Educate me about e-bay

willieandjoe

Well... there's sniping and there's sniping. If you like the thrill of winning it can be done manually, but I will always beat you, Because I set a snipe with a bid bot and it goes in at 3 seconds before the close. The service I use also lets me set up an unlimited number of snipes at the same item in different auctions, and goes through them one at a time until I win.

Beat me and you just overpaid.

Rob Gronovius

Bidding within the last 10-15 seconds is sniping. I think you may mean you don't use bidbots or other sniping tools. Neither do I.

I don't bid until the last 10-15 seconds either. The only time I will bid before hand is if I will not be available to bid when the auction is ending, like when traveling, working or sleeping or some other event that may prevent me from remembering to bid or get to a device that allows me to bid.

I never bid on an item until I've evaluated its price across eBay and the web at online stores and such. That way I know how much I could get the item from an actual vendor. I won't bid unless I get the item at a substantial discount from its everyday price.

You are correct, I've never used anything, but my fingers. I didn't know that bidding in the last seconds was sniping, I thought it was when you used bidots or other means. Okay then,  I love sniping. 

I love bidding like you do.  I love stealing an item out from under somebody at the last second... not in a mean way.  It's just business.  LOL.  And I agree with your last statement.  Set a limit for yourself and stick to it.  Another one will show up eventually at the price you want to pay.  Good comment.

BTW, that should be a "Supermarine S6B."  Sorry for the typo above in my post.

Great advice on here from many members!  

I've been using eBay for years for both selling and buying.  Right now, I'm working on building an eBay business.  Ebay can be a great place to find those lost gems and hard to find models.  

As for buying, I'm more of a hunter.  I like to find those items that seem to get lost in the crowd and snag them for next to nothing.  I just received a Testor's Supermarine SB6 1/72 from a seller on eBay.  Only $12 with shipping.  New and box was in perfect condition.  I like watching those items ending soonest and try to grab a good deal as the clock ticks down.  It's fun for me.  I've been able to snag some incredible deals on all types of stuff by watching items and picking them off with a single bid at the end.

As for PayPal, these guys above are on it.  I use PayPal for all sorts of transactions and have never once been burned in the process.  

OP, thanks for bringing up eBay and starting this thread... great info!

Bidding within the last 10-15 seconds is sniping. I think you may mean you don't use bidbots or other sniping tools. Neither do I.

I don't bid until the last 10-15 seconds either. The only time I will bid before hand is if I will not be available to bid when the auction is ending, like when traveling, working or sleeping or some other event that may prevent me from remembering to bid or get to a device that allows me to bid.

I never bid on an item until I've evaluated its price across eBay and the web at online stores and such. That way I know how much I could get the item from an actual vendor. I won't bid unless I get the item at a substantial discount from its everyday price.

bondoman

Definitely consider snipes- I only use them. Sitting at the computer while a bid runs down is not my idea of fun.

I don't snipe. I get an actual rush in the last minute of bidding. I usually wait until the last 10-15 seconds to bid. Pure elation to steal a bid in the last seconds by a quarter! However, I've lost bids as well. Usually I can win the same item down the road for even less then one I lost.

The key for me, is go in with a set price and don't get caught up in a bidding war.

Back maybe 10 years, when the PayPal thing started, I signed up, and it worked ok until they told me that after I had reached my "trial period" amounting to $200 worth of transactions, I would have to then sign up as a " permanent member" by giving them my bank account routing and account numbers!  I figured I was getting scammed, did not do it,  and immediately discontinued all associations with eBay and PayPal.

To this day, I do not trust eBay, PayPal, etc and won't use it.

I too will echo the majority of positive things about ebay & PP. I have used them extensively and the few issues I encountered were all handled with the seller for a refund or replacement. My little tidbit of advice is yes, there are some questionable sellers out there yet there are also some truely oustanding ones. These are the ones who offer reasonable prices, quality or hard to find products, are very quick to ship and demonstrate excellent customer service. Some out perform the Sprues and Squadrons out there. You can save these sellers and shop their other items. There's even a couple out there that have tossed in some extra goodies either because they shipped late or because I shop them often. Also, give honest feedback to every purchase. As stated previously it is helpful to us as buyers as well as for the sellers. And lastly, be aware that as a buyer you too are rated so if you wish to ensure quality service from a seller or be considered in an auction make sure you as a buyer are timely with payment.

                                                            Joe

Gentlemen,

Thank you very much for the info. Makes me more confident in e-bay and PP. Will give it a shot soon.

Thanks again.

Cheers...

I've been with ebay since 1997 and have over 700 transactions. Only once have I even come close to filing a claim with ebay\paypal to get a refund. It was a bit time consuming as they require you to contact the seller and work it out between you but I did get a complete refund.

The main problem I have is with sellers that take their good ole time to ship your stuff, very frustrating! You will also have a few knuckleheads that will really "cheap out" on the packaging. I had a guy once that just put a model (in its box) inside a plain ole large manila envelope (unpadded)!  

On the other hand, some will appear to spend more on careful packinging than you paid for the item. I bought five $2 model magazines from a guy. EACH in a mylar bag with cardboard backer, wrapped with bubble wrap,all  sandwiched between two pieces of corrugated cardboard, inside a tyvex postal envelope, inside a flat rate box with more bubble wrap to fill the dead space!

I believe I had read ebay has attempted to crack down on excessive shipping. More than likely to protect THEIR bottom line. At one time I was buying chess sets and figurines from China for ".99 cents", shipping of course was $15-$20. An acceptable deal as I was only concerned with the final cost. Ebay doesn't make much on .99 cent sales. Some of them may have even been 1 cent sales.

Some still get away with excessive charges by calling it shipping and "HANDLING". They are allowed to charge for the cost of shipping materials and labor.

I've never had a problem with it but some sellers will incorrectly send magazines as media mail to get cheaper rates. If detected on its way to you the postal service does have the right to ask you the receiver to pay the difference between media mail and first class before they give you the package.

In searching sometimes a misspelling can get you fantastic deals when the seller doesn't spell check before listing. I once bought a $90- $100 aquarium light for $11 ($.99 + $10 shipping) when the seller listed it as an "aquria light". I was the only bidder for a normally popular item. I was surprised when they followed through with the deal.

On shipping I did get burned once (my own fault) on an item sent from Canada! I failed to use the calculator the seller provided for shipping to the US before bidding. Geez, I'd bought things from China and Europe with cheaper shipping  than Canada!

plastickjunkie

Stu

Did you state in your shipping info that you will not ship or sell outside the US? I state this in my shipping section and had a couple of foreign buyers ask me if i will sell to them. My answer was sorry but i do not. One time I did sell to a lady from Ireland but the package was sent to her friend in New York.

I do now. specifically that I will not ship overseas unless requested prior to bidding.   International shipping isn't a big deal for me, met some great people overseas this way, it's the request after they submit payment that gets me.  So I altered my rules on items I sell.  

Honest buyers never have any issues asking questions prior to bidding.

The people who really get me are the ones who never leave feedback!  Major faux pas!

Stu

Did you state in your shipping info that you will not ship or sell outside the US? I state this in my shipping section and had a couple of foreign buyers ask me if i will sell to them. My answer was sorry but i do not. One time I did sell to a lady from Ireland but the package was sent to her friend in New York.

DiscoStu

I use e-Bay pretty frequently, both as a buyer and a seller.  The kits I sell fund the kits I buy.  Makes sense to me, but my wife rolls her eyes.....I can offer one word of warning on a trend I'm seeing from buyers.  Be careful of how you list items and where you're comfortable shipping to.  I've had  3 seperate instances in the last 2 months where the buyer's profile listed them as in the US.  Then after the auction ends and invoice is paid I get an e-mail in broken english asking me to ship to China/Vietnam/Russia and then resisitance when I revise the shipping fees.  Ugly mess, but the fact that it happened on 3 unrelated items drew the red flags.  I brought it up to the folks at e-Bay but just got a canned "We're looking into it" response.

I use e-Bay pretty frequently, both as a buyer and a seller.  The kits I sell fund the kits I buy.  Makes sense to me, but my wife rolls her eyes.....I can offer one word of warning on a trend I'm seeing from buyers.  Be careful of how you list items and where you're comfortable shipping to.  I've had  3 seperate instances in the last 2 months where the buyer's profile listed them as in the US.  Then after the auction ends and invoice is paid I get an e-mail in broken english asking me to ship to China/Vietnam/Russia and then resisitance when I revise the shipping fees.  Ugly mess, but the fact that it happened on 3 unrelated items drew the red flags.  I brought it up to the folks at e-Bay but just got a canned "We're looking into it" response.

Lots of good advice here.

Definitely consider snipes- I only use them. Sitting at the computer while a bid runs down is not my idea of fun.

The only thing I can add is that there's actually quite a bit of good information on their own site as far as avoiding problems. Be sure to take the time to read it.

I have never had any serious problems in the area of our hobby. They tend to be things like missing decals, a couple of parts, or a number of times that the kit has been in a smoker's house. That one is almost impossible to get rid of. Sorry, you butt-heads out there.

I have had a lot of problems with other stuff though. It's probably impossible to fake a Trumpeter F-100 in it's box, but the same is NOT true for jewelry, clothing, shoes, and esp. electronics. For those things I would not buy from eBay.

I also will not buy from sellers who state "no returns accepted", because they mean it.

If you have a problem, it's always best to invest a bunch of time trying to negotiate it before filing a complaint. Pretty often I have found that if the explanation is a "misunderstanding", if I accept that, they fix it.

Cadet Chuck

Just be careful- there are at lot of crooks out there and you won't know who they are until one "gets" you.  I won't use it any more.  When it first started in the 90's, it was just a bunch of normal friendly folks doing private business one on one.  No way, now.

I've never had a single problem in all the dealings I've had. And if I did, Paypal's really awesome at working out disputes (they WANT happy buyers, so it's in their interest to really deliver on this). 

And even if all else failed and I had to eat the loss, the sums I'm spending on eBay per transaction would trigger annoyance at worst. Honestly with the protections PP has in place, I'm far more easy buying on eBay than on some of the sketchier hobby shops on the interwebs.

Everyone's added some great insights here. I'll just jump in with a few more.

1 - Suck it up and sign up for Paypal. Most sellers only accept payments through Paypal, and to be honest it's a much better way than the old mail-a-check. You can also pay for stuff at Sprue Brothers and many other online retailers through Paypal, so if so inclined you could make it your "kit fund".

2 - Searching is easy. Just have an idea of what you're looking for. If I want to see what's out there generally for, say, a 1/72 B-24 Liberator, I'd just type 72 B-24. If I wanted the Hasegawa B-24J, I'd type 72 Hasegawa B-24J.

3 - ALWAYS pay attention to your total cost. Item price + shipping price.  You'll find a lot of Asian sellers for things like Trumpy and Dragon and Hasegawa kits. Often for cheap. But then shipping is like $25. 

4 - Use the Watch List to keep an eye on interesting auctions. Use saved searches to be alerted when something that matches your keywords is listed.

5 - Don't just bid on something. If you bid - ESPECIALLY if its a bargain - somebody else will bid, too. Then you can get trapped in the emotional drama of a bidding war. Instead, check out something like snipeswipe.com. It costs a tiny bit, but the way it works is...you enter the eBay auction ID, then tell it how much you're willing to bid, and it will wait. At some predetermined time just before the end of the auction (mine is set at like 6 seconds), it will bid for you. Very set-it-and-forget-it without putting a bid out there and inviting counterbids. I've snagged some impressive deals using it - a 1/48 A-20 Havoc for $10, a 1/32 Hasegawa Ki-84 for $29, and so on.

Just be careful- there are at lot of crooks out there and you won't know who they are until one "gets" you.  I won't use it any more.  When it first started in the 90's, it was just a bunch of normal friendly folks doing private business one on one.  No way, now.

Everyone has covered the PP concerns much better than I could.  What I have to add is in the area of product search techniques.

For example, if I'm looking for a Dragon Panther 1/35, I would use Dragon Panther 1 35 because some sellers will list 1/35, others 1:35....1 35 catches both.  Or maybe just Panther 1 35 and then sort.

The key is to try several different words....sometime you will find a seller that misspells the manufactures name-seems to happen a lot with Hasegawa for some reason.....

Also be sure to make sure that the vendor is selling what you are looking for-I've found several listings that the picture didn't match the description or the scale was incorrect...listed as 1/48.

Good luck

Stateside, depending on the size of the kit, shipping using the omnipresent USPS priority mail flat rate boxes, $12 is the size of the large box that a normal 1/35 scale armor kit fits inside comfortably. If he's adding insurance to the cost of postage, $15 may be a little high, but not too outrageous.

What Rob said.

I've bought and sold on Ebay since the late 90's and have had few less than ideal interactions. As with most sellers in brick and mortar stores, these guys want to have happy customers who will return to them. Recently, I bought a pa\ir of Look cleats. I was supposed to get the type with a rubber pad to make walking in them easier. I got the plain (cheaper) ones instead. The seller offered me a refund for the return or a rebate. I took the latter and the money came back very quickly. I also bought a couple batteries from another dealer for my new camera. The tracking showed they were lost in the USPS sorting center at this end. I contacted the seller and she offered me a refund or replacement, even thoughit was not her problem. I took the latter and the replacement batteries came a couple days later. When the severely damaged original package arrived, I sent it to the seller so she could make a claim with USPS. I also recently made an inquiry about a product in an open box. Theseller replied but also raised the price.By the time I went to reply, he'd raised it a second time. I toldhim where he could put it.

I've never had, nor read. of a hacking issue with PayPal. I've had this attached to my checking and several credit cards for years and they have all been secure. Can't say the same for the debit card at "real" businesses as we've had the number compromised a couple times and had to have them replaced. Remember, in the US you are only liable for the first $50 on credit card fraud.

As has been said or suggested, place a bid at the most you want to pay and walk away.You'll get the item or not.  Include the shipping costs in your calculation of what you want to pay but don't include it in the bid. Do not bid on anything if you can't find/calculate a shipping fee. Check out the Buy It Now option. You MIGHT pay more but you can't get wrapped up in a bidding war, Also, you'll likely get it sooner, since you aren't waiting for the end of an auction that coukd be weeks away. Shop around. Many peoeple are listing items at MSRP now. Thus making the item more expensive than going to the LHS or looking for bargains at the online retailers.

The only downside of PayPal is that it holds refunds/payments in escrow for a few days to insure both parties are satisfied with the transaction.

As to searching, I simply put in what I'm looking for in the search box. If the results come back with too many hits, you can refine the search. If you wanted, for example, a Tiger tank, putting in TIGER would get you there, along with thousands of other hits on items with the word TIGER in them. TIGER TANK would bring it down some, but you'd get results for "a tiger in your tank" posters. 1/35 TIGER TANK will produce good results, but adding the manufacturer will get you pretty close to what you want, though some listings intentionally add multiple marginally related terms to get you to look at their listings.

P mitch covered all the bases and gave you a good overall rundown of how things work on ebay. I want to add a couple of things  to help you further along. I also did not want a paypal account but if I sell there, then they require me to have one. (There way of making more money cause they own paypal) I linked it to my American Express card to be on the safe side. DO NOT link it to your bank account which is given as an option. This option can be a nightmare if a hacker gets in there while the credit card method can be resolved with less pain. I actually like using paypal now cause its convenient and mostly safe.

Be VERY careful with the seller's shipping charges when buying on ebay.  This is called 'padding up the sale' or making extra money on you by charging outrageous shipping costs. As an example, a while back I was looking for the 1/72 Super Connie kit, one seller had it for $12 but his shipping was $15. Another seller had it for $15 and a little under $8 for shipping. The first guy was actually closer to my address yet was charging more on the shipping to make extra cash on the sale. As mitch said, stay AWAY from sellers with lots of negative feedback. Sometimes negatige feedback is left unjustly but when a seller has several, then the flag comes up!

I've been using Ebay since 1995/1996 and PayPal for a least a dozen years. PayPal has been owned by eBay for many years now. PayPal works by linking your credit card or your bank account to the PP account.

When you buy something and pay via PP, they charge your bank account or credit card and send the funds to the seller, thus PP becomes the merchant of record as it pertains to you or your bank. PP then puts the money (less the seller's fees) into the seller's account. The seller then ships you the item.

As far as I now know, PP is required to buy and sell on eBay. Back in the day, check or money order could be used, but PP is a safer way to pay. If there are any issues, you get your money back fairly easily from PP and then it is on them to get the refund from the seller. With the old school check or money order, your ability to get a refund basically relied on the trustworthyness of the seller and how badly they wanted to keep their ebay feedback clean.

As far as risk with a credit card, get a low credit limit card that you only use for PP/eBay. You know the ones you get pre-approved in the mail every Wednesday. Set the limit at a few hundred dollars and pay off your balance every month. It will be easy to detect if the number gets compromised and if it does, the damage will be minimal if the card gets maxed out quickly with such a low limit.

I've never had an issue using PP. Any issue I've had with a seller involved delivery issues, but I've never not received an item I paid for. I have had sellers send me the wrong item. One time, I forwarded the package for the seller to the proper buyer and the seller reimbursed me for postage. Another time the seller (a Hong Kong hobby shop) sent the proper kit and told me to keep the wrong one. I guess it was less money to just write it off than to pay me to send it return postage due to HK.

There is a Model Kit category on eBay. It even breaks down the category into 17 subcategories. Everything from Aircraft (non-military) to Super Hero to Wooden kits. Several of the subcategories, like Military or Sci-fi, are broken down even further to various sub-subcategories within that genre. For instance, Military is broken down into Armor, Air, Sea, Figures, etc. Sci-fi is divided into Star Wars, Star Trek, and other popular areas.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/items/Models-Kits__W0QQQ5ftrkparmsZ72Q253A1205Q257C66Q253A2Q257C65Q253A12Q257C39Q253A1QQ_catrefZ1QQ_sacatZ1188QQ_sopZ1QQ_scZ1?_trksid=m194&ssPageName=STRK:MEFSRCHMODX:SRCH 

If you are looking for a specific kit,I go under toys and hobbies and enter the manufacturer and kit number it will come right up,like for example "Tamiya 35216"

Also watch closely for hidden shipping fees,you may see a really low kit price offset by a horrendous shipping charge.Never commit unless you can the shipping beforehand.

And just bid with your head,don't get caught up in a bidding war,there are bargains to be had.i have also bought figures,weathering supplies,and AM stuff on EBay,have fun

Hi Castelnuovo

I've used e-bay quite a bit and your answers are below

1. In the search line I just type in the scale I'm looking for then the name of the model or manufacturer, so If you're looking for a 1/35 Panzer iv by dragon you could type in - 1/35 Panzer iv or 1/35 dragon Panzer - and see what comes up. The more accurate you can be the better but dont forget this is how the seller is listing it so dont be too specific

2. Always use Paypal, its a cut out between you and the seller and they can handle any problems you may have with them.

3. Look at a sellers rating, if its low or they haven sold much then you may be taking a risk. negative feedback is a killer to sellers so have a look what people have said about them.

4. See answer 2 any problems Paypal will sort it out which you can link to answer 3, sellers who are doing it as a job really dont want negative feedback so will help.

5. Other than that I can say I've built up more than half my stash through ebay and in over 400 purchases I've only had 3 items not arrive and they have all been replaced by the seller without problems.

Any other questions please ask

Phil