Ebay buying tips

That is a sticky point as others have mentioned. I used to feel the same way as well.
I still post feedback when payment is received on the rare occasions I sell anymore but it's a chance I take believe me.

MOST sellers that do this have valid reasons as mentioned by others. Some, on the other hand, do use it as "mild exortion".

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Everyone agrees that feedback is VERY important: and most of us agree the feedback system could use some improvement.

Seems to me that the new "extra" rating system may be a good idea.I feel the biggest drawbacks of the current feedback system have been hashed out well here,but the bottom line is;it tends to become like congress: everyone is buying off everyone else for their own interest!​

The most important clues that I find in feedback are in the messages themselves. If there is an agressive reaction to a neg(like profanity) or the reply talks down to the poster( you don't know what your'e doing so buzz off to you!) you can bet that seller is off my bidding list! Nuetrals are a lot of times negative. But the one that makes me suspicious is a lot of mutually withdrawn.It is worth reading through the positives if things don't look quite right.The positives in what they don't say are good clues;and in some sites where the seller is obviously not staight up, the positives are even quite negative!​

I've read at different times in this forum complaints about shipping charges(and of course I've not done my homework) I have passed up many auctions just because the shipping was Totally unreasonable!($6-8-10,even$12 or more for a silver dollar! You can ship a silver dollar,insured anywhere in the U.S. for about $3'and that should include the price of envelope,etc.) This is an area that I think has gotten completely out of hand! Tell me, doesn't ebay have a rule against overcharging for s&h?​

And by the way,saw another auction of "rainbow coins". Brand new seller with (0) but with lots of coins,all toned the same.Several bidders with hidden identities.(on $30 bids?) Anyone know what's up with this?​

 

True, but the vast majority of sellers seem to think that they need to send them by Priority Mail because they think it will get to the buyer faster and probably because that way they can get a free shipping box and not be out any cost for the shipping materials. Well that jumps up the shipping cost considerably, and really doesn't get it there any faster. Maybe one day sooner if you are lucky.

 

That is a load of C**P. I would NEVER leave feedback upon shipping. Once you do that you are locked out of any negotiating position. What if the package gets lost, or what if it gets delivered and they say they never got it? What if they get and are dissatisfied and neg you?They neg you and you can't do a thing about it. Only after the buyer receives the merchandise, expresses through positive feedback that all is well will I respond in kind with positive feedback. Anything else is a lesson in futility.

 

I like to search for mispellings (I have found great collections that way for very nice prices)

Also, I use reward sites whenever I buy on ebay.
For example, bigcrumbs (which is an site that promotes ebay) gives you 36% of a seller's fee (insertion and final value fees) whenever you win an auction.
bigcrumbs

 

Chrisbauman said; "First, I look at the feedback and I won't buy unless someone has a feedback of 100 or more which includes a recent history of maybe 5 or 10 transactions."

My feedback was 100% and as a seller is still 100%, but because a seller tried a little extortion on me he gave a negative it brought my score down. So as a buyer I have one negative. That brings my feedback percent down to 99.6%. E-bay did nothing.

 

I can't believe that in todays world there are still people that don't have credit card's & don't trust banks. I think that people that don't use credit cards, Have credit problems. How can you not trust Paypal. It's the way to go if you are selling and buying on the internet..Just my opinion. I want to add something here. I have have been on ebay since 1998. I have 1345 positives, No negitives. I can truely say, I have never had a bad transaction.