Are fruitcakes running rampant on eBay lately? Selling, buying, listing, feedback, etc...

[Jojoyojimbi]

i'd give my left teste for a real ebay alternative to them and paypal, wish google wallet would sue the **** out of them to force ebay to accept competitors payment options at least

[Migration]

I completely agree.

It is funny though isn't it that our society has come to a point where we trust using virtual money than real money. lol

Don't forget about how much fun it was waiting for a check to arrive and then clear before sending an item. Orders would routinely take two or more weeks to complete. How about Bid Pay, who remembers that fun?

[justafrog]

Don't forget about how much fun it was waiting for a check to arrive and then clear before sending an item. Orders would routinely take two or more weeks to complete. How about Bid Pay, who remembers that fun?

 

Okay, but the daily trip to the mailbox was WAY more fun back then, you've gotta admit. 

[hxckid88]

I think it's more a matter of having your payment lost in the mail than trusting paypal more. Paypal is a necessary evil, makes selling much easier but at a cost.

I'll take a cash transaction via craigslist anyday over ebay/paypal. You just don't get the exposure ebay provides. And there's always the risk of having to deal with a real life crazy.

''lost''

Hence the trust post by dniim.

[mcortez]

It is now against the rules to accept payment through the mail, except for a few categories (LEGO not being one of them.)

 

Just gotta get everyone to list their LEGO under Everything Else -> Adult ... 

[mcortez]

It is now against the rules to accept payment through the mail, except for a few categories (LEGO not being one of them.)

 

 

Actually, on a different note -- is it actually against TOS to knowingly list something under a less than exact category?  I've considered listing some things, under Crafts because the craft section allows you to have product options like  " w/o Box" and "w/ Box +$5"  -- the intended purpose is for something like "S-M-L", "XL +$5"  -- size and color choices.  

 

But I could easily see:

 

Bla Bla Set 123 (No Minifigures, No Box) base price $35

w/ Box +$5

w/ Minifigures +$10

w/ Box & Minifigures +$13

 

Probably too complicated for the average ebay luddite though and would result in a lot of "not delivered as described" complaints...

[justafrog]

Actually, on a different note -- is it actually against TOS to knowingly list something under a less than exact category?  

 

 

Yes.

 

There's a gray area between "less than exact" and "just plain wrong", but if you get reported it can be an issue.

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/search-manipulation.html

[iahawks550]

I just learned today that Paypal is owned by Ebay. (I know, welcome to 10 years ago).

[No More Monkeys]

I just learned today that Paypal is owned by Ebay. (I know, welcome to 10 years ago).

The funny part is that just about yesterday, certain activist investor (with huge stake in eBay) gave up on his push to spin off PayPal as a separate entity from eBay...

 

http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/10/technology/ebay-icahn/

 

So, you had a chance of not even knowing that ebay owned paypal, if his push was successful  :-)

[iahawks550]

Explain why someone would offer a price for something yesterday morning, which got accepted automatically, and then wait to pay? He/she has over 800 feedback. I need to get it shipped as I am going out of town, but they haven't paid yet.

[justafrog]

Explain why someone would offer a price for something yesterday morning, which got accepted automatically, and then wait to pay? He/she has over 800 feedback. I need to get it shipped as I am going out of town, but they haven't paid yet.

 

People wait to pay all the time, sometimes for days or weeks (if you let them get away with that long), sometimes they never pay.

 

You have a few choices - email them to let them know you're leaving town and need payment by (whatever the day before is) or it will ship after (whatever the day you get back is); package the item up and take it with you if you will have email access, whenever he pays drive it to the nearest post office and send it; package it up and let a trusted friend or neighbor take it to the post office for you once you call them to tell them payment has arrived.

 

In future, you can avoid the problem by taking down your listings in advance if you're going to be going out of town (long enough to get through the non paying bidder process in the quickest amount of time so that a non-payer or very slow payer will not be an issue); or moving your listings to Immediate Payment Required, which will prevent them selling without being paid for on the spot.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

Have any of you had 3 separate emails from the same buyer saying that 3 different parcels all arrived damaged?  I've asked for a photo and not been sent one so I believe this buyer is just trying it on as this is the first complaint I've had this year.  To save hassle, I've just issued a 50% refund that still means that I make a little money.  Since this is beyond coincidence, I have now blocked this buyer.  Do we have a "Crap List" for bad buyers yet?

[justafrog]

Have any of you had 3 separate emails from the same buyer saying that 3 different parcels all arrived damaged?  I've asked for a photo and not been sent one so I believe this buyer is just trying it on as this is the first complaint I've had this year.  To save hassle, I've just issued a 50% refund that still means that I make a little money.  Since this is beyond coincidence, I have now blocked this buyer.  Do we have a "**** list" for bad buyers yet?

 

He's a scammer. In future, if you can make this requirement on eBay UK, make them return for a refund any time you smell a rat. You'll probably never hear from them again if you do this and they are scammers - they're relying on enough sellers wanting to hand them some money back to save hassle, and as you can see it works for them.

 

They'll milk their current ID for all it's worth, then set up a new ID and start all over again - and beware, since you're on their list of easy marks, you'll sell to them again once they have their new ID.

 

Brickpicker does not have a list for bad buyers since in many cases it's he-said/she-said and we never get the other side of the story. And, since this guy is a pretty clear scammer, his name on a list wouldn't help - he probably changes his buyer ID more often than he changes his underwear.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

He's a scammer. In future, if you can make this requirement on eBay UK, make them return for a refund any time you smell a rat. You'll probably never hear from them again if you do this and they are scammers - they're relying on enough sellers wanting to hand them some money back to save hassle, and as you can see it works for them.

They'll milk their current ID for all it's worth, then set up a new ID and start all over again - and beware, since you're on their list of easy marks, you'll sell to them again once they have their new ID.

Brickpicker does not have a list for bad buyers since in many cases it's he-said/she-said and we never get the other side of the story. And, since this guy is a pretty clear scammer, his name on a list wouldn't help - he probably changes his buyer ID more often than he changes his underwear.

I have the guy's postal address and PayPal account on file. In this case the sets weren't expensive and 50% refund was cheaper than me refunding his return postage. However his feedback is 779 at 100% which I find odd.

[Guest TabbyBoy]

I'm having a horrendous time on eBay currently with the last 4 out of 4 (yes, all of them!) being crooks:

 

The last cretin bought an item (Captain America's Avenging Cycle) on Sunday evening morning and paid for it Monday evening.  I posted it yesterday and I've just received negative feedback and a nasty message saying "Item not received, do not trust this rip-off seller!"  I'm sorry but, I don't own a teleportation device that can deliver to Moscow in real-time and also bypass Russian customs.  Again this buyer has 3,567 feedbacks with a 99.8% rating and I just don't know what the bloody hell is going on with buyers these days!  Unless... purchases are being made with hijacked accounts.

 

I'm getting rather sick of "chatting" to eBay now on a weekly basis to deal with these cretins.  eBay have backed me up on these occasions and have always ruled in my favour without question.

 

As soon as an alternative to eBay arrives with proper vetting of members, the better.  Issues like this are now much too commonplace for my liking.  Currently I feel that it's the single biggest threat to Lego investing.

 

I also sell bike components using another eBay account and I've not had one single complaint in over 1,500 sales.  I hate to say it but, it seems like Lego brings out the worst in some people.

 

However, I find it much easier selling expensive sets face-to-face in local adverts and on Gumtree for cold hard cash and I deliver free within a 30 mile radius.

 

Could it be competitors just getting nasty to destroy each other's reputation?

[ISO8T0]

This is absurd.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/350791032934?lpid=82&item=350791032934&lgeo=1&vectorid=229466

 

and the sellers name is FreeshippingOnly.........I think not.

 

Why even bother listing it for that high of a price?

 

Perhaps we can start a thread on the most absurd asking prices for lego sets?

[Crustybeaver]

You thought of blocking non UK bidders?

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

[Guest TabbyBoy]

Don't knock it as all you need are rich parents to buy little Johnny/Jenny the set they've wanted for a long time. I actually sold a VW Camper to a rich expat in Dubai for

[marcandre]

Everyone on here is a lego scalper. If sets get that much it only helps the rest of us. 

[Guest TabbyBoy]

You thought of blocking non UK bidders?

Sent from my iPhone using Brickpicker

Assuming you mean me. I can't just sell to UK only as over 80% of my sales are overseas. I've actually now blocked Russia as well as South Korea which should help. In future I'm going to state in my listings that I'm not responsible forr box condition and that the buyer must complain to the courier not me. I don't care what anyone says but, box condition appears to be CRITICAL if you want a fair price and to avoid negative feedback. All boxes leave me in pristine condition and are always very well packed. As I said before, it's either buyers wanting a freebie or competition getting nasty. I've just bought a Barbie Doll from one idiot using my old buying account and will leave him a negative back as I spotted a mistake in the listing. I'll mess him about a bit first.

[exciter1]

This is a return case that was originally submitted as a "Missing pieces or parts" case.  I'm beginning to think maybe his son couldn't figure the set out.  What do you guys think?  He keeps asking me for my address, but I told him EBay requires he corresponds with me before finalizing a return and he finally did.  I told him EBay provides a label for returns and my return address will be on there.  It took him 4 days to respond to me after filing a return case without even contacting me first.

 

"My son tried to build the lego structure from the packet which we received but he could not complete it as there were quite a few missing pieces. Usually he could build all the structures from the lego sets which he buys in a store. It has never happened that he could not figure out. So please send me your address ASAP and I would need full refund."

[Ciglione]

I had a bad experience as well this evening. I have a MISB 3368 Space Centre listed on ebay. The set did not ever see the day of light. In such good condition is the box. Because of this I listed it a bit higher than brickpicker value, I do not have to sell it no matter what. If someone pays my price I will sell it. Otherwise I wait.

 

This evening someone did a lowball offer (35% below brickpicker value). I couldn't understand such a low offer. So I did a counter offer 1 euro less than my asking price. Then I got a message from the guy and he was very pissed that I turned down his offer and I counter offered him with such a ridiculous amount. He said people on ebay are idiots, including me.

 

First, I wanted to reply to him. But then I changed my mind and I reported him and his very rude message to Ebay. 

 

Does anyone know what will happen to such a person when they get reported to ebay? I hope ebay will ban him so he cannot do this anymore. Also to other sellers.

 

I looked and he has more than 900 positive feedbacks (100%). 

 

I really do not understand people sometimes. I do not have alot of experience with ebay yet. But also in normal day to day life it is getting worse and worse, Where are honour, decency, honousty, etc. gone to? 

[inversion]

Where are honour, decency, honesty, etc. gone to? 

The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. 

[justafrog]

 

Does anyone know what will happen to such a person when they get reported to ebay? I hope ebay will ban him so he cannot do this anymore. Also to other sellers.

 

 

eBay will look at his track record. They're not going to ban a guy for calling one seller an idiot if he has an otherwise clean record. If he misuses the message system regularly, they might.

 

If you're using best offer on the item, it was silly to lower the price in your counter-offer by such a tiny amount, regardless of the buyer's low original offer. Either decline the offer or provide a decent counter-offer.

 

If you're not using best offer on the item, he's not even supposed to contact you with offers, and in the future you can simply ignore the offer or respond with a polite, canned response (I use, "Thank you for the offer, but this is our best price at this time.")

[justafrog]

This is a return case that was originally submitted as a "Missing pieces or parts" case.  I'm beginning to think maybe his son couldn't figure the set out.  What do you guys think?  He keeps asking me for my address, but I told him EBay requires he corresponds with me before finalizing a return and he finally did.  I told him EBay provides a label for returns and my return address will be on there.  It took him 4 days to respond to me after filing a return case without even contacting me first.

 

"My son tried to build the lego structure from the packet which we received but he could not complete it as there were quite a few missing pieces. Usually he could build all the structures from the lego sets which he buys in a store. It has never happened that he could not figure out. So please send me your address ASAP and I would need full refund."

 

Either the buyer and his/her son are idiots (lost the pieces, or can't read instructions) or scammers (in which case, eBay will put a stop to their buying privileges if they keep it up with other sellers) or there is the possibility the set you sent them was tampered with before you bought it and resold it and some pieces were missing.

 

You can build whatever they send you and if it's just missing a part or two, replace those and at least recoup some of your money selling it used.

 

You can also fight the return, if you're absolutely 100% certain the set had not been tampered with, and state they did not return what you sent them - eBay will review that claim, and may side with you and refuse them the return.

 

I know it's rare, but after the experience of buying my very own tampered set that looked fine on the outside, I also know it happens.