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[SpeedierThantheGrave]

Wow! I was an Ebay addict from 1998 to 2005. I had a new package sitting in front of my door almost everyday. In my hundreds of transactions (all paid for with money orders), I never once dealt with any idiots or ever got ripped off. Although, there was one time when I bought an old Aurora Monster of the Movies Dr Jekyll. The guy told me it was mint in box, so I figured I'm getting it still sealed. Turns out the guy had resealed it himself with shrink wrap, and the model contents in the box were all wrapped with toilet paper. I paid $100 for it, and was kinda pissed. I gave him a bad feedback review, because he lied and deserved it, and he actually tried to sting me back, by giving me bad feedback. Other than that, I never ran into any trouble with sellers.

That's pretty much my situation nowadays. I feel like I'm doing really good if I go a week without a purchase!
They have policies about fraudulent listings, extortion, and feedback retaliation too.  That model  was obviously not MIB.  I would think you could've opened a case and gotten a refund, either through him, or if he refused, through eBay.  If he left you negative feedback in retaliation, you could contact eBay and get it removed.

Personal note: I ordered one of those Chinese aquarium Creatures, rolled the dice, and ended up with a repaired/busted one. Asked for a refund, seller ignored it, got it through eBay.  Seller contacted me after, said if I changed my feedback to positive, they'd send me another one, even though I already got a refund.  Being a naïve dummy, I changed my negative review to positive.  Low-and-behold, I never got another Creature. Contacted eBay to re-change my feedback and reported the seller for feedback extortion.

Really, I don't understand why everyone hates on eBay.  Most listings are free nowadays, and their fees for sold items are a small price compared to the headaches of dealing with getting stiffed/scammed.  And they have a lot of policies in place to keep everyone playing nice.

[horrorhunter]

Really, I don't understand why everyone hates on eBay.  Most listings are free nowadays, and their fees for sold items are a small price compared to the headaches of dealing with getting stiffed/scammed.  And they have a lot of policies in place to keep everyone playing nice.

I don't hate eBay. I think it's a great way to sell things, especially if you aren't a dealer with a physical store. The people that complain about 10% selling fees and minuscule PayPal fees are just being unrealistic and love to hear their own complaints echo in the void inside their heads. Let them open a storefront, pay rent and other overhead, and deal with possible theft, vandalism, robbery, and whatever other chaos results from dealing directly with the public, and see what percentage they end up paying to sell things. I've heard some people bitch about eBay being over-regulated. Those rules and regulations are necessary because everyone doesn't play nice.

[SpeedierThantheGrave]

I like you, dude. 

[Hepcat]

How would buyers collude to keep the price down? Agree not to bid against the other guy?

Oh precisely! In cases where the item offered was a bunch of cards, premiums, plastic figures or such, two or three bidders would agree to just have one bid without competition and then spit the lot. I split a lot of 1965 Old London baseball coins about fifteen years ago with a fellow collector that he bought through a Mastronet or some other auction.

[Hepcat]

I don't hate eBay. I think it's a great way to sell things, especially if you aren't a dealer with a physical store. The people that complain about 10% selling fees and minuscule PayPal fees are just being unrealistic and love to hear their own complaints echo in the void inside their heads. Let them open a storefront, pay rent and other overhead, and deal with possible theft, vandalism, robbery, and whatever other chaos results from dealing directly with the public, and see what percentage they end up paying to sell things.

I agree.

I only have two objections to Ebay. I don't like auctions with hidden "reserves" which enable sellers to uncover/learn of maximum bids. I've harshly sent sellers packing when they came back to me thereafter accepting my maximum bid since they had no business knowing it. Secondly I don't like last second sniping but I'm not sure what kind of rule would work to prevent this.

[Rockshasa]

Secondly, I don't like last second sniping but I'm not sure what kind of rule would work to prevent this.

Isn't that kinda the nature of Ebay "auctions" though? Yeah, it sucks, but that's how online bidding is. I remember when I use to bid on Ebay all the time, I kinda prayed the other bidder wasn't around when the auction was ending...that way I could jam my bid in and hope it was highest.

[Mike Scott]

Oh precisely! In cases where the item offered was a bunch of cards, premiums, plastic figures or such, two or three bidders would agree to just have one bid without competition and then spit the lot.

I would think that it would be rare when guy A wants items 1-3 and guy B wants just items 4-6.

[horrorhunter]

I agree.

I only have two objections to Ebay. I don't like auctions with hidden "reserves" which enable sellers to uncover/learn of maximum bids. I've harshly sent sellers packing when they came back to me thereafter accepting my maximum bid since they had no business knowing it. Secondly I don't like last second sniping but I'm not sure what kind of rule would work to prevent this.

I hate hidden reserves and never use them. As a buyer I'm much more likely to avoid an auction altogether if the seller uses a hidden reserve. A proper minimum bid listing is what I use to avoid losing money on an auction, as opposed to the sneaky appearance of a hidden reserve.

The last few seconds of an auction is when the important bidding usually happens. The rest of the listing time usually just gives prospective bidders a chance to load it on their "Watch" list. A person can always just bid the most they will give at any time during the listing and no matter what snipe bids come in they have to beat that high bid to win. Sniping plays into the psychology of bidding by not showing your hand until the last few seconds, and it takes advantage of the fact that people want to give the absolute minimum they can for a given item so they are loathe to bid much for fear of actually having to pay that sum for an item. The higher the item is bid up early on the longer interested bidders have to get competitive and think about just how much they really want the item in question or just not to lose. Any meaningful bid I place is always in the last 5 seconds of an auction. Bidding something up early just helps the seller.

[Rockshasa]

The last few seconds of an auction is when the important bidding usually happens.

Which was always a bear back in the days when I was on 56k dial-up modem. Arrrrgh! Remember those days, LOL?

[Hepcat]

I would think that it would be rare when guy A wants items 1-3 and guy B wants just items 4-6.

We each had about half the set of forty. What we did at the end is held a draft for the coins. He had first pick, I the second and third, he the fourth and fifty, etc.

In actual fact though we didn't actually collude. He was reluctant to bid on the whole set since he only needed half the coins. He contacted me to see if I wanted to go in with him together. So we agreed on the limit we'd pay and then he bid. I ended up one coin short of completing the set and I think he completed his own. I could have had that one as well but I ended up guessing wrong at the start with respect to the first three coins he wanted.

[Hepcat]

A person can always just bid the most they will give at any time during the listing and no matter what snipe bids come in they have to beat that high bid to win. Sniping plays into the psychology of bidding by not showing your hand until the last few seconds.... Any meaningful bid I place is always in the last 5 seconds of an auction. Bidding something up early just helps the seller.

I have read that studies have shown that the strategy of sniping at the last second as opposed to an early maximum bid is a better strategy for buyers to win more auctions paying less.

[horrorhunter]

I have read that studies have shown that the strategy of sniping at the last second as opposed to an early maximum bid is a better strategy for buyers to win more auctions paying less.

That's the way it seems to work.

When a bidder really wants an item and is lulled into the belief there isn't going to be much competition for it then they usually bid less than they would if they thought they were bidding against several other aggressive bidders. Sometimes people either can't be there to bid or get busy and just forget to bid late, and the bid they had placed is less than the sniper's bid, whereas if they were caught up in competitive bidding early then there is more of a chance they will bid more and not forget to show up at sniping time.

I've heard about programs you can use to bid for you at the last second of an auction but since I don't bid on that many auctions anymore I haven't looked into it. I already have most of the collectibles I really want so most of my heavy sniping days are over. But, when I do bid I always snipe, and if I can't be there at auction's end I'll bid my highest at the last possible minute. Sometimes, if I really want something badly I'll bid a decent amount and then snipe anyway in case someone else snipes my previous bid. That way if there is computer trouble or some other thing that fouls up my snipe I at least have some chance of winning without showing my entire hand.

When the Haunted Hulk parts showed up at eBay auction 3 years ago I didn't bid at all until the last seconds because I wanted those very badly to complete my Hulk and I knew if there was someone else in the same situation it could become very expensive. What I did was message the seller to not pull the auction if someone made him an offer because I planned to bid very aggressively at the end. It turned out that no one else bid so I got them for $150, but my snipe was around $363 if I remember correctly. I knew I probably wouldn't see those parts available again for years, or maybe never. Not long before that I had turned down the same deal from Toy Ranch who wanted $350 for his HH parts (he sold his for $400 on eBay after I passed on them). I regretted not buying them from him later, and when another seller offered the same rare parts I was determined to try my best to get them. I got lucky to get them cheap. Complete Haunted Hulks just show up for sale once every year or two, and just the sail, standard, and rigging, might not come up for the next several years. Maybe never.

[Palifan]

That's the way it seems to work.

When a bidder really wants an item and is lulled into the belief there isn't going to be much competition for it then they usually bid less than they would if they thought they were bidding against several other aggressive bidders. Sometimes people either can't be there to bid or get busy and just forget to bid late, and the bid they had placed is less than the sniper's bid, whereas if they were caught up in competitive bidding early then there is more of a chance they will bid more and not forget to show up at sniping time.

I've heard about programs you can use to bid for you at the last second of an auction but since I don't bid on that many auctions anymore I haven't looked into it. I already have most of the collectibles I really want so most of my heavy sniping days are over. But, when I do bid I always snipe, and if I can't be there at auction's end I'll bid my highest at the last possible minute. Sometimes, if I really want something badly I'll bid a decent amount and then snipe anyway in case someone else snipes my previous bid. That way if there is computer trouble or some other thing that fouls up my snipe I at least have some chance of winning without showing my entire hand.

I couldn't agree more with the above and find that it's almost pointless bidding straight away now a days as all the action is right at the end. sometimes I'll put on a bid just to show the seller there's interest but it will always be lower than my final bid in those closing seconds. very rarely have I put a bid on something early and won it although it does happen from time to time and I only tend to do that if I'd buy something at a certain price but am happy to lose it if someone else wants it more.

one thing I do still need to learn about is to take just that bit of extra time when buying something to look around for it using various wordings. The amount of times I've pulled the trigger and then an hour later stumbled across the same item for cheaper has happened to often and I even did it on the weekend again lol. It always pays to have a good look before buying something you don't know a huge amount about and saves on ending up with multiple items ( due to the fact that I sometimes buy the cheaper one in the hope that I can re-sale the one I bought first to get my money back....I know it makes little sense but I live in hope!).

Ian

[horrorhunter]

That's a good point about double checking with another search before pulling the trigger with that heavy snipe, Palifan. Sometimes a similar item gets listed cheaper on a Buy It Now between the time you added the original auction to your Watch list and the time for that original auction to end. That's more good advice to check alternate wordings for listings.. even common misspellings. Sometimes you can get something super cheap if the seller didn't list the title right. In effect it becomes a hidden auction and you have little or no competition. It's uncommon to be able to capitalize on these poorly listed auctions because so many other people are hunting too, but it happens.

[BRICK]

I was able to pick up a USPS Monster Stamp portfolio really cheap because the seller erroneously listed the shipping options as "Local Pick-up Only".