchase is made, I'll usually send a carefully pre-worded instructions on how to ship a steam engine "without a potential damage claim (wink) this idea was lifted from IndianaRog , Roger (thanks Rog)
there are many more ideas out there folks....LETS HERE THEM FROM YOU & maybe we can help each other out with plenty of useful information.
thanks in advance for participating.

Great idea Bruce.

98% of my collection has been bought through eBay.

I also go over the photos as closely as possible and will ask the seller questions like "How did you come by the engine"? and will ask for additional photos if warranted.

If I am successful in my bid I always send the seller detailed packing requirements, like removing and packing the chimney stack, whistles, burners etc anything that can come loose and rattle around and scratch the hell out of everything else. I ask for good packaging and prefer double boxing and offer to pay a bit more for the extra expense.

Thanks for the tips Bruce, it’s easy to get pulled in by the excitement of seeing a piece you’ve been looking for without really checking it out.

As a seller of parts I can definitely state that the most expensive engine you can buy is an incomplete model unless you already have the parts for it, all too often I ship orders totalling almost as much as what complete engines sell for so a buyer can complete his Ebay bargain.

I hesitate to share this tidbit as it increases my competition, but I figure most people know this anyway, look for alternative spelling of the item your interested in, for instance its common for Jensen to be incorrectly spelled Jenson by an unknowledgeable seller.