I've managed to avoid Ebay thus far, but I suspect that it won't be long before I have to get involved. "Caveat emptor" applies everwhere, and moreso with on-line sales -- so far I've been lucky, both personally and at work.

My Z-series transformer is currently in the shop and should be ready 'most any day. One rheostat might be gone, but there are three others that seem to only need cleaning, checking, and a new power cord. Anyone who thinks I'll run a 250 watt transformer on a cord insulated with crumbling rubber better think again....

I find that I'm really getting pretty excited about this.

There was an article on model trains in the Washington Post on December 26, here are a couple excerpts:

"Our average customer is a 52-year-old man," says Mike Wolf, founder of MTH Electric Trains. A multimillion-dollar enterprise in Columbia, MTH is the second-largest model train company in the United States. Wolf says model trains have always been bought by older guys, mostly for themselves.

Men might say they are buying the trains for their children or their grandchildren, but they're not. "Kids are an excuse," Wolf says. Hobbyists, mostly male, spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on model trains and model railroad paraphernalia.

and

Competition is fierce in the model railroad world. Lionel was founded in 1900; MTH began in 1992. In the mid-1990s, a consortium including rock-and-roll legend Neil Young bought Lionel. A few years later, MTH filed suit against Lionel for stealing trade secrets and Lionel was forced into bankruptcy. It has re-emerged strong, says Calabrese, who has been with the company about 18 months.

The whole article is here,
but they make you do a free registration (I answered all the questions I considered to be marketing related as "Other").