The Official EBay Discussion Thread

[c. jackson]

its on e-bay right now for 6.00 a can . grab it while you can!

[Snake45]

Several times I've gotten all excited about a car on eBay, only to take a breath and take a GOOD look at the pictures and find some fatal deal-killer flaw--a missing unobtainable piece, unfixable damage, something in that league. 

OTOH, last year I got a VERY good deal on a very rare kit--AMT '71 Chevelle almost new and complete in the box (started but never completed). There were 8 or 10 or 12 pictures of the kit and its parts, box, etc., but there were no chrome parts or the chrome sprue showing except at the very edge of the very last pic, almost as an afterthought. I think many/most potential buyers took a quick look at the pics, didn't see the chrome parts, and moved on. If the chrome parts had been in the early pics, I'm sure the kit would have sold for at least 50% more than I paid for it, maybe up to 100% more. 

 

[MrObsessive]

Here's a feel good eBay story............

Several years ago, I spotted a Danbury Mint 1956 Buick Roadmaster four door hardtop. VERY nice and the only thing wrong with it was that it was missing one of the front fender ornaments. I was able to snag it for around $120 IIRC and I waited excitedly for the model. I wanted this particular car as it reminded me of my Great Grandmother's car as she was a big fan of Buicks and had a 1:1 something like this model.

A few days passed and I got the model in the mail.............or so I thought. I opened up the box and much to my surprise was The Danbury Mint's 1955 Olds 88 convertible.

Whoops! I remember he had this listed also and somehow it got sent instead of the Buick.

I contacted the seller and he apologized profusely. I told him I could send it back to him if he gave me credit for the shipping. He wrote back and said if I could pay him $25 for the Olds, I could keep it and of course he'd send the Buick. He didn't want to risk the model getting damaged being sent back and he said for whatever reason, the model never got any bids.

TERRIFIC!

I sent him the money via PayPal and I ended up with a VERY pristine model with box and all for VERY cheap AND I got the Buick in a few days.

So there are some very good sellers on eBay along with the bad apples. Just like in any business, you'll have your scammers out there and you'll have those that really want to do right by their buyers.

[John1955]

It used to be that you could buy model kits and other stuff on eBay and use PayPal with confidence, no more. Most sellers are great people, honest and will do what is right, but if you come across a seller who is not, forget eBay or PayPal stepping in to fix the problem. They used to, now they play games and their so called "buyer protection" is a sad joke. If you are ripped off, contact eBay and get a delayed run around. Delaying tactics also by the seller and eBay seems to be joining in. So go to PayPal and here is what happens: eBay cancels your request and closes your complaint because you went to PayPal. 

Then check on the status at PayPal and they tell you it's in the hands of eBay! But it isn't, eBay says so. But you filed with PayPal, so you check the status and nothing, so you have to "escalate" to PayPal where you thought the case was already at. Obviously, they are hoping you get exhausted and give up. And I suppose they are right because I'm almost ready to just accept my loss, and live with it. But it didn't used to be this way. I guess real customer service is rare nowadays, especially for online shopping. So far, at least Amazon still provides excellent customer service though but I wonder how much longer that will last. 

"Satisfaction guaranteed" and "the customer is always right" are apparently obsolete and past tense today. Scotty, beam me up, then initiate time travel and take me back a few decades please. 
 

[Dave Van]

Fund your Paypal with a credit card. Just file a complaint with CC company. Per Federal law that must deal with the customer and freeze the amount on your account. 

[youpey]

any specifics? i am looking to buy an expensive model soon

[Tom Geiger]

You just have to be careful who you buy from. Avoid sellers with feedback issues. Avoid sellers with snippy remarks in their text or unreasonable terms.

Look at the pictures carefully like in the current 1970 Impala in a rare 1969 box.

eBay now is paying sellers through their managed payment system. When you pay via PayPal now, notice it says “Payment Pending”.  PayPal is paying eBay and then eBay is eventually paying the seller. eBay is going to set up their own payment system to get away from PayPal all together.

[Sledsel]

The seller of the 69? Impala junkyard may not know kits or cars. People buy at flea markets and garage sales in hopes to flip something good. I was lucky and found a listing very similar in the past. 1966 Galaxie junkyard with box. They had a few pics with contents in the box (they did not remove anything) Stated they did not know if it was complete. After looking VERY closely, I bid. I ended up with a complete, unbuilt 68 Galaxie fastback for $10 and shipping.

 

[Mark]

The majority of those sellers who "don't know about" model cars sure sell a lot of them when you check their past sales.  If anything, they should pick up at least some basic knowledge through sheer repetition.

When I see the disclaimer "I haven't checked this, so I don't know if it is complete", ninety-nine times out of a hundred I can give their pictures a cursory examination and find something missing that would be obvious to most people.  Sometimes they can position everything just right for the pictures so as to hide it, but if you look closely enough you can find it.  

[ToyLvr]

I’ve had my share of good & bad experiences on evilBay.

There is one funny one I’ll share with the gang. I won the bid on a nice looking built/up model. It arrived a few days later, busted up, but with cash in the box. The note inside explained that the seller had accidentally dropped the model during the packaging process, but he decided to go ahead and send to me in case I could use it as a parts car. He had fully refunded my purchase in cash!

The irony was that I had planned to use it as a parts car all along!

Honest seller, whom I bought more stuff from over time...

[peteski]

On 12/15/2020 at 2:38 PM, Tom Geiger said:

And 16 bids!  What idiot is willing to pay $26.60 plus postage for a $10 promo?

Person who has no idea of the model's value.  This happens too often on eBay, but it is not my money . . .

[Mike999]

I hope I'm not writing about one of you guys. ?  But I think this is a pretty funny eBay story, so I'll pass it along.

A while back, I sold one of the rare resin '61 Corvair 95 Rampside truck kits on eBay.  This was made by the long-defunct company "Corvair Models."  It was a straight resin re-pop of the old 1961 PALMER kit and well done, though as a direct copy it kept all the errors of the original plastic kit.

Corvair Models only made 1000 of those resin kits many years ago and each one was numbered, so they're hard to find. I listed it as "1/25 scale,"  because I thought it was. A buyer snapped it up quickly for a good price and I thought we were done...

...until I got an eBay notification of a buyer complaint.  The buyer went over the kit with a micrometer to prove that it was not 1/25 scale, but closer to 1/22 scale.  He's right about that.  But he went on with measurements and explanations for NINE (9) FULL PAGES OF TEXT AND PHOTOS! 

I quickly surrendered and issued a full refund.  He returned the kit, I immediately re-listed it as "near 1/25 scale," and it sold again. I used the proceeds to buy the very nice Rampside resin body from Best Model Car Parts.

WEIRD UPDATE:  when I went looking for a photo of the Corvair Models Rampside, I stumbled across a Worthpoint listing.  That seller copied my original eBay listing word for word, and even stole my photos!  I know that because my kit was #820 of 1000 made...which is clearly stamped in the bottom left of the kit box.  ?  

Edited May 18, 2021 by Mike999
goof

[hedotwo]

For those interested in this story....  that "1969" Impala went for $89+ when it ended but it's been relisted because the buyer was international and the seller doesn't ship outside the US I guess.  Lucky for that buyer.  So, the relisted description is the same even though I'd messaged him telling him what was in the box.  Sad.  $25 box and about $20 worth of '70 parts.

[peteski]

Back in the day when eBay was a much more friendly and open place, you could see the full names of the users (bidders) and even earlier, their email address.  That way you could contact the bidders to let them know what's in the box.  But I'm sure the unscrupulous seller would not appreciate that.

[youpey]

i was looking at some old MPC corvette kits from the 1960s. I do plan on building it, so i wanted to make sure it was complete and in good shape. the first one i found i added to my watch list and kept on looking

i had 4 or so in my watch list. the next day i got an offer from the seller for the model discounted, i looked closely at the description and it said they did know if it was complete and sold as is.

 

i found an auction of the manual for that kit and saved the images of the kit and the instructions and marked off the parts on both sides. it wasnt even 5 minutes  that i realized it was missing half the engine pieces for the custom engine, and 1 piece for the stock engine. it was also missing other pieces as well. I dont honestly believe for one second the seller didnt know if it was complete. they had the instructions pictured and they could just as easily checked

it took me less than 10 minutes to see it wasnt even going to be buildable as it was without donor kits. the seller wanted top price for it, even with the discount. i kept patient and found one that was exactly what i was looking for. it was only missing the parachute, which i didnt care about. i got it for exactly 6 dollars more than the discounted price from the other auction that was missing a bunch of pieces.  

 

just makes me really glad i didnt jump on it.

Edited May 21, 2021 by youpey

[Tom Geiger]

12 hours ago, peteski said:

Back in the day when eBay was a much more friendly and open place, you could see the full names of the users (bidders) and even earlier, their email address.  That way you could contact the bidders to let them know what's in the box.  But I'm sure the unscrupulous seller would not appreciate that.

Yea, back in the day I won a rare item for my stamp collection with a 10 second snipe. The guy I beat emailed me congratulations!

I had lots of great email conversations with folks I bought from or sold items to. It was part of the collector to collector honor environment that Pierre set up when he started eBay for his girlfriend to trade her Pez dispensers.

On the opposite end, there were a lot of folks doing outside deals.. people would contact me to sell off site, others would offer me same item I was bidding on for less.   Who knows if those folks even had the item to sell.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Tom Geiger

[peteski]

True, the openness of early eBay could go both ways, but as I remember, it was more positive than a negative experience. EBay probably lost some money on the side deals, and some people probably got burned, but I still miss it.  The only negatives were few hateful emails go got after sniping some items. People didn't think it was fair. I saw (and still see) nothing wrong with sniping.  Never used any automatic means - just my own fingers on the keyboard. 

[Rob Hall]

I've been on eBay as a buyer since early 1996...bought a lot of stuff on there--starting with buying old Hot Wheels then old model kits.  Thousands of transactions, probably over 99% have been positive, only had a few issues. 

A few that I had issues with--I had won a complete, unbuilt MPC 'Thunderstruck' Dodge 4x4 pickup..when it arrived, the cab was missing! Let the seller know, and he sent me a complete, unbuilt 2nd one, at no charge.

I once won a builtup '68 Impala convertible that looked more complete than it actually was.  It was my mistake, I should have asked questions of the seller about the completeness. 

Another was a resin caster that took weeks to ship the parts I'd won....I told him should have only offered for auction items that were ready to ship and he copped an attitude..guy is a real jerk, still out there. 

Some sellers won't combine shipping costs when you win/buy multiple items, got to check their terms before bidding.

I've never sold on eBay, but my sister has been a power seller on and off for about 15 years, and hasn't been happy w/ the changes over the last few years, esp. the new 'Managed Payments' feature--says it takes longer to get paid than the older direct to PayPal approach did. 

Edited May 21, 2021 by Rob Hall

[Tom Geiger]

In my earliest eBay days I could go through the scale model category in an hour... yea, it was all lumped together in one category and there wasn't much to go through!   And a good number of auctions did not have pictures. Just like old time classified ads so we didn't think it all that unusual.

The minute I saw eBay I knew I could make money on it.  I experimented around a bit... I bought myself a cheap scanner so I could scan model box lids.  I sold a lot of models I wish I still had today!  The US Postal Service had just launched Priority Mail and it only cost $2.99 for up to 2 pounds!  I then discovered I could sell old car brochures. That was my big collectible prior to getting into model cars in a big way.  Back in the 1980s I would attend the New York Auto Show on the last day and pick up sealed cases of brochures the manufacturers were abandoning.   I used these to trade with International folks for brochures from their country.

First I put a few up for auction.  Auctions cost a quarter to start back then.  Immediately I got bidding activity for brochures that were only 10-15 years old!  I was in business!  I found I could put up 100 auctions a week and sell most of them for decent money. It was unusual for something not to sell, and not unusual for a brochure to go $10-20.  I found my market was people who owned the actual cars.   I was making $1000 a month profit which really helped my family!   

Slowly but surely eBay got out of control.  There eventually were too many sellers, all selling the same things!   I knew my days were limited when new sellers would show up offering the same brochures I started at $2.99 plus $2.99 postage,  at a dollar with a dollar postage.  These guys didn't even know they couldn't mail the thing for a dollar!   But they screwed up my business enough that it eventually wasn't worth selling anymore.  The heyday had run it's course!

[hedotwo]

I've sold a few built ups in the past and have had two issues where the buyer asks for a partial refund because parts have come loose during shipment.  When listing I always add that I would pack as securely as possible but can't guarantee something might come loose and need to be reattached.  In both cases I issued a partial refund because of my impression that ebay will always favor the buyer in this case, even though I stated clearly the risk in buying assembled models through the mail.  I have another one or two built ups that I'd like to list but am reluctant because of this.  Has anyone here gone through this with ebay and has ebay ruled in your favor or the buyer?  Does it even pay to include a warning in the listing description?

[doorsovdoon]

ebay is not worth the hassle for small sellers. I listed a Sony VHS editing recorder once as used and not working because the tapes I had were old and the picture was awful, a fresh tape it would have looked fine but I didn't have any so listed it as not working. The guy who bought it oppened it up and sent me a picture saying it was damaged! The damage was obviously done by him opening it up. A screw had twisted a corner of the cicuit board and snapped it. He then had the nerve to say "Before I leave negative feedback I would like a full refund" There was quite the exchange in messages! I even contacted ebay with the proof he had tampered with it from the picture he sent me, from the messages alone he was digging a bigger hole for himself with his lies and contradictions, even with all that, ebay still took his side and refunded him, he didn't even have to send the recorder back and the pr*k still had the nerve to leave negative feedback! That was about five years ago, I haven't sold on there since.

[Tom Geiger]

Yea, eBay is still chasing Amazon’s tail to become a retailer, completely abandoning the small seller / collector base they were founded to serve.

The buyers are more Walmart buyers who can and will return anything for any reason, and eBay encourages it.

[Snake45]

Here's a VERY interesting lot of old survivors. Most of them look like they'd clean up nicely. I'm not interested in buying, but I enjoyed looking at them. You might too: 

https://www.ebay.com/i/164920029914

Edited June 20, 2021 by Snake45

[peteski]

Snake,  that huge link is full of all sorts of tracking info eBay uses.  When you post it, you can snip most of it off (from the first "?" on).  This short one gives you the same listing but without giving eBay all sorts of other info.

https://www.ebay.com/i/164920029914

[Snake45]

Very interesting, will remember that. 

ETA: Just went back and cut all the junk from the original post 

Edited June 20, 2021 by Snake45