OK, I fell for it. any help now?

[fazman]

The best way that people can protect themselves is with information !! Thats why these boards are so important and one of my main reasons of wanting to get my regular fix and reading about who's doing what to whom. There are thousands of people buying comics on E-Bay and the level of fraud continues to increase. E-Bay is either too busy making money and turning a blind eye to fraud or very understaffed.

These boards offer some level of protection to us, the readers. We can make a judgement call on an auction or seller and decide if we want to bid or not. And yes, some of us may be taken also, but at least we can get the word out.The others don't know and thus are easy targets for fraud.

So , I guess we can do our part and let our fellow collectors know that these boards are out there and available to all.

Knowleadge is Power.

[rjpb]

I spend a few thousand a year buying books off Ebay, and while I've had a few dissapointments, and had to send a few books back, the percentage is no worse than pre-Ebay ordering from catalogs and CBG ads. While a fair number of fraudulent auctions have been highlighted on these boards, they have to be put in context of the huge volume of listings on Ebay. The scams usually seem to involve high dollar key books, or blatant overgrading on supposed high grade comics. I can understand the reluctance to bid on these sort of items raw and/or when listed by unknown sellers, but for the low grade to bottom end of high grade GA, SA and BA collectors that constitute a sizeable percentage of the collectors out there, Ebay has allowed for both greater selection and excellent bargains.

[duncan36]

I spend a few thousand a year buying books off Ebay, and while I've had a few dissapointments, and had to send a few books back, the percentage is no worse than pre-Ebay ordering from catalogs and CBG ads. While a fair number of fraudulent auctions have been highlighted on these boards, they have to be put in context of the huge volume of listings on Ebay. The scams usually seem to involve high dollar key books, or blatant overgrading on supposed high grade comics. I can understand the reluctance to bid on these sort of items raw and/or when listed by unknown sellers, but for the low grade to bottom end of high grade GA, SA and BA collectors that constitute a sizeable percentage of the collectors out there, Ebay has allowed for both greater selection and excellent bargains.

 

Really outright scams arent the big problem, though they are plenty of those, its that eBay allows people to get away with many horrible practices.

Its no surprise that since eBay does nothing to people who claim over and over the item for sale got 'lost' so they cant sell it to you, that some people habitually do it over and over when they dont like the price for their auction.

These big sellers dont care as they usually have 3000 positives and a few hundred negatives, the way they look at it if their feedback is over about 95% saying an item was 'lost' and not having to sell it at what they feel is a poor price is worth it. They usually threaten the buyer with negative feedback as well so this cuts out a lot of negatives they should have and since the buyer usually has much lower feedback it hurts them worse.

 

I've had several sellers rip me off and smugly say 'I sell hundreds of items a month you think eBay's going to do anything to me'. And eBay doesnt.

[rjpb]

I must say I've never had someone refuse to sell me a book, or not send one, after I have won an auction. Please post the names of any high feedback sellers that engage in this practice so we can know to avoid them.

[joe_collector]

I must say I've never had someone refuse to sell me a book, or not send one, after I have won an auction.

 

I've had amazingly good luck on EBay, likely because I'm incredibly careful what I bid on and at what price, but two times I had problems:

 

1) One seller stated that he had sent the package, them gave me a song and dance a few weeks later about hi swife losing them or something. I was nice, and gave him a sob story about how these comics were so important to my collection.... and bingo a week later I get these "already sent/lost comics" in the mail, with a post mark the same as my sob story email.

 

2) The other time was the only occasion I've ever been totally ripped off on EBay. Some insufficiently_thoughtful_person lady was selling some seriously nice Bronze Age books and I won a few at very attractive prices. I never got the package, she said she lost them, I moved on.... and a month later the witch relisted them all again.

 

Due to relatively low feedback, I didn't slam her with a neg, but I did send some choice email replies, and banded together with some of her previous "clients" to get this old hag booted off EBay.