Ebay & C.L. Rant of the day...

[68ragtop]

I’m just in one of those moods this morning & a few things have been bugging me & I need to vent. Currious if its just me, or other feel the same way?

First, I do realize that without ebay, Craigslist, & other websites we would not have the access to parts & information for our hobbies like we do today. I was into rebuilding cars, bikes & snowmobiles back in the 80's & let me tell you that most of the knowledge I gained was self taught through the school of hard knocks. If you needed a part, you called salvage yards, or any other lead you could find. Most technical knowledge was guarded by the people making a living on it, & understandably so. If you wanted a project, you picked up a news paper or a magazine. Buying something out of town didn’t usually happen unless you had some sort of connection. I sure wouldn’t want to move back to the technical stone age as I would probably go nuts the first week, so I am trying not to bite too hard into the hand that feeds.

I miss the early days of Ebay. I was a member in the early 90’s when your ebay user name was your actual email address. Anyone remember that? Most of the people selling were pretty honest & what was for sale was usually good quality stuff that was hard to sell on a local level. At that time, there was nearly nothing for sale that was new. It was like a national garage sale / swap meet. I bought many parts used & new for some of the cars I was restoring. Loved it! The deals where literally like a handshake of honesty. You send a chashiers check & waited for the seller to ship your item. Getting checks & running to the post office was a little tiring though… Paypal was a blessing when that came. And that used to be free!! I used to sell things & take personal checks! just waited a few days for them to clear.

But, as ebays popularity grew, in flowed the scammers of the world & they found ways to make money that was dishonest as the day was long. Filtering through the garage & scams became a chore.
I’m not sure if I just am having bad luck, but I have bought several things on ebay over the past year that were falsely advertised, or just a flat scam from the get go. The last one was a snap on Solus scanner I bought for $850. Seller said he shipped it, but had no proof, & no tracking numbers. I waited for three weeks before paypal got involved & got my money back. Who are these people?? I always seem to let my guard down after a bad experiance & then again make a very bad assumption that the person on the other keyboard is much like myself & maybe not so bad.

Speaking of tracking numbers, I don’t care for the sellers ability to provide a tracking number through online USPS, UPS or fedex the very second they make a label. Way too many sellers do this & then the item doesn’t ship for many days. I wish that info could be help until it shipped. Manytimes I will make plans based on the estimated ship time, & it will not even ship until the day it should be delivered.

Craigslist still seems like a good system for the most part. With exception to these same slugs that are trying to scam everyone. I do like the anonymous to/from email system they have in place. Still not sure why the service is free though…….
My biggest rant with craigslist is that they added the ability to renew & bump adds back the top of the list. I am so tired of looking for things I am willing to pay a fair price for, but keep tripping over the same over priced stuff that has been listed for the past 6 months. Nobody is going to pay $3000 for a $1200 engine lathe, or $1700 for your ragged out 95 XP, no matter how many times you repost it!!!

Anybody else?

 

[kicker]

Well 68, I think your bang on with your frustrations, I have to agree. The reality is that there is always a school of hard knocks, but you just changed classes. It used to be alot of trial and error and fighting to get info on a project. Now with technology we need to learn how not to get screwed with the info and parts that we gather. We have more options now and expose ourselves outside of our local communities which in turn creates more risk.

Unfortunately there are dishonest people out there that will steal money from you and your family without a second thought.

 

[Coastiejoe]

Every generation seems to bring new struggles and challenges in regards to buying from eBay and CL.

I sell in eBay and take great pride in how detailed I am about my listings. I have a 100% feedback rating and work hard to ensure it remains that way.

Bottom line is, if there is a scratch or a blemish I state it and show pictures. For me, honesty has been my best tool.

I will NOT buy from someone that lists something but gives no or little details. I also look at their feedback rating and read their negative feedback On the shuttle see if they have a common and consistent complaint.

CL can be tricky as well. I normally go on the quality of the listing.

I it is to good to be true kind of thing,,,

This week iPad came out with the iPad Air. It should have lowered the prices if use iPads. Just the opposite has happened. I think people are selling theirs to get money for the Air model. This plus Xmas is coming. I have been buying every iPad I can get of the iPad 2 model 32 gig, as long a I can get them for 240 or less. I will clean them up, restore to new condition and put them back up for sale as they are bringing over 300 dollars all day long right now.

Both eBay and CL are good but certainly come with risks.

 

[68ragtop]

There are some guys like you Joe, & many of them are members here too. I also am brutally honest with stuff I sell as well. Sometimes I may not get top dollar for things, but the buyers are always more than happy when they receive something I sell.

Sure is hard to ask questions now through ebay. Many times you have to enter the auction number, then go through all the other steps before you can actually ask a question. I would think there would be a better way to do that, & still keep scammers at bay?

 

[Coastiejoe]

[MENTION=57696]68ragtop[/MENTION]

Easy to ask questions if you know how.

They hid it compared to the past.

While looking at turbines you want click on CONTACT SELLER. A new window will open with their stats and what not. One of the options is ASK QUESTION or something like that.

Once you click on it, it tie the item number to it. It will list a few generic answers, click on OTHER and then you can type in your question.

I need to look from a computer to make sure I put in the right steps but I am flying right now. Will edit this later if need be.

 

[biffdotorg]

I too work very hard to keep my 100% feedback rating, even though I have only sold on Ebay a few times.

A couple quick points:

When a seller uses UPS and returns a tracking number, it is different than USPS if they are not using priority mail. The UPS tracking number will not even give an ETA until it has been picked up by a carrier or dropped off at a terminal. Once that happens, then the tracking number is valid and an ETA is shown. Until then, it will show the number is issued, but will not be live until picked up.

USPS, will show when they filled out for postage, but no ETA is ever given, and I hate when that happens.

My gripe is more towards those that badmouth C-list, when they don't understand that C-list is a glorified bulletin board that takes very little responsibility for what is bought or sold on it. People think it is a service like Ebay, when it is not. I too am surprised how much service is actually given for free by C-list with the anonymous listings etc. But for those that bitch about how C-list screwed them, etc, they need to get a clue that it was a seller, or buyer that screwed them, not C-list. (that's my own different rant)

If you do hate wading through repeat ads on C-list, try a C-list search engine. Most allow you to block an ad so that it doesn't come up over and over. That is assuming the seller doesn't re-list with a slight variance just to get it to come up again. I use sights like Search Tempest and ipad/iphone apps like C-Pro+ that let me filter the listings, and keep favoriets while searching for particular items.

There are ins and outs that can really take some of the frustration out of C-list. Nothing can get rid of the frustration of poor ads with bad descriptions, no photos or for whatever reason someone does not post a price. Sheesh!!

I go out of my way to use good pictures, link to my own HD youtube videos of my product and even go out of my way to get out my contact info for further questions. I don't want to lead anyone on, and have had great luck selling boats, sleds, motorcycles, furniture and even getting rid of things in the free section.

I tell you what, you want to see a circus of crazy folk, put something up in the free section for 15 minutes and watch all the yahoos come out of the woodwork. That's a special moment for sure!!

Good luck all!

 

[Spimothy Leary]

I must be one of the crazy ones, I love both CL and Ebay, although I'll be honest, I check Amazon first these days.. less bullshit in general, but overall I still have no real issues as a buyer or a seller on either site, and I had at least 30 transactions on CL in the past 12 months, and maybe 170 on Ebay. Out of 200ish transactions, I've only had one issue where an item had to be returned, and it was a cheapo little $14 item, the seller was fantastic, and even offered to pay return shipping to protect his 100% feedback, even though the listing said it was to be paid by the buyer, but since it was only $2.09 to ship it back, he paid it w/o question.

I do take some precautions, I don't give out my address until they are driving, if i'm in doubt I meet them about a mile from my house at the grocery store parking and they follow me home, i've had a new no show's but in the end it always worked out. Its a great way to get rid of excess garage crap.

I very much prefer CL since it has no fee's, cash only, but Ebay is generally much more convenient, and takes less overall time than driving to somebody's house. (and i've had some good laughs with CL buyers and sellers)

funny CL story, was selling a trailer last week, $275, decent shape, I had two for sale, $300 for one that was mint, and $275 for one that needed new bunks, sold the $300 one in 24 hours, and a Spanish guy called me about the other one, I told him I could replace the bunks for him, but it would be $300, he agree's, I picked up the new brackets, but bought the wrong size so I called him at 2:00, we were supposed to meet at 3 pm,,, and said, "turn around, I have the wrong brackets", but he said he was going to come and look anyway. I told him then that i'd honor the $275 price and give him the bunks/hardware to take home and finish.

he show's up, and offer's me $180 because he doesn't know how to finish the bunks, I said NO, but thanks. after 5 minutes of BS, he up's his offer to $200, I said no, but thanks, told him several times that I wasn't going to reduce the price below $275 and when i finish the bunks the price will be $300, he badgers me for another 5 minutes while I keep telling him no deal, go home, and then he blames me for making him late for work because I won't make a deal. I just said you better hurry then because I'm NOT dropping my price. After all that he finally says, fine, i'll come back tomorrow and give you $240 after you finish it, and I just laughed and said "go home or i'm going to let my dog out" (I don't own a dog but it worked, i'm going to use the dog thing again)

 

[Coastiejoe]

I love eBay as well.

I just bought iPad number 7 while flying.

A bit of a gamble but I'm betting the 32 gig models will be near 300 dollars at the end of the week. Then level off then raise again for Xmas.

So I will prep and clean them and list them for Xmas.

 

[Dr Honda]

I must be one of the crazy ones, I love both CL and Ebay, ................

I agree... but I like them too.


My ebay account goes back to 1998. Yes... back then, it was all used. BUT, I do like the way it is now. (with new items) There are a lot of times, when I'm looking for boat parts... I go straight to ebay with a part number, before ordering from Boats.net. I just serviced a lower unit, and got all the parts NIB, and shipped for half price. In turn, I passed that savings to the boat owner. (I still make money on the parts)


CL... I run though it every day. AND, if I'm looking for a project... I use searchtempest, and do it a few times a day. I too don't like that you can bump your post on CL... but I've gotten to the point where if I see the same crap go to the top, every other day... I just hit the spam button.

In all that time... I've only had a few bad transactions. One, was from a place that sold import car parts, and had ten's of thousands of sales. Because of that... stuff get's lost. So now... I just avoid those kinds of places.

THen... just recently, I bought a 2 battery switch, and when it was on "Both"... only one battery was connected. I tried to contact the seller, and they didn't want to talk. So I filed a complaint. At that point, that said "Send it back, and we will refund you". I said... "NO ! I won't pay to ship back a defect." (besides it was only a $30 part) After no response again... I went one step more, and did a paypal complaint. At that point... they said "Send it back, and we will refund the cost of the shipping too." I once again said "NO, because you only communicate when there is intervention." FYI... I also told them to send me the label again.

I"m glad they never sent the label... since they would have probably just re-sold it, knowing it was defective.

 

[racerxxx]

Spim I'm right there with you, I love Ebay. Been a user since 98'. Only had 3 issues (1 as a seller and 2 as a buyer) and everything was resolved perfectly. I won't buy anything without a picture, I want to see what I'm getting. I even request extra pictures of specific parts of a part just to make sure it's up to snuff. We've sold an azz load of our kids stuff on CL and it has been fantastic. I scored two 95 Limited hulls, my XP and my HX all off CL with no major issues in the transactions.
If Ebay does't have it, I hit Amazon and will pay a tad higher price to buy from Amazon directly so I can use our Prime account.

 

[racerxxx]

I love eBay as well.

I just bought iPad number 7 while flying.

A bit of a gamble but I'm betting the 32 gig models will be near 300 dollars at the end of the week. Then level off then raise again for Xmas.

So I will prep and clean them and list them for Xmas.

CJ have you done this yet?

If you're buying for $240 and selling for $300, you're only making $21 after Ebay and PP get their cuts (13% combined). And if your charging the exact amount for shipping and list that on the auction Ebay and PP are taking their cut from the shipping too, thus putting you @ lower than $20 profit. Now invest an hour or two per iPad and you can breakdown how much you're getting paid per hour. Seems like a risky situation.



You're not buying ones like these are you? LOL


[video=youtube;oswfj8JfuK0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=oswfj8JfuK0[/video]

 

[Coastiejoe]

CJ have you done this yet?

If you're buying for $240 and selling for $300, you're only making $21 after Ebay and PP get their cuts (13% combined). And if your charging the exact amount for shipping and list that on the auction Ebay and PP are taking their cut from the shipping too, thus putting you @ lower than $20 profit. Now invest an hour or two per iPad and you can breakdown how much you're getting paid per hour. Seems like a risky situation.



You're not buying ones like these are you? LOL

To the best of my knowledge I have not bought any like that.. LOL
I will buy the 2nd or newer version only that way I can do a refurbish and take them to the 7.02 IOS. Also they have cameras which is important to most at this point..

I was able to buy 4 of them for $212.00. I got a 64 gig for $234. And the last two for $219.00.

Every one ended around 2 to 4 am and or had a typo in the listing. Meaning fewer people saw them. If you look at the low end average the low price is going around 284 plus freight. So even if they ONLY went for that number I'd still be good to go.

Sooo,,, it will work out fine especially if I average them out over-all.

Something to do while flying the friendly skies...

 

[Coastiejoe]

Looked at CL.

They are listing the iPads I bought for 300 to 340.

I think I will try it there to save on fees.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

Looked at CL.

They are listing the iPads I bought for 300 to 340.

I think I will try it there to save on fees.

I'd say that makes sense, selling for cash with no fee's, no bs, will help keep ebay from cutting into your profits, although for me, I really don't mind the fee's especially on smaller items, because they are providing the "marketplace" but if its over $200, i'd rather find alternatives if possible.

we recently upgraded our tablet from the Ipad (original) to a Samsung tablet, and i'm thinking of selling the Ipad itself although we still use it now and then, my wife likes a particular app called Beautiful Places which is not in the Play Store, but she's feeling guilty about keeping a $120 tablet just to look at earth porn. (I support that guilt trip, I find the app nifty but not worth $120 lol)

We're also thinking of upgrading to the camera one but after thinking about it, decided that we have 2 digital camera's, plus two nice phones, so we really didn't need a 5th camera.

 

[Coastiejoe]

Spim

Technology and toys gets expensive for sure.

Cameras go out of date about a week after you can buy them it seems.

 

[racerxxx]

Looked at CL.

They are listing the iPads I bought for 300 to 340.

I think I will try it there to save on fees.

Coastie here are some links on how to calculate how much Ebay will smoke you for. These are great calculators. Ebay has one too, but they politely forget to include the Paypal side of the auction, imagine that!

http://www.newlifeauctions.com/calc.html

http://salecalc.com/

I'd say that makes sense, selling for cash with no fee's, no bs, will help keep ebay from cutting into your profits, although for me, I really don't mind the fee's especially on smaller items, because they are providing the "marketplace" but if its over $200, i'd rather find alternatives if possible.

we recently upgraded our tablet from the Ipad (original) to a Samsung tablet, and i'm thinking of selling the Ipad itself although we still use it now and then, my wife likes a particular app called Beautiful Places which is not in the Play Store, but she's feeling guilty about keeping a $120 tablet just to look at earth porn. (I support that guilt trip, I find the app nifty but not worth $120 lol)

We're also thinking of upgrading to the camera one but after thinking about it, decided that we have 2 digital camera's, plus two nice phones, so we really didn't need a 5th camera.

Spim not sure if you checked Amazon App store or not but there are some apps that are not on the play store but are on the Amazon App store. I used to love the Amazon App store but now I'll gladly just shop at the Play store. Amazon requires YOUR account to be logged into to "authenticate" your app you want to use, Google does not and you can also have multiple accounts on your device with Google. We have 6 Samsung devices so I don't want to have to change accounts just because Amazon wants me too because it's on a different device, what a PITA. So if your going to purchase apps from Amazon just limit it to one account.

LOL on the camera, I just crack up watching people with their tablets taking pictures. I actually saw a kid with an iPad mounted to his windshield for his GPS, no it was not an iPad mini.

 

[Coastiejoe]

[MENTION=57920]racerxxx[/MENTION]

Thanks for the links. At 33,000 feet right now.

Will look at them and bookmark them when I land.

I'm sure it was an accident that the Paypal percentage isn't mentioned.

 

[Spimothy Leary]

Coastie here are some links on how to calculate how much Ebay will smoke you for. These are great calculators. Ebay has one too, but they politely forget to include the Paypal side of the auction, imagine that!

http://www.newlifeauctions.com/calc.html

http://salecalc.com/





Spim not sure if you checked Amazon App store or not but there are some apps that are not on the play store but are on the Amazon App store. I used to love the Amazon App store but now I'll gladly just shop at the Play store. Amazon requires YOUR account to be logged into to "authenticate" your app you want to use, Google does not and you can also have multiple accounts on your device with Google. We have 6 Samsung devices so I don't want to have to change accounts just because Amazon wants me too because it's on a different device, what a PITA. So if your going to purchase apps from Amazon just limit it to one account.

LOL on the camera, I just crack up watching people with their tablets taking pictures. I actually saw a kid with an iPad mounted to his windshield for his GPS, no it was not an iPad mini.

Actually that calculator was interesting, I thought I was making about $9 each on an item i'm selling a couple a week of, turns out it's less than $8, not a big deal in the end, but i'll save that link.

(FYI, Amazon FBA does a better job of being honest in their calculations)

 

[Minnetonka4me]

I think all the points I was going to make were hit on...sellers have no choice on the tracking numbers, but they should get it on its way within 24hrs.

You guys have had way better luck on ebay...I had at least 5 out of 15 MPEMs this summer DOA. Every time they think they know how Ebay works and that their NO REFUNDS in the ad will cover them. Even worse....Ebay wont take action. I brought to their attention a seller (a big one) reselling an item I just sent back that was broken (again hiding behind I have no way to test)...and they did nothing. Ebay and seadoo parts are prob the worst out there. There are a few on there that obviously have kids listing their ads (clearly broken parts, etc)

I actually bought a manual trim setup from a guy a month ago...open it up and its corroded solid. The guy actually blames ME for not asking if it moved freely. He again had no idea how Ebay worked, and kept bringing up "it says as is, not my problem...should have asked..." just got my money back after a month.


The one good thing is paypal doesnt suck anymore...Im sure Im not the only one who got screwed by paypal on a dispute where "they were able to recover .11 out of my $300" back in the day. Im surprised there wasnt a class action lawsuit. I think I lost at least 7-1000 back then. I remember selling my old cell phone and two weeks later finding out he was using someone elses CC...and thats my fault?? Considering their rates...it was a total scam how they used to operate.


CL...man a 3 year old could design it better. I hate that services are not intermingled with for sale ads and that I have to break the rules to be seen. No one ever looks in the services section. My other gripe is all the rampant scam ads on there, and the idiots who think they need to have an ad in every city in the 5 state area. I go by the law that smart people will find you on CL, and that if you dumb it down all you will get is idiots calling. Also it isnt as bad anymore, but the idiots who think they are the CL police and deemed your ad as listed incorrect. I am selling jetski parts, why should my ad not be in the boats for sale section??

 

[RFoster130]

Ive been an ebay user since 99. Back then it was great to just be like a big ol yard sale. I have really grown to like it now though.I buy a lot on there. I have been selling mostly for the last couple years. Im pretty much running a business now. Ive done over 300 transactions this year alone. Thats how I bought the bigger boat this year. My biggest complaint it that ebay sides with the buyer 99% of the time. As a seller, people can make some bogus claims and say an item isnt as described and 99% of the time ebay will side with them. I am a power seller on there, so to keep my high rating, I just give the people a refund to shut them up...and ebay knows that is what sellers have to do. It can cost you a few bucks as a seller just to keep people happy. In the long run though it is more than worth it. As a power seller with the top rating, it gives you a 25% discount on fees. They are still getting about 11% once you figure in the ebay owned paypal fees. 11% just to host items is a bit ridiculous in my mind. This year alone ive paid over 10 grand to ebay to sell stuff.

As far as the tracking number issue, ebay is going to fix that with their next big update. for sellers to comply with listings like "shipeed in 1 day" The item will have to have the bar code scanned in within that time frame, otherwise they dont meet all their seller standards.

 

[Coastiejoe]

On the iPads I have for sale I was able to buy several from two locations.

I am able to lower my price on them

I have seven 32 gig versions, ten 64 gig and one 16 gig.

Let me know and I will shoot you a price...