Re: Caveat eBay Emptor

I ran across this on a Yahoo Blog. What do you guys think of it? >

> Digg This! > I'm never going to use eBay again.

--massive snippage--

Yes there are unscrupulous sellers on ebay, but the vast vast majority of sellers and buyers on ebay are honest people. There may be enclaves of shady dealers in some markets, but I don't know those markets.

Every buyer has to take care of themselves and make sure they aren't taken advantage of. ebay is not there to protect buyers or sellers; it's simply there to get them together, and they take (what I consider) a reasonable fee off the top.

I've been playing in ebay for years now.. 7 years at least... and have yet to be offered a second chance on an item. If you (anyone) may be concerned that the seller is doing this dishonestly, then don't accept second chance offers. Better yet, don't bid an amount you'd be disappointed to pay!!

On the other hand, if you do get what you want at a price that you are willing to pay; what's the whine about?

Also, intuition goes a long way... when you get a feeling that something isn't quite right, like this guy's wife suspecting it was a fake, and this $1000 purse that went for $300, DON'T BID ON IT. Leave it... any whiff of trouble and walk away; it's as simple as that.

--- Tontoni

Reply to
Stephen Tontoni
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That's what I thought myself, but I got caught up in the "Second Chance" deal myself. A month or so ago, I bid on some very old Air Trails magazines, but didn't win the auction. My high bid was around (checks files) $15.00 for a five magazine set. After I got outbid, with a couple of days to go, I made a series of bids on individual magazines that all-but-covered the set I was outgunned on. These I won, and for a total price that was considerably lower than the $15 that the original seller wanted as his starting bid. So the original seller contacts me and tells me that the auction winner stiffed him by ignoring the sale after he won and would I still be interested. I sent back a note stating that no thanks, I won what I needed elsewhere and was stepping back for a while. Then I get several more notes asking why I made the bid if I didn't want the items. Sigh I told him that I since won the items that he was selling and didn't need duplicates. He sent a couple of more notes, all very cranky and I wound up kill-filing him from my mailbox. Made me wonder if he or a shill upped my bid to see if I'd go higher. I can't prove it and I don't know if the "winning bid" came from the same town as the seller, but he's been put (with a few other ones) into my "avoid at all costs" file. I have some hard and fast rules for eBay, be sure about what I want, know what its worth and don't bid one nickle higher than that and be willing to walk away if the bidding starts getting crazy. I don't need a pissing contest and that's what some of these become. Also, never mix Merlot and eBay - bad business! 8^P

Reply to
The Old Man

Yes unfourtunatly there are always some bad apples. I have been shiled like that also.

Reply to
masterpiecemodels

I kinda like the second chance offer. I've gotten two items that I was outbid on, but really wanted, & rarely see them on eBay, but I look at eBay as, no matter how rare or one-of-a-kind something is, chances are, there really is more than one out there! Though I was disappointed, I don't whine about being outbid like some folks, I just figure someone was willing to pay more than me. Now, had the second chance thing not been in place a year ago, would the seller(s) have offered the items to me, at my max bid that I was willing to pay? Who knows? OTOH, I've been outbid on something & bid on another same item & won it, & been sent a second chance offer & turned them down, because I had bid & won after being outbid on theirs. Whether they liked it or not is their problem. I didn't need duplicates. Also, the second chance is sanctioned by eBay & you have all the beniefits as opposed to the way it was, the seller contacted you off-eBay & you took your chances. Second chance is also the way I've gotten something cheaper than the other item sold for because the seller had duplicates that they didn't advertise.

Reply to
frank

Been there, done that. Never accepted a second chance offer (about a dozen or so) as 100% of them came in auctions won by a never seen before new bidder with 0 feedback. One of the benefits of buying items related to your hobby is you quickly learn some of your frequent competitors - even trade a few e-mails with them and work out some sub-eBay trades and deals.

The dumbest thing that got by me was when I was a rookie ebayer. I got caught up in the heat of the moment and bidded up to a win in the closing minutes. After the auction I noticed the guy that bid against me was the seller himself! I checked the rules and asked around and sure enough, the seller at one time (and possibly still today) was allowed to place at least one bid on their own auction.

Talk about "daylight shillling"... I never screwed up that way again. Does ebay still have that rule?

WmB

Reply to
WmB

If eBay REALLY wants to assist it's buyers, then they should design a file of "Sellers to Avoid" in thier on line program. Once the seller is added to the list by the the buyer, a red notice should pop up telling the potential buyer they are on his list once they attempt to bid on a product. I know this wouldn't discourage the professional scammers, but it would go a LONG way to protect the buyer from the small time con artists and it would make it easier for eBay to find and eliminate the bad guys. Just my opinion.

Rusty White

Reply to
Rusty White

Rusty White wrote: : If eBay REALLY wants to assist it's buyers, then they should design a : file of "Sellers to Avoid" in thier on line program. : In the advanced search page, there is an option box to either include or exclude seller IDs.

However, as in many things ebay, it is limited to 10 seller IDs. I have used up my allotment of 10 on most of my stored searches, simply trying to limit ebays overly aggressive search program.

While I can understand Rustys sentiment that a seller be notified when they are, effectively, blacklisted, I suspect what this would do is cause them to change their ID more often.

As an aside, ebay had a -3% growth in visitor traffic for the period Feb. 2005 to Feb. 2006, according to a Washington Post article available on slashot for April 5th. Ahh, what a pity! :-)

Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Burden

Nah Rusty.... if they can identify them to that extent, they should ban them. It's much more effective than red-flagging. The problem is the identification; ebay is really NOT there to to protect buyers, so buyers have to protect themselves.

The only thing that ebay does for flagging sellers and buyers is the feedback system. It's highly effective, by the way. Always check a seller's feedback before bidding, and always try to buy from the same source if possible.

--- Tontoni

Reply to
Stephen Tontoni

I avoid the problem by just not bidding on anything that the seller doesn't have a >LOT< of positive feedback (50+). I've missed out on some things but I've never been burned, either.

RLM

Reply to
RLM

Is "-3% growth" a fancy way of saying "3% loss"??

Reply to
frank

Bid on a plane a while back, the Testors F-19. Lost. Seller emailed a Second Chance that he had another if I was interested at my bid price. Took it, no problemo. Processed it through eBay on the up and up.

Frank

Reply to
Grey Ghost

RLM wrote in news:MPG.1ea246adcea8dfca9896c9 @news.giganews.com:

Amen. High feedback sellers, PayPal (always had good luck with them on recovery) and snipe. That's mu formula.

Frank

Reply to
Grey Ghost

frank wrote: : Is "-3% growth" a fancy way of saying "3% loss"?? : Look up the article, and the phrasology will be made clear.

Bruce

Reply to
Bruce Burden

RLM wrote: : : I avoid the problem by just not bidding on anything that the seller : doesn't have a >LOT< of positive feedback (50+). I've missed out on some : things but I've never been burned, either. : That is a start, but I don't consider 50+ feedbacks, positive, neutral or negative, to be a >LOT

Reply to
Bruce Burden

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