Welcome to our eBay
About Me page
dew_associates
Member as of August 5, 1997
Items for Sale
See our Frequently Asked Questions below!
Our business began four generations ago as part of a small hardware store nestled in the middle of a small town along the Hudson River in West Haverstraw, New York in 1934. Unlike the large retail stores that serviced Lionel® customers in cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, ours was one of the many smaller service stations that were combined with other businesses, such as hardware and appliance stores. Over the years there have been many, many changes. Most resulting from outside influences, such as a world war, changes in the hobby and the economy, and most especially the many changes at Lionel®. Shortly after World War II our business moved from New York to New Jersey. Over the last sixty years, as the demographics of the hobby have changed, we have moved several more times within the state. New Jersey is, after all, Lionel's® true home. Through it all, we are still here servicing our customers!
We are primarily a parts supplier and service facility. At present we have more than 20,000 part numbers in our database and ninety-five percent of those are in stock. We began organizing our parts inventory into a computerized database with the release of the 8" floppy drive by IBM®. By 1973 we had moved our data from 8" floppies to a brand new hard drive. It was called a 30/30 Winchester and developed by IBM®. It was a massive piece of furniture with two 30MB hard drives. Our inventory and database has grown many fold since then, but the size of our own in house computer servers has become measurably smaller.
As a service facility we handle all service issues from simple cleaning and servicing to extensive repairs that may require the services of our tool room or machine shop. Over the years we have reassembled many engines, cars and accessories that most people would have relegated to the trash heap or broken up for usable parts. We do not throw away motors, reversing units, horns, trucks or chassis, we rebuild them. We rewind motor armatures and fields using the same specifications as did Lionel® in their coil winding department. We specialize in the restoration and rebuilding of scale and semi-scale Hudson's and switchers.
View current and upcoming changes highlighted in RED below!
Frequently Asked Questions
Effective September 22, 2009 we will be adjusting all of our shipping prices so that they are reflected as flat rate with insurance regardless of the sale amount. You can read more about our insurance coverage changes below.
Q. Where do you obtain your parts?
A. The majority of our inventory came from Lionel® at their Irvington and Hillside facilities prior to their closing in New Jersey in August of 1967,
and we obtained inventory from the Lionel® service department in Little Falls New Jersey in the early
1970's as it was closing. Since then we have amassed substantial amounts of inventory from many sources such as old service stations that we have absorbed, former Lionel® employees, Madison Hardware while in New York, after its move to Michigan as well as from their many auctions. We have also acquired leftover postwar, early MPC and later Lionel® inventory from the sales conducted at the current Lionel® facilities.
You should be aware that while Madison Hardware purchased thousands of parts from Lionel® over the years, a great many of these parts were not the typical replacement parts
one might expect. Most were a conglomeration of new parts, manufacturing rejects, incomplete items and scrapped items. Many times, Lionel® would shut down assembly lines and the excess parts, including damaged and rejected parts, were shipped to Madison. Quite often not the greatest of care was taken in storing these repair parts, therefore please bear this in mind when viewing auction items that may be exclusive to Madison Hardware. While we would like to be able to promise you that each part is in mint perfect, or in unused condition, many times this just isn't possible.
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Q. Is your inventory current production or reproduction?
A. No. Actually most of out inventory is prewar and postwar Lionel® with a sprinkling of others such as American Flyer® and Marx®.
Q. Will you combine auction shipping to save me money?
A. Yes we will! We do this automatically without having to be asked as long as all of the auctions have ended within 48 hours of each other.
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Q. What are your minimum shipping charges?
A. Our minimum shipping charges are as follows:
(Eff. September 22, 2009)
1st Class United States Mail within the continental United States will be $4.50 and will include insurance
(up to $50.00) for weights up to 8 ounces.
Priority Mail will be $6.89 and will include insurance
(up to $50.00) for weights up to 1 pound. (Eff. September
22, 2009)
Q. How do you calculate shipping costs? (See below for changes effective September 22, 2009)
A. Wherever possible we rely on the US Postal Service to price our shipping. Since eBay requires
sellers publish their absolute or flat shipping charges for each auction or for each item in
a store, we must to use a flat rate. Flat rate shipping will always cost you more, but eBay offers no alternatives. As an example, a two pound Priority Mail package from
us in New Jersey to Pennsylvania is approximately $5.75, while the same package sent to Arizona or California is $8.70. By requiring the use of flat rate shipping, we are forced us to use the highest cross country rate even though you might be right next door.
Our charges consist of a box (only when there are none of the proper size available from the postal service)
and necessary packing material that we have to purchase, and no more. Many times this isn't even reflected in our invoice you, as we are an enterprise shipper. As such, any discounts we receive we pass on to you in the form of discounted shipping costs.
Effective September 22, 2009, eBay is again making changes that effect shipping charges by removing the insurance option from the auction and the store pages you view.
It is eBay's position that:
(A) They are "adjusting to help meet buyer expectations for ecommerce and aligning with industry standard practices. In most circumstances, buyers do not expect to pay for the cost of shipping insurance. This change also reflects the industry—and eBay—standard practice that sellers are responsible for their items until they are safely in their customers' hands.
We agree and disagree. We agree that you have every right to expect the safe delivery of your order, and we do everything reasonably possible to ensure that happens. However, in commerce of any kind, domestic or international, companies build their carrier charges, handling and insurance costs into the shipping costs they pass onto you. When a seller states that shipping is free, their statement is misleading as they are building all of those costs into the price of the article. Furthermore, most large Internet sellers purchase and control their own blanket insurance coverage called Ocean Marine or, in the alternative, have secured contract coverage arrangements with UPS and FedEx. It is
almost impossible for the majority of the sellers on eBay to obtain this coverage on a cost effective basis.
(B) eBay has stated that we are "still able" to insure our items, and eBay suggests that "to help cover the additional expense", we should "consider folding the cost of insurance into your handling fee or item price."
It is our position that this unfairly increases the costs to you for smaller items. Aside from the fact that we do not charge handling fees, we feel that inflating shipping costs by adding in what might be unwanted insurance coverage is simply wrong.
If you would like to read the entirety of the changes eBay is making in this regard please click this link. No Optional Buyer Charges For Insurance
Effective September 22, 2009 we will be adjusting all of our shipping prices so that they are reflected as flat rate with insurance regardless of the sale amount. Our minimum shipping charges are noted above and you can read more about our insurance coverage changes below.
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Q. Why do you use the U.S. Postal Service instead of UPS, FedEx or Airborne/DHL?
A. The US Postal Service is on par with all of the other shippers such as UPS, FedEx and DHL, with a few exceptions. When using UPS, FedEx or DHL on average we could expect 3%-5% in damage or direct losses per year, while the postal service has demonstrated a loss ratio of less than one tenth of one percent per year. Beyond this, the postal service has no appreciable tariff restrictions on antiques or collectibles. If you read the tariff restrictions of the other three, you'll see that they can deny damage or loss claims even though you have paid for insurance to value if they can define the item as a collectible or antique! This is entirely discretionary on their part. Would you like that discretion to be exercised during a claim where you originally paid $200 for an engine that is now worth $1,000 and it has been totally destroyed? Last but not least, in the event of a serious issue, such as tampering or mysterious disappearance, we like being able to call and speak with an investigator!
Q. What forms of payment do you take?
A. We accept Paypal, but if you do not have a Paypal account (or don't want one) and you do have a credit card, you can still pay us through Paypal. All you need is the same information you would use were you to visit any other E-Commerce
website. As you begin the payment process through eBay, a gateway to Paypal will open. If you do not have a Paypal account, you have the option of paying for your order with a credit card. You will also be given the option of creating a Paypal account, although you need not do so.
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Q. I don't have a Paypal, how can I pay you?
A. Effective October 20, 2008 eBay made payment via direct credit card or debit card, PayPal, ProPay or payment on pick-up mandatory. We realize that many of our customers do not use credit cards and/or do not have a Paypal account. We will not turn any customer away. (See
above also "What forms of payment do you take?")
Paypal is easy to use and if you are unsure how to set up an account, let us know and we will help you.
Q. How quickly will you ship my order?
A. The most important thing that we ask our customers to remember is that we are a business and
as such we appreciate you! Unlike many parts dealers on eBay, we do not operate from a kitchen table, living room rug, basement workshop or a garage out back. Not that any of those are bad things, it is just not who we are. We do not disassemble trains, cars or accessories in order to sell the parts on eBay and we do not prepackage parts. Our staff maintains one of the largest repair part inventories currently available anywhere.
With this in mind, here is a time line that may help you with respect to the shipment of your eBay auction and store orders:
1. After you make your purchase you will be invoiced for the amount of the item or items. If you purchase multiple items, we will automatically combine shipping. Once payment is received we begin processing the order. Once processed it is sent out onto the pack floor where the item or items are pulled from inventory, bagged, wrapped and packed awaiting labeling. Our normal turn around time for order processing is 3 business days.
First day: Order receipt and processing.
Second day: Order pull and packing.
Third day: Labeling and pickup. We do not consider an order received until it is paid for. We do not process orders after 4:30PM EST, and our offices are closed Saturday, Sunday and holidays.
NOTE: In most cases your invoice will reflect an
estimated delivery time!
Example #1: If you were to make a purchase on a Monday and pay for it late Monday afternoon or evening, we won't actually begin the processing until the next business day. In this case the order would process Tuesday, be pulled and packed Wednesday and ship Thursday. In all cases, all orders are handled in the order received.
Example #2: If you were to make a purchase on a Friday and pay for it Friday afternoon or evening, we won't actually begin processing
your order until the next business day, which would be Monday. In this case the order would process Monday, be pulled and packed Tuesday and ship
on Wednesday. In all cases, all orders are handled in the order received.
NOTE: We do not ship to unverifiable addresses under any circumstances. We suggest that you ensure that your eBay and Paypal address information is correct and is the address issued to you by your post office. Please do not use abbreviations other than for your state as USPS rejects them.
Important! - The address you use on eBay is the address we will use for shipment. That information is uploaded to USPS for them to create a machine readable label. The address you use on eBay must be the address assigned by your postmaster! No short cuts, no "I think it is ...." or your best guess
or even "that's the address I've had for 25 years". If the address that is uploaded is incorrect, or cannot be reconciled by USPS, the shipment will be returned to us. That could take weeks and result in additional shipping costs to you, as we will not ship a second time at our expense!
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Q. Do you send acknowledgements when my payment arrives or when the order ships?
A. No, we do not acknowledge receipt of payment. Paypal sends you that notification automatically. As far as sending notice of shipment is concerned, most large dealers that do send acknowledgements really have no idea where in the process your order stands. We do not use the eBay/Paypal shipping
portal as we also have regular customers outside of eBay, and splitting out orders is time consuming. The eBay/Paypal shipping acknowledgement you receive only means that the label was printed, not that the item has shipped. You can contact us anytime about parts, service, orders
and shipping and receive a response within hours of our receipt. We would rather make people available to answer your questions quickly rather than providing you with an automated and often misleading email acknowledgement.
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Q. Do you provide tracking numbers for your shipments?
A. The bulk of our orders ship via US Postal Service Priority Mail.,
and Priority Mail provides only for Delivery Confirmation. Of course this presumes
that your postman scans the package - which means there are no meaningful scans until after the package is delivered. As a USPS enterprise shipper, we receive a manifest for the shipments after they are picked up and recorded. We use this to trace delayed or lost packages. It is our understanding that the US Postal Services anticipates adding tracking for Priority Mail by the year 2013.
Contrary to popular belief, the postal service does not guarantee 2-3 day service for priority mail service. We have had shipments travel from New Jersey to California faster than from New Jersey to New York or Pennsylvania.
Q. How are returns handled?
Returns are handled on a case by case basis depending on the item, the description and any special notations on the offering page. Additional items or exception items sold are handled the same way. If you order a part and it turns out that you have made an error, there may be a restocking fee of 5% to 20% depending upon the item.
If, on the other hand, we screw up - you can rest assured that we will fix it at
no cost to you.
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Q. Will my order be insured when you ship it?
As noted above, effective September 22, 2009 eBay is removing the optional and required insurance sections from all auction and store pages. Given that we are not large enough to self insure, and we have no intention of absorbing insurance claims and the cost of shipments that mysteriously disappear, we are procuring coverage for all packages under the Parcel Insurance Plan provided by the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company. We have done this in an effort to save you money as the cost per package under this plan is less expensive than the coverage offered by either the US Postal Service, UPS, FedEx or DHL.
Therefore, as of September 22, 2009 all packages we ship that emanate from eBay
will be shipped with insurance.
Q. Can I refuse insurance on small items if I don't want it?
No.
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Q. How do you handle
a lost package or shipping damage claim? Must I do anything?
Lost Packages: If a package does go astray we must give the US Postal Service 30 days
to locate ad deliver the package before a claim can be filed. This is information is fully detailed in the US Postal Service Domestic Mail Manual
found here. Some simple facts about Priority Mail: While the postal service advertises 2 to 3 day delivery for most Priority Mail packages, the average according to the GAO is 2 to 5 days. There is no tracking of
priority mail packages, and a package that has gone astray cannot be traced. The
postal service issues a locator that follows the same route as the original
package. The only service available is Delivery Confirmation, which relies on two things:
the mail person scanning the package at pickup (ours does via manifest) and your mail person scanning it at the time of delivery.
On the invoice you receive from eBay you will see an estimated delivery or transit time. If your package does not arrive by that time, contact us. We will go back to the date of pickup and start the 30 day clock in order to file a claim. If, after the 30 days the package is not found, we will file the claim and issue a refund. Should the lost package arrive, you are obligated under law to
either return it to the post office, to us, or pay for it.
Shipping Damage: While shipping damage is rare as we pack things
carefully, it does happen and we have procedures in place to handle claims quickly and efficiently. Should you receive a package from us and notice external damage to the carton:
(1) open it carefully and locate the items inside; (2) determine if there is anything missing; and/or
(4) determine the extent of any damage. If there are missing items, and/or damaged items, contact us immediately.
1. You must retain all parts of the shipping carton, packing as
well as all of the contents until the matter is resolved by all parties.
2. We will initiate the claim process and provide you with the details as to how you should proceed.
3. Most claims are resolved in 10 to 15 days of submission provided that damaged and/or missing articles are properly documented.
4. You may be required to sign a claim form and/or present the damaged carton, packing and damaged articles to postal authorities. Failure to retain the carton, packing materials and damaged articles could result in a denial of the insurance claim, which in turn would prohibit us from either replacing the damaged items, issuing a refund
or both.
Required Warning: The filing of a false or fraudulent insurance claim involving US Mail is a felony pursuant to U.S.C. 18 § 1341.
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Q. Feedback issues on our auctions?
A. Feedback and Detailed Seller Ratings are and have always been important to us. We take pride in the fact that we have a one on one relationship with
the
majority of our customers. If you have a problem, any problem, with anything that we sell or any
services that we provide, please contact us immediately. Understand, we have run the gamut with some of the
best scam artists found on eBay. We have had parts swapped on engines and cars and then sent back to us as defective. We have had people receive a new
and rebuilt motors and attempt to return their beat up junk and threaten negative feedback if we didn't send a replacement. We take our customers needs seriously,
but we pursue fraud diligently!
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Q. Do you have a web site?
A. We do, and you can find us on the
web. Need information to service your train or accessory? Check our self help
pages. Ever wonder how Lionel did some of the things they did? See
how they did it!
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Q. Do you have individual repair manual pages?
A. Yes we do. We have scanned most of the available Lionel® prewar and postwar repair manual pages into our database and make them available to individuals and service personnel
for a small fee.
Q. How do you grade the items you sell?
A. How we grade items depends largely on what they are. Given that we sell repair parts, large single lots of used or broken items, trains and paper collectibles, each requires their own grading system. Usually we try and refrain from applying any particular grading system to repair parts as it is largely a matter of opinion. Repair parts are either NOS (New Old Stock) or used, although we do rebuild motors, E-Units and other items to like new condition. Most people mistakenly believe that the parts obtained from Madison Hardware and even from Lionel's® postwar service center were "mint", "pristine" or unused. Unfortunately this was the rare case as most of the parts were either over production that was poorly stored, rejected parts from the production line or parts derived from engines and cars that didn't make it through quality control. In many cases the parts that Madison Hardware purchased for example, were those that Lionel® had destined for the scrap dealers.
As far as engines, cars and accessories are concerned, we use a modified version
of the TCA grading system as found
here.
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Have a question about trains or parts? Need to make a repair and need more information? Would a drawing or schematic help? Please write to us by clicking this link.
Thank you for visiting our About Me page!
If you are a present customer, please accept our sincerest thanks for your patronage. We will do our utmost to preserve your trust and confidence. If you are a visitor, we welcome you. We don't boast about being the largest, nor do we boast about being the leading seller on eBay. What we provide are the services that you would expect to receive from a brick and mortar business
in your home town. We won't make any false promises about shipping your order overnight, and we won't promise you that every engine,
car or accessory can be resurrected. What we will promise is that each and every customer will receive individual attention and service in a reasonably prompt and efficient manner!
IBM, Lionel, American Flyer, Marx and Madison Hardware are trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
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