General Discussion about eBay and Our Own Experiences!

At one of the places I've worked previously, we had a lot of antiquated equipment that still met our needs but the OEM wanted an arm and a leg to repair; they no longer supported those lines and wanted us to upgrade. Maintenance Sup. opened an E-Bay account and found a lot of what we needed.

Management soon realized how cost effective it was that guidance was given to the Purchasing Department that they were to look on E-Bay first. To this day, they still get the majority of their MRO parts off E-Bay.

Sure, they've gotten burned a few times, but you develop a reliable sourcing pool, just like you do with brick and mortar suppliers.

The wife buys hair dye that comes with a tube of conditioner. Don't remember the brand. She pays $8.00-9.00 USD for the box. She uses the dye and sells the conditioner for $6.00 a tube + postage.

She bought hundreds of kids DVD for a quarter each, packaged them 4 to a box and sold them for $10.00 box+shipping.

Ha ha not likely....strategy is key to success....Only buy from reputable dealers when it comes to coins and precious metals and other valuables...but it pays to take a chance once in a while on other stuff ...Don't hesitate to make offers....Look for return policy....very important to check feedback....

e-bay has very strict rules about seller/customer responsibilities.

It's usually safe to do business there.

Yeah I have some Morgan 'silver' dollars I'd like to sell...There are a lot of fakes out there, designer knockoffs, exaggerated quality and claims, bad pictures, oh my camera is not working well, I've seen it all over the years...It has gotten better over the years it's true...but still it pays to buy quality...Now how many 'bags-O-sand' can I sign you up for??

I'll take 10 bags, please. Oh, and I'll need a certificate of authenticity that it is 100% real sand.

The only problem with feedback is E-bay will remove bad feedback for regular sellers who make them profit, undeclared traders especially. Bought a Nikon 1.4 Teleconverter for a reasonable price from one, only to find it had a fungus problem, seller wouldn't fully refund even though under the distance selling regulations (UK) he should have and e-bay took his side and removed my accurate feedback. Now I look at the feedback differently and read between the lines for hints of issues. Some traders also change names to hide previous issues, and use 'friends' and their own second/third accounts to shill bid things up, always have a maximum sensible price limit and don't get suckered into a bidding war.

I have never had the impression, with anything badly represented that I have bought, that ebay did any of what you wrote, but I am on ebay DE, not UK....that may be the difference. They have only supported me in a way positive to my needs....really nice folks. They have even rung me to get exactly my side of the problems....

Paypal has sent me my money back, so I rarely buy from non Paypal accounts anymore. I learnt my lesson there!!

Your last sentence was to my mind the best of all:-

.......always have a maximum sensible price limit and don't get suckered into a bidding war.

Which is why I use a good bidding program whenever possible, for Windows I like "Bid-O-Matic". It comes in several languages, is free to download, install and use from Sourceforge and tests better than many other programs you have to pay for, sometimes even winning in comparison tests.

I work out my highest bet, place it and do something else... I get it or I don't!! Either way is good....

It also allows me day and night, to bid on stuff, without needing to be at the computer.

Its one negative (doesn't bother me though) side is that you need to leave your PC/Laptop switched on. But it will switch itself off once all bids have been made.....

Really great program, if you have windows. Sadly, not for Linux.

I've used eBay many times & never had a really bad experience. I've had the odd disappointment, but I've had that with more mainstream sellers as well. A lot of well known brands now have their own eBay store so I think it has become a genuine global market place.

I got spanked twice in my 18 years on eBay..... The last It was a very minor purchase for Halloween custume. It was for a $1.00, free shipping from China... ? Free shipping How don't ask because I don't know... And what I got instead was rather funny.

The first time I got spank was about 2001, I purchased what was I thought was an unopened box of AB control logic 5000.

What I paid for it was reasonable, but far from cheap.

About 5 years later, I got a letter from an attorney from Allen Bradley saying that it was a conuterfeit, it could have been an attorney, after I explained that, not only was it in the original box, I even registered it. With with the paper work included. They were stumped...

I think, that I received the original AB program of what was copied/counterfeited.

eBay is pretty good at keeping things like software legit. I purchased a number of items lightly with it. Dewalt 125,000 BTU propane heater, and what just arrived Friday was a new water pic.

I browse quite a bit, and what I've been watching lately is a CNC router.

I'm pretty confident with eBay.

I have used Ebay since its inception, both selling and buying and never had a bad experience.

In the early days you could get a good bargain through the auction system, but this has largely been killed off by the automated bidding. Most stuff on the Aussie site is buy now these days.

A good news story:- I purchased some carbide inserts from a chap in Louisiana, they didn't arrive, I contacted him, he asked me to wait a bit longer, still no show after 2 months, he refunded my payment purely on my word that I hadn't got the stuff - trusting lot you yanks.

About a month later they turned up post marked at the time of the order - apparently held by customs because he hadn't declared a value for them.

I let him know that I now had them, repaid the original amount and we both learned a bit about the good side of human nature

I spent a few years of my early retirement making and selling lathe cutting tools and varied electronic devices via Ebay and did very well out of it.

Just this weekend. I replaced the LA batteries in my RV with a set of LiFePo4s and decided to list the LAs for sale on Ebay.

I was surprised to find that, on Ebay Australia, you can no longer highlight the text of your ad - no large text - no colour etc.

So I went to the US site where this can still be done, entered all of the ad with highlighting as I wanted it, then cut and pasted it all to the Aussie site- worked a treat, and I now have a highlighted ad.

I've bought stuff on Ebay for my business and for personal use. I've had a few things not work - old toner cartridge that didn't work, wireless printer router that only worked on XP and older Windows, etc. For the small amount of money I spent on those things, I didn't worry about trying to get my money back.

Would I buy a car on Ebay? Not on your life. I know there are a lot of dealers who dump their "auction" cars on Ebay vs actually taking them to the auction. There may be some good ones out there, but it's bad enough buying a used car that you actually can drive - imagine buying one sight unseen!

I'm also a watch collector and I've had good and bad experiences with Ebay. Nowdays, it's all retail prices less a few percent, so it's not worth it for me.

And I still haven't listed anything on Ebay. I had a friend sell a couple things for me, but it didn't amount to much money. I think it would've been better to give it to a friend or donate it - or let my neighbor sell it at her garage sale.

One final use for Ebay is to view car parts. Some pictures are great. Others show details that I can't find on the internet. Still others show a parts diagram and I can find out what other parts are broken/missing.

Ebay is a great tool and I'm glad it's around.

I bought my current car through eBay but not without seeing it in the flesh first, very happy with it & eBay allowed me to search further afield than I would have done otherwise.

Speaking about watches, people seem to come to me for things like battery replacement & bracelet adjustment, I guess because I'm 'the engineer'. Whilst looking for something else I found a watch maintenance kit which had blocks for holding the watch for back removal, one for holding the bracelet for link removal, pliers, small hammer, pin punches, adjustable pin spanner & a few other bits. Not the best quality but delivered from China for a total of £2.60. How does anyone do that & make a profit?

I think the car market in the UK is different from here in the US. Here in the US, dealers have access to a huge nationwide auction to get rid of merchandise. The "Red Light" lane gives dealers a chance to sell with no recourse - the only thing the buyer can complain about is the title. The engine can be blown, have a bad tranny and even frame damage. It only has to be legal.

Based on the ability for dealers to get rid of their "undesirable" cars at the auction, there's really no need for them to sell cars on Ebay, except to cheat buyers. Take a look at this car. The front bumper is poorly painted and the front fender doesn't match too. In fact, all the panels don't match. It also has a clean Carfax report! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honda-Odyssey-EX-L-/281886927524?forcerrptr=true&hash=item41a1c52aa4:g:9ggAAOSwo3pWcSNH&item=281886927524

There are many car auction places in the UK that work in a similar way. When you buy at the auction you typically get 1 hour to reject the car for any major undisclosed faults.

I buy a bit of business stuff off of Ebay. I have burned my self a couple of times by not reading throughly or not studying the pictures throughly. Selling stuff, if I think that there may be a question about the item, it goes to the dump. I don't need the problems.

I have bought one truck ('10 Ram 2500 CTD) off Ebay, through a dealer and it was one of the better sales that I have ever had with a dealer.

Jim B

It's a wonderful facility. The count here is 740 transactions, and going well.

I'm being dumb, what did you mean please?

He bought/sold on eBay 740 times so far..... and its wonderful.

I'm still at a loss, who did?

PwSlack?

Maybe!

I can only speak for myself personally here, but ALL the comments have proved interesting one way or another, many thanks and please keep them coming!!

I would like to correct the date at which I started, its later than I though, January 2003. Not that it makes much difference, but accuracy is always best!!

Some of the things I do on ebay are as follows:-

1) Not wanting to give out more money than needed, I look for people offering the said item, either late at night or even in the middle of the night, and of course early mornings. Those items seem to go cheaper. As do wrongly spelled items.

What I have from that is that I make sure the end of my auctions takes place when most people are awake, rested and not at work! Weekends seem to be best.....

2) I always look for 100% positive feedback from a seller, but if its over say 98%, I check up as to why he got a bad feedback, often its simply sometimes because some people have no idea what feedback is about and simply screw up.

What I have from that is that a slightly negative feedback, need not always be negative, but keeps the prices down.

3) I ride an electric bike, I do a lot of Kilometers every year, between 5,000 and 10,000 usually, mostly with the dog! My wife has the car as she is still full time working and a second car would be a waste of money as I need a car about once a week only!

But I need spares for my bike through wear and tear of course. Tyres are high on the list! I have found that some firms sell single tyres, some sell 2 at a time and some sell 4......

I usually replace both in my yearly maintenance, on a sunny summer day. But I generally buy 4 tyres!! You may think I am crazy, and maybe its only here in Germany, but 4 tyres are cheaper to buy that 2 FROM THE SAME DEALER in auctions, simply because most people only need 2, so the auctions for 4 are simply ignored!! I pay up to 20% less for 4 than the price for 2.

Damn crazy....I could sell the extra 2 locally and get my complete money back....

4) When I buy something and the item comes quickly, well packed, I ALWAYS post a fully positive feedback, which often results in a friendly comment back. I also note these people just in case I may want the same or similar in the future....

But conversely, if I have been "taken for a ride", I first email them and tell them why I am unhappy, using ebay email as it gets stored, its my witness. I ask the person concerned how are we going to make "Andy" happy again....Firms just refund the money, often not even wanting the item back. I recently bought a 70cm wiper for the drivers side of my car, beautifully made, but the attachment was too small. Money back and the wiper fitted my son in law's car......GREAT!

Naturally some are unhappy, usually private persons, but if its for say above $100 or so, even if they have posted no returns for any reason, I tell them that they need to take it back, or I will complain to ebay. This usually works. I tell them they will get a good feedback if they take it back with no argument and return my money.

If that doesn't work, I get ebay to jump in, that has almost always worked, because I and ebay do not like it when the device is posted as full working order and its dead!!

I even had a "fully working" air fryer from Tefal, where the sender had removed the PCB that controlled everything and cut all the wires to do it!!!! But I got my money AND the postage back.....boy was he pissed off.....but he still paid,up front too!!

Then there are the ones who send nothing after you have paid, if ebay/Paypal cannot help (I have got my money back maybe 6 times from Paypal!), because no Paypal was available, when the seller does not want to assist and even leaves ebay.....as has happened once.

He was a teenager who due to me taking the time to report the theft to the German Police after ebay could not help further, now has a criminal record.....for just about $150......my worst ever "hit"!

5) Then there are the cheap items, apparently to me really cheap which is why I bought them, let us say under $20.

When it arrives it has some bad problems, whatever. It is not really worth sending it back, because technically speaking, I have (wrong to my mind) to pay to send it back. Its like throwing good money after bad to me, so I simply make a very exact description of the problems in the tiny space allowed for feedback. NO SWEAR WORDS or ebay will simply erase it.

I usually start with something like **WARNING**. Of course its a negative feedback, and will probably cost them over the next 12 months far more than they made from me.

Sometimes they complain, asking why I did not email them for a return, so I say, "will you pay for the return postage?", the answer is most often "no!", so I say, "Neither will I, it would be half of the money I paid!!, but I also need to warn others here of your suspect practices! Its worth the financial loss!"

If they agree to pay the WHOLE AMOUNT, I send it back and re-do the bad feedback into a good one, but that happens seldom....

I can afford such small losses as most of us here can, in the long run I save a lot of money via ebay......

When I was with IBM I worked from home. Once a week I'd go into the local office and eavesdrop on overhear comments from the sales staff about the complete (in their opinions) uselessness of ibm.com for finding just about any info they needed. They routinely used E-Bay as a source for pricing used equipment, as I'm sure a lot of customers did.

Since I worked for ibm.com, I got some ideas for improving the site too, but that's another story.

What I loved about eBay is buying the new printers that are discontinued....

Back in 2004, I purchased for my business a HP ColorLaserJet 8550 MFP (Multi-Function-Printer) for $2200.00 Brand new.

I later looked and the original suggest retail and the model I had was over $20,000.00

Here's one that I think may be rare.

My wife is on e-bay a lot. She saw a little house that she really liked in Minnesota.

One day she asked me to fly up to look at it because she wanted to buy it.

Now, she was working many hours at the time and I has a cushy job, so off I went.

So, I get to Minn. and drive out to this small town in the SW corner of the state.

The only place to stay was a "self- service" hotel that had been used by construction crews when the Buffalo Ridge wind farm had been built.

There was no staff, except the cleaners and someone who stocked the fridge with juices, etc.

To get the key to the place you had to," stop at the Sinclair station in town and give them your name and they'll give you keys to the place and your room". True to form, I got there and gave them my name and they handed me a brown paper bag with two keys in it and gave me directions to the place. It was great!

So, go look at the house, contact the only attorney in town who also does all the real estate transactions and I bought it , and all the furniture that day.

A year later I bought the lots next door , with the red barn, with two phone calls from Mesa to Minnesota.

The transaction to buy the house did not go through e-bay and I never found out how that large a purchase was handled.

that something.... and good for you. Southwest Minnesota, weather more mild there.... I imagine its the northern part of where the plains begin.

But it interesting on some of the large purchase items going through... Since lately I purchased from ebay... I get email fliers on stuff that I didn't even look at.

Just watching stuff can be interesting. A couple of years ago I saw someone selling some Snap-on tools, this guy had inherited a workshop from his father who was a mechanic. The son was a woodworker so wanted the workshop & some of the tools but not most of the mechanics stuff. He had 3 large Snap-on cabinets & posted the 1st of these complete with sockets, spanners, pliers, grips, drivers & many other items. I watched as the bids went to over £36,000 before selling, a bit out of my price range.

All things relative, I guess it is some milder.

We're 50 miles northwest of the setting for the TV series and books Little House on the Prairie, Walnut Grove MN. And 30 east-northeast of Brookings N.D.

It's flat there.

Little House on the Prairie was filmed in Simi Valley. The set burned down in the mid 2004. I lived in Simi at the time and some people were upset that the fire department didn't try harder to save the set.

"50 miles northwest of the setting for the TV series and books Little House on the Prairie" was not meant to imply that the TV series was filmed there.

"the literary element setting includes the historical moment in time and geographic location in which a story takes place"

Maybe I should have said "historical setting".

I have just clocked up my 1,000 buys on ebay today and always using paypal.

Very few bad deals, if any, and never a negative feedback unless something serious goes wrong that the seller wont fix after telling the seller (via ebay message board) I would do so if the problem was not resolved. Can't recall any such time though. But I do leave positive feedback with 'negative' comments.

Although very recently, there was a hiccup in the system, worth mentioning here since you ask - where the ebay/paypal money-back guarantee was useless.

I bought an MS Office 2013 update set of progs. I was sent a separate password by email. It did not work. I got an MS error message to say it was a counterfeit programme - and to go back to the seller. I could not do that because ebay had meanwhile removed them. There was no route to, or via ebay, to process my claim. Not that it mattered, it would have failed because I did not know at the time that down-loaded software is not covered by the guarantee.

But I did have the email address of the seller when the password was sent, so I went back, and was given another password to try, and instructions how to load it.

MS Office burst into life - and everything is working fine - but I can't give a positive feedback because the seller does not exist on ebay.

Two things I did buy worth a negative mention. My fault perhaps. Advertised as a two/three-cup coffee pot - that held only enough water for one cup - what size is a coffee cup ? The coffee pot is useful for my 'large' cup when I'm by myself.

And a pair of digital bathroom scales - that would not work when placed on a carpet (made clear in the manual after you bought them). I made a hard plywood base - and they worked a treat.

The money back guarantee was offered in each case - but what a load of hassle!

I have never sold anything on ebay. I have thought about it. I have a large collection of opera records my late father built up. A lot of them in original language, German, Russian, Italian etc. I can't read the labels.

And a house full of 'things' amassed over a lifetime, that have to go when we downsize to a retirement home - something I am not looking forward to - I am happy in my clutter.....and I'm still buying things on ebay....will I ever learn!

It has been a while since I ventured there. (got caught at work - they didn't like me doing that during work hours)I bought about 75 collectible milk bottles there. The best deals were when I could find 2 of the same item being auctioned at once. For some reason, one would garner most attention while the other was there for a better final price. Quality was just fine on the several "deals" I got this way.

On a collectible like that, often location makes a tremendous difference. A bottle from ones general region can be very pricey, but let it get 500 miles or so away, and end up on E-Bay, and it will usually go for quite a bit less than in the region it is from. I added a couple dozen Pa bottles to my collection this way, at one half the cost or less of buying them locally. Probably the best deal was on a milk bottle from Case. Yes - the knife manufacturer had a dairy at one time, but if you're not from NW Pa, you don't realize what you have when you own one. The only clue is the trade marked "xx" on the bottle. I got that one at much lass than half the local cost.

My live-in e-bay expert tells me she sells lots of items to locations where there is no WalMart or other discount stores near by.

Have you ever heard of Ole Bull?
Of course I have, I read posts on CR4 that he has made under many different names, each and every day almost!!!

What I find interesting is the way most vendors respond to complaints. Replacement/refund are very common. I still can't fathom how a 3 dollar item from China can be shipped at no extra charge. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our utility companies and Governments were as responsive as a Chinese vendor selling $3 HDMI cables!!

Two things.

1. Chinese products are so cheap that replacement is built into the cost. That's the cheapest way to do it.

2. In another life, I dealt with a number of headset and home entertainment companies.

This conversation was with a Koss VP and some Directors in my company. We were discussing their replacement policy for their high end headphones and how they offered replacement for only $5.00USD.

How can you do that? We asked. Because even our highest end sets cost us less than five bucks to build he said.

Lyn. In your past life of headsets what can you say (or anyone else please) about buzzwords to help me find headphones on ebay.

I have poor hearing in the speech range. I wear digital hearing aids but I still need to use sub-titles on the TV. I can hardly make out what is said and absolutely ruined by canned laughter and background music - where the latter is in reality a damned cacophony of beat noise that intrudes in to foreground to drown out speech - and even louder in the quiet bits in between speech. Same with watching internet programmes online, made worse by lack of sub-titles,

So I need headphones that cover the whole ear preferably with selective amplifiers to work on speech frequencies - a sort of equaliser device as used in amplifiers - suitable to use with computers and TV - wireless preferable - and rechargeable.

I have tried looking myself, and whilst there are dozens to choose from, I have trouble with the 'equaliser' bit. They all claim wonderful features to enhance the listening experience for people with normal hearing - nothing is said about accommodating hard of hearing people.

Of course you want overear headphones.

I wear hearing aids too, so I looked around for awhile before buying Sennheiser, but the brand is not that important.

But, you'll need some type of inline headphone equalizer to tune the output frequencies to your ears. The more frequency bands the better, the Boss Audio AVA1204 7-Band Preamp Equalizer may work for you.

How to equalize your headphones: A Tutorial - Head-Fi.org

The best thing to do is get the Eq and experiment. A low cost pair of headphones may work for you with a good Eq.

Lyn. Thanks. Reading the links will keep me out of mischief for a while.

If you analyse the costs you will see that the Chinese company simply puts it in the mail - very little cost involved in getting it to the ship, especially in the bulk postings that they do.

When it arrives overseas, it then has to be sorted into relevant states and then delivered to those states, it then has to be sorted into relevant capital cities and delivered to them, it may then have to be sorted into relevant regional areas and delivered to there, and finally hand delivered to the purchaser.

The receiving country is the one that cops the majority of the delivery costs and, according to information that I have been able to obtain, they get no compensation from China for doing so, they cover those extraneous costs by upping your normal domestic postage.

Years ago, I had an Infiniti M45 sedan. One of the HID light bulbs burned out. I called Infiniti and my "dealer" price was over $100. Ebay had a set of two for $26 each ($52 for the set). I then went to AliBaba and I found a sheet of 100 bulbs for $200 or $2 each.

It's amazing how inexpensive things from China are!

Have you considered why that is?

Years ago, 1990, we ordered cables that had 4 individual sets of twisted, shielded pairs, leads on one end, molded mini-connector on the other.

They were spec'd as 100% tested before shipment. The failure rate was about 25% on first 1,000 cable lot. We tested every one too.

The agent didn't have any reaction, just we'll replace them. The labor and overhead was so low, they didn't care.

I probably use the same/similar on my car, but they are nowhere near the quality of the original bulbs.

Firstly they only last 2 to 3 years, secondly, I had to file the plastic base to make one sort even fit, but got a 100% refund and was allowed to keep both bulbs.....so it was cheap!!

I would never buy originals as with that money, I can have almost dozens of cheap far eastern "knockoffs" that do the job just as well, if you accept the above.....

By the way, the system used in Far Eastern cars, is different to that of European cars. They (Europe) are the ones with the huge big magnifying lenses....I believe those need a complete replacement!! (I am told!!) Though I never have one go bad on me either.....Maybe from Bosch?.

It appears that in fact, there are in total, only the two systems, the one with the "shield" on many Japanese cars and the Bosch which is often fitted to European cars. I know of no other....perhaps some here does?

European system:-

Far eastern (and Chevrolet ?) system as far as I can tell:-

You can see the shield as a black blob in the middle of the headlight. The upper light in this picture...

FE Bulb is easily changed provided cleanliness is fully observed.I even clean them with alcohol first and use rubber gloves....

I have used both systems, both give good light, but the European system is "less liked" by drivers of cars going in the opposite direction at night, in my opinion only.....I was more often "flashed" when driving VWs than with my Mitsubishi.

I will ONLY buy cars with the HV type HID lighting.....even if, as with my present car, to get it I had also to buy only 6 seats instead of 7 (all individual in 3 rows of 2), full leather upholstery and two (YES 2!!) roof openings with glass, one electric and one not!!!

It was still worth it!!!

Though I have not driven at night with the new LED systems yet, so I may change my mind then!!!

I've never really liked eBay. It always felt overpriced and rigged (when it came to auctions). Sometimes thought there is no other place to turn for an obscure product.

is there another place to turn to for an obscure product?

Often times no, there doesn't seem to be another place (trustworthy) where I can purchase an obscure item. Usually my process is, Step #1, try amazon, if not there and isn't clothing, Step #2, try eBay. Luckily I don't often get past step #1.