Until the Fall of 2008, there was still a very slight pretense of sellers having a few rights. The rest of it went away about that same October. And I quit the place. While some have enough luck to avoid pitfalls, luck it is and they do not realize...! Sooner, rather than later, they will get bitten severely, by the place.
I'm using it to unload a lot of items due to my smaller layout and it is working slowly but surely. So far not any major nightmares other than 3 people not paying me. For that I just have to open cases, wait, and re list. I wouldn't sell anything of major value there (a few hundred bucks or more). There's all kinds of scams I've read about in the seller forums. Sellers are losing items worth thousands. It's sad that humans behave this way. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This is an interesting discussion and eBay's current community of Buyers and Sellers finds a worrisome increase in casual postings from people who don't pay attention to item details, shipping addresses, good photography or commitments to pay and to ship. Too many Sellers are too lazy to invest the extra time it takes to construct a quality listing and too many Buyers are lackadaisical about their bids, treating the process as sport rather than a commitment to purchase. I've had good success as a Buyer and a Seller on eBay on over 100 items, but if a listing or a request doesn't pass the sniff test, it's always best to ignore it and move on.
It is sometimes hard to tell the uniformed from the unethical. A while back, I bought a BLI E6 A unit and a BLI E6 B unit, each in a separate box, both boxes clearly marked as powered units. But, when I received it, the B unit was not powered - there was no motor or decoder in it. Somebody, somewhere, sometime, switched the chasies of a powered and unpowered B unit with their original shells, and put the unpowered chasie with the shell of a powered unit back into the powered unit box. I eventually got some money back from the seller. But, how was I to know that he was not the one that did the switching? And, how would he be able to prove that I did not do the switching after receiving it? The answer can be found in providing good photographs of the items in the listings. The other side of that bad transaction just happened over the last few days. A BLI E7A + E6B set, in a single box, just came on the market, listed as the B unit being unpowered, as stated on the box. But, one of the pictures showed hand-written "sticky notes" on both units indicating that they were programmed to their individual road numbers - so, it seemed that they must both have decoders. The pictures of the two units clearly showed the gears on the bottom of the A unit trucks, but were fuzzy and did not show more than the hint of a possibility of gears on the B unit. So, was this some devious seller's attempt to get a high bid through misleading information? The seller does not take returns, and the starting bid was low compared to the "street" price of a single powered unit from a discounting store, but the "buy-it-now" price was exactly twice the price of a single powered unit from a discounting store. When in doubt, ask the seller before you bid. I did that, explaining that the pictured notes indicated that the B unit was powered and the seller could tell one way or the other by looking for gears on the trucks of the B unit, like those on the A unit. She responded quickly with pictures showing gears on the trucks of both units in the same picture, saying that she thinks the B unit is powered. The response came jus to me, but I expected her to change her listing. However, she did not, and my bid won at a price below what a discounting store would charge me for a single powered unit, (if they were not sold-out - which they are). I received the items today, and both are powered. (I haven't test run them, yet, though.) So, I am happy. In both cases, the sellers did not seem to know what they really had. But, if they had included clear photographs of all sides of their items, knowledgeable buyers would have known. And, yes, I have sometimes clued-in sellers about their items, even when I am not interested in biddiing on them.
Good post Maletrain. In support of your thoughts on good photographs, eBay has offered 12 photos free per listing for years now, so there's no reason for a Seller to submit a thin count of blurred and poorly lit snapshots.
From what I read, it makes no difference if a seller takes returns or not. Bottom line referring to my earlier post is buyers have complete leverage and can return anything at any time for any reason and state the item was not as described. If seller refuses, they'll be out both the unreturned product and the inevitable reversed credit card charge from the bank who will also be completely biased for the buyer. There are countless stories of this on the eBay seller forums. Bottom line is sellers cannot refuse to accept returns even though some state it in their auction. It's merely a deterrent for uninformed buyers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
As I understand it, buyers who don't take returns don't expect to get anything back and won't pay any return postage, but understand that a seller might "open a case" with eBay that would result in them losing payment and initial postage. How that works with eBay is not really that clear. On the very few times where I have had to open a case, eBay seemed to investigate reasonably well before deciding in my favor. In all of those cases, the seller had made some obvious error/misrepresentation. One even included claiming that he had my signature on the postage receipt saying that I accepted the package, but at an address 2000 miles from my address. Even then, it was hard for me to know for sure if the seller was dishonest or genuinely confused. A few sellers have seemed to be suffering from dementia, or strokes. At the age when sellers typically start divesting themselves of their train collections, such mental issues are not uncommon. And, if it is a surviving family member who becomes an uniformed seller, that can also lead to some of the entries on this thread.
Unfortunately that is so true. Not train items but I had one seller who swapped things with another buyer so I got his stuff and he got mine. It was a total mistake on the seller's part but he resolved it quickly and easily. Definitely not a con job but an honest mistake. But you can imagine what I was feeling when I first opened up the package and what my initial thought was!
This isn't humorous. . . well, to some people it might be. I can not conceive of why someone would pay $132.00 (+$6.00 shipping) for the Cheyenne coal loader as seen here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/IHC-No-5300...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649 Am I missing something? The reason I ask is that I have a friend who has two of these.
On the same note, $350 for a Walthers Blast Furnace kit? I know it's discontinued but doesn't Walthers rerun their buildings once in a blue moon. I guess if you must have it.... http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-scale-933...725859&hash=item1ecd5f630d:g:6FEAAOSwF3JZfUCi
If you are, I am missing it too. Still, there were 21 bids that caused the price to go to where it ended and not just a bad BIN...
Those 21 bids were only 2 buyers who took it above $40. So, yeah, it looks like there is still one more guy out there who will take it up to that point the next time one of these comes up.
I know that they claim to have protections built in, but one can only wonder about who and why they were bidding...
True, but one out there without his desired product ensures that any other person will still need to go that high next time to win. So, it may just go to $40 next time, but with several people going about that high, it may go a bit higher.
They say that the devil is in the details. Here is a good example. Granted, it is an auction but check out the shipping charges. Can you say OUCH! http://www.ebay.com/itm/N-SCALE-PEC...804526?hash=item3aedbec0ae:g:x9gAAOSwP2FZkr3D
