Topic: ebay makes me laugh (my ongoing eBay mockery thread)

[rufus sparkfire]

I bought something on ebay that didn't arrive. So I sent the seller a message asking if he was sure he'd sent it, and he refunded me.

Now I feel bad - it's not his fault if the post ate it! And I didn't ask for a refund. 

[Finlay]

I once sent something which didn’t arrive, but I didn’t put a return address on it. I gave the dude a refund because it was my fault no return address- if it had had a return address I could have claimed against the post office.
Don’t feel bad!

[rufus sparkfire]

I suppose that's a good point. And it wasn't that much money.

Oh well!

[S.O.F]

Quite a fair price though I'd be a bit embarrassed to have been the one to have assembled it.

[ZeroTwentythree]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-1-72-Red-Baron-Flying-Circus-6-WW1-Fighters-in-one-box-by-ESCI-NIB-/190815556470?pt=Model_Kit_US&hash=item2c6d7e5376


I'm looking for some WWI plane bits, but won't bid on this because:

"If you have less than 99.7% approval or less than 10 completed transactions, please refrain from placing any bids."

I qualify in both cases, but it sounds dick-ish. Especially for someone who says...

"Please note: I don't have a computer right now.  I can only get to a computer once a week or so--so I can't answer questions quickly."

So the seller only wants to deal with prime customers, but he's got prepared excuses & special conditions. Others include...

"I will ship within two weeks of getting your payment. (This is not a business)"

Two fucking weeks? Serious? How long does it take to put single box of models into a shipping box and drop it off at the post office? Better yet... the US post office will pick your shit up at home, you don't even have to leave.

And speaking of postal stuff...

"Also, I don't ship outside the USA---too many problems in the past with slow postal service in other countries caused buyers complaints to eBay, so I'm sorry, I'd like to sell to everyone but I don't have time to deal with the hassles and problems that international shipping causes."

I have been buying and selling internationally for decades. Minimal problems. In fact, no worse than domestic shipping. Possibly even better. Combined with the rest of this seller's commentary, it's like red flags signaling "ebay drama queen."

[Finlay]

He only has 99.5 approval haha

[zifnab0]

I'm looking for some WWI plane bits, but won't bid on this because...

You should see some of the conditions people put on their bartertown ads.

[phillyt]

He only has 99.5 approval haha

Too funny!

On ebay, what does it matter if someone has less than 99.7% approval?  Once their money clears, it is all set.

[ZeroTwentythree]

I'm looking for some WWI plane bits, but won't bid on this because...

You should see some of the conditions people put on their bartertown ads.

Oh jeezuz.... Bartertown. The only "bad" incident I've had was on Bartertown, and he's the reason why guys ads like the one I just posted set off red flags.

I was selling some unpainted figures. It was under $100 worth of stuff. As we were haggling twice I had to send multiple messages because I'd go over a week without hearing from the guy. So we trade info, I give him my paypal, he sends his address and then I'm waiting again for a while for payment. I finally hear back from him and he asks me to ship first because my rating is lower. (Bartertown is based on number of trades, not percentage BTW.) I explain to him that I've got a 100% positive feedback both there and on eBay with a significant number of trades/sales, that I've been painting entire armies on commission for decades, and that I've been the one who has to keep prodding him for communication to commit to the deal. Aside from that, since we're using PayPal, he could always dispute it.

So I tell him that it's been about a month now and I'm just not comfortable with the deal. Sorry but I'm going to sell to someone else. I had several other people wanting to buy, so I PM-ed the second person to contact me, got paid and shipped everything out within a day and a half.

A few days later I start getting a series of messages from the original buyer telling me that I am a bad trader because we had a deal, and since we agreed on a price and postage it was set in stone. Therefore he's going to leave me bad feedback and report me on the BT forums, etc. I explain that we did *not* have a deal because we did not agree to all of the terms of the sale. And if I'm not comfortable selling to someone who's been uncommunicative and suspicious, that's my right and he can't threaten me into selling to him without being paid. I told him that if he posted stuff about me on the forums, to be sure to include the full transcript of our communications, because if he didn't, I would. He never did post anything.

The moral of the story being... the more conditions and complications someone throws into a deal, the more that's a sign (in my opinion) that there's going to be trouble. Buying, selling & trading should usually be a simple affair.

[phillyt]

The rep number on Bartertown does reflect both good and bad ratings, not just total trades.  A good trade will give you a +2 rep, a bad rating will give you a -10. 

It wasn't fair of him to require a ship first and hold hard to it if he didn't stipulate that earlier in the trade.  You were perfectly within your rights to shut the trade down at that point and he would have had his negative rating removed.  Magicalmemories runs a tight ship over there and all of the admins do a great job dealing with issues.

[zifnab0]

The moral of the story being... the more conditions and complications someone throws into a deal, the more that's a sign (in my opinion) that there's going to be trouble. Buying, selling & trading should usually be a simple affair.

Yup.  I average about one trade a year on bartertown and never deal with guys who include a number of conditions on their posts.  Usually it's for a few spare bits or something small.  Unloaded some Chaos Knight lances a few months back for a few bucks.

I've got a 40k army that I'll probably just toss on eBay rather than deal with the Bartertown headache.

[phillyt]

I have done about $4000 in trades since 2008 on Bartertown and much prefer it to ebay.  If you really need a specific item though or don't have trade fodder, Ebay is the easier method.

[ZeroTwentythree]

It wasn't fair of him to require a ship first and hold hard to it if he didn't stipulate that earlier in the trade.  You were perfectly within your rights to shut the trade down at that point and he would have had his negative rating removed.  Magicalmemories runs a tight ship over there and all of the admins do a great job dealing with issues.

No, he popped that "ship first" thing at the last minute, and only after I had been waiting for a week after he said he would send me the money and didn't. FWIW, he was one of the "bartertown watch" people, though he apparently hasn't even signed in since his last "threat." In fact, after a year of my final reply sitting undelivered in my outbox, I deleted it because I just really don't want to have anything to do with the issue anymore.

I have done about $4000 in trades since 2008 on Bartertown and much prefer it to ebay.  If you really need a specific item though or don't have trade fodder, Ebay is the easier method.

I hate to sound elitist or anything, but I've been a big trader on BT since it was a newsgroup, before it was an actual web page. If you don't count my painting commissions (I was one of the first advertisers -- for my painting services) I've probably done at least $25k of sales there. If you add in the trades and painting commissions, I'm sure it's more like three times that much. I've even personally met & delivered to some of the people I've dealt with. Even arranged to play some 40k with a few of them, back when I was still into the game! My bigger individual sales/references have been close to your $4k total. I sold an army for almost that much about a year and a half ago. So for this guy to start tossing threats and demands over something like $70 worth of plastic after I had offered to provide references was insulting and just not worth my time.

Heh... I sound like such a snob.   



Odd question.. but I haven't really "followed" the forums or chatted with anyone in a long time. Does Adam/Trademaster have anything to do with the site anymore?

[phillyt]

I don't recall someone with that name.  Porkuslime and Magicalmemories are the most common admins, but he could certainly still be active!

I have about 200 trades on there and have only been unsatisfied 3 times and posted a negative comment only once.  I just find it is the best way to bulk out an army.  You only end up needing to buy the tougher to find items which can save a lot.

[Darknight]

I must say, if I were selling something I would NEVER ship before recieving payment, regardless of the relative feedback ratings. A trade is a different matter, but for sales I would expect someone to pay first.

[oak_prince]

I have done about $4000 in trades since 2008 on Bartertown and much prefer it to ebay.

Bartertown's becoming the Craigslist of the gaming world.

You could say something like : "I have a Vampire Counts army and am looking to trade for cash or unpainted Chaos Warriors."

And get responses like: "Want to trade the Vampire Counts for my Tyranid army? I'll throw in some broken Fimir models to sweeten the deal. What do ya think?"

[phillyt]

I have done something very similar to that actually!

[zifnab0]

Want River Trolls Have Cash

PM: Want to buy my pro-painted Dark Eldar army?  It's $600 retail, only asking $1500!

 

[Delthos]

You could say something like : "I have a Vampire Counts army and am looking to trade for cash or unpainted Chaos Warriors."

And get responses like: "Want to trade the Vampire Counts for my Tyranid army? I'll throw in some broken Fimir models to sweeten the deal. What do ya think?"

What does it hurt to ask though? Does it take so much of a person's time to either ignore the request or send a quick response saying "No, my trade desires are firm." I traded stuff like that before. Both as the person making the offer and receiving the offer of stuff I wasn't originally asking for.

[wissenlander]

Want River Trolls Have Cash

PM: Want to buy my pro-painted Dark Eldar army?  It's $600 retail, only asking $1500!

 

[patsy02]

It's pro painted. What a bargain.

[Midaski]

This is great ....... first look at the price .....


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citadel-Warhammer-C22-Chaos-Hound-Pre-slotta-OOP-/140947732283#ht_215wt_1432

........ then look at the bidding history and see how well it was sniped.

 

... and I nearly tried chopping off one of the heads on mine to turn it into a Cult of Ulric Hunting Hound ........ 

[S.O.F]

Sniped with a golden bullet....$125 for that is insane

[S.O.F]

Wow this conversion is perhaps quite old but that Zoats and Marauder Ogres died to to create it still hurts.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Hurry, place your bid before you miss out!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/WFB-Warhammer-Giant-Tongue-Bits-S-/200856879477?pt=Games_US&hash=item2ec400c175