Selling on Ebay – no longer worth my time or effort.

[Duncan]

Following yet another highest bidder withdrawing from a sale (apparently the £2.50 I charged for airmail postage from the UK to Canada for a book was, “too expensive at this time of year”), I’ve finally given up selling on Ebay. On top of that one, I had one US bidder sending me a Western Union Money Gram, despite stating that I can’t accept them cause they’re useless in the UK. Yet another US bidder failed to send any payment for which I waited over two weeks for, when I emailed him (again) he said he’d, ‘forgot to’. These are just three in a long line of failed auctions recently where I’ve been totally messed around.

Has anyone else had similar problems?

Out of the items I sold this time around I had payment problems with almost half of them! Not only that but people were bidding, then email me to say they had bid ‘accidentally’ and could I delete their bid. It seems a lot of the problems are with bidders outside the EU, and relatively new members (people with 15 or 20 feedbacks).

I see too that Ebay has been criticised by Trading Standards for failing to take fraud seriously. Negative feedback is only a deterrent to unscrupulous sellers as it puts people of buying from them, it is no deterrent for dodgy buyers.

Duncan.

[welshdoc]

Im afraid these duff bidders are becoming more commonplace if your problem is with foreign bidders dont sell to them. Ive had a few non payers as well from the UK in fact the few sells to the US have gone smoothly its a matter of luck. As for £2.50 postage being steep thats a load of balls. As long as you state postage and costs at the outset its up to them to either contact you or not bid. You get no help from EBAY and as your aware to claim some of your costs back takes weeks. Gareth

[Moonraker]

I read that eBay is rivalling car boot-sales for offloading dodgy goods. There was a case recently of someone who had had his bike stolen tracking it down when it was offered.

Apart from keeping an eye out for the obvious no-nos (guns, drugs, extrem porn), I can't see how something as vast as eBay can be policed. If someone gets a couple of negative feedbacks all they've got do is to re-register and start again.

I suspect people get carried away with auction fever and then regret their high bids, especially if they've "sniped" with an over-the-odds offer in the closing seconds and come up against someone who's done the same.

Any form of trading is vulerable to time-wasters, dishonest people and so on.

At least, Duncan, you've only had your time wasted, you've still got the goods.

Sooner or later I'll get around to selling on eBay and may then become less philosophical!"

Moonraker

[ianw]

I've fortunately never had a bad selling or buying experience on Ebay. Maybe I've been lucky BUT even if I had, I would ask myself how I would sell items without Ebay and what cruddy prices I would get to boot. There really is no alternative. You just have to expect a few negative experiences and exercise a bit of caution and judgement.

[barrieduncan]

I haven't bought militaria from eBay for a while, but looking on there lastnight it has become so commercial its not even funny. There are so many repro's, so many faked items, so many gimmicky badges that have got ****** all to do with militaria, its become like a tacky highland gift shop.

It saddens me that so many people are splitting up medal groups to fetch higher prices for them.

In the WW2 section its the opposite, I wonder how many smaller groups have been split up and made into groups of 6 or 7 just to fetch an extra buck. eBay isnt what it used to be and I dont think its neccessarily for the better.

[John_Hartley]

I'm a buyer not a seller. And I have had to lodge a Paypal dispute because the trader (by the volume of transactions, I assume a professional) has not only failed to deliver the goods but has not responded to 2 messages asking for an explanation.

Chap has generally good feedback but on close examination of the remarks, he seems to slip a few of these in every month. Presumably just a shoddy little crook.

John

(PS; this is not militaria so no-one need get their knickers in a twist)

[barrieduncan]

John,

I feel your pain, its happened to me before, and not just with militaria. Someone with very good feedback (at a glance but go back far enough and you see the odd neutral/negative feedback in there) cashed my cheque, didn't respond to emails, and didn't send out the item (one of the real nice guys that charged my £6 for special, next day, delivery). Luckily enough I did eventually get the dvd I had bought, shame it was three weeks after my mums birthday.

Ah well, its risk we run,

Barrie

[Nick Cooper]

Following yet another highest bidder withdrawing from a sale (apparently the £2.50 I charged for airmail postage from the UK to Canada for a book was, “too expensive at this time of year”), I’ve finally given up selling on Ebay. On top of that one, I had one US bidder sending me a Western Union Money Gram, despite stating that I can’t accept them cause they’re useless in the UK. Yet another US bidder failed to send any payment for which I waited over two weeks for, when I emailed him (again) he said he’d, ‘forgot to’. These are just three in a long line of failed auctions recently where I’ve been totally messed around.

Has anyone else had similar problems?

There are some nuisance/malicious buidders that you can't do anything about, but for some of the other time-wasters you can minimise the risk. For example, detail all postage options in the listing, which can help guard againt the buyer who baulks at a quote after the auction closes. One current auction of mine, for example, states:

"P&P/S&H: UK £2.45 (1st class) or £2.15 (2nd class); Western Europe £3.70 (Airmail) or £3.20 (Surface - allow up to 2 weeks); Rest-of-the-World £5.60 (Airmail) or £3.20 (Surface - allow up to 8 weeks)."

I have an Excel spreadsheet set up with all the current rates as automatic lookups, so I dpon't have to work out each one individually. I've found that different items have different standards of buyers. Sold off my FHM collection a few years back and generally the only problems were those few who whinged about the postage after they'd used a Buy-It-Now, even though it was stated in each listing. I'm currently disposing of most of my comics and find that you get a lot of questions about the issues themselves, but successful buyers are not a problem, even if they're overseas and end up paying a lot in postage.

I think generally the only problems come from new and/or very infrequent buyers. More active buyers know what's what, how to actually work the bidding system to their advantage, etc. Newbies tend to either get caught up in needless bidding wars (which I guess most of us did ourselves, once!), and then regret paying well over the odds later.

[Duncan]

With the Canadian one that pulled out I could understand if the postage was huge, but it was only £2.50 airmail, which had been clearly stated on my auction page. They had even emailed me 2 or 3 times to confirm my address and to ask if I could email them to tell them once I'd posted it.

'Tacky highland giftshop' - sums up Ebay, or, as I heard on the radio the other day, 'dodgy car boot sale'.

[SteveB]

I've had to chase up a few winning bidders recently, which I don't usually have to do, but they have paid up in the end. I think after the recent TV ad campaign a lot of newbies have signed up to ebay, so there's always going to be a few loose cannons!

SteveB

[ianw]

Duncan - I appreciate that you are feeling a bit miffed about your lost sale but one dodgy Canadian buyer does not rubbish the entire Ebay concept. Get a sense of proportion ! Maybe you can put a bid in for one !

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

I've fortunately never had a bad selling or buying experience on Ebay. Maybe I've been lucky. You just have to exercise a bit of caution and judgement.

Ditto!

Caveat Vendor & Emptor @ All times,But touch wood I cannot say I've had a Bad deal on E bay~{excluding the odd "Numpty" who wins an auction @ 11.00pm Sunday,pays by Paypal & wonders in an agitated E Mail,why it hasn't arrived Tuesday morning!!~But a polite but curt response explainig that try as I might the Post Office won't open up for me @ Midnight Sunday,usually pricks their Balloon!}

Its all down to communication,before,during & after the Transaction.

Edited 21 December , 2005 by HarryBettsMCDCM

[CarylW]

I must be one of the lucky ones too. Nearly all of my experiences have been positive on ebay

I've been buying and selling on ebay for some years now (not Militaria)

Only had one problem with an overseas buyer, and he wasn't the winning bidder. I was selling a very famous wartime singer theatre programme and the winning bidder who wanted the programme as a Xmas present for his wife was contacted by a man living in the US who claimed to be a relation of the singer and wanted the programme for his collection. My buyer contacted me and asked if I would sell to the other person instead to keep the memorabilia 'in the family' . I agreed, and the new buyer kept telling me he had sent money via Fedex - he told me he had sent it three times but when I kept asking him for his Fedex number so that he or I could track the delivery down to see what had happened he kept refusing to give me the numbers, or waffling on and being very abusive

Maybe some 'scam', needless to say I sold the item to the original buyer and all was well, and never heard from this mystery 'buyer' again.

I haven't had any other problems with overseas bidders and I've sent stuff to the US, Japan, Australia, Canada, Singapore, France, always had prompt payment, and bought stuff too, always arrived on time and had good communication from buyers or sellers. I did have a major issue with Royal Mail but that is a different story...

Keep at it Duncan, that was their fault not yours, moaning about the price of postage after bidding, they should have checked that out first, no use complaining afterwards. Experienced bidders always check the postage first because something that seems like a bargain can have costly postage that bumps up the price but your postage was reasonable, cheap in fact for sending something to Canada.

Most experienced sellers value their feedback and don't want to risk getting a negative, although I have heard stories from other people of bad experiences. I don't buy anything from people with dodgy feedback.

As ianw said you just have to exercise a bit of caution and judgement. You can usually spot the fakes, scam artists and so on if you know your subject.

I've always found the support forums on ebay good too, people will give you good advice if you are unsure about anything

Caryl

[ianw]

To put things in context , my brother owns a shop in Fareham. He has the occasional dodgy buyer trying to scam him and a couple of his suppliers are not the best. He's very good at dealing with these people and is very seldom actually ripped off. Ebay is fundamentally no different to "ordinary" buying and selling.

In a recent "Watchdog" TV prog about Ebay, they featured a guy who sent a lot of money to a foreign seller of a very cheap VW Beetle and then , surprise, surprise, he never got the car or his money back. Ebay cannot be held responsible for people as cretinous as this !

[stevew]

In a recent "Watchdog" TV prog about Ebay, they featured a guy who sent a lot of money to a foreign seller of a very cheap VW Beetle and then , surprise, surprise, he never got the car or his money back. Ebay cannot be held responsible for people as cretinous as this !

I think you have to be very silly buying a car on ebay, there are enough dodgy 2nd hand car salesmen on street corners..............but it's like everything on ebay, never buy from newbies and always read peoples feedback.............

[John_Hartley]

And I have had to lodge a Paypal dispute because the trader

And logging the "dispute" has worked. Money refunded this morning along with the pathetic excuse that he had "forgotten he'd already sold the items".

Born yesterday? Not me, matey.

Negative feedback now posted against both items.

J

[davedixon]

Just bought my second car on e-bay. I have never had a problem yet, other than an iron that was replaced as it didnt work.

I did all the usual checks you should do when buying a car and it was painless. And over £1000 cheaper than the same model in a local dealers.

Dave.

[Soren]

I experienced nuisance e-mail messages from one idiot on ebay, starting haranguing me about the authenticity of my drawings and whether or not I could use Rupert Brookes poem 'The Soldier'.

He/she kept asking for the name of the publisher and when I had got permission to use the piece and where did I get the original image from???

And then started sending me stroppy messages regarding copyright law, stating 'copyright law lasts during the creators lifetime + 70 years, do your homework'

I simply pointed out 'Brooke died in 1915, do your maths'

it nearly put me off the whole idea! amazing how rude people are when hiding behind the usernames.

[Max (UK)]

I have a rule when I sell stuff - will not deal with a buyer unless they have AT LEAST 20 positive feedbacks.

For buying stuff, they'd better have a substantial rating or forget it as well.

But my experiences have been 99.9% good (over a thousand transactions) - there are always idiots and time wasters out there. Unfortunately eBay haven't tightened it up enough - if only they would do a bit more to counter these few jokers, it would be so much better for everyone.

[Guest Hill 60]

I've got a 100% positive feedback on E-Bay (in buying and selling) but I've also given up on the whole idea.

The vast majority of purchases (and all my sales) were militaria, mainly medals and sweetheart brooches (although some nifty bits for our approaching wedding were purchased at a much cheaper price than in the shops) and I never had a problem, until recently that is.

I had bought a book from a good seller which was described as in new condition. In a way he was right, it did look new....shame it didn't have all it's pages though! I eventually got the money back after a few heated e-mails exchanged hands

This sort of thing started to happen on a regular basis, so I've stopped using the site. If I want something then either I have a physical examination or I use one of a few medal dealers I have used for a number of years and that I know I can trust.

One of my hobbies is collecting Scottish dirks and broadswords. If I need cheering up I sometimes enter 'Scottish dirk' in E-Bay's search engine and look at some of the items that appear. One good item, a little while ago, was entitled 'Scottish sgian dubh dirk sword with 8" blade and genuine nylon handle'. What was pictured looked like a Bowie Knife blade with a gaudy Victorian type hilt stuck on it. It didn't look like any Scottish dirk or sword I've ever seen! Also the blade was too long for a sgian dubh and too short for a sword. I politely e-mailed the seller pointing out that the knife being sold couldn't be all the weapons it claims to be so which was it? I was told that if I wanted to bid on it then go ahead if not the go forth and multiply (not the exact phrase, but you get the gist!).

[Canadawwi]

I agree there are problems with ebay, and I think they could do a lot more to stop scammers and deadbeats, however, the overall experience is good.

I've tried buying and selling. I don't risk a lot of money, and, yes, there is the occasional complainer, but sometimes our natural instinct is to focus on the one bad person, and forget the other transactions that went smoothly.

I have received many items I would have otherwise never had access to. Ebay gave ordinary people a chance to sell their wares. Some of the items listed on ebay would have never ever turned up at an antique shop simply because not everyone wants to start a business like that, but many have a few items they would like to sell.

I've helped at antique sales with a friend, and there are also rude and difficult customers there, not to mention the damage and breakage.

I would try to ignore the difficult people. I know it is difficult, but don't think about it and just keep on.

My biggest issue is I don't like the feedback system - people are afraid to often leave a feedback because they know it just gets a retaliatory feedback. Or, a new buyer or impatient person will leave a negative without even trying to resolve the issue with the seller - thus ruining the reputation for the seller - as most people look straight for the one negative out of hundreds of positives. However, I think that it can be very difficult to develop the perfect feedback system.

I also think that ebay makes it difficult for sellers to get back their fees for customers who don't pay. They make enough hoops to jump through that most people don't bother. And, from the point of view of a buyer, ebay isn't hard enough on sellers who scam and have lots of negatives. They'd rather just collect the fees in some cases.

Other than that, the overall experience has been good and has given me the chance to see images of items I would never see in antique stores, and has given me access to some rare books and photos.

[robbie]

I will not touch eBay with a barge pole, not worth risking my credit card and identity details being stolen again. I also agree that there are too many professional "sellers" nowadays and hence, few bargains to be found unless you have oodles of time to search.

Robbie

Edited 21 December , 2005 by robbie

[barkalotloudly]

ebay?? use it all the time always send cash or cheque, paypal?? rather put a needle i my eye!! a friend of mine brought an item that was not recived after severals e-mails etc sent the seller an aerial {downloaded from multi-map} photograph of his house with the promise of a visit, strange, item was recived within 2 days, special delivery,

I have only ever had one bad experience and for several months afterwards i e-mailed several people who bid on his items , eventually it would appear he upset a lady from germany and hell hath no fury.........

[museumtom]

I have to admit that I am finished (almost?) selling on ebay. The prices are down and paypal is a pain and the worry that the items eventually reach their destination is not worth the hassle for the tiny profit. I have cut down selling at fairs also. The last fair I sold at I lost 20euro on the day. However I am stilly buying stuff from ebay as it has the best choice and prices. The only negative feedback against me was a guy said it was the first time anyone said that the money did not arrive, I replied that if the money did not arrive then the money did not arrive and thats all there is to it.

Once I got this *&% who sniped a medeval dagger from me for $150 and immediately emailed me and asked me to offer it to the second highest bidder. I immediately posted negative feedback and, I dont know how he did it, but he got it squashed. I have seen on subsequent feedbacks left for him that he did something similar to others.

All in all I will buy on ebay but selling is not worth the hassle.

Tom.

[Moonraker]

There's a very large collection of collectables to be sold at a conventional auction next month, split into fifty or so lots, with several that interest me. In all except one case (and it's a very desirable one), the lots contain 40 to 60 postcards, many of which I think I have and perhaps two or three that I would like. I'll be able to examine most of the lots beforehand, but I'm apprehensive about being left with stuff I don't want, including copies of my own books! There will be a few good cards I could offer on eBay (though similar ones at somewhat high prices have been listed for months), but also commoner ones that aren't worth listing.

 

I'm a bit jaundiced, because my attempts to sell on eBay duplicates of stamps featuring cycling aren't being very successful.

 

Moonraker