Some people are morons. I asked a seller a question about an item no one was bidding on and he offered to sell it outside of ebay for much more! Yeah, why would I bid $2 on that item and be protected by ebay and be honest when I can buy it directly from you for $20, not be protected and be dishonest? Moron.
I had one buyer offer me uncounted riches and full harem; turns out he wanted me to pay the shipping on my soul. I told him where he could go…
<inhale><think>Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean.<exhale>
My reply will be:
[color=green]No.
I’m sorry but the price is not negotiable - my profit on this item is already small.[/green]
Well, he’s bought the item, time will tell whether he actually sends payment.
You know, I was considering using e-Bay to sell some clothes that are now too big for me. I thoght “I must remember to start a thread in IMHO about Dopers’ experience of selling via e-Bay, especially selling clothing”. Having read this thread, Ms Boods’ posts in particular, I think I’ll give the whole thing a miss.
I do a lot of business on German ebay, and will usually ask the seller if they will do business with a US buyer in US cash before I bid. That just makes it easier for everyone.
Asking people to lower the price or end the auction earlier for your benefit is a no-no. A seller once had five CDS I wanted. I used “Buy-It-Now” for the first one, then asked the total price for the lot. I got an immediate satisfactory price, and used "Buy-It-Now’ for all five. Great deal.
I once asked the seller a question, didn’t bid on the item, then got a nasty e-mail from said seller. Now that is just plain rude.
For this particular buyer, I would just send a few e-mails back, with “no” in about 16 different languages (no, nein, nyet, non, etc.)
I’ve never had a bad experience with E-bay, which leads me to think I should quit whilst I’m ahead.
Tansu – hallo! Yes, I’ve had some goofy experiences, but don’t let my tales discourage you!
I think everyone who buys and sells on eBay has had ‘interesting’ experiences – and one thing I do know, everyone likes to talk about the ‘you will NOT believe this cheek’ ones! It has always helped me to swop outrageous stories as eBay really is a sort of one-to-one ‘isolated’ business, and it’s always nice to know that other people have had similar experiences and can offer advice or support.
Believe me, no matter what you do, there is always that percentage of titwanks out there what will brass you off. I’ll wager even the Pope has a few Cardinals he’d like to smack sometimes.
I have been buying and selling on eBay since about 1999 (on my own for over a year), and 99% of the transactions have worked out quite well.
From my experience, the goodies far outnumber the nutjobs – don’t be discouraged! I don’t make my living from eBay, but it is a nice additional income, and you do have a global (if you so choose) market!
cheers!
I seem to have had a rash of bad ones lately, probably just because I am selling more now than ever before; I’ve had three non-paying bidders this month; one of them just never responded at all and ended up going NARU, another gave me a sob story, so I cancelled his bid, but didn’t leave any feedback; the third just keeps giving lame excuses and I’ll file his NPB report if there isn’t a cheque in tomorrow’s post.