I appologize if it seemed like I was trying to make out flea markets as a way
to get rich. The advantage they have over internet sales is that you get the
cash in hand immediately. I've seen way too many "bad trader" posts over the
last several years and heard too many horror stories about ebay to personally
want to go that route.
However, if someone here does use ebay - pipe up. What has it been
like? Tell us the good and the bad. Now I am interested, because I have
several models I want to sell (mainly the larger scale B5 miniatures as I have
converted to the Fleet Action scale.)
> on 11/1/00 9:22, Peter Mancini at peter_mancini@msn.com wrote:
(snip)
> However, if someone here does use ebay - pipe up. What has it been
I've used eBay for both selling and buying. With some precautions it's been
mainly a positive experience for me. When selling I usually request some sort
of certified funds as personal checks can bounce and I dislike having to hold
merchandise for up to or over two weeks to make sure the funds clear. Besides
if the payment bounces it's difficult to recover your service charge that
usually goes hand in hand. One thing to be wary of in
selling - in the USA it's difficult to go after someone legally for
bouncing
a check unless it's over 200-300 dollars. Private collection
institutions are a possibility but their cost is usually prohibitive unless
your on a subscription plan.
Please release that these opinions are related only my personal experiences
and are not necessarily indicative of what you may experience. Remember that
eBay is going to charge you a fee and to factor carefully the shipping
costs, including the cost of packaging (if any) and insurance and/or
tracking.
> At 10:22 AM 11/1/00 -0500, you wrote:
I've recently purchased a bunch of pro audio equipment and a notebook computer
on EBay. In general, I've been very pleased with the people I've traded with.
Where I've had problems is
in making payments. When I've used PayPal (http://www.paypal.com),
I've had no problems whatsoever. Using EBay's BillPoint has been an exercise
in frustration; they charge your credit card right away, but don't credit the
seller for several days. And sending a money order is just plain annoying: it
requires a special trip to the store. (YMMV)
I'd say it's a good way to do business, but you should insist
on PayPal or Money Order/Cashier's Check (i.e., pre-paid check)
and refuse to accept BillPoint or personal check.
If you do sell on EBay, make the package large enough that the shipping is
significantly less than the probable sale price. I've seen some sales where a
$2 item would cost $2 to ship; nobody with two brain cells to rub together
bids on those. (The same would apply to any online auction or sale, of
course.)
- Sam
On Wed, 01 Nov 2000 10:22:39 EST, "Peter Mancini"
<peter_mancini@msn.com>
wrote:
> However, if someone here does use ebay - pipe up. What has it been
I've never sold on eBay, always bought. I have had no problems. Well, okay,
one guy in Virginia didn't realize that you cash a postal money order at the
post office, not the bank (to be honest, no one at the banks he took it to
realized this either). He seemed a bit clueless. He did, though, send the item
with the returned money order before I had sent him cash back.
Other than that, no problems. I usually only bid from people with a reasonable
bid history.
One thing that does annoy me are people who won't sell outside the US. I've
never seen anyone from any other country limit themselves in this way. I don't
blame the sellers, I blame the US banking system which will often charge
extortionate prices for processing money orders from anywhere other than a US
bank, regardless of currency. Paypal isn't much better. You'd THINK Paypal
would be great as it gets around this problem... except that you have to
reside in the US to use Paypal.
That having been said, I have my American sources for stuff. I bid, send them
the money while they send the money on to the seller. Yes, I have to pay
double postage, but my sources package them as "gifts" and so I miss the tax
and $5 handling fee at the border.
My wife has sold several gaming items and books for me over ebay and the
results were pretty good overall. We've even purchased a bunch of stuff
(Battletech figures) that we couldn't find locally for decent prices (not
great, but decent).
I'd have to say that our experience with ebay has been pretty good--but
we've been pretty careful.
Rob
[quoted original message omitted]
> At 10:22 AM 11/1/00 EST, you wrote:
posts
> over the last several years and heard too many horror stories about
I've had good experiences with PayPal -- it's nice and quick, and I've
had no errors at all.
> However, if someone here does use ebay - pipe up. What has it been
Other than having some checks stolen out of my mailbox, no problems at all.
I've gotten good prices for what I've sold -- especially old GW
figures. I sold Judges Fear, Fire, and Mortis for a very good price indeed.
As of yet, gaming with a group of people who have been buying entire armies
through ebay, not a single horror story to be heard. Not to say that bad
things don't happen...just not to me or my friends so far.
> At 8:08 PM -0500 11/1/00, Allan Goodall wrote:
<peter_mancini@msn.com>
> wrote:
As I understand it, there are some rather draconian restrictions on
international money transfers. Something about drugs maybe. But if you'll look
at those backing PayPal, you'll find Deutsche Bank among
them. And they work with Visa - who has an effective global network
but aren't really allowed to use it. So I expect PayPal will go international
exactly as fast as possible. Until then, I've gotten anime from Singapore,
paid with PayPal, by virtue of people with relatives (and thus mailing
addresses) in the USA. Actually, as that's against the rules I shouldn't say
"by virtue of".