Thread: Using Ebay

Yep. What they said.
I was hoping this was a thread that would help me to figure out a way to buy an item on ebay and not have to compeate against all you big money guys out bidding me. Ha.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Yep. What they said.
I was hoping this was a thread that would help me to figure out a way to buy an item on ebay and not have to compeate against all you big money guys out bidding me. Ha.

That's a problem for all of us. Figure out what an item is worth to you and that's your price. Don't get caught up in a bidding war. Unless it's one I am selling. Lol.

I almost never get involved with auctions. Instead, I filter my searches to show 'Buy It Now' items only.

Originally Posted by sqzbxr

I almost never get involved with auctions. Instead, I filter my searches to show 'Buy It Now' items only.

I know we are getting off topic. Don't you find BIN to be more expensive most of the time? There are exceptions of course and I've found some. When I run a bid on the bay I will throw a BIN price around what I hope to get at auction.

Originally Posted by sqzbxr

I almost never get involved with auctions. Instead, I filter my searches to show 'Buy It Now' items only.

I never thought about that. But i can see the BIN being higher price. But if a guy dont know what hes selling. I'll check into this.

Originally Posted by Gasman

I never thought about that. But i can see the BIN being higher price. But if a guy dont know what hes selling. I'll check into this.

It's a little of column A, little of column B. Most razors I pick up have a pretty fair BIN price. Hones are all over the place, depends on what you're looking at.

The key is to scour around until you come across someone that either doesn't know what they have, or just wants to get it out of their garage/storage unit. I paid more for some of my second hand razors than I did for my 12 x 2.5" Translucent Arkansas stone. Side bonus that it came in a lot with 2 other Translucent Arkies, and an Eze-Lap diamond plate that wasn't wore slam out.

I also got a pair of barber hones for what one normally sells for. I think that was a case of the seller pairing a rather roughed up Swaty with a great looking American Hone co. To make room on the shelf. But it worked in my favor, because the Swaty makes a pretty sweet edge, even if it is a little ugly.

I didn't realize folks took their ebay rating so seriously. I've never really looked at it, save for after purchasing an item. Ebay must run a tight ship though, everyone I see is rated %99 or %100 positive.

Its not that Ebay runs a tight ship, its that we buyers are cautious after being burned well and often. If you see somebody with an 80% positive feedback, you are not so quick as to trust him. Maybe he lies, or uses photoshop to disguise flaws. The problem with the system is, it based on percentages of transactions. If you sell 10,000 50 cent doodads, and you get a single bad mark, you still have a 99.9 % But if you sell just 4 doodad, and get a single bad mark, you are at 75% which makes you look like a total cretin in the ebay world.
I Always check feedbacks on sellers, and if there is a pattern of complaints I avoid them. If its just one guy holding a grudge, (you can usually tell) I will react accordingly. SOmetimes, I check feedback on bidders, and if they have left lots of negative feedback for other sellers, THAT shows a pattern too, and I block them from my auctions. I dont need a professional complainer threatening me with a "black eye" if I dont give them a refund or such.

True enough I suppose. Of course I also know that someone who is dissatisfied is typically 10X more likely to leave negative feedback than a happy purchaser is to leave positive feedback, and how little it takes for someone to give massively negative feedback. For example, we had a customer come in for a free state inspection with a complimentary car wash, and give massively negative reviews because their free wash wasn't up to their standards. Go figure that one out, the completely free things weren't good enough.

At any rate, to me, seeing nothing but people who rate in the high 90th percentile with many at 100 percent just looks like something is amiss and I can't really trust the rating system as a purchaser. So when it comes to Ebay I have a bad habit of just not checking seller info. Unless for some reason I get curious after hitting the 'buy' button, or I see it later when I get that 'give so-and-so your feedback!' email.

I still go through my purchases and leave positive reviews etc. The least I can do if everything arrived as pictured and advertised is leave a positive mark for the seller. And I don't ding them for stupid things. No 1 star reviews from me because the a thing arrived in one piece and working fine, but a corner of the shipping box was dented or something silly like that. Matter of fact it's pretty hard to get me to give negative feedback, usually I'll just write it off as a mistake and make a mental note not to repeat it.