The Danger of Being a Tool-Hound!

[Rick Hubbard]

Being an inveterate tool-hound sometimes leads to inadvisable behavior!

Although I do not frequent EBay on a regular basis, I recently learned that there was a knitting machine listed there and my wife wants one, so I signed in and placed a bid. Since I was already signed in I decided to do a search for “routers”. Up popped a listing for a brand new Dewalt 2 HP plunge router! The minimum bid was $8.99! Wow, I thought- I’ll place a bid for $10.50 and see what happens. I placed the bid and sure enough, about three hours later, I WON IT. I was flabbergasted, so I went back to the listing to make sure I had bought what I thought I had bought. Sure enough, down in the “fine print” I discovered that what I had purchased was a LIST of all the places where DeWalt 2HP routers could be purchased “at wholesale”.

I immediately looked to see what I could do to retract my bid, but from what I could see, I was the proud owner of said “wholesale list.” Later I received, via email, an invoice from the seller for $10.50, but since I was busy at work, I decided not to pay right then (even though I was obligated to do so under EBay’s TOS).

My procrastination paid off, however. This morning when I arrived at work, I checked my email and there was a notice from EBay’s “Trust Center and Loss Control” folks advising me that the seller’s listings had been removed and that I should NOT submit payment (and if I HAD submitted payment, they instructed me what to do to recover my money).

I’m not a careless person, by nature, so I’m surprised that I fell for this, but I guess “Tool-Lust” (and plain old greed) came pretty close to costing me the princely sum of $10.50. Even if I had paid-up, it would have been a good lesson, but the fact that I escaped by the skin of my teeth made it an even better education.

Rick:rolleyes:

[Jim Dunn]

So did you get a knitting machine?

Glad you got out of the payment Bill.

[Paul Johnstone]

Yes, a good reminder to read every ebay listing you intend to bid on several times carefully.

Deceptive listings are one of my huge pet peeves.

[Don Bullock]

The items for sale on eBay has changed a lot over the years. It's too bad that there are now so many sellers out to make a quick buck on "nothing." It used to be a place that I frequented for those "hard to find" items sold by respectable people, but now eBay is a "big business" full of junk. Sure, there are some good deals to be found. I find, however,that searching through all the junk takes too much of me valuable time.:mad:

[Bill Jepson]

The items for sale on eBay has changed a lot over the years. It's too bad that there are now so many sellers out to make a quick buck on "nothing." It used to be a place that I frequented for those "hard to find" items sold by respectable people, but now eBay is a "big business" full of junk. Sure, there are some good deals to be found. I find, however,that searching through all the junk takes too much of me valuable time.:mad:

You're too right on this one Don. By the time you get that "good deal" from E-bay you have usually "spent" a princly sum time wise. Don't get me wrong there are a few gems, but I've never landed one. There are so many speculators with buy programs it has ruined a lot of the one time buyers possibilities. Have you ever made a bid, only to be out bid within 1 minute of closing? Have you then ever then got the e-mail saying, "woops this wasn't really what I wanted, but I'll sell it to you for only 10 bucks more than I paid for it." It's still a "good deal" really. BTW you need to pay shipping to your location. another 20 bucks! Most of the time if you value your time at $1.00 per hour you would have been better off to go to Woodcraft and pay full price! Just IMHO.
Bill

[Eric Larsen]

Never bid on any auction except during the last minute.

Let's say that router was the "real deal" and not a worthless list -- and it still had 3 hours left on it. Your bid only pushes the price up, thus benefiting the seller. Now the next guy sees the same router for $11.50 and says, "Wow $11.50 with 2 hours, 50 minutes left. I'll bid $15 and see what happens."

And so on and so forth. Eventually, that router is up to $138.11 with $40 shipping -- more than you'd pay locally.

Instead, place your bid with 15 seconds left on the auction for the maximum you're willing to spend (investigate shipping costs and the seller's feedback prior to bidding).

If you're unable to bid with 15 seconds left, due to time constraints or a flaky internet connection, use the auctionsniper.com service to snipe for you. You pay $0.25 if you win, which is a bargain if you can get that $150 router for $10.

And if you don't win? The auto-search function is pretty nifty.

[Mike Seals]

Never bid on any auction except during the last minute.

Let's say that router was the "real deal" and not a worthless list -- and it still had 3 hours left on it. Your bid only pushes the price up, thus benefiting the seller. Now the next guy sees the same router for $11.50 and says, "Wow $11.50 with 2 hours, 50 minutes left. I'll bid $15 and see what happens."

And so on and so forth. Eventually, that router is up to $138.11 with $40 shipping -- more than you'd pay locally.

Instead, place your bid with 15 seconds left on the auction for the maximum you're willing to spend (investigate shipping costs and the seller's feedback prior to bidding).

If you're unable to bid with 15 seconds left, due to time constraints or a flaky internet connection, use the auctionsniper.com service to snipe for you. You pay $0.25 if you win, which is a bargain if you can get that $150 router for $10.

And if you don't win? The auto-search function is pretty nifty.

Swooping it the term given for that kind of bidding. I've bought quite a few items from Ebay and I have swooped before got a nasty email form one bidder for swooping a hood tach for a 68 Firebird. It's all part of the game. But for the most part I bid what I'm willing to pay for an item and let it ride. The days of the good deals are gone, far too many clueless people bidding higher than the item is down at the local store and far too many folks trying to rip off folks, the fine print.

[Lance Norris]

Before you bid on anything... read the sellers feedback. This is a great way to protect yourself. Read the fine print also. All it takes is some common sense and you will be fine and get those deals you want. I have had several hundered transactions on Ebay and have never been taken advantage of.

[Chris Barnett]

Please make any commets about knitting and sewing and quilting stuff on ebay in invisible ink. My wife just might read this forum while I get a cup of coffee :D .

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Glad you didn't get skinned.

When e-bay communicated with me about an ongoing auction they frequently use that "WIN" language.
It bothers me every time. If I "win" how come I gotta pay?

[Dave MacArthur]

that's why I like craigs list. Deal locally, real people, visible merchandise.

[Stan Smith]

Looks like lots of different points made here. I've gotten some great deals on ebay and some were buy-it-now items. Like said above, feedback is a good way to check on reliability. Swooping is here to stay so we might as well recognize that. I only bid on stuff that I really want as opposed to stuff that I think that I might want. I just put in my max. bid and hope for the best. I've both won and lost but I have no regrets. I sold a lathe on ebay, for pickup only, and the buyer refused the transaction because he didn't read where he would have to pickup it up. I left him a negative feedback and he left me one also just because I had left him one. That's my only negative feedback.

[Brian Weick]

Rick,
I'm glad you didn't get burned. I wish that e""""y would go after these people and fine them/ maybe a legal action - it's disguised advertising and should not be allowed to begin with, at least they caught it in time- I'll give them that much credit, I just can not tolerate deceitful individuals that try to pull the wool over others ~ glad things worked out for you.:) There's an old saying "what comes around ~ goes around" and I let that process take it's natural coarse without any intervening. to wrongs don't make it write no matter what the case may be. I have never been taken for on the net , maybe because I am street savoy and a business minded individual, However , history has also helped me, I did a job for someone when I was wet behind the ears and only received half the pay, then i worked for some shady contractor and didn't get paid by him either. I did the write thing and filed a legal complaint in both cases, but from those incidents I told myself that this will never happen again and luckily I have not had any problem. If it smells of something burning, it's probably your conscience telling you something doesn't feel write. Just be careful when you deal with anything WWW oriented. Have a great day Rick! :)
Brian

[Rob Diz]

I have seen the flip side as well. I tried to sell a car on Ebay, a well loved 76 Eldo Convertible that lost its garage space when I built my shop a year ago. I didn't know what it was worth, so I put it on ebay.

The winning bidder never paid, then said, wife wouldn't let him buy it, so no go. It was sold for $2,400, but I didn't want the hassles so I relisted. the next buyer (a shill?) never responded or made contact.

I was hit with Ebay expenses X2 and the hassles of just recovering my costs to list the darn thing.

I am starting to turn sour on ebay, both as a buyer and a seller. Craig's list, however, seems to do much better.