Surviving While Using Ebay

One of the first things I want to talk about is one of the most important. I have mentioned this before, but you can never hear it too much. There are a lot of replicas on Ebay so if you are buying collectables or antiques be careful, very careful. Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. Let’s say you were interested in medals, specifically German medals of World War One. Some of the medals are for the Zeppelin service, some for the submarine service and others for a myriad of other services. You may bid on one of these medals and get it for under $100.00 only to find the real ones may go for thousands. There are a lot of honest vendors on Ebay, but there are some who will advertise their wares and not mention the fact they are selling a copy so you have to do your homework. Sometimes there are certain markings on the back you have to look for and there are even times where the pin on the back of a copy is different from the pin on the original. I saw one medal where the pin on the original was flat on all four sides along its length while the copy had a standard long pin which was round for its length.

Another thing you should look for is that the vendor takes returns and pays return postage. I had the following experience, I purchased a model car from a dealer who didn’t accept returns, but Ebay has a money back guarantee for 30 days so I bid on the item and won. The car arrived in pieces and I can tell you from the look of the way it was packed in a solid heavy plastic box, it seemed the car was broken when it was put into the box. Be that as it may, I told the seller it was broken and he asked me for a photo which I supplied and he immediately gave me back my money. So far so good. Then he began demanding the car back, but refused to pay the postage which was over $13.00. I contacted Ebay and asked them what to do. They said return the car and they would reimburse me for the return postage, so I returned the car. When I didn’t hear from Ebay after that I called them reminding them about the postage and the representative said they can’t reimburse me but they would give me a $10.00 coupon.

I waited for a week, but no coupon was sent to me. I contacted Ebay and they said they would look into it and another week went by. I contacted Ebay again and they said they were still working on the problem. Finally I got an email saying I didn’t qualify for the coupon. They said they knew nothing about what I was originally told. I admit it was not a fortune I was talking about, but right is right. I learned my lesson and I am passing this along to you. If someone wants something back which was broken after they returned your money and they refuse to pay postage, take it with a grain of salt when an Ebay representative promises you reimbursement for the postage. Hold the item until you receive the funds to mail it back or a pre-paid label.

There are many different ways to bid on Ebay and if you are the type of person who doesn’t like to wait days to see the outcome of an auction there are at least two ways I know of to bid and buy. The first way is to use an auction service which just lists the Ebay auctions which are about to end and have no bidders. The second way is called Best Offer and you can look for items which are up for sale for a certain price where the seller will accept lower offers. I have used both ways. There are also services which list Ebay auctions ending soon where there are bids.

One of the most important things to look for is the shipping charge before you bid. There are many sellers on Ebay who list low prices or have low starting bids who charge exorbitant shipping charges. There is at least one person who lists items starting at a penny, but then lists shipping as high as hundreds of dollars. This is the way he assures himself a healthy profit. This is the reason when I bid on Ebay I set the selection of starting price on what I want to bid on at $1.00 so I don’t have to look through all those stupid one cent bids.

After you have won a bid make sure when you receive the item it was described correctly. I have won auctions where the item received was not the item it was supposed to be. In one case the person was perpetrating a fraud and Ebay returned the money, because the person who sold the item could not be located. They were then banned from Ebay. The problem with this kind of thing is they can just come back using a different name and address. Believe me when I tell you any operation as large as EBay’s has predators on it just waiting to get your hard earned money.

Before you think it is all bad, there are good bargains on Ebay if you dig deep enough. Before I buy anything on Ebay I compare the price with several other places including Amazon.com and sometimes I find even better prices from other places. Other times the Ebay price may have everyone beat. It is prudent to compare prices because what seems like a deal may not be.

While I have talked about buying on Ebay, there is a good opportunity to make a few dollars selling on Ebay. Sometime Ebay runs specials on free listings for those who want to try their hand at selling. I know someone who created quite a good business selling jewelry there, but after about a year he ran into trouble from the other vendors, because he was outselling them. They got together and complained to Ebay that he should be in a different category. You see you have to pick a category to sell your items under and while Ebay told him to go into a different category which hurt his business and he stopped selling on there. So you see there could be jealousy on Ebay if someone does too well.

This all boils down to if you buy or bid on Ebay, be careful, check the item carefully, check the shipping charges and see if return postage for broken items is supplied. If you are a seller make sure the category you are selling in fits the item completely as not to give other seller an excuse to get you out of it if you do well and if you are selling for the first time try and get a free listing.