I buy all my Body Jewelry on Ebay. Prices are amazing, compared to piercing parlors and the gag mall.
If you plan on doing the Ebay thing more often, I’d reccomend a PayPal account. You can have them take money from your checking or savings account, even tho it’s kind of a slow process. That way you can pay the seller immediatly (they seem to like that) AND not have to worry about your payment getting lost in the mail. Plus, your item’ll get to you faster.
I have more questions…thanks for all the help so far everyone!
What is the percentage of feedback should I trust someone with? I mean how much should I be willing to settle for. Example someone with 95% and higher seller feedback. Should I go with 90% seller feedback and above? I don’t know how to trust these percentages.
Does anyone have any bidding strategies to get your item? I really want this painting, but this person is outbidding me everyday. We are in a bidding war of some sort, and it irks me because I want this. Should I be sneaky and wait the last 5 minutes of the auction and start bidding? What is strategy to get the item you want?
#2). Decide the maximum YOU would be willing to pay for this item. The MAXIMUM. Enter this number in the bidding window.
You sound like you don’t understand Ebay’s “proxy bidding” system. You enter the highest amount you would be willing to pay, and Ebay offers the minimum winning bid. If someone else bids up, it will bid for you by the smallest amount needed to win, until bidding goes over your maximum, or you win.
Example: Bidding starts at $5.
You enter $20 in the bidding box.
Ebay bids 5.50 on your behalf.
Another person bids $7
Ebay automatically bids $7.50 on your behalf (without you even having to be there)
This will continue until no one else bids, or your limit of $20 is exceeded.
If you entered the maximum you’d be willing to pay and someone else outbids you, walk away. Don’t get sucked into a bidding war… that way leads only to pain.
I’ve only bought one thing on e-bay, but it was a computer. Since it involved a notable amount of money ($350), I looked for a seller who lived within driving distance and had good feedback. And since I felt that the bidding process was somehow demeaning, I just swooped in and paid the “buy it now” price. Picked it up that night and have never had a problem.
However, many people have told me that my experience (which I consider to be “wonderful”) may have been atypical.
I have have nothing but good experiences on Ebay. To repeat what everyone else has said, keep an eye on those shipping costs! I have seen people charging up to $7-8 shipping for a pair of earrings. And don’t get suckered into paying more for something you could buy at a store cheaper. Case in point- I bought my niece some of that “Swan Lake Barbie” stuff for Xmas. I bought the Barbie ( $15.63) , the Prince, ($16.00) and the carriage ($22.81) at Target. They were selling on Ebay for up to $50.00 apiece.
The size of the painting doesn’t really mean anything. It’s who the artist is that determines the worth (well, that and demand). Try looking up the artist in Google and see if you can find any information on him/her.
Eh, how do you know if you’ve never had any bad experiences?
I’ve purchased some very expensive items via ebay - and I’m happy to report that I’ve done so without a hitch. One of my hobbies is to collect classic electric guitars from the 1960’s - and you can imagine what some of them cost. But as I said, every single time the sale has gone off “smooth as”. And that includes shipping via Fedex down here to Australia.
But the most expensive item I’ve bought thus far was a 1966 Shelby Mustang from Miami, Florida for $46,000 USD - and again, both the sale, and shipping via container ship down here to Australia, well… all of it went absolutely smooth as.
Obviously there are some “dodgy operators” out there. However, I would recommend creating a Pay Pal account straight away, and then do the “next step registration” process so you can spend more than $1000 if you need to, and everything is very nicely protected from therein I reckon. Part of the reason for this is that Pay Pal is a subsidiary of eBay itself, and as such, money payment disputes due to poor quality of items sold etc can be assisted by both Pay Pal and eBay in the Buyer’s favour.
Personally, I’m a tad miffed. I finally put some jewelry items up for sale on eBay, and haven’t received one bid in a week and a half.
Other people could make a killing selling heart-shaped cow patties on there, but I can’t sell my friggin’ jewelry.
Rat’s ass.
I love eBay. I’ve never had any problems. Any seller who expects you to get and mail a money order the day the auction ends is unrealistic. eBay says the seller should send a final total to the buyer within 3 business days and a good idea is to have your money sent within a week after the auction ends. One thing to keep in mind is that banks and post offices are not open during accessable hours so there’s usually only one day a week when most people can get there. So, don’t worry if you take a few days. If a seller says you have to pay within a unreasonable amount of time, don’t bid.
Also, don’t be afraid of international sales. My best experience was with a man in England. After I bought a few Harry Potter coins from him through eBay, he told me which other ones he could get. He charged me the amount the store charged plus shipping and his bus fare to the store and he got the rest of the set and the book for me. He was a wonderful seller.
The major thing to be aware of is e-mails that look like they’re from eBay. I got a bunch that were very authentic looking. They asked for some information I knew eBay wouldn’t ask for. I reported them to Safe Harbor and found out it was a scam. Watch out for stuff like that.
Always check the sellers feedback. I’m very picky about who I buy from. I’m very strict with myself. Even if I really want an item, I will not bid if the seller has more than a reasonable about of negatives or neutrals.
Anyway, enough of that. Have fun and don’t get too hooked. A weeks pay only goes so far.
It really depends on what sort of item you’re buying and what the content of the negative feedback is. For example, if it’s a small item that you don’t need right away, and there are a few negative feedbacks complaining that the seller is a slow shipper, you could probably risk it. If it’s a fragile item and the seller has a few negative feedbacks that he doesn’t pack well, you might not want to risk it. Use common sensed and, if in doubt, skip it. Unless it’s a one-of-a-kind item, there’s probably somewhere else you can find it, perhaps even from another seller on eBay who doesn’t set off your alarm bells.
I have not bought a great deal from E-Bay but check out the seller as all have advise. Bookmark the item, check it out each day if you want but be there during the last hour. That is when it usually gets active and you can lose out. Good Luck but don’t be to disappointed if someone outbids you, E-Bay gets a lot of traffic and people will pay more than what you think the item is worth.
A few things:
Volume of negative feedback can be important, but so can the time of the feedback and the feedback left. Someone who decided to stop being courteous could have their last five feedback negative, but have a hundred before that as glowing as the sun.
There is a service I used when I was buying vintage toys (and am now selling them) that allowed me to snipe auctions without even being online. At the risk of violating the board rule on advertising, the URL for that address (I am in no way affiliated with that site, just in case anyone thinks I could possibly profit) is www dot auctionstealer dot com (and if I am in violation, mods please delete that with my apologies). When I was buying toys, I had about a 90% success rate with that site, and that included the more dangerous (subscriber option) “bid with one second left” vs the free “bid with 5 seconds left” … at least, I think that’s the time we (my father and I) had it set to. I could be wrong.
Bittersweet, what kind of Jewelry are you selling?
I hate eBay. Haaaaate it. When I want to buy something, I want to buy it, not arm-wrestle someone for it. The one time I tried to get something on eBay, some jerk outbid me by, like, two dollars, two minutes before the auction closed. That did it for me.
When I go to Lord & Taylor’s and see a nice pair of Marc Jacobs shoes, I expect to say, “I’ll take them!” and have them wrapped up for me. I do not expect the saleman to say, “Oh, I’m sorry, ma’am, that woman behind you just offered two dollars more for them.”
I just don’t have the auctioneering spirit.
Eve, I always use the Buy it now option for anything I really want. I’m very much into instant gratification that way. Besides, the Buy it now prices are still quite reasonable. I don’t feel like saving the last dollar to risk losing something I really want.
Lookie here.
Not one stinkin’ bid. I even lowered my prices. 
The reason that sellers love them is that they’re damn near impossible to counterfeit. They have the same kind of security features as currency, like subtle coloration, watermarks, etc.
Years ago, cashier’s checks and certified checks were considered to be as good as cash. No longer. There are counterfeits all over the place out there, so if you ever accept a cashier’s check as payment for something, don’t fork over the goods for at least a couple of weeks after you’ve deposited the check, until you’re absolutely, positively sure the check is legit.