+1 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

I've had pretty good luck with Ebay, buying and selling. I've been burned once or twice in the past, but they weren't too painful and I learned a lot in the process. There's always going to be somebody out there looking for new and better ways to steal somebody's hard earned money.

Glad you and your wife caught on to it before any harm was done.

That was another thing, they said they didn't use paypal !!!

Paypal is pretty useful but I have heard that it is not a good idea to ship stuff out of the country if you have been payed with it because the buyer can claim he never received his stuff and get a full refund from your credit card.


I have done some what to me are big transactions (500 to 600$)over the CGN (canadian gun nutz) exchange with no problems at all. It is a small community ,everyone knows each other and most of the people I have dealt with have done 100's of transactions. EMT is the preferred method of payment and it is mine as well unless I want the extra protection of PP. With EMT the fees are minimal(1.50$ for everything I have sent)it is instant ,it comes out of your bank account but it is the totally safe as the people sending or recieving the cash don't need to know anything but a screen name and an Email address + an agreed upon code. When you see some funds transfer in a movie like mission impossible 3 with the 2 laptops this is how it is done.

If you stick with people from BF ect who have good reps you won't have any problems.

Replied to your e-mail bro but I'm not sure if you got it as your box is full !

Yeah, that happened to me when I sold an iPod accessory to a guy in France for $100. Even though I said in the ad that I wasn’t responsible for items shipped if insurance wasn’t purchased. All they had to do was “claim” they never received it. And PP refunded his money. Even though he was new with low feedback, and I’ve been a buyer/seller since 1998 and had a feedback score of 1,500+.

http://www.paypalsucks.com

I have never had a problem with using PayPal to pay or receive funds with probably around 500 or so PayPal transactions.

... Maybe I have been lucky. But, it is probably easy for me to say I like something until the day a nightmare happens (????).

As far as issues with shipping out of the country. I recommend high caution. I will ship out of the country, but ONLY if I ship Priority International with insurance. This usually costs about $30 - $50. It is expensive and I tell possibly buyers how it will be or no deal.
A few years ago, I had a few issues shipping knives via cheaper options because buyers tend to want cheaper shipping and don't want to pay $30 - $40, I agreed to ship via a cheaper option and had problems. I felt very bad about the situation and both the buyer and myself ended up loosing on those deals while somebody working for some postal system in my country or the receiving company probably stole some nice custom knives. Another situation happened where the package was lost via cheaper shipping. The package somehow actually finally showed up after about 6-7 weeks! I was shipping to England and the package took a detour to Australia and somewhere else. The package had been opened - we assumed searched. We were both amazed when it finally showed up. We had both written it off as lost. With cheaper shipping, neither country will take responsibility for a package, neither will help and each will blame the other.
Priority International with insurance is the minimum way to ship and have some sort of recourse with the shipping companies. Amazing how those packages get where they are supposed to go. But, it is expensive. So, International deals are problimatic as most people balk at the shipping costs.
It is actually amazing how many people ask me on both ebay and forums if I will ship to another country. In the end, it seems only about 15% - 20% or so agree to pay for the cost of Priority International insured shipping.

In any event, I feel Ebay and PayPal both are generally good systems if you ONLY deal with people with PROVEN and documented records of significant number of transactions.

I don't know that I feel that everybody must have at least 99% positive though.

Consider this, I currently am at 99.5% positive, but early on with ebay, I was the buyer of "2" items. The buyer shipped me the items, but one of the items I purchased seperatly was already included with the first. The seller didn't list that it was included and I didn't find out till I received it. When I received everything and found out I had purchased a duplicate item I didn't need, I contacted the seller and asked if he would allow me to return it if I paid return shipping. I felt he should have communicated the item was included and I was paying ALL shipping fees. He wouldn't be out anything except PayPal fees of about a buck or buck fifty or so. He replied no and included a fairly nasty email. Where I had tried to be nice and reasonable about it.

I left positive feedback for the first item and "Neutral" (not negative) for the second and explained in my feedback that I had requested to return a duplicate item and couldn't. In return, the seller gave me 2 negatives!

Another seller took over a month to ship me my item. I left him a negative and he retaliated by leaving me a negative. So, I had 3 negatives early on. It has taken me many years to get back over 99%!

Yet I have never had a negative as a seller!

About 98% of my transactions are purchases, but I have sold a few things.

Because of what happened to me, I actually research feedback and "specifically" look for negatives. By reading only the negatives, considering if it was left by seller or buyer, I make judgments and decisions. Not just solely on percentage. Some feedbacks left are unfair.

I also have learned to not leave feedback as a buyer until I have received the item in good condition.

If the item is in poor condition or there is an issue, I would request the seller to leave feedback first, then leave yours. But, I really haven't had any situations to leave negative since.

As a seller, I have made it a rule not to leave any feedback until I recieve feedback from the buyer.

Try again now! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

i know alot of people have had trouble with evil bay, but luckily (knock wood) i've not had problems yet. but i've also only every been a buyer. Lately my wife has bought some very nice outfits for the kids on ebay for super cheap. Hanna Anderson outfits that retail for 40 and 50 bucks for 5$.

I have come close to falling for scams once or twice, now I only deal a select few.

There is also Busse Kin Exchange on yahoo groups that is full of honest people.... I hope.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bussekinexchange/