Hi all, I'm new to the ebay site. Do you have to pay for using their site services. And if you buy/sell goods via the site, do you have to pay a fee or commision? If not and its totally free - how do they make their money?? And experiences, advice will be most appreciated. Many thanks.

-- Sparkie (sparkie@mailcity.com), August 25, 2001

Answers

no fee for buying , fee is charged for listing items and also when they art sold. Everyone I know has had mixed experiences on ebay. I have gotten some good deals on nice stuff, and have been ripped off more than once as well. There is a learning curve for sure.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), August 25, 2001.

Thanks Andrew. In what way were you ripped off? The goods weren't as advertised or portrayed. The biggest concern is buying goods which you will most often not get the chance to view b4 purchase b/c of distance etc.

-- Sparkie (Sparkie@mailcity.com), August 25, 2001.

I've bought a few things and also sold quite a few things on e-Bay. Every seller has a Feedback Profile, where prospective bidders can view the seller's e-Bay "reputation" based on ratings and comments from prior customers. Sellers can also check out bidders the same way. If a seller is honest about describing the item, packs it carefully and ships it promptly, their feedback should be 100% positive, at least that's what I've found. Of all my auctions I only had one bad experience, which was just that the winning bidder never sent payment. E-Bay has a procedure for this situation, and if followed in a timely fashion, they will refund the auction fees and you can re-list it.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), August 25, 2001.

I have bought and sold about eight items on ebay. Got ripped off about $110 by a guy in NYC who never sent the goods; of course he said that he had. His feedback wasn't the best and had about 12 negatives in a few hundred transactions. I learnt my lesson and in future will not buy from or sell to anyone who has negative feedback.

-- sam smith (Ruy_Lopez@hotmail.com), August 25, 2001.

I've bought a number of things on eBay, all with fine results. There are times when it's a store, not an individual, who is selling, and they accept credit card. With those, I have had no problem. After all, they have a commercial reputation to keep. I also bought from a couple individuals, and it seems to have been okay (am in the middle of a transaction right now).

What is frustrating about eBay is 'sniping'- the practice of going after something during the very last moments of the auction, and trying to bid in a way to get the object, but below your absolute maximum. Much has been written about it on the eBay community sites, and there is software, etc.

In end, the best thing to do is come to a clear decision in your mind about the absolute maximum price that you're willing to pay, and just bid that. Could you be happy with yourself having bought the item, and having paid that amount? No need to try to act strategically, which is what snipers do. For my one very large purchase (an M6TTL from a store) I did 'Buy it now,' as I feel I had been sniped before. I checked all my other sources, and felt it was a fine price and deal, so I didn't engage in the actual auction, etc. (Of course, you only feel you've gotten sniped if you yourself are acting like one. ;-)

As others have said, deal only with those with very little (I have dealt only with a seller with 1 negative among 80 positives, and the explanation was plausible to me) or no negative feedback. I figure that people sell there quite a bit, and depend on a good reputation, just like any store, and will work hard to maintain that reputation.

-- Tse-Sung Wu (tsesung@yahoo.com), August 25, 2001.

PS- you can follow an auction to its completion- bookmark it on your browser- as once the auction is done, you won't be able to search for it on eBay. See the pattern of the bids, etc., and compare it with other auctions of the same or similar item. eBay makes much of this transparent- which is the whole point of course.

-- TSW (tsesung@yahoo.com), August 25, 2001.

I think eBay is the greatest thing since Tri-X. The middleman has been eliminated, so you can buy an item, use it six months, and sell for about the same price. Try doing that with your average dealer, where you sell for less than wholesale and pay retail. The market is worldwide. I doubt that I could find a certain Leica accessory in any shops in New Hampshire, but on eBay I find a choice of several. I've cleaned out my closets of all the old gear I wasn't using, gotten a good price for it, and replaced it with the particular stuff I've wanted. I think it does mean the demise of many dealers (they've been going under right and left) but it's a great frictionless market. Yes, you need to check feedback, and any negatives are the kiss of death. High reserves, and opening bids at retail price levels can be frustrating. And all the action is in the last ten seconds.

-- Phil Stiles (Stiles@metrocast.net), August 25, 2001.

Ebay has always been great as a seller--people often pay too much for my old stuff. Never had any trouble as a seller in probably over 50 transactions,except for some slow payers.

How I got ripped off:I bought a few items that were described as "excellent and full working order" that were broke when they arrived and obviously so. I think the sellers knew they were broken and were basically con artists. In both instances (different sellers) they tried to blame it on the shipper "must have got damaged by UPS". One guy told me to get it fixed and send him the receipt. I know a repair person, so I had them make up a receipt for the estimate, and I sent it to the seller. Never heard a peep,(as I expected) then their e-mail address was no good. Most of my transactions have been straight forward, and I don't let these 3 or 4 bad ones ruin the fun of bidding on something hard to find that I may want. By the way, as far as feedback goes, some sellers have a bunch of positive feedback on $1.50 items or from the same few buyers. Also, as far as checking for negative feedback, its a starting point to get a feel for a seller, but not 100% accurate. I hesitate to ever leave negative feedback except in very extreme cases even if I fealt the seller was dishonest. The reason: The jerk will almost always leave you a negative feedback in retaliation and I have a long standing feedback record to protect. Often the bad Ebay users will get a few negatives for not paying or shipping out junk, and then they just change their names and start all over again with a fresh 0 feedback again. As I said before, its a gamble and if you play long enough, you will get taken eventually. I figure if I averaged everything out, however, I've still done better than if I would have bought all the stuff I've gotten on ebay from used retail places. And there is no way KEH or others would have given me even 1/2 of what I sold my things for on ebay.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), August 25, 2001.

Phil Stiles has it about right. What I find most helpful about ebay is the access to used merchandise that is just not available here in my town.

Best deal? Kodak projector bulbs for $3.75 each. I bought five. The local camera shop sold me one for $25.00 retail.

Worst deal? Konica T3 in such bad shape it was junk. Worthless. I paid $75. Only bidder. I wasn't careful enough. Misrepresented merchandise, plus lack of care on my part.

All other deals I have made have been quite satisfactory. I don't buy expensive leica stuff on ebay. I feel more secure buying from dealers for leica camera's and lenses. When I pay a significant amount for a european camera that's not covered by the factory warranty I want the dealer involved to back me up. I find it's worth the extra money.

-- David Smith (dssmith3@rmci.net), August 25, 2001.

Very new to ebay. Wanted to buy an M6, bid and won, could not contact the seller. The following days I received three separate emails from ebay members who were ripped off by this seller. Each one in excess of $1000.00. Bought M6 classic $1200.00 'as new' from honest professional. Bought summicron 50mm $500.00 mint, quick smooth transaction. Bought 35mm f2 ASPH NIB, from hong kong dealer $1050.00 Quick, professional transaction. I felt that all the goods that I bought on ebay were fairly priced and represented by the sellers. However I do know of a certain angry mob carrying torches and pitchforks looking for one particularly dishonest seller. Check feedback, and good luck!

-- Doug Ford (dford@san.rr.com), August 26, 2001.

I don't have much luck buying from ebay. After about 40 transactions I find that people usually exaggerate the condition or leave out critical info about some sort of damage. I have paid $450 for a "mint off the shelf" conditon OM4T just to have a junk yard condition body with rust, peel and bad circuits. Of course the pictures did not showed that. And the seller charged me $40 for "handling" on top of the high $25 shipping charge for express when he ultimately shipped it parcel post. But the worst case was when the Hasselblad SWC arrived in two pieces and the seller told me it was damaged in shipping! These days I only bid on old Leitz stuff and occassionally sell. I don't how these people live with themselves.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), August 26, 2001.

I agree that you should be cautious about buying on eBay. That said, I bought my M6 titanium, an MR-4 meter, and a 21/3.4 Super Angulon, all from sellers in different countries. All arrived in exactly the condition described. All were purchased at prices below any advertised store prices and below other sale prices on eBay.

On the other hand, I hunted down a hood in San Francisco and a cap in New York for the Super Angulon and found them for less than they went for on eBay.

Buy with care on eBay, but there are deals to be found, especially if you can live with items in less than mint condition, know what you're looking for, and have patience.

-- Peter B. Goldstein (peter.goldstein@us.cgeyc.com), August 29, 2001.

Rule #2: Never, ever purchase something unseen!You are looking for trouble. Descriptions of merchandise is very subjective. Purchasing something without actually handling it is also bad news. Photographs posted on the web by sellers usually show the "best" side of the item for sale and, at times, avoid any close ups of damage.I learned the hard way by purchasing an old Yashica two and a quarter unseen. The taking lense was gouged with deep circular marks. Did the gouge affect the photos? Darn right it did. Flare all over the place and no "crystal clear" photographs, as promissed by the seller. Caveat emptor!

-- John Alfred Tropiano (jat18@psu.edu), August 31, 2001.

I've had good and bad experiences using ebay: got some good deals are the good points; leicas are difficult to buy as, leica buyers are a bit anal WRT condition. Be careful of sellers that state "I don't know cameras much" or "looks like it was seldom used, looks fine, may need cleaning" or "as is". Also, check other items on auction. If their used to selling dolls or coins, etc., they may not know Leica.

You have to remember, as my father used to say, people sell their problems, why buy them.

-- steve wong (stephenwong3@hotmail.com), December 31, 2001.

This is instructive.I have never used ebay to either buy or sell. I will probably attempt to sell my Rollie 3.5F and Fuji 645 on ebay but I have put aside the thought of buying an M6 there. I've never been lucky at gambling and would probably be better off buying a Leica from a dealer with unquestionable ethics like Tamarkin or Chatterton. After all, it is not a purchase one makes often [atleast not for me] and the additional premium one pays a reputable "middleman" is easily depreciated over the long-term ownership of the camera.

-- John Myers (mymacv@aol.com), December 31, 2001.