What's Your Biggest Peeve When Trying To Buy On Ebay? 3 3

[telerites]

On 2/23/2022 at 5:34 PM, Timeless icons said:

Pics that have terrible angles.  

Pics with blurry images. 

In this day and age, if you can't manage to take detailed pics with your cell phone, then get something better suited for the task. When your pics are all on angle and I can't see how well the book was cut or if its off sided, then its a hard pass. Is it that hard to get a pic of both front and back cover with detail and those shots being straight on so everyone can see the book's overall structure? There's a seller (several actually) that have their books on E-Bay and on at least one other site and some of these books are of interest but had they posted better pics, they would have had a few sales but those books are still sitting there as a result. 

I think some of those off angles pics from some sellers is purposeful to hide defects.  

@Tri-ColorBrian I always add some boolean to my saved searches to get rid of some of the gunk like photocopies and such. e.g., -dvd -photocopy...  It does clean up some of it.

Even for those that give good FC and BC scans or pics, I want more, especially inside FC and inside BC and CF.  It would also be great if there was some reassurance that the book is complete.  I often ask how many pages before I bid on a book.

 

[Timeless icons]

On 2/24/2022 at 12:03 PM, telerites said:

I think some of those off angles pics from some sellers is purposeful to hide defects.  

@Tri-ColorBrian I always add some boolean to my saved searches to get rid of some of the gunk like photocopies and such. e.g., -dvd -photocopy...  It does clean up some of it.

Even for those that give good FC and BC scans or pics, I want more, especially inside FC and inside BC and CF.  It would also be great if there was some reassurance that the book is complete.  I often ask how many pages before I bid on a book.

 

I also believe some sellers use those angles to hide defects as well. I would rather see someone post a book straight on even though it may have their reflection in the image, than to see off angle pics. 

There are definitely those honest sellers out there that just take bad pics but even though there may not be any bad intentions with some...it still prevents me from buying what i can't see just the same. 

 

[mwotka]

Timely topic.  Just got frustrated with a seller yesterday, had over a dozen cool GA books ending that I was trying to bid on some of.  But had all of the auctions ending at exactly the same time.  I messaged them that they are leaving money on the table not staggering end times by a few minutes, and they wrote back that "95% of our buyers don't bid manually anymore" and to use a snipe program.  I think that statistic is completely made up, although curious what you all prefer to do. I like watching the end myself so I know right where things are ending at.  But if they want to make it harder to bid, whatever...  I just see most sellers stagger end times.  

[Tri-Color Brian]

On 2/24/2022 at 10:45 AM, mwotka said:

Timely topic.  Just got frustrated with a seller yesterday, had over a dozen cool GA books ending that I was trying to bid on some of.  But had all of the auctions ending at exactly the same time.  I messaged them that they are leaving money on the table not staggering end times by a few minutes, and they wrote back that "95% of our buyers don't bid manually anymore" and to use a snipe program.  I think that statistic is completely made up, although curious what you all prefer to do. I like watching the end myself so I know right where things are ending at.  But if they want to make it harder to bid, whatever...  I just see most sellers stagger end times.  

I thought ebay did away with the snipe option.  At least, I haven't seen any evidence of it in the last couple years.  I used to lose to those snipes all the time. 

[pemart1966]

On 2/24/2022 at 11:39 AM, Joshua33 said:

Sure. You can say, for example, that not using GSP will open up a whole new market, but I have done tons of GSP sales to nearly every corner of the world and it was because I offered the GSP that I got the extra eyeballs from other countries, as opposed to just U.S. buyers. 

Now... the benefit. As a U.S. seller, when I ship the item off, I am protected by Ebay and guaranteed full compensation as long as my package gets to the international shipping center. Anything that happens beyond that, doesn't affect my insurance or Ebay seller protection. So if a customs agent or overseas carrier is careless with a package, not a problem... I'm covered.

It's been my experience, that the second items leave this country, they tend to run into problems. I opted out of the GSP only twice in 25 years, and was burned both times. Once by careless post, once by a scammer buyer. I would NEVER sell anything on Ebay (especially not expensive comic books) without using the global shipping program. 

Thanks - I don't think though that because you're using GSP that you're getting any extra eyeballs than you would if you simply offered to ship internationally without GSP.  Just the opposite.  I don't buy from anyone using GSP due to the added financial costs outlined above and I know that I'm not the only one.

I view GSP as nothing more than a cash grab by eBay.  Are they licensed to collect "brokerage fees" on behalf of foreign governments?  Exactly what type of brokerage services do they provide?  I was never clear on that.

eBay could offer sellers the same protection without acting as a middleman.  

I guess that you don't sell on these boards then? 

[jimbo_7071]

On 2/23/2022 at 5:38 PM, goldust40 said:

I managed to tweak the searches to an acceptable level, which does mostly have GA when you're looking for GA, and not books that are less than five years old.

Of course sometimes you'll get sellers calling their modern stuff GA and there'll be pages of the stuff appearing on the search, but it's easy enough to remove them.

Is there a way to block particular sellers on eBay? I would like to be able to block sellers whose books are priced too high to bother looking at, and there are plenty of those sellers.

Edited February 24, 2022 by jimbo_7071

[fifties]

I would say my biggest beef is all the damn photocopy/DVD/Anthology hardbacks I have to wade through, to see only the real, actual, 1940's/'50's COMIC BOOKS.  I've been buying and selling there since 1998, and have no other real issues with them.

Edited February 24, 2022 by fifties

[jimbo_7071]

I thought of another pet peeve: when a seller lists a book in an auction format with an opening bid amount that is basically a buy-it-now price (and often a very high buy-it-now price).

Edited February 24, 2022 by jimbo_7071

[goldust40]

On 2/24/2022 at 9:19 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

Is there a way to block particular sellers on eBay? I would like to be able to block sellers whose books are priced too high to bother looking at, and there are plenty of those sellers.

Go to Advanced Search. Then scroll down to the bottom to the Sellers heading. Click on Specific sellers (enter seller's user IDs).

On the Include  / Exclude option just below that click on Exclude. Add all the sellers you want to exclude in the space next to that separating them by commas (i.e. no spaces between them otherwise).

Then click the blue Search button at the bottom of the page and that's it.

[Joshua33]

On 2/24/2022 at 10:24 AM, pemart1966 said:

Thanks - I don't think though that because you're using GSP that you're getting any extra eyeballs than you would if you simply offered to ship internationally without GSP.  Just the opposite.  I don't buy from anyone using GSP due to the added financial costs outlined above and I know that I'm not the only one.

I view GSP as nothing more than a cash grab by eBay.  Are they licensed to collect "brokerage fees" on behalf of foreign governments?  Exactly what type of brokerage services do they provide?  I was never clear on that.

eBay could offer sellers the same protection without acting as a middleman.  

I guess that you don't sell on these boards then? 

I was stating that I attract extra eyeballs with GSP as opposed to NOT offering international buyers the option to buy from me. Like I said, I've always gotten top dollar, and never had a problem with GSP, nor have my buyers.

As for these boards... you better ask somebody. I've sold a mountain worth of Golden and Silver Age Superhero, PCH, GGA and other comics on here that would make grown men weep to behold. I see the point, I have no GSP here when I sell internationally, but I've found that the boards is full of good and trustworthy folks, unlike Ebay, where there's a scammer around every corner. 

[pemart1966]

On 2/24/2022 at 6:41 PM, Joshua33 said:

I was stating that I attract extra eyeballs with GSP as opposed to NOT offering international buyers the option to buy from me. Like I said, I've always gotten top dollar, and never had a problem with GSP, nor have my buyers.

As for these boards... you better ask somebody. I've sold a mountain worth of Golden and Silver Age Superhero, PCH, GGA and other comics on here that would make grown men weep to behold. I see the point, I have no GSP here when I sell internationally, but I've found that the boards is full of good and trustworthy folks, unlike Ebay, where there's a scammer around every corner. 

I thought that you might be adverse to selling here without the protection of the GSP.  Glad that it's working out for you.

[Professor K]

On 2/23/2022 at 5:02 PM, circumstances said:

Used to really have my search down pat, then they mucked around with the categories, eras, etc. and now it's a mess.

I was a daily looker/bidder, now I'm an almost never looker/bidder.

Yep, perfect example of fixing something that wasn't broken. The site has gone to heck in a handbasket. Mostly due to greed from both E bay and the US GOV.  As a seller you get ripped off and are at risk of getting burned. I used to get the majority of my graded books there, now I hardly ever get any. Pet Peeve? When you make a respectable offer and the seller counters with like a 5 dollar discount from the original asking. Don't waste my time already. 

[jimbo_7071]

On 2/24/2022 at 5:12 PM, goldust40 said:

Go to Advanced Search. Then scroll down to the bottom to the Sellers heading. Click on Specific sellers (enter seller's user IDs).

On the Include  / Exclude option just below that click on Exclude. Add all the sellers you want to exclude in the space next to that separating them by commas (i.e. no spaces between them otherwise).

Then click the blue Search button at the bottom of the page and that's it.

Many thanks!

[quicksilver]

On 2/24/2022 at 1:47 PM, G-G © ® ™ said:

Hey Rich.

How's life in the sun?

You do realise I stopped slabbing books and buying raws since you quit the business?  

Hope you're ok my friend. 

All’s good over here, a more peaceful way of life. Keep my ear to the ground for one more book to complete my collection.

Funnily enough, I just did a submission by remote for a friend in the UK, so technically it can be done…if only he listened to my instructions properly…

[Professor K]

A couple of things I forgot. 

If you look at your "purchase history" the first thing you see highlighted in bright bold blue is "RETURN THIS ITEM". Not leave feedback but RETURN THIS ITEM. It's like that are pushing for people returning stuff. Buy it, handle it, use it, get sick of it, return it. Money Back Guarantee! 

And feedback. To me the day they made it to be not an option for sellers to leave negative feedback was they day they officially destroyed it. Destroyed the foundation in which the system was built.  Ah, its nice to complain in public. Let off some steam.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Professor K

[Sauce Dog]

Easy; The Ebay global shipping program.

So many sellers will just sign up for that since it's all the same to them (and not really look into it), except now that single raw comic that would otherwise cost $15-$25usd to ship to me in Canada now costs $100usd (or more). So I avoid all sellers who use that feature (as do many other Canadians)

[Nazirite]

If your only going to accept 10 dollars off or less, please do not add a Make Offer button.

 

[frozentundraguy]

Once you have viewed a listing the back button no longer works. Pretty soon you have numerous tabs open, each with a different item you viewed. When you go to narrow down your search, say to Golden Age, then change your search for a different book it's no longer searching in the Golden Age.

[ThothAmon]

On 2/24/2022 at 1:24 PM, pemart1966 said:

I view GSP as nothing more than a cash grab by eBay.

 

On 2/25/2022 at 10:16 AM, Sauce Dog said:

So I avoid all sellers who use that feature (as do many other Canadians)

As a seller of sometimes very expensive books on eBay before GSP I had zero protection against international buyer fraud. Post GSP, fraud is a non issue.  Even with the high cost I still have lots of international sales. 

[Point Five]

On 2/23/2022 at 5:59 PM, rjpb said:

I get it, sometimes it takes a while to sell something, but I don't think anyone is ever going to pay $10 for a coverless Gabby Hayes.

I sent a Best Offer of $9. Wish me luck.