My first evilbay for sale posting

[Joe Bob]

#2451642857 and it IS Porsche related.....

Since the demise of the old 914 club site.....man I used to sell a lot junk....errrr, previously used gems, over there....and the slow selling of stuff on this and other BBS sites....YEAH I know the formats are anti spam, I have posted my first Evil bay sale.....

I swore I would never do it.....but hey, I said I would never have kids either. I hope I don't get hooked and start selling Mom's jewelry and stuff.

My sad story.....

On my third "buy"....I feel like I am buying a baggy of herb.....
my bank issued a flawed money order.....it was an error on the teller but they issued a stop on a $8.30 cent MO.....I bought a stupid antique sticker for a gas pump I was restoring. Guy blasted me without even emailing me and asking WTF.......

Put me off the bay for a couple of years.....

Anyone else have any horror stories?

[Rick Lee]

No, never. No one here has ever had a bad eBay experience.

[Bobboloo]

The very first thing I bought was not as advertised. It bummed me out a little bit but I eventually went back EvilBay. Most deals have been fine with a few items that went in the trash just as soon as I opened the box and got a good look. (Beware of sellers with bad photos. some of them are by design)

It seems there are less and less private parties selling. It's being overun with dealers using the site for low cost advertising. Can't say I don't blame them.

Pelicans Classified is way better than EvilBay these days for finding the unusual items.

I bought a bumper from a guy in FL. He told me ship costs. I sent MO with cost the dil estimated(total bill $150). He then demanded an extra $200 shipping AFTER he had my money. It was a total cluster, but ended with a good Pelican in FL picking it up for me. I blasted the dil on his feedback and he blasts me back with retaliatory feedback. No win deal.

The good thing is that people don't pay that much attention to feedback on small stuff. Ebay sux.

[cantdrv55]

Yeah, my very first Porsche purchase was on eBay. I was the top bidder but seller agreed that purchase be contingent on a good PPI. I'm in Northern CA and the car is somewhere near Hollywood so seller took it to Alex Wong for the PPI upon my request. Alex said walk away from the deal within the first five minutes of the visual inspection. Man, digital photos can sure lie because that car looked like a beaut. Thanks again Alex for your help and FREE advice. Need a PPI you can trust or your car serviced in Marina Del Rey? Go to Alex Wong @ Precision. He'll do you up.

[john70t]

Never had a bad experience, nor a good one, and probably never will.

Between the undercover dealers, the pull-auction-earliers, the not-as-advertiseds, the I-sent-you-the-item-alreadiers, the fake money orders, the Pay Pal F'ups(intentional or not), etc...., It's not worth the hassel.

But as to that sight unseen $150K GT3? Sure, why not if they deliver.

[techweenie]

I've had over 240 good transactions and one bad one in 4 years on eBay.

Sadly, that's a much better percentage than my Pelicanhead dealings.

:-(

[nostatic]

knock on wood, I've had all positive dealings, both buying and selling. It likely depends on the items though...a lot of mine have been music related, and surprising as it seems, musicians seem pretty trusting and reliable.

[N11Porsche]

I've bought and sold many items on ebay. It is a great place to do either, IF you are careful. I never buy from anyone that doesn't have at least 20 feedbacks. If they have more then 3% in complaints (the "you never can make everyone happy" factor) I won't do business with them, no matter how much I want what they have for auction. I email the seller, before I bid, and get all my questions answered. Especially the one on shipping cost. Pictures are nice but don't tell the whole story - ask questions.

I think if a person does a little homework, pays attention to feedback and gets shipping cost settled before the end of an auction, ebay can be a great place to find a huge variety of items. I've purchased antique wrist watches, die-cast model Porsches', a steam engine, a p-car cover, floormats, bicycle wheels, computer parts, etc. on ebay and have always been pleased with my purchases.

Of course, that doesn't mean stuff still can't happen, but it sure helps. I love ebay, I can sit here in my office, at home, and buy a new $800 pair of wheels for my road bike for $500 and pay no sales tax. Plus get delivered to my front door

[techweenie]

I bet there was a similar reaction to the telephone as a way of empowering 'evil' transactors back in the days when face-to-face handshake deals were the rule.

Technology is neither good nor evil.

"The Internet doesn't cheat people; people cheat people."

[widebody911]

I've been using ebay for several years now, and have only had a few bad experiences:

• Bought a VW decklid rack, which was supposed to be original, turned out to be repro and missing pieces. I hammered on the guy for weeks before I got my money back.
• Sold a sparc 5 to a guy in Denver, who insisted on me sending it COD. He never picked it up, so I was out the shipping and COD charges.
• Had a jackass from SE Asia outbid someone at the last on a Telfunken radio I was selling. This guy was a chronic 'bid for the hell of it' - at any one time, he'd have ~$100k worth of bids going.
• A few misrepresentations of parts, usually claims of NOS or near NOS, and I get something in the mail which doesn't look like the picture.

I don't buy much off of ebay anymore, not so much out of principle, but more because there hasn't been much I need or want that I didn't have other channels for obtaining.

[old_skul]

I think the careful, conservative types that we see on this board are well behind the curve when it comes to adopting Ebay as a viable way of doing business. I understand; it takes a while for the exploits and foibles of this new business model to percolate fully into the American conciousness.

Rather than be on the bleeding edge, most of the folks here have chosen a "wait 'n see" attitude or a plain old hostile attitude toward it until they can decide that it's safe enough. A lot of folks are just now getting used to the idea of using a credit card online despite the demonstrable safety of it (it's safer than going to the department store).

Ebay is basically safe if you understand how it works and have someone helping you understand it and avoid the scams.

[MY83SC]

Myself, I have had only positive results with E-bay. But then, I have only purchased items from sellers with next to "pristine" feed-back. I am by-no means a regular E-bay shopper...Aprox., 10 transactions in the past 2 years.

[TerryBPP]

I was selling a set of Ping golf clubs on ebay. The auction end at 8:00 am on Sunday so I did'nt pay much attention to it. When I checked my email there were 5 emails within 5 minutes from the same guy cursing and calling me a "tough guy". He was pissed because he emailed me on the length of the clubs and I didn't respond right away. I sold the clubs to anther buyer and he tried to leave a bad feedback review. I emailed ebay with the emails he sent me. They kindly removed it and band him forever.

[Schrup]

Yeah Terry, gotta watch out for them golfers, they can tend to be a bit unstable. I bought my first item 2 weeks ago, a 3 pin CD box that I have no use for, but that was my fault & I got a decent price on it. Now I'm waiting for a reach around (good feedback) I gave the guy good feedback & have sent him 2 emails but still nothing.

[tabs]

Originally posted by TerryBPP
They kindly removed it and band him forever.

That was YOU????

[LeeH]

We bought our Mazda Protege MP3 off eBay. It had very low miles and was described as "like new". Turns out it was a broker selling his first eBay car. It's had paint work all over and warranty was invalid as Mazda had flagged it as abused. Someone took it to a Mazda dealer trying to get the tranny repaired, but the car (according to the dealer) looked like it had lost an off road rally so the repair was denied. The cool MP3 factory stereo was also missing.

The seller had no sympathy and tried to make me feel bad for being unreasonably picky (?). Only consolation was that he paid to have the windows tinted and cruise installed. We've had it for a year now. It's turned out to be a decent car, but the transmission will need more work soon. Looking on the bright side we paid under market value. We'll have to drive it to its death to get our money out of it since resale will be low due to paint/body work.

[speeder]

Originally posted by TerryBPP
I was selling a set of Ping golf clubs on ebay. The auction end at 8:00 am on Sunday so I did'nt pay much attention to it. When I checked my email there were 5 emails within 5 minutes from the same guy cursing and calling me a "tough guy". He was pissed because he emailed me on the length of the clubs and I didn't respond right away. I sold the clubs to anther buyer and he tried to leave a bad feedback review. I emailed ebay with the emails he sent me. They kindly removed it and band him forever.

Who tried to leave a bad feedback review?? Only the winner of the auction can leave you feedback, and you say that you "sold them to someone else". This whole story is pretty unclear to me. Which brings me to an important point: The most important factor in ebay transactions is communication. Barring outright fraud, (which happens in a small # of cases unfortunately), asking the right questions will usually make things go smoothly. Sellers who will not or do not answer emails or car dealers whose auctions end on Sunday when they are closed drive me nuts. I have definitely been burned a little on a couple of vehicle purchases, (and had one fisting prevented by a good samaritan Pelicanhead who looked at a long distance purchase for me), but I still think that ebay can be great, believe it or not. I've bought smaller items that were 100% as represented.

I actually think that ebay is best for buying non-running cars or honest *****boxes, at least you know what you are getting.

[jyl]

I've been using eBay since it started (1995? something like that). I recall I and other users of the Usenet dot-marketplace groups complained a lot about eBay at first, for inflating prices. But I used it, just the same.

Not a heavy user, maybe 30 transactions in 8(?) years. Almost all buys.

Have had 1 somewhat bad experience - bought a car audio head unit and it arrived poorly packaged with a missing button. No harm in the end as the unit worked fine and a new button cost me a buck. Otherwise, my experiences have all been good.

My rules:
- I don't buy anything terribly expensive. I think $1000 has been my max so far and that was only once - normally it's like $50-$250.
- I don't buy anything when "condition" is subjective, unless the only subjective aspect is cosmetic and there are tons of detailed pics. I.e. a computer, camera or watch is OK since they either work or not and you can usually get pics that show the cosmetics.
- I stick to sellers who have a lot of feedback and whose feedback is damn near 100% positive.
- I send an email with questions during the auction, even if I don't have any questions. If the seller doesn't reply promptly, I don't bid. I figure he's not going to be responsive after the auction either.
- I make sure the method and cost of shipping, and responsibility of loss in transit, is clear. I use UPS or FDX whenever possible, for tracking.
- I use PayPal for the supposed "protection".
- I would never buy a car on eBay. But I'd watch the auction and contact the seller after it doesn't sell . . .
- Lately, I've been using craigslist more.

[HarryD]

My wife and I have been selling small stuff (mostly used videos) on e-bay for years. Some negative feedback but mostly from folks who wanted a new item for used prices. So far we had only had one bad check that was not made good by the buyer.

The keys: look at feedback, especially recent feedback, and look at the related items; look at the items the person sells as well as the one you are buying; always ask about shipping costs; if you are concerned about some issue, you should be sure to ask pointed questions.

Finally, you should be aware of whart the item would cost elsewhere to be sure you are not overbidding or under pricing.