Ebay Poll

[Sabro]

Rocks - We buy and sell on there.

Just bought a brand new Sears Microwave for our break room on eBay for less then half the price Sears was selling online or local.

As with anything else, if you use common sense, you can save or make alot of $ using eBay.

Sabro

[davideck]

I like the pictures!
I enjoy browsing vintage equipment and seeing how much others feel it is worth.
I often check Ebay just to get pricing benchmarks on almost anything I buy.
Print cartridges for a dollar? How do you beat that?

I've found great bargains on items that were simply not available anywhere else; older VCRs and remotes in particular.

I've also sold equipment for much more than I ever expected to receive. One of my old Marantz Power Amps sold for over twice what I paid for it new almost thirty years ago.

Truly a "killer app" for the internet...

[ark]

While I have made friends on eBay, due to scams perpetrated by some sellers (includes big ebay shops even) - we international buyers are always at the losing end. I have been unable to get any compensation from eBay - since each transaction was counted by eBay separately, even though the scam was from the same party.

It gave such a bad taste that I have not bought any thing over eBay for last 12 months.

[ROF]

Ebay rocks! You can not get better deals anywhere else on the planet for the hard to find, rare, and vintage items.

[waheed]

Suprising how people are willing to spend more than the item is even worth.

I bought Columbo DVD Boxset from HMV online store for £15.99 delivered. Watched it once and sold it on ebay. 7 day auction, put the price at 99p start with no reserve, It fetched over £20 final price + P&P even though it was available for £15.99 new at HMV. :P

[Paul_G]

Ebay (uk) rocks. Use your common sense when bidding and you will save loads of money per item.

[MackemX]

I love gazumping other bidders just at the last second. Sometimes I bump the bid up if I think some idiot has autobid too much. It can be fun!

, I went to gazump someone last night on a friends account but I was surprised I was still beaten. It cost them an extra £10 though as nobody else had bid apart from us 2

[cafetimer]

some people actually buy stuff that is either the same price, slightly more expensive or even cheaper brand new from an online store

Like this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Microsoft-Xbox-360-Premium-Edition-System-Game-Console_W0QQitemZ82...QQcmdZViewItem

Even more funny, one of the extras that comes with it.

(1) Instruction manuals

What are you complaining about? The guy also: "Includes Wal-Mart Receipt Dated 4/1/2006". That should more than enough to make any ebayer salivate for such an excellent deal, lol!!!!

[oldfart13]

You get beat more and more these days because of snipe software where the comp bids for you until you hit your limit in the closing seconds of the auction. Use it to your own advantage. I sell stuff on Ebay to get by. I used to sell lots more stuff years ago than I do now and some auctions Ebay used to go after they don't bother with anymore (like all those bootleg TV shows, movies, etc. burned on DVD-+Rs). It's strange but as the company has grown, I use it less and less. I guess for the most part, I ran out of things that I absolutely must have. Consumerism only goes so far you know. If you buy some new "toys" you still have to make time to play with them and so, if there is no time left in the day, why acquire them in the first place?

[MJA]

shipping cost what bothers me the most.its outrageous

[budz]

shipping cost what bothers me the most.its outrageous

I get pissed off at those sellers who post on their auctions shipping to only the 48 US States. WTF Hawaii and Alaska are part of the USA. That's one of my biggest beefs with those Ebay sellers. The shipping cost doesn't come out of their pockets. I've purposely ask the sellers why isn't shipping allowed to Hawaii since we are a part of the USA. They either don't bother respond to my question or they want to charge a outrageous cost for the shipping to Hawaii.

[limpy]

I sell on Ebay and I've made some good money on it. But I have to say there is one item on Ebay that blows my mind that anyone would ever bid on it. If you do a search on MYSTERY BOX you'll see what I'm talikng about. People bid on themed boxes in which they have no idea what's inside. It's amazing!!!!


http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=mystery+box

[cafetimer]

I sell on Ebay and I've made some good money on it. But I have to say there is one item on Ebay that blows my mind that anyone would ever bid on it. If you do a search on MYSTERY BOX you'll see what I'm talikng about. People bid on themed boxes in which they have no idea what's inside. It's amazing!!!!


http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=mystery+box

And I thought I'd seen everything, ufff!!!

[Doramius]

I get pissed off at those sellers who post on their auctions shipping to only the 48 US States. WTF Hawaii and Alaska are part of the USA. That's one of my biggest beefs with those Ebay sellers. The shipping cost doesn't come out of their pockets. I've purposely ask the sellers why isn't shipping allowed to Hawaii since we are a part of the USA. They either don't bother respond to my question or they want to charge a outrageous cost for the shipping to Hawaii.

When you say it's not out of pocket, that's not neccesarily true. I sell on eBay, but I do other business and ship via FedEx. I get a volume discount for my shipments. I pass the savings on to the end customer. If I ship to AK or HI, then I don't qualify for volume discount. This is because of the cost to ship to AK & HI.

Also, electronics have a higher rate of DOA to AK & HI. If you receive something DOA and you ask to get the money back, the seller may have to eat all the cost. I personally have had less DOA's shipping to Canada & Mexico, than to AK & HI. I do ship to all those areas though, and also Puerto Rico.

Sellers also refuse to ship to APO & FPO military addresses. Many carriers just don't ship to them and/or it's not available.

[Richard_G]

I use it as a first stop for just about everything. I've bought 3 cars (and sold 2), 2 minDV camcorders and loads of smaller stuff. I've noticed one thing though, bay.co.uk has far less crap on it than ebay.com.

[budz]

I get pissed off at those sellers who post on their auctions shipping to only the 48 US States. WTF Hawaii and Alaska are part of the USA. That's one of my biggest beefs with those Ebay sellers. The shipping cost doesn't come out of their pockets. I've purposely ask the sellers why isn't shipping allowed to Hawaii since we are a part of the USA. They either don't bother respond to my question or they want to charge a outrageous cost for the shipping to Hawaii.

When you say it's not out of pocket, that's not neccesarily true. I sell on eBay, but I do other business and ship via FedEx. I get a volume discount for my shipments. I pass the savings on to the end customer. If I ship to AK or HI, then I don't qualify for volume discount. This is because of the cost to ship to AK & HI.

Also, electronics have a higher rate of DOA to AK & HI. If you receive something DOA and you ask to get the money back, the seller may have to eat all the cost. I personally have had less DOA's shipping to Canada & Mexico, than to AK & HI. I do ship to all those areas though, and also Puerto Rico.

Sellers also refuse to ship to APO & FPO military addresses. Many carriers just don't ship to them and/or it's not available.

As mentioned I had defective/not working correctly dvdroms & mobos from Ebay not DOA. I had 2 dvdroms sent to me in a plain envelope with no bubble wrap and a mobo with some newspaper. The dvdroms had the trays opened about 1/2 inch and one of them had the wrong firmware. In other words they flashed the drive wrong so they sold it thinking some idiot who didn't know what to look for would buy it. If those 2 seller's were smart they would have listed no refund on shipping charges. I told those sellers do not blame the USPS for the drives arriving defective/broken because it was their responsibility to pack the item well which they didn't.

In my opinion it's the sellers responsiblity to make sure the item doesn't arrive DOA by making sure the item is packed well to prevent damage. In my situations the sellers obviously didn't care how the items were packed and knowingly knew the dvdroms & mobos did not work correctly. The mobo was the same no bubble wrap just some newspaper. That seller told me to keep the mobo because he would not refund the shipping cost to me but he refunded the cost of the mobo. I see it as some sellers know the mobos don't work correctly but they go ahead and sell it by taking a chance that someone won't know if it works correctly or not.

I sell some computer items on Ebay through a friend of mine. I pack the mobo very well by bubble wrapping it and putting packing peanuts inside of the priority flat rate boxes. I don't buy items from people who have these Ebay Stores with ten trillion feedback but 600 something negative feedback. I try to buy stuff from individuals who sell computer components that they've used themselves. Those Ebay stores deal in buying stuff in bulk with most being sold as is. I never buy anything that says SOLD-AS-IS. To me that just screams out, "I'M BROKEN but buy me anyway"!

[Doramius]

I've had nothing but crap purchasing items from AK & HI. Some DOA, and many not. Check out how they pack those containers sometime when you're near the dock. It's not very good. I watched customs for international items, and it's not any better. It doesn't take much to shock a piece of electronic equipment, and I'm not talking static shock either. I got a PIII MoBo from HI about 2 years back, when it arrived, it was packaged very well. Too well to the fact that the board was stiff. 2 capacitors were shaken from their mount. I called to have the board RMA'd, but they had a clause on their terms. I looked at the board and noticed the problem immediately and was able to resolder the compnents in place. I would have been out $70 anyway, so I took the chance of putting the heat to the board. It worked great and I think I sold that board about Nov. of last year in full working condition. Person that received it said it was in great working condition too. No complaints.

I'm not saying there aren't dishonest people out there, because I've had my share. Nasty vermin running around eBay.

[ROF]

I sell on Ebay and I've made some good money on it. But I have to say there is one item on Ebay that blows my mind that anyone would ever bid on it. If you do a search on MYSTERY BOX you'll see what I'm talikng about. People bid on themed boxes in which they have no idea what's inside. It's amazing!!!!


http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=mystery+box

because sometimes you never know what you'll get. I've bid several times on these themed boxes and I was more than pleasantly surprised when I received it. For example I bid on a kids cartoon box. I received several vintage comic books, collectible toys of cartoons from years past. Two original issue smurf collectibles (worth $50 each) and tons of old fashioned cartoon videos. In another halloween themed box I received several classic horror movies in great conditions, quite a few movie posters for these older movies, a couple action figures Bela lugosi sits on top of my computer shelf in the shop along with Lon Chaney as the werewolf.

If you wonder why just ask someone who has bid and won. I have never been disappointed and with the stuff I didn't want I resold it on Ebay and easily made my money back.

[TBoneit]

Buy on Ebay? I try to avoid pestholes. Do I sound sour about them? When I have somebody looking at a computer cable I sell for $7 and I hear that's way to much, I can buy it on Ebay for $2, yeah right. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

Or they come to waste my time holding Ebay auction printouts.

Sorry but to me it is a pesthole and a blight that is hurting B & M stores.

[ROF]

Buy on Ebay? I try to avoid pestholes. Do I sound sour about them? When I have somebody looking at a computer cable I sell for $7 and I hear that's way to much, I can buy it on Ebay for $2, yeah right. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

Or they come to waste my time holding Ebay auction printouts.

Sorry but to me it is a pesthole and a blight that is hurting B & M stores.

Have you even checked? Quite a few of the larger sellers have not one but several B&M stores.

[TBoneit]

Since I try to avoid buying online, no.

In my own personal life and at work I do JIT purchasing from local Wholesalers and stores. Example I look at the online B&M adverts when I need blank media. Drives come from our wholesalers, food, clothes and such I would no more buy online than.....

OTOH, for some reason I do pay my bills online.

Even my Home electronics I buy in B&M stores, DVD recorder (Walmart), JVC S-VHS 9911U was bought at the B & H NYC store not their online website. If for some reason I were to buy online it would have to be a Newegg type of website not a auction site.

Edit: I did shop Amazon for that last Harry Potter book as a gift since it was wanted the day of availability, and they had guaranteed delivery for the day of release.

[ROF]

My favorite excuse why people do not buy online is because they have to use a creedit card. Not only is a credit card not necessary in most cases, but these same people readily hand over their credit card to a potential crack smoking waiter at their local restaurant. These same people will also sometimes leave the "tip" portion of the receipt blank or not completely filled in. A zero is easily changed to $10, $100, or $10,000 for a tip. This same waiter may also keep a copy of your credit card or perform a cash back at the register before even returning to your table.

[TBoneit]

I would never not use a real credit card since a credit card gives some protection against fraud. Debit cards even with the Visa logo have less protection. Charge food what a silly idea. I always pay cash at a restaurant or other type of eatery or grocery store.

Automatic Tips such as some places charge is a form of fraud. If it isn't optional it should be reflected in the menu price or posted on the door so you do not even enter. They'd have to call the police on me since I would not pay a tacked on tip percentage. Tipping and what rate is a reward or not reward for the level of service. If service is good I usually tip 20+ %, if it is bad, nothing.

ROF if not using a credit card then how would you pay online/ Give them access to your checking account?

[ROF]

Paypal.

Most restaurants have it in their menu about auto-gratuity. It is usually reserved for parties of 5 or more though.

[TBoneit]

Never used Paypal

It may be in the menu. OTOH even if you dislike auto-gratuity the average customer would rather not get up to leave in a group because of it. They more or less have you trapped once you have been seated and then you discover it.

[whitejremiah]

ROF, yea, cuz paypal hasnt ever locked anyone's access to their account [end scarcasm] i use ebay occasionally, but im rather careful for the most part (cept my early ebay days when i trusted everyone...fortunately i never got burned) these days, i tend to buy from people with 99% or better positive feedback and over 10000 total feedback......just safer that way....

[draganong]

Bought quite a bit, not sold anything

Sold a lot, bought a lot, including my fourth real Maserati. Excellent deal.

/dragan

[Doramius]

Many online places will let you use your personal checking & even savings account online. I actually do have checking & savings accounts connected online. The difference is I have several savings & checking accounts for different things. I have excellent flexibility between them so I can transfer funds and keep my accounts safe.

I've worked for a financial institution for around 10 years, so I've learned quite a few things. I also keep an extremely close eye on my accounts. I do have credit cards too, but rarely use them. My wife actually uses the Credit Card about 20 times to my 1 and she doesn't use it but 1 or 2 times a month.

I have 3 banks. Bank 1 - I have a personal Checking & Savings account that even my wife does not have access too. Wife has the same thing. Also have a 3rd account that is joint. The joint account is joint savings, nestegg, retirement, etc. Personal accounts is for personal savings, investing, purchasing, etc. (my wife's personal savings is empty and only has the $50 min. women can't manage money for anything. plenty of personal experience there)

Bank 2 - Joint Checking & Savings account #1. this is the account where all our pay, personal check cashing and misc income goes into. We don't use or order checks for the checking account and we only use bank cards without Visa or MC capability.

Joint Checking & Savings Account #2. This is the account we write checks for and have VISA & MC Debit cards for. We'll often do an account transfer of funds to this account to pay bills, buy groceries, & some store purchases, etc.

Bank 3 - Joint Checking & Savings account. This is the account we use for online purchases and business dealings. We keep very little funds in these accounts. If someone hits us with an online fraud, we're out maybe $100-$200 at most. If we plan a date or decide to go to a restaurant or on a mini vacation we'll use this account too. We also use this card to buy gas.

[TBoneit]

The only porblem as I see it with your bank 3 account for online purchases is if someone keeps trying to get funds from it that bounce, you could depending get hit with bounce check fees unless that has changed in the last 10 years. I had a bank wanted a hundred dollars for bounced automatic debits to pay for a online service where they kept trying for several days. My fault in that I didn't remember to change the bank on the autopay for them when I closed that bank account.

[Doramius]

A debit card with MC or Visa logo has to verify funds before it can clear. If you use it as a credit card purchase, you might be able to make maybe 2 or 3 purchases in a short amount of time before the 'FREEZE' takes place. Same goes for checking account. If it's an account auto-debit the funds are verified before it is put through. If the funds aren't there, your bank usually will not hit you for a charge because no check has cleared, it's an auto-debit with only a verification. However, you may get hit with a charge for insuf. funds from the retailer or your order may not be completed. They typically wait for a clearing of funds before running an order through. If it's an electronic check, they may do a similar verification of funds. Actually that's when a retailer would charge an insuf., but you may not get charged an insuf. from your own bank because an actual check has not cleared. Echecks also take about 4 days to clear and will show a 'FREEZE' of funds the day before the check actually attemps to clear. These transactions can be reported as fraud with full return of money, though it may take 2-4 weeks before the funds are replaced. You can also recoup ANY insuf. charges and fees you receive during those 2-4 weeks. Again, it may take time before they get paid back to you.

A hassle, YES. But you get all your money back. The time is mainly for an investigation. Having the 3 accounts makes sure if something does happen on a more open account, our money is not tied up. So if Bank 3# has a 'FREEZE' on funds during an investigation, we aren't out of food & home for 6 weeks.

I know people that have had problems with fraud and had issues with late mortgage payments, car payments, bills, etc. They got the lost money back, but it also permanently affected their credit. The fraud wasn't due to the mortgage company, so they can legally report it and not be liable, though most are willing to work with you if you provide documentation of the fraud and information about the investigation. Some car lien companies will too, but not as many. Usually bank run liens are the ones where you're given a break if a fraud happens.