Greybeard wrote:
On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 16:57:08 GMT, "Emmo" wrote:
In what way is eBay a rip?
If it were a live auction, I might agree, but on ebay/payscam, you
have no way of knowing if you're bidding against a legitimate buyer or
the one that owns it and is just pumping up the price.
In a live auction you have no real way of knowing whether shill bidding is
going on either.
"Reserve prices", in a live auction, there is sometimes a minimum
opening bid, and it's announced. Ebay hides this, hoping for more
traffic.
I don't know about about opening bids (which seem fairly meaningless
afaict), in live auctions (at least here in the UK) sometimes the auctioneer
will say there is a reserve, but not what it is. Exactly the same as Ebay.
The ebay toolbar is listed in SpyBot as one of the files to kill,
which probably means they're getting all kinds of information they
have no right to.
It wouldn't surprise me.
Horror stories about ebay are many, Harold has one, there has been one
on the soaring group, something about paying $18000 for a glider and
then finding that it was sold to someone else, before it ever came up
on the auction. Those are just two of many. Ebay will not back up
the buyer, or the victim as it usually is. Paypal, being part of
ebay, will do just as little, or less. You have to go to court to
fight it, cost that you should not have to incur, ebay should have to
pick those up. They don't.
So I have heard.
"Feedback", crock of bull****, nobody leaves negative feedback on a
seller, because the seller has the option of scorching the buyer if
negative feedback is left.
How would they do that?
And why would the buyer care anyway? I buy stuff from Ebay, but Ebay don't
know my real name or address or anything. Sure they could find out, but it
would take a UK Court Order and/or many times more hassle and expense than
it would ever be worth - I am only buying stuff, not selling.
If I wanted to I could easily start a new unrelated Ebay ID - but I don't
care about my reputation as a buyer anyway, it doesn't do anything for me
(it's tens of feedbacks and 100% +ve, if anyone else cares).
I have left neutral feedback once, the goods were not as described, but I
think that was probably through ignorance rather than any attempt to
defraud. Strangely, I got a positive back. Never left a negative though,
never needed to.
"Antique" micrometers, hoping for huge prices for worn out junk, when
what they're advertising is a 30 year old Starrett 436P, that I can
buy a brand new one for less than they get for the junk. Rip by any
other word. As antique is normally taken to be 100+ years old, maybe
.01% of what ebay says is antique might be, but probably just old
junk.
GO down and look at the list of completed items, many times old junk
goes for more than brand new would cost from a legitimate dealer. Rip
off.
Yes.
Often Ebay prices for new goods are more than the equivalent shop prices
too, it isn't just overpriced for old stuff - in general Ebay prices are too
high. That's the real reason why I seldom use it now.
For instance, in the UK there are lots of ads for small bits of stock like
Item number: 3859577578 "NEW 1/2 INCH DIA. BRASS BAR 330mm" BuyItNow! price
£5.00 - but it is available on the web eg from College Engineering at
£1.57, and it's 90p from my local metal stockists.
However, the same Ebay guy sells Item number: 3859516486: 6" of 50 mm dia
PTFE for £15, which is a reasonable price if it's okay stuff. Go figure.
In my limited experience most sellers with reasonable feedback are "as least
as honest as they have to be", ie they won't seriously misrepresent the
goods (but caveat emptor!), and they will send the item(s).
And sometimes you can still get a bargain on Ebay, or something that's not
easily obtainable elsewhere - for instance earlier this year I bought some
Inconel at about 1/20th of what it might have cost elsewhere, as there are
no regular UK suppliers who sell small quantities at reasonable prices.
--
Peter Fairbrother
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