The Art of EBAYing

In light of all the recent tragedies of buying things online, particularly on eBay, I have decided to compile a small lists of things to look for and to consider. Please add any of your thoughts and opinions, for I am not the definative source when it comes to eBay.

1. Buy from a buyer that has a good rating. I usually like something above 30. That may be a little low for some people's taste. Also, read the remarks from other buyers and sellers regarding the seller.

2. Make sure the seller puts good pictures and desciptions of their product. You may even what to ask the seller to send you additional photos as well.

3. USE PAYPAL!!! and opt for the insurance. It may cost a little money, but chances are you are still getting a hell of a deal.

4. Email the seller during the auction just to see if they actually will reply to you. Try to establish some sort of report with the seller. You may even want to get a phone number if you plan to buy something expensive, i.e. board or bindings.

5. Last but not least. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT post the auction on a thread, asking people if this product is good or not. Chances are, someone else that may want the product will see it and then the price will begin to escalate. Keep the find a secret. WINK, WINK. And bid at the last moment. I like to start bidding with 4 minutes. left.


Feel free to add anything. I typed this in a hurry cuz its almost lunch time.

When checking a sellers feedback, make sure they have positive feedback as a seller. It's easy to build up a positive feedback just buying stuff.
I also kinda like to take a look at the presentation of the item description, an extravagant item description usuually means it's someone who sells often, where a one line description with manufacture photos is kinda fishy

I always send an email to the seller before i send any payment. This establishes communication. And as toolfan said, always check their ratings!

Maynard Rocks Toolfan!!!

i like #5 i always thought that was funny when people post ebay auctions that they might be interested in.

as Manual said, Maynard does Rock!

Try to buy from an established business that has a long-term interest in making a solid reputation.

If you must have it use, E-snipe.

I like to find a seller that is reliable and just stick with them. I have bought several things from the ebay store below and have had nothing but great luck.

http://stores.ebay.com/ExtremeLiquidations_W0QQsspagenameZL2QQtZkm

Second the e-snipe!

How does E-snipe work ??

E-snipe bids for you at the last second (well I think the minimum is 5 seconds or something like that). I miss the good old days, syncronizing my clock to E'bays and then trying to time my bid to hit in the last 10 seconds! Ebay really is a sellers advantage these days, it's hard to get any real bargains.

The best thing about e-snipe is the bid groups.

You add items to the group that you want, set a max price for each item (prices can very from item to item), and e-snipe will automaticly bid on the items untill you win one. Once on is won, e-snipe suspends bidding on the remaining items in the bid group. It allows you to pay a certain price for some item you want, and not miss the one auction where it actually sold at a good price.

I agree that it is becoming harder to find good deals.

You can find some items that are harder to locate through e-bay. I had a router stolen recently, and I hated the new case Porter Cable sells with the routers now, so I bought a router and case like the one that was stolen for 1/2 the cost of new.

yea.. did it show up with the OS already configured with your ip address and tables?

Took me at least four times reading your post to understand.

LOL.

It did not come with the OS, but it does cut some mean numbers for IPs. I already have a table to use it on, so I did not need the tables.

The most important thing to do when buying is to STUDY THEIR FEEDBACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Positive feedback is of no use to use if it all all from them buying stuff. I just checked that guy (msoyka ) who scammed someone out of a board and bindings. All his feedback was from purchases. He never sold anything. He also had no pictures, no good descriptions or anything that showed he actually had the product. There are many similar or same items for auction at one time, so look around and pick a seller that has a proven track record. Paying a few extra bucks is much better then getting hosed on the whole deal. Also, check out auctionsniper.com. Great way to sneak your bid in with seconds left in the auction. I use it every time and have saved a ton of money and headache.

You dont need e snipe or anything similiar to that. You just need some fast bandwith and and learn how to hit your refresh button. Wins everytime.

Yea, but you have to be sitting there on the computer while it is ending. I like having my snipe bid set, and be off doing somthing else rather then hitting the refresh and syncing it to my watch. Either way, be carefull out there. The world is full of scumbag scammers and it looks like they are preying on wakeboarders more and more these days.

Instead of PayPal w/insurance, keep your PayPal account unverified and use a credit card payment through PayPal with a credit card (NOT debit) that will let you do chargebacks (Discover won't let you dispute charges with PayPal anymore so I've been using Visa). If the deal goes sour and PayPal won't make things right, you can dispute the charge with your card provider and generally your card provider will yank the money immediately. PayPal has no access to your bank account because you're unverified so they'll yank the money from the merchant (and sometimes freeze their account preventing them from further fraud).

I've never done this with wakeboard parts but I use a VISA through an unverified account all the time with arcade machine parts and it has come in handy from time to time. The only annoying thing is that you have to switch cards every $2000 to remain unverified.

(Message edited by Dante on July 09, 2004)

Don't buy from anyone that has less than 50 positive ratings. Once a seller reaches 50 they recieve the paypal $500 guarantee.
From my experience always pay w/ a credit card.
I had someone try to rip me off, and paypal refunded me $6.58. I paid 406. I went to my credit card and I got the rest back. I would have been screwed if I had done a bank transfer.
Also beware of paypal.
Check out www.paypalsucks.com