13 Dumb Money Mistakes: I Bought a Used Camera From Overseas
June 18th 2007 02:36
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Ebay Auction Risk Factors
October 4th 2006 00:32
You’ve seen that bargain on Ebay. It seems like an incredible steal and the shipping is even the right price. Why would you be hesitant about taking advantage of it?
In general, you shouldn’t be. Ebay gives you a wide variety of ways to get your money back from a fraudulent seller, but we would all rather avoid the hassle. Here are the greatest risk factors of having a problem interaction:
1) Seller Rating-A seller with few auctions under his belt is not invested in the Ebay community. He’s not at such a point where it would be devastating should he be sanctioned by Ebay and given negative feedback and someone who has been on Ebay a month or so, may have come to push a scam product as long as he could and then disappear.
2) No Picture-This is oftentimes just an indication that the seller does not have a digital camera (certainly not a sign of dishonesty.) but can sometimes also mask ugly facts about a product. Most auctions include pictures. Indeed, one picture comes included in the listing for Ebay sellers. I get extremely nervous when I don’t see one, because at that point, we’re buying an item totally sight unseen.
3) Overseas Auctions-This is a risk factor for a few reasons. Some words in American English mean something different in Australian or British English, so communications difficulties play a part. The second is that it’s harder to work with a seller overseas if a return is necessary because the shipping fees are steep.
Now, just because these are risk factors, that doesn’t mean you never bid on one of these types of auctions. There are a couple factors in considering whether an Ebay risk is acceptable or not.
The first is the amount of the risk. If I’m paying $10-$20 total for an item with shipping thrown in, my actual risk level is fairly low, because I’m only risking $10-$20.
The second is the number of risks I’m taking. If I’m taking one risk and I think it’s a great deal, I’m probably going to go for it. If it’s two, rarely should you do anything. If you’ve got all three risk factors present, I’d strong suggest you walk away, unless it’s money you’re willing to lose.
Sometimes, you’ll get a bad deal when one of these is present. For example, I bought an inexpensive digital camera from Hong Kong, but found a short in the view screen. While the seller reasonably offered an exchange, it would take two weeks for the camera to get to Hong Kong and another two weeks for the exchange model to arrive, and shipping would run over $30. So, I’ve simply held onto it and bought another camera.
On the other hand, I’ve bought several items from Great Britain without any difficulty at all. So, this is an area where you need to use good judgment and choose between risks that are justified and those that aren’t. As in the rest of life, success in Ebay is about risk assessment and choices.
In general, you shouldn’t be. Ebay gives you a wide variety of ways to get your money back from a fraudulent seller, but we would all rather avoid the hassle. Here are the greatest risk factors of having a problem interaction:
1) Seller Rating-A seller with few auctions under his belt is not invested in the Ebay community. He’s not at such a point where it would be devastating should he be sanctioned by Ebay and given negative feedback and someone who has been on Ebay a month or so, may have come to push a scam product as long as he could and then disappear.
2) No Picture-This is oftentimes just an indication that the seller does not have a digital camera (certainly not a sign of dishonesty.) but can sometimes also mask ugly facts about a product. Most auctions include pictures. Indeed, one picture comes included in the listing for Ebay sellers. I get extremely nervous when I don’t see one, because at that point, we’re buying an item totally sight unseen.
3) Overseas Auctions-This is a risk factor for a few reasons. Some words in American English mean something different in Australian or British English, so communications difficulties play a part. The second is that it’s harder to work with a seller overseas if a return is necessary because the shipping fees are steep.
Now, just because these are risk factors, that doesn’t mean you never bid on one of these types of auctions. There are a couple factors in considering whether an Ebay risk is acceptable or not.
The first is the amount of the risk. If I’m paying $10-$20 total for an item with shipping thrown in, my actual risk level is fairly low, because I’m only risking $10-$20.
The second is the number of risks I’m taking. If I’m taking one risk and I think it’s a great deal, I’m probably going to go for it. If it’s two, rarely should you do anything. If you’ve got all three risk factors present, I’d strong suggest you walk away, unless it’s money you’re willing to lose.
Sometimes, you’ll get a bad deal when one of these is present. For example, I bought an inexpensive digital camera from Hong Kong, but found a short in the view screen. While the seller reasonably offered an exchange, it would take two weeks for the camera to get to Hong Kong and another two weeks for the exchange model to arrive, and shipping would run over $30. So, I’ve simply held onto it and bought another camera.
On the other hand, I’ve bought several items from Great Britain without any difficulty at all. So, this is an area where you need to use good judgment and choose between risks that are justified and those that aren’t. As in the rest of life, success in Ebay is about risk assessment and choices.
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Ebay Survival Tips
October 3rd 2006 00:28
Are you ready to enter E-bay and begin the great bargain hunt? Before you do, there’s a few basic tips you need to avoid being taken advantage of.
First, let’s provide the good news about Ebay. Few places on Earth where you can buy or sell have so many protections for both buyer and seller. The bad news is that there are still fraudsters out there. The better news is that there are some simple tricks you can use to protect yourself.
Let’s start with the one type of dishonest activity that people get away with on Ebay: shipping inflation. Recently, I purchased a Tripod on Ebay. I bid a penny and got the tripod, but the shipping cost was $15. When the Tripod arrived, the shipping was around $5.50.
When bidding on Ebay, it’s vitally important that you find out what shipping costs are. Because a steal of a deal make not look so great when you get the shipping costs back. I also don’t leave positive feedback for people who hyper-inflate shipping fees. I can see adding $2 or even $3 to shipping estimates as there are sometimes regional variations that could lead to a higher cost, Ebay takes fees out of the amount the seller charges in shipping, and there’s also the time to get down to the post office and get the item shipped. However $10 for what was most likely 15 minutes of work didn’t quite seem appropriate.
The huge advantage of Ebay that some people ignore is the seller rating system. One reason that a seller on Ebay will be less likely to take advantage of you is that while you might tell a friend about a crooked seller at a flea market, your Ebay feedback will remain an indelible mark on their record, thus making it less likely that you’ll receive poor merchandise, or not have it shipped. The consequences of failing to live up to their commitments could destroy their business.
From the main page, it will tell you how many feedbacks the seller has and what percent are positive, but you need to look at more details. Click on the feedback number and that will take you to a screen with more detail and then you’ll want to click on the “from buyers” tab. This is important because your main Ebay feedback number doesn’t separate whether you’re buying or selling. By clicking on the “from buyers tab” you’ll be able to see what people who’ve actually bought items from the seller say, as it’s of limited importance what people they’ve bought items from have said about the way they pay.
The reason feedback number is so important is that in general, the higher someone’s feedback rating is, the more important maintaining it will be. One example of someone who had low feedback was a guy who I bought a custom-made kilt from. He got tired of making the kilts, so his last few feedbacks on Ebay were from buyer’s complaining that he had not sent their item. This particular seller didn’t have a reputation on Ebay, didn’t plan on making a living off of it, and as he’d grown tired of the particular enterprise, chose to take his money and run, leaving his buyers in the dust.
This is not to say that you should never buy a product from someone with few Ebay ratings, but it’s a risk factor, in fact it’s one of the biggest you have to take into consideration.
We’ll examine all the risk factors in Ebay auctions in my next piece.
First, let’s provide the good news about Ebay. Few places on Earth where you can buy or sell have so many protections for both buyer and seller. The bad news is that there are still fraudsters out there. The better news is that there are some simple tricks you can use to protect yourself.
Let’s start with the one type of dishonest activity that people get away with on Ebay: shipping inflation. Recently, I purchased a Tripod on Ebay. I bid a penny and got the tripod, but the shipping cost was $15. When the Tripod arrived, the shipping was around $5.50.
When bidding on Ebay, it’s vitally important that you find out what shipping costs are. Because a steal of a deal make not look so great when you get the shipping costs back. I also don’t leave positive feedback for people who hyper-inflate shipping fees. I can see adding $2 or even $3 to shipping estimates as there are sometimes regional variations that could lead to a higher cost, Ebay takes fees out of the amount the seller charges in shipping, and there’s also the time to get down to the post office and get the item shipped. However $10 for what was most likely 15 minutes of work didn’t quite seem appropriate.
The huge advantage of Ebay that some people ignore is the seller rating system. One reason that a seller on Ebay will be less likely to take advantage of you is that while you might tell a friend about a crooked seller at a flea market, your Ebay feedback will remain an indelible mark on their record, thus making it less likely that you’ll receive poor merchandise, or not have it shipped. The consequences of failing to live up to their commitments could destroy their business.
From the main page, it will tell you how many feedbacks the seller has and what percent are positive, but you need to look at more details. Click on the feedback number and that will take you to a screen with more detail and then you’ll want to click on the “from buyers” tab. This is important because your main Ebay feedback number doesn’t separate whether you’re buying or selling. By clicking on the “from buyers tab” you’ll be able to see what people who’ve actually bought items from the seller say, as it’s of limited importance what people they’ve bought items from have said about the way they pay.
The reason feedback number is so important is that in general, the higher someone’s feedback rating is, the more important maintaining it will be. One example of someone who had low feedback was a guy who I bought a custom-made kilt from. He got tired of making the kilts, so his last few feedbacks on Ebay were from buyer’s complaining that he had not sent their item. This particular seller didn’t have a reputation on Ebay, didn’t plan on making a living off of it, and as he’d grown tired of the particular enterprise, chose to take his money and run, leaving his buyers in the dust.
This is not to say that you should never buy a product from someone with few Ebay ratings, but it’s a risk factor, in fact it’s one of the biggest you have to take into consideration.
We’ll examine all the risk factors in Ebay auctions in my next piece.
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The Four Types of Ebay Auctions
September 30th 2006 00:19
Ebay has four basic types of auctions, three of which date back to the beginning of Ebay.
First, your normal run-of-the-mill auction. The rules are pretty easy to understand. The seller sets a starting bid and then bids increase in increments. When you bid, you set a maximum bid, so any bidder who wants to outbid you has got to bid at least the increment above your maximum. Example: if the high bidder’s maximum on a baseball card is $10, with an increment of ten cents, I must bid at least $10.10. Also, if I set my maximum bid as $20, and no one bids above the $10.10, I will only pay the $10.10, because that’s the winning bid[ Click here to read more ]
First, your normal run-of-the-mill auction. The rules are pretty easy to understand. The seller sets a starting bid and then bids increase in increments. When you bid, you set a maximum bid, so any bidder who wants to outbid you has got to bid at least the increment above your maximum. Example: if the high bidder’s maximum on a baseball card is $10, with an increment of ten cents, I must bid at least $10.10. Also, if I set my maximum bid as $20, and no one bids above the $10.10, I will only pay the $10.10, because that’s the winning bid
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Comments (2) Ebay Basics
September 29th 2006 03:07
Ebay is a hugely successful Internet venture founded in the 1990s. It began as simply an online auction site, but has grown into much more. Real Estate is even sold on Ebay, that’s how huge it has gotten.
I mentioned how traditional auctions rarely provide bargains. At any time, one seller has 300 buyers to compete for his item. Ebay creates more of a free market equilibrium[ Click here to read more ]
I mentioned how traditional auctions rarely provide bargains. At any time, one seller has 300 buyers to compete for his item. Ebay creates more of a free market equilibrium
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