I've made over 150 purchases through eBay and have not lost any money. Save two transactions, every one of them was without problem.

The first flawed transaction involved paying for a home theater item that was never delivered. After two months, PayPal settled the issue and refunded my money. eBay kicked the seller of their site. This was several years ago and I was not accustomed to doing my research. The seller had no reputation (very little feedback) and I wasn't being smart in doing a high-dollar transaction with them. Live and learn.

The second flawed transaction was an instance where a person in London was selling a very large and heavy book. He put it up and listed a shipping price without considering the weight. When the auction closed, he was surprised by the actual shipping cost. I didn't want to push the issue, so we just agreed to let the auction slide and he was welcome to relist the item without his mistake. No biggie.

The other 150 transactions were smooth. I consistently buy merchandise on eBay and have been happy with the prices and ease of communication for every transaction.

PayPal offers insurance on every item should you wish to purchase it. For items costing several hundreds of dollars, insurance cost is a mere few bucks. I've used this option on high-dollar purchases. Luckily I have not made a claim, but I know others who have made PayPal claims both on items insured and not insured. Of the 10 or so claims of which I am aware, all but 1 ended up successfully refunded.

The key to auction sites such as eBay is that you're not buying merchandise from eBay, but from individual sellers. Is the risk greater than buying from a reputable source such as Amazon.com, BUY.com, etc? Of course! The bottom line is how you weigh these things. In my instance, I've saved literally thousands upon thousands of dollars buying the items I've bought. Even if I had lost a few things in the mix, the end result would have been overwhelmingly favorable to me. This, to me, is an acceptable risk.

eBay and other 'third-party brokers' -- such as Amazon.com, abebooks.com, alibris.com -- know full well of the uncertainty surrounding such a model. As such, they have put forth many programs that attempt to alleviate any concern. Amazon has their "A-to-Z guarantee" on merchandise purchased from their affiliate network. eBay and PayPal have similar programs that also serve this purposes well. Don't underestimate the value of a vendor staying in good standing with these brokers. The loss of customer exposure from losing one's affiliate status is devastating.

On really high dollar transactions or on purchases that are not “known quantities”, there are several online (and offline) escrow services that can be brought in to add yet another layer of comfort and security to the buyer.

Let’s also not forget that one's credit card company and bank are yet another ally to the buyer and perhaps the most useful and successful of them all!

This, to me, is a lot of things working in the favor of the buyer.


Selling is a completely different story. I've sold over 300 items on eBay through an online store I once had and I would not say that it was the most efficient method of doing business. It did, however, offer a degree of exposure I would not have been able to obtain in any other way at the time.

I agree with Nathan. I have bought and sold about 200 items on eBay over the years. My worst experience was a purchase that the seller was slow in shipping. But the item finally did arive and was even better than I had expected.

As an 18th century reenactor living in south-west Virginia, I have a very limited market to buy and sell quality items pertaining to my hobby. EBay gives me exposure to items I would never find at local reenactments, and visibility to items that I am selling that goes beyond the local trading post newspaper. I have bought and sold items from as far away as New Zealand! That never could have happened except through an on-line auction. In fact, thinking about my current gear, at least half of my items have come from on-line auctions.

Are there risks? Sure. Are there ways to mitigate the risks? Definitely -- Nathan did a great job explaining them. Are on-line auctions worth it? They definitely have been for me.

By the way, I am expecting delivery of a Williamsburg reproduction model 1742 British Infantry hanger today. Guess where I bought it. ;)

My wife is the Ebayer in the family. She's been using Ebay for years and out of all her transactions we only had one problem with a guy in SC (we're in NC) who said he had the item ready to ship and then admitted he had to order it first. Sheesh! We didn't get Ebay involved but she needled the guy until we got the item (30 Days of Night Graphic Novel) and he has since left Ebay. My wife should get paid to needle :lol: As a rule of thumb, we don't deal with anyone who doesn't have 100% feedback. No negatives, no neutrals. If we do find something and the rating is around 99.7 we check out why it's like that. There are alot of buyers who love to leave crappy feedback, no matter what. So, it's buyer beware. We're just getting into looking for swords and daggers beyond wall-hangers, and try to keep a critical eye out if we can. This list has been really helpful (especially with the Ebay thread) in identifying possible buys and bargins, and the flood of fakes and rip-offs. It's nice to know some experts :lol:

Ken

I'll also chime in for Ebay. I've used it primarily for ephemera and used photo equipment and gotten some amazing bargains. Only one problem, and that was just a matter of a non-communicative, new-item, high-volume seller who wouldn't respond to email (I got the item, just not as fast as I needed it for a birthday gift).

My feeling is that if the item up for auction is used, of relatively low value and sold by the owner, you'll probably be fine. If you're after a high-dollar popular item advertised as new and sold by a dealer at discount prices (Canon Digital Rebel, flat screen t.v., cheese hat, etc.) you may be more likely to run into minor problems or inconveniences. As always, it's good to use common sense about too-good-to-be-true deals. If you're not sure, pay close attention to the number of bidders and speed of bidding. Benefit from the collective wisdom. Cons often run on the fuel of the victim's greed for a bargain. If you're bidding on a "Real Midevil Knigt Sword NO RESERVE!!!!!" or "Original Daguerretype of Confederate Soldier" you may be beyond the help of ordinary advice. A physical intervention may be required. :D Personally, I'd never bid on a valuable antique without being able to personally examine the piece. Just me....

Here's a cold shower for potential Ebay bidders for valuable antiques:

http://modoc1873.com/fraudsection.html

The Civil War seems to be a particularly popular theme for online auction cons.