The pitfalls of buying Scalextric cars on Ebay

Buying Scalextric cars on eBay can be a terrible minefield as there are many traders and home sellers who are not totally honest in what they do.  We have seen many Scalextric cars purchased as eBay Scalextric items that are NOT what the buyer expected and definitely not as described.

Is this deliberate fraud or simply lack of experience in the Scalextric car on offer?  Probably both, in varying measures.  So what’s the answer?  Simple, the phrase “buyer beware” still operates in the frontier land of eBay.  As a buyer you must know what you want and what makes a good example.  The buyer must know their stuff.
There are 2 generic types of eBay Scalextric cars; there’s new and there’s used.  New Scalextric cars can have several things not right with them; the first is that they might not be new but used and simply cleaned up.  The second is that the Scalextric cars may be stolen and not the property of the seller and therefore not yours once you’ve purchased them.  The third is that the Scalextric cars may not be what you expected, for example many eBay Scalextric cars are removed from sets so do not come with a box.
Ebay Scalextric used cars are even worse.  The best advice we can give for a used eBay Scalextric car is that the car will have a fault of some type and will need Scalextric spare parts to repair it.  Your mission as the buyer is to find out what the fault is and decide whether or not you can fix it or live with it.  Sellers of eBay Scalextric cars tend to lie by omission, so find out what is not described and ask lot’s of questions.

Another great insight from Scalextric Car Restorations