The Golden Rules of eBay Article Discussion Area

Former_MSE_Archna · 4 August 2006 at 11:02AM

This thread is specifically to discuss the content of the

The Golden Rules of eBay

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md1975 · 9 August 2006 at 9:36AM

And don't forget that you can earn Nectar points on your ebay purchases if you visit via the Nectar website.

m x

jburnhams · 9 August 2006 at 3:54PM

In the article Martin says "the standard seven day internet cooling-off period usually doesn’t apply to auction purchases." - this is true, however Ebay does not count as an auction (ebay refer to it as "eBay's auction-style selling format")

See ebay's own page where it states that "The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 apply to sales to consumers made by sellers acting in the course of a business which have been concluded at a distance."

westernpromise · 9 August 2006 at 6:13PM

I'm surprised this otherwise good article failed to mention auction sniping.

Sniping is the practice of using specialist sites to place your bid for you, in the closing seconds of an auction - typically, within 7 seconds of th end. Others bidders who may have been prepared to outbid you do not get the chance to do so, because by the time they've noticed your bid, the auction has ended in your favour.

Sniping's main advantage over standard eBay bidding is that you do not disclose your interest in the auction at any stage. If a rival bidder sees no bids at all for an item they are interested in, they may be fooled into thinking nobody else is interested, and enter a lowball bid. They then lose the auction to your snipe in the dying seconds.

Eg Manual Bidder sees an item worth £20 and a starting bid of £0.99, but with a few hours to go there are no bids. So he gets all cheap and proxy-bids £5. He now leads the bidding at £5 but the bid displayed is the £0.99 starting bid.

With say 7 seconds to go, Snipe Bidder's bid of £10 goes in and immediately the bidding rises to £5.50 - Manual Bidder's maximum plus the bid increment. Snipe Bidder wins the auction at £5.50, and Manual Bidder, who thought the item worth £20, loses.

Snipes are normal proxy bids, so if someone is prepared to pay more than you they will still win, but if they have trid to be cheap, your snipe will simply go in as their highest bid plus the minimum bid increment.

The two auction sniping services I use (and can refer you to, if you'd like us both to gain some free snipes) are https://www.auctionsniper.com and https://www.bidnip.com. The former charges per snipe, the latter per block of snipes (but in each case you pay only if you actually win). I never buy any other way and placing snipes is very easy - you just download the sniping tool and right-click on any auction.

The drawback of these two sites is that you have to give them your eBay login details so they can log in as you to place your bids. For those who are uncomfortable with this, you can also buy downloadable snipe packages which don't require this - but unlike the above two, such sniping tools require your own PC to be switched on and online.

Academic research referenced in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auction_sniping suggests that auction sniping saves bidders money.

soop10 · 10 August 2006 at 11:40AM

On the subject of dodgy feedback, i was recently looking to by a mobile phone, on checking the sellers feedback all looked great with a score of 21, he had good comments from what seened like lots of different people, you can open up what this person has been buying or selling, on checking this every purchase was a 0.01p e-Book from what appeared to be an Asian name, a quick scam to get yourself 21 feedback for .21p.
Buyer be warned, take time to check, if anything looks dodgy at all give it a wide berth, :beer: i have been very vigilant to date and got some good deals, luckily i have not had my fingers burnt.

:beer:

BuddyBonthenet · 10 August 2006 at 2:08PM

The eBay message boards are full of people (buyers and sellers) being reminded that legislation like the Distance Selling Regulations often apply to their items - but a lot of sellers just don't want to know.

I'd not heard of Gumtree before - sounds good and looks easy to use so I might try that out. Has anyone actually used it as a buyer or a seller?

I don't see the point of using qxl instead of eBay - it does have a cheaper fees structure but both cqout and eBid are much cheaper because they don't charge to list or relist.

Watch out with cqout though as it has much stricter rules than any of the other auction sites and charges an automatic £35 fine for infringements of the rules (i.e. your guilty until you prove you are innocent - no I'm not speaking from experience here LOL!).

Anyone searching Google UK for 'online auction' will find eBid, then cqout, then eBay.

BuddyBonthenet · 10 August 2006 at 2:09PM

PS I use ezsniper!

tozza · 12 August 2006 at 11:59AM

I recently bid for a new Pentax camera lens from a company in Hong Kong with impeccable feedback and record. I did this after watching the previous 2 lenses go for £21 when I stopped bidding at £20 .The third time nobody seemed interested and with 20 minutes to go I put in my £20 bid - I won the lens for 99p ! Post and packing and insurance was £39 - no problem on a lens worth nearly £200 in this country . I paid immediately with Paypal and received confirmation of delivery within three working days - a tracking number with UPS was included. After 10 days they emailed to see if I had received the lens - I replied no and they promised to investigate . I traced the number through UPS and it wasn`t even a real code . The company then offered me my money back whilst they investigated the "loss" - I said I had won and wanted the lens - surely that was why I paid insurance !
Paypal ended my dispute because I had not lost anything! Ebay are "investigating" !!!! I suppose that with the clout that the company has , my little bit of revenue is unimportant but it completely goes against the Ebay ethos and smacks of the worst type of con I have come across on the site .The company has said they will let me know when they have "another" lens to offer me !!!! for 99p ??? Yeah,right

soolin · 12 August 2006 at 12:41PM

tozza, If a seller cannot prove delivery of an item then you will win a paypal chargeback, a buyer cannot lose a paypal chargeback where th eitem doesn't track as delivered.

I wonder though if I am misunderstanding your post? Did you get your money back and then put in a further claim for 'loss of bargain' as that would not work against any retail or auction house.

If you did lose a straightforward paypal claim then phone them and ask why they have gone against their own published guidelines.

Soo

puj · 12 August 2006 at 5:05PM

you can get free ebay ebooks that people are selling free from here, http://www.floodle.net/extra/ebayinfo/index.html there are loads of them.

tozza · 13 August 2006 at 11:31AM

Hi Soo , all monies were returned- the principal is what I have complained about - if you auction an item and somebody wins , then if no reserve price is stated , the winner is entitled to the product .You cannot decide you do not want to sell it at that price and pretend to lose it so that can be resold later for a better price ! Ebay do not care since they have their commission and the trader is big and a regular income provider for them !

The Golden Rules of eBay Article Discussion Area

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