eBay negativity?

I'm on CT a lot and I see dozens if not hundreds of post about eBay that are negative. My question is why? I know some sellers have been burned by unscrupulous buyers I get that but all the negative comments directed to buyers I don't understand. I buy almost every coin I purchase from eBay because there is only one coin show within a 100 miles of me a year and I work weekends most of the time, there's no coin shop within 50 miles and they are closed by 5:00PM. eBay is about my only option. I have looked at other auction sites but haven't really studied them to understand how their auctions work. I'm sure the other sites are great but I just find eBay easy to use and I don't buy high ticket rarities. I also try and know a little bit about the coins I'm buying and never pay more than I'm willing to spend so I don't think I would fall into the bidiot category. Please enlighten me as to why all eBayers are grouped into the same class when so many CT members sell there? Also if you have auction site recommendations I'm open to them if you have time to PM me and kind of explain how they work and how easy they are to search for the desired item. If you think I'm a nut for posting this don't waste time with more negative comments directed at me nobody wants to read them and I have thick skin. LOL

 

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Honestly there is a lot of people here who love to hate on eBay. Personally my negative experience rate is at about 1%, and eBay got my money back on everyone of those problem sales. I love eBay.

 

Basically because of this-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome

While I believe that Ebay could make improvements to attract more buyers and sellers, most of the vitriol is unfounded. Ebay not only provides me with a place to sell to the world, but I do most of my buying and have found my greatest finds through Ebay.

 

Just as with anything, the more people there are the more bad people there are.

Most of what I buy is from local dealers or shows, but some of my favorite raw and slabbed coins are eBay finds. The times I've had to do returns or negotiate partial refunds, they were relatively hassle free. If you have the patience to wade through all the dreck and deal with a few bugs, you can sometimes get a really nice coin at a great price.

 

I like Ebay.

 

I would rather buy from a dealer off eBay, save on fees, and maybe establish a relationship. Dealers don't carry what I want though and I can understand why. EBay is the only place I've been able to find my collecting focus regularly. Never had an issue with a bad seller on eBay.

 

I am also from Connecticut and do 100 % coin buying on ebay. I have a few trusted sellers that I have used for awhile and there service is outstanding, the coins just as good as any coin shop and the prices are good, discounts, free shipping. Now if have to buy from other sellers, I research everything and I take feedback serious and will not give my business if high feedback history. Not to mention eBay is excellent when there needs a case to be opened. You will not have any issues losing your money. Personally I like eBay. One more thing the coin shop's I went to the owner and staff were lousy and the customer service was poor. Steve

 

I apologize if you received the general impression that this is an eBay hate site, because I know of many considerate sellers on this site who realize that generally eBay is the best selling site to be found.

I believe buyers should remember that generally sellers are trying to maximize profit, often with disregard for fairness to buyers, and the host for their sale efforts. Many expect to sell their junk for nothing, and enjoy whining. There is a secondary site that is believed to be a strong competitor to eBay, which is called eBid. They will accomodate the whiners who list their items for free with no fees, but often these sellers don't adjust their "spread", trying to maximize profit, and receive limited sales. They know that they can receive greater sales and profit if only eBay would specially accomodate them, and are bitter.

These whining sellers generally believe that buyers are given preferential treatment, unaware that eBay realizes their value, and really tries to remain neutral, even rediculously favoring sellers by automatically opening cases for them, against buyers who purchase on friday/week-end, haven't yet paid for their items before the banks open on monday, and many other considerations. EBay "buyer protection" is a joke, and many sellers send products other than that offered, knowing that the eBay mandates for return/acceptance are too expensive/burdensome for the buyer, where only feedback can be left, which some sellers also would like to control. Sellers don't remember the "good old days" when they had virtually complete control, and the believed law suit that changed feedback rules.

If sellers don't like the eBay conditions, they can go to eBid where their major objective complaints are accomodated. There are other sites also which can meet their stated needs. The difference is that us buyers and many sellers know that the general atmosphere for accomplishing our desires can only be met on eBay. I believe that atmosphere is being deteriorated because of the expense to accomodate a minority.

Generally there are good and bad buyers/sellers everywhere that funds are involved, including here where feedback isn't allowed.

I personally accept the "bad apples", believe in Karma, don't report or leave negative feedback, and consider that hopefully life has balance. I believe it has, and hope you do also.

JMHO

 

Both sellers and buyers like to vent their frustrations on here. Ebay is great because there are millions of buyers at your disposal. However i find their website not very user friendly. Some if their policy are stupid as well.

 

Never had a bad transaction of any kind on the bay.

 

I'm Handicap now and can't drive and I love coin collecting as a hobby and I do not know where else or how to buy coins other than Ebay or trade with friends. I find this site fantastic and well put together and met some fine folks online. It's a lot of fun seeing some amazing coins.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I have been in retail for 30 years first I own my own woodworking business and have been doing that full and part time for those 30 years as well as working for the worlds largest retailer for almost 20. (that's for another post so don't go venting about that lol). I know first hand without a customer there is no seller. I also know that no seller is required to take less for his/her goods than they are willing to accept and the same for the buyer not having to pay more than they a wiling. I deal with online sales almost daily and I'm well aware there are those that try and take advantage, but overall I believe both parties have responsibilities and rights, the main one being honesty in the transaction and secondly courtesy during the transaction. I'm glad to know others find eBay acceptable and I never thought this was an eBay hate site I just didn't understand how so many found it to be terrible, when for modern and common coins it may be the only source for people like myself who live in rural America. Also I am interested in other auction sites so if you have time to message me about them and possibly help me through the navigation process I would be willing to give them a shot as well. Thanks again,

 

I've been one of the more strident anti-eBay voices over the last week or so. I'll be happy to explain my perspective.

I gave up selling on eBay years ago, for reasons I've discussed in other threads. But with the strength of their Buyer Protection policy, I decided that I could buy coins there with confidence. Even if an auction looked sketchy, I knew Buyer Protection would be there for me, and I also knew that eBay's Coin Community Watch Group was working to identify and report the worst offenders.

I've had several experiences where sellers sent me counterfeits, or never sent anything at all, or sent me tracking info for a package that ended up on the other side of the country. Some of these transactions were for many thousands of dollars. In every case, eBay refunded my money; where I received counterfeits, eBay did not require me to return them.

A few months back, eBay disbanded the CCWG, promising that they were instituting new policies to fight counterfeit sales. Those promises have turned out to be empty; we've seen a sharp increase in counterfeits on eBay, and reporting them, for the most part, produces no results.

In the last few days, we've seen a report that eBay is requiring a buyer to return a counterfeit to the seller before processing a refund. This is a seller who's already "sold" the same coin more than once, and has already been told it's fake, so the seller is clearly DELIBERATELY selling fakes. And eBay is acting to support this, by ensuring that the seller either gets the auction proceeds or gets the fake back to try again.

Yes, there's still a ton of great stuff on eBay, along with the bad. Yes, there are still a lot of great sellers on eBay, along with the bad.

But eBay is moving in a dangerous direction with these policy changes, and that's why I'm shouting. If they continue on their present path, they'll get a reputation as a harbor for bad actors and bad merchandise, and that will cast a pall over the good actors and good merchandise as well.

That's why I'm yelling. I've liked eBay for some of the same reasons you do; I still trawl for bargains there. But I think they're screwing up, and I want to talk about it. Maybe I'm wrong; I'd love to be reassured about this. But the things I've been reading in the past week are the opposite of reassuring.

 

Doing a quick search, I found the following coin auction sites. Happy bidding.

https://www.proxibid.com/asp/coin-auctions

Heritage Rare Coin - Heritage Auctions

Gold, Silver, Rare & More Collectible Coins Online Auction ...
www.propertyroom.com/c/coins

GreatCollections: Coin Auctions & Rare Coins Certified by ...
www.greatcollections.com/

Coin Auctions - AuctionZip
www.auctionzip.com/coin.html

Stack's Bowers Galleries | America's Oldest and Most ...
www.stacksbowers.com/

Online Coin Auctions - NumisMaster
www.numismaster.com/ta/inside_numis.jsp?page=online-coin-auctions

GOLDBERG COINS & COLLECTIBLES INC. | A FAMILY ...
www.goldbergcoins.com/

 

Buying anything from Ebay is no different than buying from anywhere else. You need to understand what the coin is worth first of all. Then --here's the key--you need to find several buyers that you trust. This took me awhile but after buying from ebay for years I have a list of those buyers I trust and it's always a good experience. One time I received a coin that I thought didn't match the photo that was posted so I emailed the seller. She responded by replacing it with a higher grade for free and paid the shipping. In general I've found prices on ebay are cheaper than coin shows--at least the one's I've attended. The obvious advantage of a show is you actually get to look at the coin as opposed to a photo

 

here's a few more.

Legend Rare Coin Auctions
www.legendauctions.com

BidALot Coin Auction | Weekly Coin Auctions [Home]
bidalotcoinauction.com/

iCollector.com: Live Auctions - Collectible, Antique, Coin ...
www.icollector.com/

Rare Coin Auctions | David Lawrence Rare Coins
www.davidlawrence.com/auctions/

Weaver Coin Auction
www.weavercoinauction.com

Capitol Coin Auctions: Indiana Coin Auctions & Online Coin ...
www.capitol-auctions

 

I have also found out that if you contact some of the sellers who are too high on a price for a particular coin and ask them if they will accept another figure -- say 10% or 20% less than what they asked -- you sometimes get them to move. Then they can re-list and you can BUY IT NOW or whatever.

 

There is definitely a LOT of junk on eBay. I collect Franklins and have to sift through maybe about 5000 listings, probably more, and that's even with using filters before I find a nice one I want to add to my collection.
I fortunately haven't had any bad experiences with eBay yet. *knock on wood*. I mainly deal with lower value coins ($10 to ~75 range) I think that may be why. Fewer people trying to run scams for small dollar items.

 

Good post.....if you deal with a few people regularly, can you eliminate the search problem by having them contact you directly for future sales ? Then you could either buy direct from them, from their Ebay store (if they have one), or they can send you a BUY IT NOW link if you are bound to go through Ebay.