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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