ebay has totally screwed up the Model Railroading Category. Please start complaining here!

[wdasilva76]

ebay has totally screwed up the Model Railroad Category. It is important you start complaining here and also calling them, they are out of control!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[66sparky]

I had to stop using ebay to buy model trains.  They screwed up the category so bad that in order to look at post war Lionel trains they now have 90,000 items listed in that one category alone.  Just last weekend there were only 10,000 items.  What is wrong in California!

[oldhemi]

At 1st, I suspected an erroneous software upgrade. But, now I suspect aneBay screwup.  I hope that eBay sees the error of their ways. They are pretty arrogant...........

[oldhemi]

Apparantly this has been in the works for some time. There is a Springtime Update blurb to sellers - I am a BUYER!

All of the Lionel catagories are now under 485 - O Scale other

Here is the link

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/growing/categorychanges/toys.html

Lionel	4144	Combined into [Other O Scale-485]
					1901-42	4145	Combined into [Other O Scale-485]
					1945-69	4146	Combined into [Other O Scale-485]
					1970-86	4147	Combined into [Other O Scale-485]
					1987-Now	4148	Combined into [Other O Scale-485]
					Other	481	Combined into [Other O Scale-485]

[1320motorsports]

i always look for o scale brass imports now i have too dig thru a bunch of 3 rail stuff that i have no interest in. and if you were selling on this day of infamey your listed items were missing for a greater part of the day. i called 3 times to complain got hung up on 3 times twice without talking to anyone and 1 time after talking to a genius that told me it was my computer messing up.... really. if they are interested in sellers and buyers being happy they need to put what wasn't broken back in place. another case of someone making something better with ZERO KNOWLEDGE OF REALITY!!!!!!

[1320motorsports]

you are 110% correct. they make 10% on everything they sell off the seller and paypal make 3% on every thing as well yet the seller is always treated like a red headed step child. they should realize without sellers nothing goes into their pocket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[blueox2000]

This category change (or removal of brand categories) is the most ridiculous concept eBay has tried so far. Why not just bulk everything on eBay into one other category? This change will hurt buyers and sellers as well as eBay's income.

[blueox2000]

I'm an occasional buyer as well as a seller and trying to search for model trains is a nightmare with everything lumped into "Other" ... Everyone....., Please speak out to get eBay to reverse this change!!

[nsc39d8]

This is one of the dumbest ideas I have seen.  I can not search for anything and the search I did before this post showed 455 in Athenar undecorated,  when I clicked on Athearn, Ebay only showed me 350 items!

Ebay you have to return to the old Model railroad design!  I can not find anything in my searches that I used to find.  What teenager thought this one up???

[anothergoodag]

Agree that Ebay royally screwed up the categories in model railroading.  

[pwlionell]

It is worse then you may think! I am bidding on an item that was posted prior to June 1st and I am currently the high bidder!

Since they deleted the Postwar 1945-69 catagory, I cannot find the item using thier logical path of toys and hobbies, model railroading, o scale, other O scale, even if i put in Lionel and separately flag all the post war years! 

Even if I look for my specific item by its Lionel number, it does not show up,

But if i look at the item I have bid upon it does show up.

Also, the postwar Lionel listings used to average 5,000 to 9,000 items at any time. Now using ebays filters (Lionel and 1945- 69), it averages about 1500 items. Even with the filters eliminating a percentage of the postings (MPC and newer era pieces), I believe a large percent of the listings are missing (as stated in the previous paragraph).

I have complained to Ebay (by phone) and they have indicated that they would send my the message to the proper technical personnel (sounds to me like the round file).

If they do not go back to the old format, where else can the toy train collectors go?

TTOS #7826

[wdasilva76]

You bring up a good point, the total number of items up for sale is way down. I doubt sellers pulled them, they are just in never never land but it doesn't matter much as buyers wouldn't know how to find them anyway. I have also been following the "sold" categories and it looks like Model Railroad sales are off by over 800%. Buying is at a virtual standstill. I use to sell 5 to 7 model railroading items per day, but not only haven't I sold anything since they made the changes on June 2nd, I don't think any of my items up for sale have even had a "view." God, what they have done is a **bleep** shame! Someone seriously needs to be fired at ebay!

[bethel_terminal_models]

I guess I don't need my store anymore only one looking in it is me and a few loyal customers that have me saved as a favorite and as far as other sellers I have stopped buying anything even though I can still find items to buy. Watch out next step will be to raise the fees to make up for their lost revenue.

[pwlionell]

It looks like someone at ebay was listening.

I visited the "other O gauge" site and typed in Lionel postwar.

About 4500 listings popped up and they are all Lionel postwar!

When I typed in Lionel (instead of Lionel postwar) and the item number I was looking for, it showed up.

Not great...but usable.

TTOS 7826

[raven.range]

I do mostly buying, but have now stopped searching. Loads of junk I don;t need to wade through. Alll HOn3 isn't in HO anymore, ebay must have

changed the scales. Beyond bizarre, and other categories changing too. Hope no one owns stock in this mess, time to sell. I join my voice here to complain , but do not have much hope. Been on ebay 15+ years, they are the most arrogant bunch I know of. Sellers take note, spent $250 = at local hobby shop!!

[matchheadz]

We have been members since 2001. We are avid collectors of antique collectible toy trains: Lionel, American Flyer, Ives, etc. We also occasionally sell on Ebay. We are sending you this message in the hope that you will return to the original search format for antique and collectible toy trains. Your new system has totally wiped out our ability to search and sell antique and collectible toy trains, etc. etc. We urge you to return to your previous  search format. The old format made searching for these items easier for my customers and for people like myself who enjoy collecting rare and unusual toy train items. When I search now I have to sift through new and unrelated items, which frankly takes the fun out of being on ebay! The items you do have are not even in the right categories. My customers will never buy those items! Further more, I am not going to go through all of those items every time I try to look for something new or different! The new search engine other than ruining what was already near perfect, doesn't even function properly, as far as I can tell! Please, if you value this customer, and my customers and I am sure thousands of other collectors, of these antique collectible toy trains, please return to our original search engine so we can continue to enjoy ebay, otherwise, I am going to have to take my business elsewhere for my collectible toy trains! It is no longer fun searching on ebay. Trust me, I am not the only one who feels this way, just went to an annual antique toy train show, and everybody I spoke to dislikes this set-up. It is obvious to everyone that whomever set this up, knows nothing about toy trains, antiques or collectibles, or for that matter, how to sell, or what it is that motivates people to search for these things! Sincerely, Matchheadz!