Buying a helicopter on E-bay

[kingchopper]

i sell quite a lot of heli bits on e-bay, you should be safe enough if you stay within e-bay and don't be tempted by offers to finish the auction early.
check the persons feed back rating and read thier "me" section too.

ask plenty of questions and request more photos, only bid if your 100% happy.

but if it aint as per the advert you can ask for a refund.

you can get some real bargins, if you know what to look for

andrew

[colin n]

Ive got more money than sense.

£ 1.32 at the last count.

[ChrisB]

£ 1.32 at the last count.

50p here

[Nick X-Cell Pro 2k]

£220 here, any bargains?

[Nick X-Cell Pro 2k]

Sorry meant £2.20 forgot the dot..............

[Sesame]

Ive got to agree with Kingcopper Ive bought and sold lots of stuff over ebay and mostly ive had good experiences, making sure the people im buying from have good feeback and checking that ther know about what it is they are selling and not just something they happened to find somewhere .

I bought a heli off ebay a few weeks ago and she is a beauty and quite a reasonable price, and once ive done with the choppers im flying at the mo i'll probably out them on ebay, infact the one I bought I may be selling without even flying good purchase that one..

[Nicolasgreening]

Hi,

I am new to heli's but I have brought planes, engines and my Audi A4 from ebay and if you are careful you can get a bargain but don’t assume that it is a bargain because it’s on ebay it is easy to get carried away.

I like to pick up any items that are expensive and I am worried about if you get there and its not as described you do not have to buy...

Good luck

Nick

[robgt]

don’t assume that it is a bargain because it’s on ebay it is easy to get carried away

Absolutely... check this ending price for Phoenix.
I know it's a good sim, but brand new it's over £30 less!!!
LOL
Cheers,
Rob

[kingchopper]

yes! dont get carried away, ive sold stuff for more money than it costs new, how crazy is that!!, remember once youve bid on it and won the auction you are legally bound to pay for it, unless it is vastly different from the listing.
its your responsiblity to check the listing, dont forget to check the cost of the postage and packing too as that can also be highly inflated. but dont go moaning about postage after the auction as you also agreed to it at the time of bidding.

if the item is faulty you can demand a refund of the item, if you purchased from a private seller you will still be liable for all the postal charges. businesses must refund the postage as well.

if you find the item is in perfect condition but unsuitable for your requirements then its tough, its your now. as a seller i will only accept returns of this nature less my expenses, less relisting fees, paypal fees etc.

as a seller I am not allowed to charge for paypal fees, as a buyer you should avoid anyone that tries to charge you.

negative feed backs should only be used as a last straw attempt to resolve a problem.

be careful, read the whole advert, find out how much its costs new and expect to pay about a third that for second hand items, dont bid more than your budget.

[Mastee]

Thank you all for great tips
I'm waiting for the new engine for my medevac to come in the mail,havent been airborne for more than a month now, and I want my fix.. but I'm afraid the high wont last.
My budget is around 2-300£ , but I wont buy anythin before the summer hollidays.
I need some heli-lingo lections...

-What does size 30,40 etc.. mean? (how big is a 50? 50cm?) ,what makes a micro a micro, how big should the heli be to put up with some wind (and is it the size that matters?)
-What does FP stand for?
-Why is battery better than fuel, and why is it not?
-Whats so special with 3D, and as a neewb, should I stay away?
- Whats the difference between a good servo and a bad one?
- What's it called when you have two main rotors, and no tail rotor?(like the medevac)(and what are the advantages and disadvantages?)

Once again, thank you all for being such good help I would have given up flying if it wasnt for this forum.

Martin

[kingchopper]

heres a few answers for you dude,

a fairly good set will cost about £1200 bearing in mind helicopters arent cheap, and the more you spend the easier it is to learn to fly. aim for 5 point throttle and pitch curves on the radio, budget radios are a nightmare to use and set up. especially if you want a good heading hold gyro and run a governor. a good radio might come with servos, these are normally rubbish no good for an agressive 3d helicopter.

30 size engines means it is 0.30 of a cubic inch capacity.

the bigger the helicopter the more stable it will be in the wind, but as your experience grows so you will find it easier to handle.
however my 30 size heli handles very well in high winds.

for your first full size heli, avoid electric cos they tend to be a lot lighter and break a bit more easily than an ic (internal combustion) version. plus the batteries are expensive (£300 each) a bit expensive when you poke a hole in them.

3d means flipping and rolling, inverted tumbling etc all in a tight spot of sky, master the basics first then try a bit of aerobatics before trying 3d.

cheap servos are slow and often not up to the job required, you should aim for fast strong servos that that follow you stick movements, you get want you pay for, you can expect £60-80 price tag for a good servo. tail servo for heading hold gyro's should be the best you buy, cheap ones dont really work on the tail. best to buy a futaba 401 or 611 gyro that comes with its own tail servo.

in my opinion the JR 9XII is a good solid radio, but use fataba gyros, servos. sure others will slag me off but i am entitled to my opinion.
andrew

[Jamez]

A brief and by no means comprihensive, and for that matter not even spelt right explination of some of the question's in your list,

30/40/50 means the size of the engine fitted to the heli (30-39 for a 30 size, no 40 size heli's that I know, 50 size engine etc) the figure is in Cubic inch's and is the engine displacment (like a 2 litre car only in cudic inch's rather than litre's)

A micro is anything smaller than say a Logo 10 / Eolo / Lepton, normaly have a blade disc of less than 700mm, there are different size's 300's and 400's, that is the size of the motor they take 9based on normal brushed can motor's but kinda carry's over into brushless one's as well), Normaly a 400 size heli (T rex etc) will put up with a bit of wind, but the bigger they are the more stable they are, so a 50 size nitro will handle the wind better than a 400 size micro.

FP stands for fixed pitch, and usual only applies to 300 size micro's although some of the early nitro's where fixed pitch in the late 60's

Fuel heli's and electric heli's are getting closer, it's just the outlay for the battery's on electric's thats the problem now. (On going squabble on here about which is better, I have both they both have there advantages)

3d is an areobatic flying style, the most demanding of all on pilot and machine, look for video's of 3d flying on U tube and you will soon see what it is. I imagine you are talking about the 3d in the ebay adverts, they mainly just say this to get you interested when they realy mean it goes up down, left and right and turns round...

A Good servo normaly has good speed, good holding power, good tork and is accurate, there are good servo's for different aplication's, A fast servo (less than 0.1 of a second) for the tail, a powerful but not as quick servo for the pitch (to move the blades under load), most of the new generation of digital servo's are 'Good' if you get the right one for the job

Contra rotating of Counter rotating, is what the medivacs head is know as, it has a couple of advantage's like no tail rotor, and it's stabiality, but that can be it's problem as well as you loose response, they are good to learn with but are not to good at flying around as they tend to want to settle back into a hover.

This is just my 20 pence worth, there are other more experienced people on here who might be able to give you more info.

[Jamez]

King Chopper got his on here whilst I was typing mine, sorry to repeat alot of what he has said....

[Mastee]

Thank you for your tips

Kingchopper: £1200 is a little bit out of my budget right now, maybe in a couple of years (I'm a student ). Anyway, are spares on a expencive heli also very expencive?

I want to advance from the medevac to something a bit bigger and faster.. and of course something I can fly outdoors in the field on calm days. I was thinking something between 2-300£ so its obvious I'm not after "expert" helicopters. Whats important for me is that its easy to get spares, and of course that you should not have to buy spares every other day . And it should be a challange to fly (in a good way)

I was looking at THIS on e-bay, and I think it looks pretty cool. but of course looks can decieve... if this is a crap helli, why? and if not, is this a good advansment from the MedEvac? Any particular brands I should stay clear of?

[Ade_Law]

where did 1200 come from?

Raptor 30 Version 2 £179.6530
Engines: OS 37 SZ-H £105 £97.45
Futaba FF7 Radio Full Set £159.21
Futaba GY401 / 9254 £135.26
Thunder Tiger Carry Master - No1265 £82.10
Case Magnum 12% Nitro £42.80
C Youngblood Muscle Pipe 2 Q - 30 Size £39.52
4.8v 2400mAh - Flat 236g £17.01

Subtotal £753.00
VAT £131.78
Total £884.78

i would personally spend a bit more and get a knight sport. I cant be arsed pricing it up at the moment. you get the FF7 radio only then add rx, 4x 3152.

you also exchange the os37 for an OS50 hyper and an MP2 or hatori muffler.