Ebay - Yay! or Nay!??

flogen

So who here has used Ebay? and who here thought that it was superb and very useful? who here thinks otherwise?
Anyone been ripped off? Dodgy goods? Payed out and got nothing?
I noticed there are even piramid schemes going around on Ebay... pretty dodgy, but if youve any sense you can smell a bad deal when you see one.

so.... vote now!!
and tell us your horror/lovely stories

Flogen

Celt

I've sold some stuff on ebay, many many winning bidders never paid, but c'est la vie.

flogen

what I want to know is do people let you purchase items when youve put a tiny bid on, and just been lucky that no-one else bothered?

I know the sellers often put min. prices, but what if they dont?
Im guessing they dont HAVE to sell it to you, they could just refuse... Ive spotted an item im iterested in for $1, and another for 1cent... is there a way to see the reserve?

Flogen

Typedef

Bloody paypal is a nightmare for verification.

Cork

Something could be listed for days and people start bidding in the last minute.

It is OK but when you add in postage + packing + currancy - you might be as well to go down to the shops.

Lenny

I've used it to buy a few records, stungun & cd deck
found it great. never had a dodgy deal or anything,
as about your thing flogen about them not having to sell it to you,
they do. you and the other person have signed a binding contract that you will pay and he will post.

Lord Nikon

Yay, because it has everthing you could want, and other stuff too.

Nay, because there's nothing much to look at on www.ebay.co.uk and most of the sellers on www.ebay.com only ship to continental US. Also, I bought a few things which took forever to arrive, that really sucked.

HarryD

Originally posted by flogen
what I want to know is do people let you purchase items when youve put a tiny bid on, and just been lucky that no-one else bothered?

Only if there is no reserve price. Otherwise they are obliged to sell it.
I find ebay great.. use it all the time for anything I want.
but only use the UK one, as shipping from US is a killer.
if u really want something use auctionsniper to auto-bid for ya with 3secs remaining ;-)

R

vibe666

used it lots and never had a problem.

my ebay rules:
1. always buy off someone with a good rating.
1b. NEVER buy off someone with a zero rating if it's anything you can't afford to lose (personally anything above £10. trust is earned after all) as you can lose out.
2. if sellers rating is less than 20, look through previous sales and see what they are selling, to make sure they have a histroy selling what you are buying (i.e. don't buy a laptop off someone who has only ever sold socks).
3. don't bid on what you want till a minute before then end of the auction and set yourself a max bid way in advance for each item you are interested in and never go above it.
4. as already stated, use auction sniper to make sure the winning bedder is you. -> www.auctionsniper.com for those interested.
5. check postage costs and payment methods before bidding, and make sure they will deliver to Eire (some won't). I almost always use paypal. it doesn't mean it's 100% safe, but it's safer than a lot of ways to send money (NEVER western union, if someone insists on it they are conning you. the tricksters always use WU cos it's impossible to get anything back from them).
6. don't buy the first thing you see either. wait a couple of weeks (unless it's a rush) and see what the averages are for what you want, then wait for one with a low price to come along, and swoop in at the last second to claim your prize.
7. don't eat yellow snow.

surfboy

Hi,

I just bought a new US rebotics Modem, for 5 (GB) cost me 12 euro all in. Brand spanaking new in the box. :-)

It's very good indeed.

A mate of mine bought motorbike parts from it too (2 grand of parts). But he has always called them, and talked "biker talk" just to make sure they are whom they say they are. I suppose you can never be 100% sure though.

Dermo

I've bought quite a few things on ebay, but a friend of mine is always winning those 1c cds that are all over ebay and she has always recieved the cds.

but repeat what has already been said. always check for a high rating, but check the feedback and see what the feedback has been like recently cos there are ppl on ebay who will create two accounts sell/buy a load of stuff between them and put feedback on the accounts. then they have one account for serious ebay stuff, and another to rip ppl off.
so just check the feedback as well

Retr0gamer

I've only used it once. I bought the rare videogame Suikoden and paid by bank draft (risky but I couldn't be arsed with paypal). The only problem I had was that the guy left out a line of my address and it took over a month to arrive. Still I got it eventually.

Epitaph

Used it for about 15 items, never had a serious problem. Lots of the sellers are trying to get rid off stuff as painlessly, so if you've a good rating they'll be helpful re. postage and feedback.

However don't immediately buy off someone with a high rating. Check a few of their Feedback rating pages. I mean, a seller might have 300 negative ratings, but because he's sold over 10,000 items his rating is 97%.

Caution is the key. And sniping :ninja:

woosaysdan

yeah ebay is da job

ferdi

ebay.de - all in euros and the deutsch are good and efficiant with stuff. .co.uk sucks ass.

BigEejit

I know this is offtopic ... but what fúcker is sitting on ebay.ie and how is he managing it (.ie supposed to be a managed domain and all)....

I use it very regularly, you can get great deals, got a good few items from Germany, language tools on google to convert the item description can give some VERY wierd results sometimes, but if you know what you want you'll be able to figure it out.
You can get good deals from the states, but youre looking at $20 minimum to get it over, and you may be stung by VAT +fee for charging/collecting it by a courier, ask for item to be sent by USPS and ask for it to be marked as Gift.

Lump

Yea, bought a phone on it during the summer. It was sweet, no problems at all. Got it on Ebay.co.uk



John

sceptre

Originally posted by BigEejit
I know this is offtopic ... but what fúcker is sitting on ebay.ie and how is he managing it (.ie supposed to be a managed domain and all)....

ebay.ie is owned by EBay Ireland limited

er, it's actually owned by ebid.ie (the crap auction site) - set up an irish company to get the domain. Mind you boards.ie is only owned by them wot own it cos Dev changed the company name for a day

Incidentally, managed TLD my arse from what I've heard from hosting companies.

flogen

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3358857405&category=23878

how dodgy is this??
If only I could get an sl55 for £20, its bloody €500 or so in Carphone Warehouse sim-free!!

Flogen

BigEejit

Originally posted by flogen
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3358857405&category=23878
how dodgy is this??
If only I could get an sl55 for £20, its bloody €500 or so in Carphone Warehouse sim-free!!
Flogen

Rule number 1 when using Ebay: Read the whole freaking description before bidding. ...

This is in there:

IMPORTANT: You will be given information which will tell you how to obtain a luxury mobile phone for just £20. You are not buying the phone itself. I do not supply the phones, I am simply offering information on how to obtain them.

Basically they will tell you to try and scam a working sample from a distributor or from a mobile phone company directly..(or something similar).. Need I say that the chances of this actually working are minescule in the extreme....

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

AL][EN

I'll give Ebay a yay. ive only ever bid off Ebay I've never actually sold stuff on Ebay. But everything that i bought from Ebay has been 100% genunie and ive never had ANY problems with payment or shipping

im lucky i guess as i've herd the horror stories