Hi Steven,

Without more information on the real names and locations of the various eBay sellers, it will be quite hard to tell whether they are authorised or not.

I happen to know that Hit-line represents M-store GmbH, located in Schwelm (Germany), which in fact is an authorised dealer.
Marcel-984 is better known as Marcel Been from Zaandam (Netherlands) and is AFAIK not an authorised dealer (as there is no authorised Märklin dealer in Zaandam)

Maybe you'll be able to find out by checking the (sometimes available) "me" pages in eBay and compare the information with the dealerlists on maerklin.de or other Märklin websites (depending on the country)

DAvid,
In a lot of cases Authorised Dealers selling new items on on Ebay give the warranty. Station 500 is one.
Looking at prices for some new items going on Ebay in most cases, when Not a Buy it Now but an Auction, the final price is more than when buying from a Store, like Lokshop etc.

Nev

Thanks for asking this question Steven.. I too am interested to know which of the eBay sellers is an authorised dealer..

Nev. Had a look at Station 500. They appear to take credit cards so I would have some confidence in buying. No website as far as I can see other than their stuff on Ebay.
Have you bought from them?

david

DAvid,
No I have not brought from him but I do know others who have and they always say he is very good to deal with. He accepts Paypal also.
I believe that he has a store but where I do not know. maybe someone here will know.
Nev

station 500 is spielkiste brenner (www.spielkiste.de, Ettlingen), but there doesn't appear to be any webstore - I guess not needed if they're selling everything through ebay around the world. Beyond that all I know is his ebay page says he's authorized. Perhaps the marklin.de website will tell you for sure.
I've never had any problem with him. His packaging is good, but takes a good bit longer to get to the USA - 3-4 weeks. Fortkord has also been OK to me, but I haven't bought anything from him in a while (their packaging is also good, but he has a partner here in the USA in cincinatti, who sometimes helps him with shipments).
I know some of the US dealers won't like my answer, but I can't afford to pay some of the prices dictated by the "system" here in the US for marklin, at least for locomotives - or at least have to forgo several items because of the price difference between the US and germany - even with postage its a substantial savings, even with the two price leaders here in the US. I don't see a similar effect on other brands like Roco or Brawa, as far as buying from US dealers or ebay.germany - there doesn't appear to be the markup from the middleman - the prices offered are very close (I am still no fan of marklin usa).

What do we consider good packing? Would you consider this good packing for an overseas shipment?

Cause that's what I got along with a damaged lok from one of the ebay dealers we are talking about. He fixed and then sent it back in the same box! It was damaged again. I had specifically requested better shipping. He said this is standard size shipping box that Marklin uses and he sends 100's a year with no problem. I just can't see Marklin shipping in a box that is barely longer than the lok box. I fixed it myself the second time. The money I saved and the time I lost was not worth it.

originally posted by Chris:


I can relate to that!

In another topic I suggested that most probably the root cause of damage to the loco was the insufficient packing.

The second time the loco arrived undamaged-that's to say only minor damage, which was pure luck,because it was packed the same way!

I've bought locos with several dealers abroad and there's quite some difference between the way they pack their sendings.
Most of the packing was sufficient,but I've also seen packing like your example.
We could blame the parcel service companies for rough handling but IMHO it's a fact we have to live with.Dealers have a responsibility in this and should pack their sendings well enough to be able to withstand indiscriminate handling.

Kind regards
Guus

Chris, the way around this is to save the auction in your browser as an mht file - you can do this from within IE using the save as function. When you are ready to place feedback, just open up the file with IE, and you can place your feedback, even though the auction may no longer be visible under 'My eBay'. I've done this a few times.

Hi Bigdaddynz,
Thanks for the tip. I was still able to find the auction in my list of purchased items though. What I think happened was that the ability to leave feedback was no longer there. There must be a time limit on ebay to give feedback. I was waiting for a "factory repair", so it was a long time till I got the lok back.

Quote: By the time any packing issues can be corrected, the time for leaving feedback in ebay has passed.

Another way: if you pay by PayPal, is to go into your purchases and from there into the sale. Then you can leave feedback.
I did this when I brought from Canada and my parcel was shipped surface, arriving some three months later. Why? Horrendous air freight costs from Canada!!

Quote: Marcel-984 is better known as Marcel Been from Zaandam (Netherlands) and is AFAIK not an authorised dealer

No, Marcel is NOT an authorised dealer.

Add johnvandamme and hit-line to the authorised dealers list as well, but I don't think fettsau1 is authorised (not that I can find).

Just my thoughts I've ben buying from STATION 500 for a number of years. He is always prompt in responding and i've not had any shipping problems. though a bit slow to the U.S. He also quotes in US prices which at least makes it easy to figure the price as he takes care of the exchange rate and deducts the VAT