How does E Bay work?

[Big Rig]

I am on E bay for the first time .



Questions I have

What has been your E Bay experience ?

Who pays the shipping ?

What if the product is defective? Does E Bay hold the monies until satisfaction?

Am I supposed to make a bid and the highest bidder wins?

THX

 

[Toke]

I am on E bay for the first time .



Questions I have

What has been your E Bay experience ?

My E-bay experience has been good to great. I've gotten many items there (through bids and the 'Buy Now' option) much cheaper than I would on other sites or in stores. For instance I got a fully crested NFL replica jersey for about $85 shipping included.

Who pays the shipping ?

Typically you do. The seller will usually note this in the details of the particular item; as well as where they are willing to ship to.

What if the product is defective? Does E Bay hold the monies until satisfaction?

Believe it or not, E-Bay is a very serious business. If the seller is known to sell 'defective' products than they are legally responsible the same as any other retailer. (i.e. they must be forthcoming as to what the product is; this is not an 'as is sale' or buyer beware) Check the comments left by past buyers regarding the sellers' reputation. On the other hand, the buyer is legally held to pay for their purchases in full, in the case of a winning bid. Typically, most sellers use 'PayPal', through your credit card, as a medium of payment and the money is transferred to them at the end of the auction.

Am I supposed to make a bid and the highest bidder wins?

Yup. You can preset the 'maximum' that you would bid for the item and your bid will incrementally increase in the case that someone outbids your highest bid. I suggest bidding low and re-visiting the item in the final moments of the auction. Better for items that you can risk not winning, but it does allow you to guage where the bidding is going before bidding too high.

THX

No problem.

 

[Big Rig]

Cannot a one time seller rips you off?

Is there a money back policy like in most stores?

 

[DistantVoyeur]

Cannot a one time seller rips you off?

Is there a money back policy like in most stores?

If you use paypal to pay the funds are held in reserve for something like 30 days. If there are any problems you initiate a complaint with ebay and both sides submit their evidence. Ebay used to have a reputation of generally siding with the buyer where there is doubt or lack of proof of a proper transaction. After 30 days, you are SOL.

Anything not directly face to face can be open to some sort of fraud. I had a dispute years ago. Seller tried to lead me on to get past the 30 day deadline, but failed. I got my money back, because I used paypal.

 

[tboy]

Cannot a one time seller rips you off?

Is there a money back policy like in most stores?

While paypal does offer some protection I've heard horror stories from other people (on here even) who have lost bigtime from ebay.

No. 1 rule: only buy from sellers with a perfect or near perfect feedback and have many sales under their belt. (you can tell by the number next to their name on the item page)

Ebay is very VERY old news. It has become dead since they changed their commission rates.

Frankly, I've seen better deals at reputable online stores than on Ebay these days. You used to be able to get thousands of items at 1/3 the price, now? you're lucky to find one......

 

[DistantVoyeur]

While paypal does offer some protection I've heard horror stories from other people (on here even) who have lost bigtime from ebay.

No. 1 rule: only buy from sellers with a perfect or near perfect feedback and have many sales under their belt. (you can tell by the number next to their name on the item page)

Ebay is very VERY old news. It has become dead since they changed their commission rates.

Frankly, I've seen better deals at reputable online stores than on Ebay these days. You used to be able to get thousands of items at 1/3 the price, now? you're lucky to find one......

Good advice. Always do your homework and if it looks too go to be true..... it generally is.

 

[moviefan]

Ebay is very VERY old news. It has become dead since they changed their commission rates.

Frankly, I've seen better deals at reputable online stores than on Ebay these days. You used to be able to get thousands of items at 1/3 the price, now? you're lucky to find one......

I think that's true. I used to use ebay in the late '90s and the early part of the last decade, but I haven't made any lately.

 

[Big Rig]

While paypal does offer some protection I've heard horror stories from other people (on here even) who have lost bigtime from ebay.

No. 1 rule: only buy from sellers with a perfect or near perfect feedback and have many sales under their belt. (you can tell by the number next to their name on the item page)

Ebay is very VERY old news. It has become dead since they changed their commission rates.

Frankly, I've seen better deals at reputable online stores than on Ebay these days. You used to be able to get thousands of items at 1/3 the price, now? you're lucky to find one......

Thx Tboy care to name some of these on line stores?

I am thinking just buy if I can drive there and see the product or is it possible to contact the seller or does e bay keep that secret because people would sell behind E bay avoiding their costs after E Bay matched buyer to seller ?

 

[Gyaos]

Questions I have
What has been your E Bay experience ?

They are one of the largest bootlegging company that illegally profits from the practice and are not stopped. There is no guarentee you'll ever receive the merchadise, which is not stocked by Ebay, but advertised by them. Ebay is a pig company and they need to be taken down, badly. In fact Ebay is designed to keep the economy to drag. I recommend you stay away from them and call the cops to arrest their CEO and former CEO. The bootlegs are rampant and unenforced so Ebay could collect the fees. Example. Put up a DVD of Scarface, and watch 15 DVDs that are bootlegs run concurrent. Multiply that with every DVD made, then multiply that with nearly every product made. That's why Ebay has 32 Million listings and the nearest competitor only has 3 Million listings. Even a Chimpanzee that works for Bloomberg could figure out there are so many bootlegs on Ebay, this system is a catastrophic economy collapse mechanism

Who pays the shipping ?

You do.

What if the product is defective? Does E Bay hold the monies until satisfaction?

All products, in fact all sales on Ebay are defective. The system is unregulated and designed to skirt taxes.

Am I supposed to make a bid and the highest bidder wins?

The sleazy system Ebay designed is to have fake users that exist inside Ebay to shill bid the item for you to pay higher. You never know who bids, unlike a regulated auction. And worse, the bidding scheme is to provide two (2) bids the same, when an auction is to provide what one is WILLING to pay. In essense, the highest bidder could bid $1000.00 and yet the second highest is $100.00, so the seller gets $101.00, when he should get $1000.00. To a bidder, you bid $25.00, but it listed as $10.00, then fakes come on bidding higher to shill you to $25.00, when you really had no intension to pay that, but bid it anyway. This company needs to be raided and raided fast. They got big in the Bush Jr. decade of debt and now their existance is creating a slow recovery.

Gyaos Baltar.

 

[Big Rig]

Anybody disagree with Gyaos ?

Any sound alternatives to Ebay ?

My idea is just buy local EBAY STUFF WHERE YOU CAN GO AND VISIT THE SELLER if that is possible

Maybe do it the old way and get a buy and Sell magazine

 

[Gyaos]

Anybody disagree with Gyaos ?
Any sound alternatives to Ebay ?

On-Line, Amazon, so far anyway. But, me, I just fly to Japan, Hong Kong, and Bangkok and buy it there. LOL

Gyaos.

 

[tboy]

Anybody disagree with Gyaos ?

Any sound alternatives to Ebay ?

My idea is just buy local EBAY STUFF WHERE YOU CAN GO AND VISIT THE SELLER if that is possible

Maybe do it the old way and get a buy and Sell magazine

Yeah, Gyaos has severe psychological problems.

1) reputable companies like Olympus, Canon, Henry's, sell on Ebay. Those alone prove his "every item is defective" theory wrong. This also proves his "bootleg" theory wrong as well.
2) I have ordered many many DeWalt power tools from reputable sellers (and authorized too). How do I know they're authorized? A DeWalt nailer I purchased stopped firing properly after about 5 months. I took it to a local DeWalt dealer, with my proof of purchase, and Dewalt repaired it free of charge under warranty.

You can contact the seller directly but you lose the paypal protection. But unless you find one in your city, are you going to travel to Dallas Texas to view your item?

As for alternatives:

What are you interested in purchasing?

I have purchased items via www.redflagdeals.com buy and sell forum, I have purchased things from people off Kijiji, all without any problems. You just have to know what you're doing and CYA (cover your ass).

 

[Rockslinger]

Just to be safe, use a credit card with a very low credit limit like $300.

 

[tboy]

Just to be safe, use a credit card with a very low credit limit like $300.

or don't use a cc at all.....you're totally safe if you use paypal (if you're worried about identity theft)

 

[Rockslinger]

...you're totally safe if you use paypal (if you're worried about identity theft)

Don't you pay Paypal with a credit card?

BTW Please visit me on my website "Rockslinger.com". I'm the one on the motorcycle.

 

[tboy]

Don't you pay Paypal with a credit card?

BTW Please visit me on my website "Rockslinger.com". I'm the one on the motorcycle.

you can, but you can also link it to be paid via your bank account. I know I know, for you paranoid types that's an OMFG but after 10 yrs? Never a problem......

 

[Keebler Elf]

I've been using E-bay for years and have only ever had one bad experience where I got ripped off (and that was with a seller who I had previously dealt with and had no problems; I think he went bankrupt or something because he basically closed up his well established Ebay shop). Just make sure the seller has a perfect or near perfect (99.99%) rating.

I just purchased an item from a US seller for $10.99 and $4.99 shipping that is currently selling for $19.99 in a Canadian store plus $9.95 if I want them to deliver. Even without shipping and taking into account the exchange rate, I'm still ahead by buying off Ebay.

 

[fuji]

If you stick to "power sellers" with a high satisfaction rating (99% or more) and lots of reviews you will be OK.

It's when you venture into doing business with the guys who have under a thousand reviews that you are at risk of being ripped off, in which case find reasons why you should trust the seller before doing the transaction, or else if it's a small amount of money, maybe just take your chances but with your eyes open to the possibility it could be a rip.

The power sellers with a high rating are *terrified* of getting a bad review and will usually offer you a complete refund if you are not satisfied so as to avoid any negative feedback. If you do give them negative feedback some of them will blacklist you, some of them share a blacklist, so ask them to resolve your issue (which they usually will) before entering negative feedback, the ones who are so paranoid that they use the blacklist are the same ones who will do anything to keep you happy.

This is ebay from a buyers perspective, I have never sold anything on ebay so I can't comment on the odds of being ripped off by a buyer.

 

[lonecoxxman]

I bought a few things on ebay with only one problem. It was a magazine subscription from a GMurray. After I won the auction, this seller told me he was unable to deliver on the subscription. Ebay was of no help in resolving the issue.

 

[IMBob]

Use ebay less now
prefer local pick-up when I do
I like kijiji ( subscribe to watch) and craigslist ( no watch option)
Free to post ads and pics on both sites.

Ripped off once @ Xmas - "lost in the mail" and I waited over 45 days to follow-up
,therefore limited recourse

Recent dvd package auction
Seller had sold for as low as $70 and buy it now $80
My bid was $62 - 4th - top bid $85
Then I received a 2nd chance offer for my bid of $62
I let it expire and thought I might offer $50 if the items came up again