E bay truth - Page 2

End of October sold three made in Germany Bosch magnetos to a German bidder, he forgot to pick up the parcel when it arrived it came back as undeliverable. The box sat in our living room for a couple of weeks then i get an email from the buyer asking if I would re-ship the package.

He paid shipping twice cost him $140.00 a pop.



Had one guy pay for the same auction three times, I kept refunding his over payment he kept paying.

Brass garden hose nozzles sell on ebay, I usually give them a good buffing. One guy purchased one thinking of mine it was a fire hose nozzel - some people can't or don't read.

Listed a green Hudson’s Bay trappers blanket with a BIN, went for dinner and the thing had sold within the hour I was gone. Make me wonder if I undersold myself by using the buy it now option.

Found a small phamlet with a mouse chew on the corner and a big boot print on the from cover, thing sold for $300.00 becasue it had mentioned Zane Grey in it several times for record catches of Blue Marlin.

Came accross a large WWII transceiver radio thing weighed a ton, so I dismantled it selling the parts, I was astounded with the results.

Found a platinum print tucked in behind a picture backing in an old picture frame, sold for a very good price, yes ebay is good for selling the odd and hard to find.

Right now I have several old vacuum tube radios that were operated from several battery's called A and B each had a different voltage, waiting for everyone to get over X-mass spending blues and list just before tax time.

Even a dead AB battery will sell, the vintage radio enthusiasts refurbish them, often I will find a 110 volt converter an odd looking black box with a plug on it to match that of a battery. The converter allows using a battery operated radio from the mains power.

Ebay also has its welfare Wednesdays, when folks are flush with cash.

Large department stored always time a big sale to fall on days when folks are expected to have cash in hand.

AB Battery.

like 13hrs before the end bid retractions?

Personaly I love ebay. Do I think the fees are a little hi? Sometimes specialy when your selling big ticket items. For the most part though if you do your auctions right the buyer will pay for shipping and the fees. It really depends on how the buyers search for there auctions. When im looking to buy something I always look for buy it knows and then price plus shipping lowist first. Therefor it doesnt matter if your offering free shipping or charging for it. It will show me the lowist option. Now if im looking for scrap or resellable stuff I use all different types of search stuff. I had well over 1000 transactions on ebay last year alone and thats buying and selling. Just today I was looking for a K cup holder for the coffee maker i got for christmas. Cheapist I could find was at target for $21.99. Target is about 8 miles away from my house. So after tax gas and time to go to the store to buy it I would have spent over $25 to go buy it from the store. Got on ebay and found the exact same thing as target has for $22.99 with free shipping. So I saved a couple bucks and it will be delivered to my door in a couple days.

Originally Posted by gustavus

Here's a funny one, counterfeit sports cards, under another account I have proxy bid $20,000.00 the guy who's auction it was shilled me to my limit.

He emailed me asking me to remove my bid, I told him since he figured out how to shill my bid it was up to him to remove my bids. True story.

Another, one time you could also raise the price on your auction, I had an old chainsaw a two man Mercury with an 8 ft bar listed with a $250.00 starting bid. I wasn’t getting any action so I upped the price to $500.00 then shorted the auction time down to where there was 24 hours left.

What I did not know is that i had a sniper using auction bid software hiding in the weeds, one closing bid - $500.00.

It did not take ebay long to remedy that problem, yes big brother is watching, I may have personally been responsible for some of the changes made to ebay.

Not necessarily changes for the better.

I had something like this happen to me on ebay once too gus. I had someone out used a program to bid on my auction then sniped it out from another buyer. Long story short he said he forgot that he had put my auction into his sniping program and had baught another auction. I opened up a case with ebay and they came to the conclusion his account had been hacked. This even after he emailed me threw ebay that he didnt mean to bid on it. sometime you win sometime you loose.

with half a billion people on e bay from probably 200 countrys you have to expect just about any thing and every thing.

test

good point bear its better to drop it like everything else in this world, because everyone is sue happy and no one wants to stand up for anything, its a wonderful world we live in indeed, i retract what i said earlier, because my 2nd amendment rights dont apply here apparently, so its not worth arguing about

i am still seeing shilling on ebay, its all done with low feedback accounts, and that feedback is generated by shillers bidding on other shillers low value items to generate fake feedback, its still rampant in online auctions

If I catch a bid retraction the bidder gets added to my do not bid list.

I keep all my pertinent ebay links bookmarked for quick and easy access.

Originally Posted by gustavus

If I catch a bid retraction the bidder gets added to my do not bid list.

I keep all my pertinent ebay links bookmarked for quick and easy access.

The problem is you cant do that anymore because it censors out the bidders names, and without knowing the user ids you cant see what theyve bid on or what sellers they are shilling with. I liked ebay alot better when the bidders names wernt censored and you could pull there bid history to find out if they were a shiller.

The seller gets the info but the other bidders dont have access to it so whats the point if all you can do is protect yourself without the ability to inform the community. Another one-sided ebay policy just like there new feedback system.

I once sold a model of the dropship from the movie "Aliens.". It was in my basement for years, I realized I was never going to build it so I listed on eBay. I had no idea it was an out of production collector's item. I think I started it for 9.99 and it sold upwards of $200.00! Color me startled, but happy!

And yeah, jg, eBay lost me when they went to one-sided feedback.

Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

Parrot that depends on where you live. Scrap master J sends me large flat rate boxes of copper from alaska and I take them to the yard for him and paypal him the money. I take $10 a box for my time and trouble and he makes double what the yard will pay him for it. I have done this with brass for him as well. If his yard is only paying $1.50 a pound because hes way up north and no other yard around he can definitly make more selling it on ebay. I think my mail lady is starting to hate me. Shes is all of 125 pounds and when some of these boxes come in she back her truck up to my door so she can just flop the boxes out of the back

But no matter where you are, 4 pounds would not cover the postage.

I use the black list or blocked bidder list as they call it, and it helps alot. But again whats the point because new shillers and npb's are coming up all the time, also alternate ids. Ebay does nothing to police itself. Every change that it has made to improve itself has made it worse.

Originally Posted by BurlyGuys

Um, eBay not the evil entity people say it is? Yes, it is. Strongly disagree with you here.

And my local auction house charges me 25%. This place is an hour drive from me, so I only go when I have a truckload.
Home // RJM Auctions

25% is way more than I get charged from E-bay and paypal combined. Plus I will get a higher price there than at a local auction based on the number of people that see it. This goes out the window for large items though.

Originally Posted by parrothead

25% is way more than I get charged from E-bay and paypal combined. Plus I will get a higher price there than at a local auction based on the number of people that see it. This goes out the window for large items though.

i secont that, the fees combined are under 15% and the exposure to alot more of a buyer pool greatly exceeds a local auction house, but again they are doing all the work and there time is worth somthing so i see that side of it also

If I start up with eBay again, it will be for small items like auto taillight lenses. The extra percentage I pay to the auction house if figure is worth it as I don't have to spend the time taking pictures, etc. they do all that. The other advantage is this kind of auction is as is where is. There's no buyers remorse later to deal with.

Finally, this local auction house is online and lasts a week, with all opening bids starting at a buck. While there is no national audience, there is all of SE Michigan and northern Ohio bidders.

One other advantage that is unique to me: I'm sure no one else here is a procrastinator, but since I don't LIKE doing what is necessary for eBay stuff may sit for months before I get around to listing it. This way I just throw t all in the truck and take it in, much like making a scrap run.