Ebay buying tips

Well, I disagree there. Not more than 99-44/100ths percent of "unsearched" offers are phony, and at least 1.5% of estate sales are genuine.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Hmm... your %'age (of real ones) seems high.

 

I'm a ebay seller who only takes checks and

I really believe I do better than most people that take paypal. I get a niche of buyers who prefer people who specialize in checks only and my feedback is very strong so I don't think most buyers hesitate to send me a check. Ocassionally, I might get someone here and there that didn't realize I didn't accept paypal and they want out of the deal and believe it or not as long as it is under $75 and they have decent feedback I will offer to send them the coin first and they can send payment after they receive it. I think they are shocked when they here this, but I've done it twice now in the past 2 years and not once did anyone stiff me. As for paypal what alot of people fail to realize is that yes they do offer protection, but what you must ask yourself will they reimburse you if you wake up one day and your checking account or paypal account was hacked into and all of the funds illegally withdrawn? I just feel that if someone has a great feedback record that is enough for me and if they were to rip me off all I would do is email them their local police department's number and if I don't here from them within so many days I will file a criminal complaint. Paypal is overrated in my opinion and I've heard of many unsatisfied complaints of people who sought buyer protection.

 

I have been a buyer and seller equally on Ebay. I was also a Trading assistant at one point selling other peoples goods for a %. I probably dealt with every type of buyer and seller selling everything from Limoges boxes to a bulletproof Lincoln to a few hundred coins. Let me first say I have 100% feedback and have been on ebay since 1998.

Paypal has more drawbacks than positive traits. The ~3% is a cost of doing business and not far out of line for any credit card receiver. However, it is too easy as a buyer to file a dispute with the seller. Paypal automatically gigs the seller and subtracts the amount immediately from your balance or if your balance is zero it gives you a negative balance and freezes your account rendering all your auctions unable to accept paypal. It also does not allow you to pay for any auctions you won.

Have you read the fine print on the "seller protection policy"? It almost begs for you to ship through paypal, requiring tracking, sometimes insurance and items over $250 signature confirmation. I

Has anyone ever shipped to another country? I have and never will again. No tracking and people claim they never received their coins. You have a proof of mailing and that is it. Not sufficient for paypal seller protection. You will lose every time, don't do it.

I have had people dispute me, claim they never received, claim they coins were fakes, original mint sets in original cases accused of grading them and cracking them due to low grades and then reselling them.

So, In essence, paypal sucks. But it is easy, convenient, and widely accepted as the standard. As a buyer I would only use it with a credit card as the funding source. As a seller, you always have to wonder if you will get that "late chargeback" from a credit card company or the dreaded paypal freeze.

It is a miracle that I am still 100% but I really worked for that feedback.

 

craigred:
welcome to the forum. And nice comments.

 

Buying on ebay is like buying a pig in a poke, I use paypal and money orders. I stay away from sellers with a lot of neutrals or negatives especially if their feedback is less than 500. A dealer who has 10,000 feedbacks wil have negatives and neutrals just because of the way people are. Paypal is a tool no more or less as is feedback. Ebay is the biggest coin store out there, everyone can get to it. Do not get caught in bidding wars, wait an hour and most of the time that all so necessary coin will be back. Don't get caught up in the hype, if a seller does not use photographs stay away. I tend to stay away from sellers who do not know or understand coin lingo (nice coin is not a grade neither is pretty), Bu does not mean butt ugly as some sellers describe their coins as BU and haven't been for years. Still the old saying is true there is one born every minute and I will admit to being taken on ebay, not often bu it happens. a2J

 

A Few More To Add

This was a nice topic and I enjoyed reading all the posts, but I would like to add a few more things about ebay and paypal.

1) The feedback system that ebay has isn't all that great and there are many flaws. Every now and then I come across a buyer who doesn't pay and although I think it would justify a neutral or negative I'm too nice of a guy to leave a neutral or negative in the first place, but what I always think about is what would happen if I were to leave a negative. The answer is that I would be pretty concerned that the buyer woud retaliate and leave me a negative also, so sometimes I really question the accuracy of ebay's feedback system because I feel that sellers and buyers alike are always going to be afraid to leave negative fb in fear of retaliation and therefore I question just how accurate the fb scores really are.

2) Feedback extortion- someone can grab you by the b...ls anytime they want if you have a 100% fb and basically get you to bend over backwards knowing full well that unless you kiss their as... you will be afraid of that negative fb. Sure there are many times where it would be justified like if you sold a coin and it was circ and then advertised it as unc, but suppose if you knew you shipped a coin to a foreign country and someone claims they didn't receive it when you know full well you did ship it, but there is no tracking to confirm it. Well you know most likely the person did receive it and they are just looking for a free hand out, but you want to keep that 100% fb and the buyer knows it, so you swallow your pride and refund his money. In other words, ebay's feedback system opens the doors for people to push sellers around with no legitimate reason because everyone knows ebay sellers want to keep their fb score high as possible.

3) I do see why sellers are hesititant to take paypal because I personaly have a close relative who sells on ebay quite frequently and I've heard too many stories where buyers have filed fraudulent paypal claims. For example, he sold xboxs a couple of years ago and with every xbox he was packaging a hot game along with it. Well his cost for the xbox 360 was like $300 and the cost of the game was like $50. These aren't exact numbers, but this should get the point across. Ok, xbox 360's were going for around $600 at the time and he sold this xbox 360 and the hot game for like $700. The buyer claimed that the game didn't work and intitially wanted a full refund (lol). Now my relative of course is scared shi....less and to make a long story short the buyer and he ended up agreeing on a $200 refund for a game that cost $50. The real premium was built into the xbox 360 and the game was only selling for $20 or $30 over retail on ebay, so the value of the game was only $70 or $80, but my relative felt he didn't have a choice but to accept the minimum $200 settlement out of fear that paypal would totally side with the buyer and refund the full $700. Of course, the game probably worked and the person was looking for a free ride, but it just goes to show the risks you endure if you accept paypal from clowns looking for free handouts.

4) The paypal seller agreement is so long and when user agreemetns are that long I usually figure they are there to fully protect the company that wrote the agreement and to screw the abider of the agreement over. As a previous poster mentioned there are many criteria that one has to meet to qualifty for the seller protection and as for the buyer protection well I guess it depends on the dollar amount. The way I look at it is if it is under $100 and I get taken I won't lose sleep over it, but I ask myself what are the odds of getting taken from someone in the first place that has a 100+ fb with a 99.7% or better reading??? Probably about 1 in 1000, so if I buy a 1000 products on ebay over my lifetime for under $100 I guess I would expect to maybe get taken once and I would be out $60, $70, or $80 bucks. NO big deal, but when I consider that sellers who don't take paypal can afford to sell a little less with their buy it nows because they don't incur the paypal fees then I look at the overall picture and say to myself that I probably saved this much and probably alot more from buying from sellers who only took checks over the years, so this loss of $60 or $70 was just an indirect cost of saving a little more from buyers over the years who only take checks. Now if we are talking about an item over $1000 then I could see where paypal would be a plus for me, but if I were to buy something for $1500 that the seller misrepresented there are no guarantees that paypal will side with me anyways. Furthermore, if someone were to skip town with my $1500 then this is where I could really see paypal being a plus, but number one I would never spend this kind of money in the first place on something from someone I didn't know unless their feedback was something like 500 or more with no negatives or neutrals. If this were the case you then have to ask yourself what are the odds of someone with this kind of fb skipping town anyways??

 

WRONG SPEEDY!!! Don`t think so much.

$200??? That is so small a figure for many of the Ebay transactions alot (most?) of us do. "NEW RULES" have absolutly nothing to do with the private transactions. Quote: "even if the seller doesn`t want it to be that way" HUH??????? Who or what ebay policy makes, or even entices a seller to go private?

I think you are using your personal experiences (apparently limited) to extrapolate your view of the overall ebay deal to explain what you beleive is so.

I see VERY FEW private auctions , not "alot", and I will not bid on one. Someone is hiding something in such an auction. Whether it is your ability as a bidder to see your competition, or something else, I know not.

I don`t even see a fraction of a percent of auctions on ebay that are private, much less your observation that "once an item hits $200 the user ID is kept private"

 

All your observations are spot on Brian73!

 

I like paypal for it's convenience. The fees they charge are well worth saving a trip to the bank for me. I think paypal is just as safe as using your credit card at a store. Your bank account number is vulnerable in the mail as well. I accept checks or paypal, and buy the same way, but i would always prefer paypal. I am more nervous about sending things in the mail more than anything.

 

Well it wasn't wrong...nor do I think to much.

I can't help it if you think I'm wrong, or if you think $200 is small for some of us...I agree for what I'm bidding on ebay for is over that amount most of the time.

If you won't take my word for it I'll just post the links that back up what I said.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/protecting-privacy.html

Go down to "Safeguarding User IDs"---I've just talked with a LIVE Ebay Tech and he confirmed that the max limit is $200 before the bidder ID goes private.

Here is another one:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/archive.shtml
Again--go down to "***A Message from Rob Chesnut – Update on Safeguarding Member IDs***"

Now this is "new"---also this shows that even if the seller doesn't pick it to go private, it still happens, so that would also go along with what I said.

Please don't take my comments as being rude---I don't mean them that way---its just when I post something that is true and I know it is, it's not always nice to come back and find a post saying that it is totally wrong

Have a good night!!

Speedy

 

How about this seller style?


EDITED OUT

 

what do you think of his style?
http://cgi.ebay.com/1924-D-LINCOLN-...0587389QQihZ001QQcategoryZ11944QQcmdZViewItem

Speedy

 

Now I am seriously confused, lol.

 

Hello everyone!!

I buy and sell quite frequently on ebay and have never had a problem. I have sold several coins worth more than $600 recently. MY LISTINGS WERE NEVER PRIVATE!!!!

9 times out of ten, buyers will pay with paypal. You will get more bids, and most likely sell for more, if you accept paypal.

There are many bargains to look for if a seller does not accept paypal.

IMHO pay pal SUKS!! But is necessary.

Be wary of unopened mint & proof sets.

Feedback is number 1, and good pics #2

Good return policy & multiple item discounts always a plus!

If you have any questions, just ask. If a seller cant reply within a short time. DONT BUY!!

Be wary of sellers that will not leave feed back when they ship. THIS IS EXTORTION!!!
Most good sellers will leave feedback when they ship, cause they have nothing to hide.

Just my two cents worth!!
CLAW

 

All good points

 

Let me try to clear up something here that I think some of ya'll are missing. When I say that the auction is private that means that to anyone else (The buyer and high bidder see everything as normal) the bidder ID's are all "*"....so my ID would be T****K.....and others might show as A**Y, or E***B.....that is what I'm talking about when I say a listing is private once it hits $200.

Speedy

 

I don't believe in that. My only negative came from a buyer who's item got damaged in shipping. Was that my fault...no, but I got slammed and I left positive feedback directly after payment. Never again. I want to make sure the buyer is happy before the deal is done. I work with the buyers to make sure they are satisfied.

 

My policy also. You will also see if you do feedback research, most negs are left by rookie or newer ebayers. They will not try to work it out with the seller before leaving a neg.

 

Yea, the guy that neged me had a feedback of about 7. I guess I should have taken that into account before I left my feedback.