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Re: Seigel requested to set new industry standard for item details disclosure

I appreciate your post. I personally have been buying and selling trains now for well over 30 years. I have gained a reputation for being an honest person. I initiate the posts that appear on choochoouauctions. Over the years I have tried my best to do business in an honest and fair way. Many of our customers who purchase from us on choochoo are dealers. Most who buy on choochoo have more knowledge in trains than the average ebay buyer. Thus repeat business, trust and knowledge seem to keep us going pretty well on this site. I would love to have a 100 photos of every train we list on our site. But due to technical issues at this time we can include only one photo. We average between 40 and 100 items each day we place auctions on choochoo. It takes Susie two to three hours to properly photograph items. But the way we mass upload our auctions does not allow us to use more than one picture.

As far as the short descriptions go if an item is (for example) excellent+, what more should I say? Most of the items I describe are undergraded in some way. At least I try to be conservative in my grading. If there is a problem with an item I include that information as well. We try our best to use TCA standards and above. The only difference is that we still use the text description rather than the C-7, etc only because when we started using those it was confusing to some people. Using both takes extra time, and unfortunately time is money. I work 50 to 60 hours a week already.

I do make mistakes. For instance many of the items placed on choochoo are overwritten on data from previous similar items. I have a complaint in my mailbox about an item described as 'Excellent+ in the original sealed box." Obviously that is a mistake!!

When we make mistakes, we always give an option to return or sometimes giving credit towards a future purchase.

If you feel uneasy about a seller on any medium I urge you to check their feedback. I think that our feedback on both ebay and choochoo are pretty good.

As far as technical issues go, just today we are trying a new system that is going to help us greatly keep up with technical changes that have come each year with advances. I'm just crossing my fingers that there are no major glitches. Hopefully not.

At any rate, I do appreciate your feedback. We will try our best to continue to offer our service and if possible come up with improvements as time and technicalities change.

Sincerely,

Charles Siegel

Ken
Dear Mr. Seigel: Your terse descriptions of items for auction are not particularly helpful in judging the quality of the items offered. Unlike your e-Bay TrainCity auctions where you present multiple photos of the item, your ChooChoo auctions sometimes do not even take the item out of the box. Worse yet, occasional photos of boxes without "windows" are of no value. More photos would be helpful. Also, for every MTH Protosounds 2.0 or 3.0 engine, disclosure of the internal readings on the chronometer and odometer for the engine would give bidders a much more accurate assessment of the condition and value of the engine. Lastly, you always invite questions about the items if we want to know more, but that invitation is essentially meaningless if your buyers do not get a timely response. Prompt answers would be very much appreciated, both on ChooChoo and eBay. I urge you to set a new industry standard for "truth in advertising" by adopting these improvements in your ChooChoo and Train City auctions on eBay. Buyers' confidence in your reliability and trustworthiness as a seller would grow dramatically and, I believe, you would attract more business as the word spread. Thank you for considering these suggestions.
Ken