Everything eBay! Scams, questions, etc...

[Revenge]

When I buy, I give feedback when I get the item. When I sell, I wait till I get my feedback from the buyer.

[jokabofe]

To my mind feedback should only be left once the deal is over.  If for some reason the deal fell through or the item got lost and I had to give a refund it would be a “no-sale”. Therefore, why would I leave feedback before I know the item has arrived safely?  I bank cheques as soon as they arrive, pack items perfectly, and send the item the same day that the funds clear. I email the buyer at every stage of the process.  Why should I go to all this effort and risk being left negative feedback by one of the nuts out there?  The customer being happy is as much part of their end of the deal as much as is their obligation to send the money. 

on the one hand, i understand your point. but at the same time, once the items have been paid for, and in a satisfactory time period, doesn't the buyer deserve to get feedback? they have fulfilled their obligation by getting your money to you in a timely manner, and they can not be held responsible for the post office losing the box, can they? even if the money is refunded, and the transaction becomes a "no-sale" as you put it, wouldn't that person deserve feedback, simply based on the fact that they paid for the item, and all was well?

granted, there are plenty of nuts out there, as you said. but i've seen people leave negative feedback for good transactions as well.

and, on the other end of the spectrum, i once got positive feedback from a buyer, even though they never received their package. like you said, i communicate with the buyer 100%. let them know when i get the payment, let them know when it ships, and provide a tracking number. one person never got their package, but opted not to pay for insurance. when they tracked it, it showed it was shipped out by me, and it shows their area as the place of delivery, but they never got it. yet, they still left me positive feedback, since they realized that i did everything i could to get them the item, and it wasn't my fault that the post office lost it. now, i realize that this is a 1 in a 1,000,000 chance of this happening, but it just goes to show you that not everyone on ebay is an idiot.

[Jesse James]

I've never sold anything, just bought, but in my experience of buying I've NEVER had a seller give me the feedback first, even after they've received payment and stuff.  It's like they're afraid if I'm unhappy after getting the product that they want to at least rebuttle with something.

I always am forced to send it first.  What I hate is powersellers (there's a title to be proud of  ) who won't leave any feedback.  Being that I'm right around a positive of 30, every little one helps me increase my total, ya know?  And when that low it looks good.

Sure maybe they've got 5000 Positive, but have the decency to send me a friggin' positive if I took the time to do the same for you, ya know?  Oh well.

[Rob]

I no longer leave feedback until I've already gotten it.  Unless say there were 3 transactions...I'll leave one, reserving the right to post 2 negatives just as a deterrant to someone leaving me negative feedback when the might otherwise not.

I do this, because I now have three negatives - ALL are from idiots who either did not email me or contact me about the problems they had - and TWO of the three are people who failed to accurately read my crystal clear item descriptions.  The third guy just never told me there was a problem - he left me 4 positives and 1 negative.   Hell, the second of my 3 was from a guy who I emailed a dozen times over the course of 3 months, each time the email was returned to me as having a full email box - his rating?  Zero.  He had 5 positives and 5 negatives - my rating?  155, with 3 negatives - one from that twerp.

People don't realize that some people take their feedback rating seriously and they don't bother trying to resolve problems cordially before going forward with unncessary negative feedback.

Sorry for the tone...this just made me remember how mad I was each time I got one when it was totally avoidable.

[Rob L]

I realise that I might come across as mean, but as noted in the post above, feedback can be very important…a good rating can give you an edge especially if you’re a seller trying to shift one of those bloody Ep1 Padmés

I just don’t think it’s fair when I actually DO provide a service as fast as Amazon that I should be sweating on what a crank buyer might post about me. 

It’s why I prefer to deal on forums where I often know the person I’m trading with and can get any problems (none yet!) sorted out before it gets unpleasant.

[JediMAC]

I haven't eBay'ed much at all in recent years, ever since I discovered the various Star Wars forums, and the great trading networks that exist therein.  But the several years before that, I'd hit eBay for the occasional SW goodies that I missed at retail.  I've never sold a single thing on eBay, but I've probably bought things/won auctions about 125 times.  In those 125 auctions wins, all of which went very smoothly on both ends, I only received feedback a little over half the time, whereas I left it about 95% of the time.  Frustrating.

But to the issue at hand, I can see the other point of view here, where a seller might be hesitant to leave a positive just because he's received the money.  To me, that's not necessarily where the transaction ends.  You just never know if you're gonna have a wacko freak on the opposite end of your transaction, that pays quickly, but then throws a **** fit when he receives his item(s), simply because they've got a microscopic nick on the back of the card, or some other lameass reason.  In otherwords, I think the deal can still go bad after you receive their payment, so you don't want to get stuck with giving them a positive, and then wish you could change it later on...  (or maybe you can change it now - I don't know).

But that's in regards to eBay, and/or dealing with people you don't really know.  But here on the JD trading boards, where I unload lots of stuff to fellow members, I almost always leave feedback when I get their payment, and don't sweat some bizarro reaction on the receiving end of my package, 'cause most everyone I deal with is either a buddy, or someone I at least know reasonably well from the boards.  So in that respect, even if something goes a little wrong later on, I know we'll be able to work it out amicably, and that I wouldn't regret already leaving them a positive for sending a quick payment out...

That's just my personal take on the issue though.  Obviously opinions vary.  But next time Dave pays me for something (which will probably be next week), I think I'll intentionally hold off on leaving him any feedback for a while, just to make him sweat it out...   

[chuckles]

You just never know if you're gonna have a wacko freak on the opposite end of your transaction, that pays quickly, but then throws a **** fit when he receives his item(s), simply because they've got a microscopic nick on the back of the card, or some other lameass reason.

A negative can still be avoided as a seller in cases like this so long as you respond quickly to the buyer, are professional and courteous in your emails, and offer a solution to the problem, such as a partial refund, if need be.

I've been involved in around 700 transactions on ebay over the past 4 1/2 yrs, with probably a half or 2/3 as a seller, and have only had maybe 3-4 instances at most where the item (in all cases it was a baseball card) did not meet up to the buyers standard. Now to me, the cards were worthy of a "mint" grade in my description by definition. It may not have been 100% flawless under super close inspection, but doesn't need to be to still be classified as mint as opposed to "gem mint". Anyway, in these few cases, the buyers email me, letting me  know the flaw the card has, and in one case, the buyer states the condition was such that he would have thrown the card away had he pulled it out of a pack. Keep in mind, the flaw was a tiny crease, maybe 1/16" in size on one of the corners. And it was an autographed card to boot (yeah right, sure he would that tossed that  ) Rather than criticize the buyer about how ridiculous his grading standards were, I simply apologized that the card did not meet his expectations, offered a partial refund (was somewhere in the range of 15-20% of price), which he accepted, and I still ended up with a positive feedback from the guy.

and, on the other end of the spectrum, i once got positive feedback from a buyer, even though they never received their package.

I actually can go that one step further with a very recent transaction. I sold a playstation game on ebay about a month ago to a buyer in Canada, who had a feedback rating of 4. I got his payment, left his feedback, and emailed him to let him know I would be mailing out his item later that day. I then go and log into ebay later that afternoon, and wouldn't you know it, the guy has already left me positive feeback. Meanwhile, I hadn't even made it the post office yet, and still had it in my possession. Talk about leaving yourself open to getting burned on a deal. But yes, I did mail out his item. Oddly enough, that was not even the first time this has happened, but the 2nd time when I've recieved feedback right after letting them know I've shipped out their stuff.

[CorranHorn]

ok this may seem like a dumb question, but I don't ebay too often so I'm not clear on this. if an auction with a bin, ends with 1 bid at the starting price, is the seller still obliged to sell the item to the winner at the price he won it at? or is the BIN acted upon in the same fashion as a reserve in that if the BIN doesn't get met, the seller doesn't have to sell the item.

thanks!

[Jesse James]

The price it ended on is the price...  BIN's can run a lot higher than the original price, and I've won a few auctions that were NOWHERE in the ballpark even of a BIN...

Ebay's so full of jagoffs anymore that I'm just dis-enchanted with the damn place anymore.  It was so great not too long ago...  People were making money, things were cool, then some knob decided, "Hey, let's try all these loopholes like outrageous shipping and 'handling' fees", and they have turned the place into a cess-pit of sellers who just aren't accepting that what they have is a piece of **** that isn't worth the material it's made of.

I've been looking at some things I wanted to pick up and it's all "junk" for customs and while the price is right almost 85% of the time I'd say, the shipping is always like $10 for something that won't even cost $6 to ship to me.

Not to mention the dickhole who puts "And if you live in PA, add sales tax", that is so outrageous it's not even funny... 

Sorry for the rant Jason, just pisses me off that a once great outlet's now trashed...  Nevermind the whole "AFA" thing, or people doing unscrupulous business (repros and customs) ruining a once great hobby like the vintage.  F that, I'll buy figures in person I guess rather than deal with that.

[CorranHorn]

JJ, that's pretty much why I don't ebay much anymore. Back in 98/99 it was a great place to score vintage swag, but this the **** hit the fan and it became the cesspool you've mentioned.

The reason for my question is I'm the current high bidder on two auctions with BINs. On one auction I'm winning at the starting price of $5 with the BIN being $15, while the other one I'm winning at $10 with the BIN being $35. On the $15 BIN one, I wouldn't mind paying the BIN, but I'd like to see if I can get away with the $5 bid. If I lose out overall, no worries I'm only marginally interested in the item, I just thought it would be neat to have. As for the $35 BIN, it's a bit outrageous since the item in question has a $25 value tops. It'll be a wait and see, maybe I'll get lucky, but I won't be bummed if I don't win either.

[Morgbug]

Well, as a seller on ebay at times, I purposely put the BIN's over what the item is worth.  Why?  Simply because I hope that some newb will walk on and see this item, get anxious because it's not too much over the usual selling price on ebay and jump at it, netting me an extra $10. 

But I do something different with my BIN stuff from what you've described Jason.  Once someone puts in the starting bid, my BIN goes away.  I just let the auction run that way and see where it goes.  If I have a set price in mind, I'll pay for the reserve function. 

What I don't get is how you bid to the reserved price.  I know there's a way to do that, but I've never bothered to figure it out.  It seems to happen with a lot of my auctions and right today it happened with my McFarlane series 1 Patrick Roy repaint.  Bang, it's sitting at my reserve price (which, btw, is quite low, but since the bubble has some damage, I only wanted to ensure I didn't lose money on the deal, so the reserve was what I paid for the item in the first place plus the shipping I paid). 

As far as ebay being full of jagoffs, well, it's pretty much true, but most of the time (in fact about 99%) of the time, I've been pretty lucky.  Not too many unscrupulous sellers I've run into.  But I am also very careful.  I completely echo Jesse's statements about shipping though.  I've paid $10 for shipping and had a bubble envelope come with $1.30 in shipping on it.  I accept the cost of the envelope at a grossly inflated value, but no envelope costs $9

As far as shipping costs go, sometimes people have legitimate costs.  Those include packing materials.  I can't get free tape or free bubble wrap or free peanuts.  Now if it comes in a beat up box (those I can get free) stuffed with newspaper, well, that's a whole different story. 

Anyhoo, good luck and even if the BIN's remain and are not reached, the seller is obliged to sell to you.  I just sold my Stealth Predator for $86.  Low final value and my BIN was $105.  It's going out the door for $86 no matter how much more I was hoping for.  That's the risk you take as a seller.

[jokabofe]

What I don't get is how you bid to the reserved price.  I know there's a way to do that, but I've never bothered to figure it out.  It seems to happen with a lot of my auctions and right today it happened with my McFarlane series 1 Patrick Roy repaint.  Bang, it's sitting at my reserve price (which, btw, is quite low, but since the bubble has some damage, I only wanted to ensure I didn't lose money on the deal, so the reserve was what I paid for the item in the first place plus the shipping I paid). 

It goes something like this:

Let's say you set a reserve of $50 for an item. You start the bidding at $5. First person comes along and bids $75 for your item. Instead of just sitting at $5 until that person gets outbid, ebay automatically jumps the bid up to your reserve of $50.

Or at least I think that's what you were asking.... no?

[Morgbug]

Yep, that's it.  Thanks.  Guess I should be setting the reserve higher.

[CorranHorn]

Anyhoo, good luck and even if the BIN's remain and are not reached, the seller is obliged to sell to you.  I just sold my Stealth Predator for $86.  Low final value and my BIN was $105.  It's going out the door for $86 no matter how much more I was hoping for.  That's the risk you take as a seller.

Well I hope the sellers feel the same as you Morgbug. I did notice that the BINs on the auctions did disappear after I placed my bid on them. So fingers crossed that the sellers will respect my minute bids. Thanks!

[Jesse James]

yeah, i can't even say I've been burned on Ebay ever.  There was what I feel was an attempt but I can be a very persuasive (IE: persistant and rather intrusive) and think I got my product because I was raising hell...

It's just outta hand.  And for the Canuckleheads, it costs a LITTLE more to send but not what some of those guys say they'll charge to ship up North...  It's total bull****.  Not only are they spiking it on domestic shipping but I've seen guys say "Well, it's gonna cost another $5 or so to ship to Canada".

I declare Shenanigans on that ****!