Category Suggestions: Toys & Hobbies » Models » Railway

[Craig 10]

Dear Toys & Hobbies Railway Buyers and Sellers

 

We've had a request to make some category changes to Toys & Hobbies » Models » Railway. I thought that it would be a good idea to put this out to those involved in buying and selling Models on bidorbuy.

 

The suggestion that was given to us was the following:

 

In the Category, Toys and Hobbies, Models, Railway I suggest dividing the Railway category into The major Manufacturers that is available.

 

These being Hornby, Lima, Marklin, and Other.

 

Then within these Categories have 3 different Scales.

 

O Scale, N scale, OO/HO scale and Accessories.

Adding too many sub-categories can result in too many clicks to get to what you are looking for, however having too few could result in the buyer not finding what he or she is looking for. Currently we have approximately 400 listings in the (Models » Railway) category. This translates into about 10 pages to go through without doing a search.

 

To give you some other ways of looking at this:

 

• The category could also split by scale first, then manufacturer.

Another way would be to split by type of product:

• Buildings & landscape
  
• Electrics
  
• Locomotives
  
• Rolling stock
  
• Track
  
• Train sets
  
• Other

Please keep in mind that although we have good quality listings, this category is still relatively small and large-scale changes are not always practical.

 

I'd like to hear your opinions and suggestions. Please keep to the topic and argue only the topic at hand.

 

Cheers!

Craig

[Charl Inc 10]

Model train restructure

 

Morning, I prefer the second option proposed being spilt in loco's, rolling stock, buidlings, etc.

 

Only change I would porpose is that the electronics sections could be renamed to "Parts and spares".

 

Regards

[christinas 10]

category suggestion

 

I think that splitting into different categories like buildings, roling stock etc is a very good idea.

[andretoys 10]

suggestion for change to Railway Model section

 

Bidorbuy is a great site, with a lot of potential sooner or late you will have to add sub categories. I think Brand name and scale would be the best way to start

 

Have a great day

Regards Andre’ (Andre’sToys).

 

 

[HookedOnTrains 12]

Model Trains Category Changes

 

I don't like too many categories (just visit ebay - I did, ONCE). I think a more practical method would be to split the Toys and Hobbies, Models, Railway category into 2 sub-categories, S.A.R and Other. Then within these, three different scales (N, HO, and Other). Regards.

[StevenDim 10]

Depending on practicallity of the changes, spliting into scale would be the first step. But my guess would be that majority would like the suggestion of splitting into Locos, rolling stock etc. The only concern I have is that with too many sub categories one might overlook some items. Also, sellers then need to make sure they put their items in the correct sub category.

[njoytrade 10]

regrouping of Toys + Hobbies i.r.o. Model Railways

 

Having auctioned quite actively (and also offered for auction and buy-now instances) I dare say, that I have had no trouble finding what I wished to see at any given time. For me, like surely also for other 'collectors' of model railroad equipment, I am interested only in gauge/size of my model collection. I very quickly, after clicking through Toys+Hobbies, clicked on Models and Railways, I put into the search line 'N-gauge' (or HO gauge) and I see very promptly ALL I wish to see ... there are 1.1/2 Pages - a max of 60 items of N-gauge on offer at any given time in the section I am interested in.!It has been no problem at all to locate the items I am interested in - watchlist it - and then study them in detail. That's been the pattern! I suggest that someone goes looks at eBay.de (where I have been bidding for thousands of items with alacrity) . They have just short of 1 million pieces of model railroad equipment always on offer. Their side navigation leads to the individual gauges, then to the breakdown of what is offered, like suggested above. They have additional sub-filters, if needed (like brand names, product type etc) ... do it now and you will find that they have an average 47.800 items of N-gauage material on offer and additonally 150.000 items of H0 stuff, plus, plus, plus ..... If/when bidorbuy grows to that stage, then of course it would be time for further segregation, otherwise, if you ask me, under model railroad equipment, the only selection required most importantly, is the gauge segregation - I have little time to look at houses for e.g. H0 - such a change would facilitate and speed up my choices very much. All the rest is a matter of looking for 2 minutes maximum, may be. Have a great railroading day! heinzey

[Technik 10]

Thanks for the effort you are making Craig!

 

First sub-category should be the scale/gauge > then type > then manufacturer

 

The rest of the info could then be in the listing

[SANETSA 10]

I also prefer the second option, once offers reach a thousand and more you can then think of splitting up into different makes and scales.

[MDFModels 10]

Sub catagories

 

Hi Craig

 

Sub catagories are needed for popular hobby catagories - die cast - model trains and plastic model kits ect.

 

Some of the sub catagories are manufacture - scale - series/type

 

So I'm all for constant tweeking of the catagories for the Hobbies secton

 

Regards

 

George Winship

[antonsmodels 10]

Railway Hobbies

 

Hi - i also like Craig`s idea as opposed to the users idea - but at this stage i would not go as far as SA etc stuff - keep it simple and straight forward so that anyone understands what you are trying to sell.

[debbie40 10]

We make use of BOB - model railway - quite extensively - and perhaps for browsing reasons the sub-catagories would maybe be handy - but from a sellers point of view: 1. it would make listing items on BOB MUCH more difficult/time consuming - changing catagories all the time and having to see what should go where etc

2. as a seller , I much prefer 'browsers' or potential buyers to be looking at all listed items in the hopes they find something that appeals to them.

 

the only change i would love to see - is an easier way to list - ie : in bulk .

[sid7 10]

Railway Hobbies

 

Hi Craig.

Thank you for the oppertunity. I would just like to see the scales split up. Sometimes you have to view a couple of pages just to find that there is no N scale items. Other than that the simpler the better. Too many sub categories can make you miss an item, especially if it was listed under the incorrect sub.

Regards

Ivan;)

[Technik 10]

@debbie40 - Bulk Listing is available. For info on this - Help - How to Sell - Bulk Upload

[Craig 10]

We make use of BOB - model railway - quite extensively - and perhaps for browsing reasons the sub-catagories would maybe be handy - but from a sellers point of view: 1. it would make listing items on BOB MUCH more difficult/time consuming - changing catagories all the time and having to see what should go where etc

2. as a seller , I much prefer 'browsers' or potential buyers to be looking at all listed items in the hopes they find something that appeals to them.

 

the only change i would love to see - is an easier way to list - ie : in bulk .

 

It can get quite time consuming, I agree! Have you ever tried using the "picklist" features? This helps when you have many items already listed and you'd like to relist a whole lot of them again and again :-)

Add to Pick list - How does it work

Regarding categories, perhaps we could make a special search to test out on this category where you could select your Scale and/or Manufacturer. That way you could filter out results you do not want, while sellers could list in the same way as before.

 

What do you think about that?

[Liman 10]

Hi Craige

I also prefer the second option proposed being spilt in sub catagories ex: loco's, rolling stock, buidlings, etc.

Regards

Liman

[MDFModels 10]

What's happeneing

 

Hey Craig

 

What's happening - how long does it take to create sub catagories - what's the feed back?

 

Get things moving. It's flowing like mud around there.

 

George Winship

[Craig 10]

Hey Craig

 

What's happening - how long does it take to create sub catagories - what's the feed back?

 

Get things moving. It's flowing like mud around there.

 

George Winship

 

It is very easy to make new categories.

It takes long to fix mistakes of creating sub-categories too quickly.

 

Please just hang in there George :-)

[Craig 10]

We have had really good feedback from the bidorbuy community involved in the Railway category!

From the responses I have received, I feel it would be premature to add both scale and manufacturer sub-categories to our Railway category. It was also clear, from the feedback received, that it could be useful to introduce some different sub-categories to separate the accessories and parts etc. from the vehicles themselves. That said, I too feel that this alone would not serve the purpose of making the shopping experience better for the buyer as finding the scale/gauge is important. Therefore I have been testing out a basic search function that I have now added to the Railway category. You will see two drop-down boxes. The boxes allow for a scale to be selected and/or the manufacturer. It is not perfect but I feel it will help buyers in their shopping process.

 

What I need from you:

 

1. Please visit: Model trains and railway sets for sale and have a look at the new search functionality I have introduced.

2. You will see that only three scales have been used. This is due to the fact that if there is little or no content, the search results become irrelevant. If you can justify additional scales based on content, please let me know.

3. Similarly, there are only three manufacturers in the second list. If we have the content please send me an email or make a post on our forum with your suggestions.

4. I would like to focus on what categories we should use (apart from manufacturer and scale).

 

From research and the feedback I have received, I would like to propose introducing the following sub-categories. Please note that the search functionality will still show results in each of the proposed sub-categories (e.g. HO scale Buildings).

 

Buildings & Landscape

Parts & Accessories

Locomotives & Trains

Train sets

Rolling stock

Tracks

Other

 

It would be really good if this feedback could be given on the forum so that we can all see what is being suggested.

[Craig 10]

From research and the feedback I have received, I would like to propose introducing the following sub-categories. Please note that the search functionality will still show results in each of the proposed sub-categories (e.g. HO scale Buildings).

 

Buildings & Landscape

Parts & Accessories

Locomotives & Trains

Train sets

Rolling stock

Tracks

Other

 

We could also combine Buildings, Landscape & Tracks together... just something else to think about :-)

[Caveman51 10]

Railway

 

I like the new format as it is, its simple as easy to use.