In the pics attached you will see a circuit assembly being sold on eBay for about $10 it consists of a bridge rectifier a electrolytic capacitor and a voltage regulator circuit board  If your are interested in this and would like several of them for lighting in your cars and locos etc you can purchase the parts on eBay for about $3  I found the voltage regulator boards on eBay in the electronics category i bought 20 pieces for $19 with free shipping, I bought the bridge rectifiers 10 pieces for $4 and the capacitors again on eBay in the electronics category 5 pieces for about $3 both with free shipping.  There is also a seller on eBay selling the exact same voltage regulator board for about $7 each.  To save a few bucks of your modeling dollars on eBay all it takes is a little looking in other categories 

Actually, that looks like a DC to DC converter.

But as with all purchases, it pays to shop around.

Yeah, this is definitely not the first time something is 2 different prices on ebay, or Amazon, or in stores.

Not sure I would have titled this a ripoff report, maybe "hey look at this great deal I found"

Greg

If one is electronically challenged then buying a built up circuit is better than buying parts and creating smoke.

I have no problem with making my own circuits and I salvage many parts from old power supplies, and cables/wire from computers (many 100mil connectors here) thus lowering my costs even more!!

Yea Dave thanks but I know it is a converter just trying to keep it simple  And Greg you may be correct but I emailed one of the sellers of just the converted alone who had them listed for $7.95 each asking him why he was selling an item on eBay for that price that costs less then a buck.  My reason was that eBay use to be a place to find "great deals" but of late it is more like a place for "retail" sales

A DC to DC converter isn't the same as a voltage regulator. And, why shouldn't the seller try and make money? The buyer needs to know what he is buying, and shop around for the best deal.

When I went shopping for the bearings I needed, I must have browsed nearly a dozen sites before I found one that had the bearings I needed, at a price I was willing to pay. Could I have purchased them for a lower price? It turns out I could have. But, the price I paid was less then half the price of most of the other resellers I found.

Ebay is rife with folks trying to sell items for much more then they are worth. Its a simple thing to go shopping and compare prices to find out what something is actually worth.

David, you know a voltage regulator and a DC to DC converter are not the same and so do I after 50+ years in the electronics industry I was just trying to keep it simple and that was not my point.  But you restated my point in this reply, if you would just read what I wrote, I pointed out, in my way, that you can indeed find items at a lower cost if you look around but I also made the observation that more and more sellers are turning eBay from a bargin site into a retail outlet with higher prices

Ok. Yes, that is true. But as long as the buyer is aware of that, and does proper research, then only the shoppers that don't shop around will end up paying full retail. What you see as a rip off, I see as the market place. One has to shop around to get the best price. That is true online and in brick and mortar stores.

I agree ebay is turning more retail.

One thing I often find is you can buy product "A" at 2 prices, one from the manufacturer in China, and wait up to 2 months, or from a guy in the US, who already bought them from China and is making a profit.

Seeing if the item is in "stock" is one way to determine which this is, but lately, "in stock" means "in stock in China", i.e. bulls**t .... look at the delivery date, if it's over a week and it's small, it's coming directly from China.

Greg