How to bag a bargain on eBay
Bargain hunters know eBay is the ideal place to find unique purchases at the right price, but being out-bid at the last minute can be heartbreaking. Follow Moneywise TV's guide to winning on eBay - from using special software to finding bargains others miss.
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very nice video and tips. thanks
hi i brought a n95 nokia phone of a e-bay person , good feedback etc but the person sent
me a cook book ,i was under the £500 protection .On contacting paypal they did not believe
my story and i spent time and monies stating facts etc ,eventually they closed my case.Then
my local paper was looking for these sort of stories.I told them that I was owed £250 and if
successful winning my case , I would donate £100 to our local hospice and buy the team some m/s biscuits , A couple of weeks later I got a call from the paper saying I was stressful
with my case .The lady had done the same thing to some one else, so after a full year trying
to fight PAYPAL I finally one . I contacted paypal telling them that for me winning this case after paypal calling me a lier and telling me I had no chance of winning my case and NO help
from them even though i brought with the £500 protection ?, I asked paypal to match my £100 donation to hospice , not even a reply from paypal so I have never been on E-BAY
since, I do hope this true story will help others ? many thanks
Hi there,
Yes I buy and sell on ebay & I agree, it's really getting terrible out there. Paypal & ebay just do not want to know if you have a problem with a seller or a buyer.
It is just one big lottery on ebay now.
I only deal with ebayers who have 99.5% or above & still been ripped off!
I only deal with verified ebayers with 99.5% or above now who buy from me as there are so many fraudulent ebayers out there now that even doing this I have have been hit twice by corrupt claims.
Paypal / ebay just do not want to know.
As for the buyers, I got the Police involved & managed to prosecute one of the ebayers for fraud, after a lengthy process & going to court.
It's getting just too much hassle.
As for me being an ebay seller, I have always been very polite, honest reliable, accurate etc & 99.9% of my feedback says it all but just these few are spoiling it for us all.
I have started selling on other sites that are not know nearly as well but have had no problems so far ( touch wood ) & also I can seel my items at a much reduced price due to not paying ebay fees.
So customers are very happy.
Think we should all think about staying away from ebay in the future, in my opinion.
not a good place to buy then............
I have bought and sold on ebay fro several years now and have had very few problems, either as a buyer or a seller. I have 100% feedback and generally only deal with people with 100% feedback. One of the problems is that, since a seller can't leave negative feedback for a buyer now, buyers can have 100% feedback and still be unsatisfactory because negative experiences can't be reported. However ebay are fine about dealing with non-payers and the seller always receives payment, or their fees are refunded.
There are lots of bargains to be had on ebay if you are careful!. ALWAYS check feedback comments.
I tend to agree with all the above. I have had to take out resolutions with several other ebayers which I won, and also have been given bad feedback (luckily only once) when something I sent in very good condition was complained about 35 days later! They had probably ruined it and blamed me. I note that you cannot leave negative or neutral for buyers which is wrong as they can be appallling at times.
Having been an eBayer for almost 10 years and having 100% positive feedback myself I have seen the good and the bad on eBay. I can definately see a rise in fraud in the recent past. Buyers need to take note that in certain categories NO BUYER PROTECTION is offered because eBay/PayPal say they are too risky. One such area is Holidays & Travel. There has been a number of listings recently for holiday vouchers such as Superbreak, Lastminute.com and others where the vouchers have been purchased with stolen credit cards and listed on eBay. They turn out to be worthless because the travel firms have already been hit with a chargeback by the card issuer and they simply cancel the vouchers. I have loses this month totally £600!
Definately thinking about walking away from eBay because it is just too dangerous. Incidentally the rogues are making good use of the Data protection Act to hide their identites as eBay/Paypal will not cooperate in identifyling the individuals or even assist in freezing money in their accounts. Be warned too most Police forces will not get involved because they haven't got the manpower.
When you buy and sell on eBay you are just using them as a medium, you are dealing with someone you have never met so you have to be careful as you would if you met someone in the pub. eBay has a fairly good system of getting your money back should you follow the rules and get "done". Check the users feedback and make sure it's not for small things (a lot of people sell information for 1p, they are really just selling feedback). Make sure the description is good so the seller knows what they are selling, make sure photos are genuine and not 'stock photos'. I have been on eBay for about 8 years, current feedback of 756 for both buying and selling, that's a lot of translations and I can genuinely say I have only had about 4 problems. Ordered two shirts from a large catalog company that also sells on ebay, filled a dispute and got refunded. Sold a phone a buyer in US, he later left feedback saying the phone was was but a few days later filed a dispute saying he didn't get it, he got his money back because I didn't send it recorded (always send items recorded). Bought a Nokia N95, seller had good feedback with recent translations, paid him by bank transfer direct from Halifax to his account, no phone, turns out the guys email and account had been hacked, complained to bank and you would think they take bank fraud seriously but they weren't interested as I had paid him of my own free will, complained to ebay and got most of the money back. Forth case was when I sold a phone to someone, he paid on Sunday, Mon and Tue were holidays and I couldn't post on Wed so posted recorded on Thur and emailed him tracking number. Got a ranting email from him the next day demanding to know where his phone was and that he had paid two weeks ago (while auction as still running) and I was a thief and he was going to come rip my head off. I emailed him back correcting him, told him to check tracking number etc but he continued in several emails to threaten me. Decided I had had enough so made an online complaint to his local police force, they phoned me straight back and took more details. Next day he emailed again saying "people claiming to be police came to my house last night..." but still ranting at me, passed details onto police and also wrote a letter to his employer as the address he had given me was of a pharmacy, I included copied of his emails, they replied telling me he was a locum pharmacist and they would not be employing him again. Police also got back to me to tell me the guy was Zimbabwean and was "very stressed" as he had been down there to vote blah blah.
I have only used Ebay twice so far, first time to sell a fire place and second time last week to buy a wheel trim for my patners car. Both transactions went smoothly and payments went without a hitch.
I quite enjiyed the thrill of being in an auction both buying and selling.
I think if you accept that sometimes things can go wrong, then it is well worth getting involved. After all you can get stitched up buying from a shop on occasion.
My partner has tried to sell a kitchen on EBAY. The first time he had a person who bid successfully, only to be informed by EBAY that the buyer was under investigations for fraud. EBAY were very reluctant to refund the cost of advertising with them although it was not my partners fault that the buyer was a fraudster. They eventually refunded him. He then readvertised it and had another successful bidder, who then refused to pay or contact him!!! He ended up giving the kitchen away as he was reluctant to use EBAY again. EBAY were not interested in the problems with the second buyer. I wouldn't bother using EBAY due to these experiences.
does anyone know of any other sites i could try to both sell and buy. ebay seems to be getting very big about itself
Ebay is just like a a big boot sale. Instead of paying a fiver for a pitch you pay to advertise individual items. If you bought a crap item at a bootsale would you go and whinge to the boot sale organisers? Of course not, you would deal with the seller direct.
Ebay and Paypal (remember they are the same company) occupy some grey areas in consumer law, what you must remember is that they want your money and they don't want to give it back. As ebay has grown so has the number of frauds and like any business ebay (and Paypal) need to minimise their risk of financial loss.
Treat Ebay and Paypal as exactly what they are. A company set up to make money out of you at every opportunity and to do as little in return as possible.
To any newbies out there considering starting out on the ebay path, only sell what you can afford to lose, only buy if you really have to and take everything you read on the auction with a pinch of salt.
I'm impressed with ebay and paypal customer service. Clearly they are the worst ever but there are never enough complaints to make them change. Sounds like a formula for failure in a time when individuals are having to be more careful with every single penny they spend.
I would, and this is without malice, love to see ebay and Paypal financially collapse because this would be a shot across the bow of other companies which have outgrown their roots and ignore their customers.
I sold tickets to a gig I could not attend.
The winner paid for his tickets and I dispatched them in time to his registered address that eBay sent me .
I received a complaint from the buyer that the tickets had not arrived despite sending them next day special delivery (£5.20) that had to be signed for. After investigation it turned out that the address of the buyer was his old address which he had not updated. He had claimed a refund via eBay and PayPal and was awarded a refund.
Nothing I could say to eBay or PayPal could convince them that I had done nothing wrong and the fault was on the buyer. between winning the auction and identifying the wrong address, he had gone into his account and updated the address so eBay could not see his fault.
I questioned where on earth would I have received his old address from if not from eBay as I did not know the Buyer personally.
I lost out on £60 as the tickets were worthless once the gig had past.
I used to sell and buy a lot on eBay and now due to them being greedy, it is time to move on.
I only wish they had some competition that we could use to start their downfall.
Where are our authorities protecting us from their nerve to force payment via PayPal that they own
I sold a brand new unopened PlayStation game, that had just been released that I received as a gift. The buyer happened to be from Brazil. He paid via PayPal for the item but did not pay for postage. I indicated that postage to the UK was £3.00 and for international bidders to inquire about postage prior to bidding, which he did not do.
As I received payment only for the item and tried several times to request postage payment of £5.40 top brazil with no success, I did not send the item. After making a claim via PayPal his money was refunded and PayPal did not want to hear my side of the story. 'No item, no Payment' was their response. It is either black or white with them, nothing in between.
What upset me even more was that eBay were not prepared to refund me their fees for the auction.
As this process took several months, by the time I resold the DVD (once again on eBay due to lack of competition), the price had dropped significantly and I ended up getting a quarter of the original price.
I have always played fair on eBay however eBay only see $$$ signs in their eyes and due to the number of auctions listed daily have no time for the individual. The cost ratio to deal with claims is not worth it for them. ‘Move on, another million auctions are waiting in the pipeline’
Very frustrated with eBay and PayPal and try not to use them when I can. I prefer giving things away on Freecycle sited rather than giving them the pleasure of making money off of my back
I sold a brand new unopened PlayStation game, that had just been released that I received as a gift. The buyer happened to be from Brazil. He paid via PayPal for the item but did not pay for postage. I indicated that postage to the UK was £3.00 and for international bidders to inquire about postage prior to bidding, which he did not do. As I received payment only for the item and tried several times to request postage payment of £5.40 top brazil with no success, I did not send the item. After making a claim via PayPal his money was refunded and PayPal did not want to hear my side of the story. 'No item, no Payment' was their response. It is either black or white with them, nothing in between. What upset me even more was that eBay were not prepared to refund me their fees for the auction. As this process took several months, by the time I resold the DVD (once again on eBay due to lack of competition), the price had dropped significantly and I ended up getting a quarter of the original price. I have always played fair on eBay however eBay only see $$$ signs in their eyes and due to the number of auctions listed daily have no time for the individual. The cost ratio to deal with claims is not worth it for them. ‘Move on, another million auctions are waiting in the pipeline’ Very frustrated with eBay and PayPal and try not to use them when I can. I prefer giving things away on Freecycle sited rather than giving them the pleasure of making money off of my back
In the video it was suggested that you could buy sniper software. It would have been better if we were told where and what companies sold this software unless I have missed something.
Agree with most of the comments on here. EBay is not as good as it once was due to the increasing number of buyers and sellers who do not play by the rules and due to the fees charged by ebay and paypal which you have to pay.
I tend to put items on Gumtree these days for a fixed price and sell them locally. You are able to include up to 3 photos of your item and there are no charges at all. The buyer collects and pays in cash. Everything I've ever listed on there has sold - it only needs one person to be looking for what you have to sell.
I believe Gumtree is part of ebay in some way so I daresay it won't remain free to use forever but for now it's an alternative worth considering especially for larger items which are expensive to send in the post/via courier.
I agree that ebayer tends to favour the buyer more than the seller, as you cannot leave accurate feedback if there has been a problem, it only allows positive??? I sell quite a bit on ebay and there are a lot of morons out there - bidding on stuff then emailing once they have won it to say they have changed their mind?? It really bugs me that bad feedback cannot be left in these cases to warn the next seller. I am concerned about the fact that paypal can reverse a transaction if the buyer has a problem, even if they are in the wrong. Ebay has evolved over the years and in some areas not for the better. It is not as good now as in the past as there are a lot of fraudsters out there and a lot more competition in all areas for selling. In saying that I do like ebay and do use it for buying and selling, as in life you just have to be careful.
I have toyed with the idea of using gumtree, but have had one friend ripped off and the other nearly - again there are a lot of frauds on it too now.
Preloved is a good easy to use free to sell & buy site.
Although you cannot give negative feedback as a seller you can give 'positive' but then describe what actually happened.
Christopher it's simple. Submit your maximum bid, if someone bids more they win it.
usefull information i will not buy or sell on Ebay not reliable, guarantee your services.
I bought a bag on Ebay listed new without tags..it was very badly stained on the lining, I duly returned it recorded delivery. For some reason it did not show up on royal mail tracking system as having been received. The same bag, photos description, and town Worthing, listed the bag for sale the day after I sent it, on a site that had been dormant for a year. I sent this information to Ebay, two three times, they insisted the item wasn't received, completely ignoring the info. I sent again and again. .even tho' the royal mail tracking stated where and when it was posted by me. The money was still taken off me and returned to her. And the bag was listed for the shortest possible time, three times and resold eventually. Ebay didn't even monitor it or ever respond to my 'report an item'... .Fact is even recorded is not a guarantee, and not everyone is at home to sign for the item so is not always appropriate either. I have reached 1300 transactions and still at 100%.....I could write a tome on the dishonesty out there, but hold on to the fact that most folk are honest, work hard for their money and just want an Honest Broker selling a quality item and not using ebay for offloading their rejects..aka .. rubbish. I agree entirely with comments on ebay fees, but that is upfront..ppal fees astonish me more as they take a % of even your postage.. And don't even bother to sell a cheap item..just look what they take as a starting fee for any transaction .. Be informed the info is there,take the time to research for yourself. Happy Days to you all..