Need Advice from E-Bay Veterans!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hi, my name is Coldfire and I have just registered with E-Bay. I’m just browsing at the moment, getting the feel of things. Eventually, I might start bidding on a nice watch or so, since the prices I’ve seen on E-Bay are often significantly lower than retail or Internet prices.

But before I let anyone charge my creditcard for hundreds of dollars, I thought I’d try and gain some insight by asking my fellow Dopers what their experiences are. Let me just phrase a few questions:

  1. A seller has recommendations and feedback in his profile. How legitimate are these? Is it a good measure for the trustworthyness of a seller?
  2. If a seller refuses to cooperate with an escrow transaction, should I be worried about the quality and/or genuineness of the merchandise?
  3. Some of these sellers offer really expensive watches for really low prices. You can actually buy a $2000 TAG Heuer (retail) for some $600 sometimes. Assuming the watches ARE new and genuine (as is often claimed), how do they manage to sell at these prices? How do you know whether or not a seller isn’t trying to get rid of stolen goods? And if I should accidentally buy stolen goods, am I liable?

Furthermore, I’d like to hear good and bad or otherwise amusing stories about your experience with E-Bay (or other online auctions). Also, any advice on where to get a good price on TAG Heuer watches is always welcome :smiley:

2

well, I’m about to purchase a David Bowie rare 45 with “Heroes” sung in English, French and German, on the irish website http://www.e-bid.ie for the grand total of £16. (about $25 dollars)
Good eh?

3

A seller with a HIGH number of responces is always a good sign. Check to make sure that they don’t have any negative responces recently. But if they have a low number of responces, they are a new seller, and you should proceed with caution. Especially with the amount of money you’re talking about.

As for the watch deal, you have no idea that it is genuine or not hot merchandise. It’s like the guy selling them on the street, you really have no idea if his uncle is a salesman and is able to set him up with a bunk discount, or if he knocked over a jewelry store last night.

I’ve had some good experiances, and one horrific one. The guy cashed my check, and held my merchandise for three weeks. After I threatened reporting him, he went ape shit. Left me negative feedback, and STILL didn’t send the book for another week. I refuse to read that book because I’m so pissed off at the guy.

SisterRiddles recently decided to try e-bay. She thought it was “like a horse race. You bid on a bunch of them, and which ever one came in wins.” YOU try finding the logic in there, God knows I can’t. She is currently the owner of three spice racks and two cd holders. Thank GOD someone out-bid her on the Elvis Guitar Shaped Cd Rack. Sure, it’s funny, but would YOU want it in your livingroom?

I’d stay away from anyone who isn’t willing to put a big ticket item in escrow. Something fishy there…

4

I’ve had only good experiences with ebay. Stay
away from negative feedback; and, if you have
any questions or doubts, e-mail the seller
BEFORE you bid.

The best deal was a person who put a very rare
promo CD (Madonna Buenos Aires Dance Mixes) as
his first item ever (no feedback). I wasn’t going
to bid until I noticed he lived in New York City.
I e-mailed him asking if he would meet up with
me to complete the transaction. He would, so I
got it for the minimum bid and had it the next day.

As to stolen merchandise, people put tons of
bootleg and promo CDS on it.

5

eBay runs on the golden rule, mostly. For every scumbag there are hundreds and hundreds of ordinary people who play straight with each other. Feedback is pretty accurate, just a reporting of one’s transaction with another. Used to be if you had more than one ID, you COULD run up one ID’s feedback by using another. Now, every feedback has to be associated with a specific, completed transaction - fraud is out. Some people do eBay all day long and consider it their job. With these parties it’s very routine to do business with them.
As far as genuineness of merchandise, or its non-stolen status, it’s a guessing game. Mostly it is not stolen, of course. Something I like to do is investigate what-all sellers are actually selling; not just that day, but for the last 30 days. If it’s just one type of thing like CDs or movie posters or books, then he’s probably just a dealer of that sort of thing. If it’s a mix of car stereos and cameras and leather jackets and watches, that raises other possibilities. (I also snoop to see what else my bidders have been buying in the last month. Often you get real interesting portraits of perfect strangers that way, and whether they are a serious collector or an impulse buyer etc. Not that there’s anything wrong with that)
I buy and sell on eBay quite a bit, and my experiences have been 98% positive. Only been burned once, and in that case I saw it coming and should have known better.
I have no opinion on rejecting escrow, other to say that I, as a seller, don’t do it either. I prefer simple, painless, ordinary, “send me the $ and I’ll send you the thing” transactions. I think this is a pretty common sentiment.

6

I do some occasional bidding on eBay, but I’m no expert. If multiple sellers are listing the same item, I’d go with the one with the highest feedback rating and/or no negative complaints.

The big time sellers don’t want any negative feedback, so it seems like they really work to accurately descibe what they sell and to follow through on shipping. It would seem reasonable, on expensive items like watches, to ask about the origin and proof of ownership before bidding.

And did you know, if a seller has many identical items for sale on the same auction listing (each for the same price), it is called a “Dutch” auction!!!

7

I’ve purchased a number of computer items and tutorial video tapes from e-bay, and sold my old Amiga Computer. I haven’t had any problems. I think of it as a global flea market. Eventually I’ll get the shaft, but that happens regardless of where you shop second hand.

8

I’ve done some buying and selling on E-Bay, and fairly agree with what everyone else has said. Feedback is a decent indication, but keep in mind that it doesn’t always mean much until you get at least 10-20 responses and that a lot of people won’t leave bad feedback oon a bum sale because they’re afraid of getting burned in return. If you’re a buyer with a feedback of 3 and the guy who ripped you off has a feedback of 504, the bad feedback on your record is going to stick out a lot more than his and might scare you out of leaving a true report. For the record, I’ve never left any negative feedback mainly because I never got truely burned. Once or twice, I’ve left neutral feedback for things like slow response times or lack of communication.

As for escrow, I’ve never sold anything for over $150, so no one’s ever asked me to enter into an escrow agreement. My feeling is that for smaller purchases, say, under a few hundred, the seller just might not want to deal with the hassle and fees that go with an escrow account. For larger sales though, I’d think the seller should be more accommodating.

As everyone else has said, there’s no way of telling if merchandise is stolen, a cheap knock-off brand, or whatever else although people who specialize in a single thing or else E-Bay “storefront” operations (businesses who also run auctions) are probably less likely to sell such things. I’d also feel more confident with a larger description of the item than item descriptions such as “TAG Heuer watch. Black. Like new.”

9

My experiences have been pretty pleasing so far. Twice I’ve had to wait for more time than I expected to get an item, but I’ve never been stiffed on one. Unfortunately, I bid on a very select group of items, so my experience with things like the watches is limited. Generally, the people are very fair-minded, decent people; most of the ones I deal with realize I’m a collector, and even offer me other items I’d be interested in buying through private emails, instead of putting them up for auctions. A lot of people will cut you some slack if your payment’s late, but always make sure you keep a good standard of communication going between yourself and the seller. Also, it’s considered good eBaying ettiquette to leave feedback for every auction if you’re satisfied with the purchase, and keep in mind that the feedback can’t be retracted.

10

FTR, EBay has been cracking down on bootleg CDs. You might see the auction up for a day, but then the next day it’s gone, and you get an email saying the seller was selling unauthorized merchandise. Lost about 3 Dave Matthews bootlegs that way already. sigh

11

Feedback is usually a pretty good indicator, but certainly not a perfect one. It’s also important to actually read some of it and not just rely on the numeric rating.

I’d be suspicious of anyone who’s not willing to try escrow.

12

Try the ebay newsgroup, there are hundreds of professionals there who know how to handle any situation at all. Get all headers there shold be a few thousand.

If you can, get an auction that completes during the week as fewer people bid then.

My first few seller auctions were for several hundred dollars & I didn’t have any feedback, but they still bought :slight_smile:

13

Read the feedback. Skim through it. If you see lots of “A+++++++++ Great Service”, rather than “product in good condition”, you’ve got a good seller.

I have never had a problem with ebay, though I was just buying used baby goods. I only bought two new things, but they were in their original packaging.

When I worked in a department store in the jewelry department, we offered our Seiko watches for 25% less than our competitors. That price was still inflated 40-50% of the wholesale price. A person selling these TAG watches may be an independant distributer. (I bought a breast pump off of ebay from a distributer who worked out of her home.)

14

I am pretty happy with Ebay too. It’s still something to be cautious about, and I second the statement that if the seller won’t enter into escrow on a high $ item, be wary.

Also, stolen merchandise is stolen merchandise. Yes, you can get in trouble for recieving it, even unknowingly. Our laws only recognize the fact that the stuff is stolen.

15

Coldy, you and I must be the cyber ying yang twins. You being the international-hot-car-stud-drinks port-smokes cigars-and-speaks-19-languages-kind-of-guy. Me being none of the above.

I’ve just registered with Ebay ( not looking for anything as smarmy as a TAG Heur watch, but something more elite *Thomas the Tank Engine * stuff. (Wanna trade lives?)

I’ve often wondered if I am going to get screwed or what. And the feed back here makes me want to give it ago.

You basically posted more coherently than what I would have. Ebay? A ripoff or what?

16

I’ve had pretty good luck with e-bay, so far I haven’t been ripped off or deceived. Besides the seller’s reputation, I’d make sure that there were no customs issues involved. I have no idea what customs is like in the Netherlands, but it is something to think about.

I would definately insist on escrow for such an expensive purchase. Paying by credit card is probably the best bet, since you can dispute charges that way.

Have you looked at ebay Germany? If the prices are about the same, you might save quite a bit on shipping and duty.

17

Great tips, people! Keep them coming, as it is obvious a lot of people are taking advantage of this newfound knowledge :wink:

Shirley, for what it’s worth: you’re cool even if you are, and maybe because, you’re different than me! Oh, and I don’t REALLY speak 19 languages. I’m afraid it’s a mere 14 :wink:

18

just pray you don’t have my problem . . . my seller has pages of praise and a good price on the item I want, so I bid. I get a bit competetive, winning the auction at a price at least ten dollars more than where I could get it at a regular vendor, but I don’t realize that at the time so I’m happy. Then in the week following the auction, the seller gets three negative comments. Eep.

I’m willing to give this person the benefit of the doubt and assume something just got in the way of his being able to get to the internet (hopefully nothing too horrifying), but still it was a bit unsettling to see the bright red marks after the auction ended.

I’ve bought from ebay twice before, both times very happy with the results. Both other times were for items absolutely impossible to find anywhere else yet specific enough to my interest that I would be the only bidder, so I got a good price to boot. Ebay rocks!

19

I have both bought and sold on ebay, quite a bit.

As a buyer, I try to read through the feedback. If a person has one or two bad ones in a pile of goods (let’s say out of 100 good ones, he gets one or two bads), I will check them out. You can read the feedback of the bad-giver, see if they themselves have lots of bad feedback. You can also email them to see what kind of problems they actually had (I’ve answered a number of emails about negative feedback I’ve had to leave on the few occasions that’s come up). If they have more than 10% bad, stay away - far away. Something isn’t right, even if it’s just that they can’t keep up with business.

Also, read the description carefully, know what you’re buying. As questions before you bid, even if you have to ask for extra pictures. It doesn’t cost extra to re-list something if they don’t get any bids because they couldn’t supply info fast enough. So don’t worry about taking a sale from them that they might have gotten :slight_smile:

I have found a few good relationships with sellers through ebay. In one case, I found a supplier for silk which costs me about 30 or 40% less to have shipped from him in HK than it does to buy here - and I get better selection. Not to mention a really nice guy to deal with. It’s a good place to network, even, if you find the right people to buy from.

As a seller, I also know that it can be rough. Even with a delay listed, I’ve had people bounce checks. There are evil people out there - and some totally misguided ones. I’ve had people leave revenge feedback when I left negatives. Now, I don’t leave negatives until email, snail mail, phone calls, and everything have failed. In one case, I filed a fraud report on the person, it got so bad. So it’s not like I do it lightly - but it has happened. But then, I"m not one to hesitate to leave neutral feedback if need be either.

There are also some really wonderful people out there - buyers who send the payment on time, no problems, and the transaction goes perfectly. These are the majority.

I wouldn’t worry. As with any open marketplace, you have to be careful and know what you’re buying - but there are some great deals out there too, so dive in.

Just, uh… do yourself a favor and pre-set a spending limit. It’s like playing the stock market, if you don’t pre-set the limit you’re GOING to go over it :slight_smile:

-Elthia
I hate shopping, but god I love ebay.

20

I’ve bought a bunch of stuff on ebay, and have had only positive experiences. Some of the stuff was for ~$2,000, and the seller was in England (I’m in the US), so I was a little nervous, but everything went ok. I never used an escrow service, though perhaps I should have.

The stuff I was buying was art and old stuff, like this really cool Cuneiform tablet and a document signed by Napolean. Since I’m no expert on this stuff, I not only checked the sellers feedback, I also checked the feedback of the buyers who were currently bidding on the item. My logic being that a buyer with high feedback implies other relevant purchases, and thus high knowledge of the subject. Good logic or not, you decide.

It’s also good to check the actual items that were sold as part of the sellers feedback. There were many I saw where they had 200 great sales, but when you looked at them they were $2.50 spatulas or something, but now they were selling something for big bucks. The seller may have been honest, but for my money didn’t have a track record yet.

Also, you can email the seller upfront, and check them out via email as best you can.