Ebay Remains Risky Place to Buy Knives

C

Confederate

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I'm always on the prowl for bargains, and I've only been burned a couple (two) times in the last five years of many purchases. Lately, however, thanks to the ignorance of sellers and the perfidy of knife manufacturers that change their products without marking their blades, Ebay remains a sort of mine field for knife buyers.

I continue to see people offering new CRKT knives using old specs. Knives are advertised as having AUS6 blades when they really have AUS4 or 420J2 blades. When specifically queried, many say they got the information off the Internet. CRKT never identified its steel on either their knives or the boxes; it just changed specs using that old clause, "Manufacturer may change specifications without notice." Still, if the knife has a folded catalog included in the box that advertises the knife as AUS6, there's a good chance that's what the blade steel is.

Cold Steel also put out its OSS fixed blade, sub-hilt knife in both AUS8 and 4116 Krupp. I see many ads advertising the former, but the model number of knives advertising both steels is the same. I suspect that many people advertising AUS8 blades are, in fact, selling 4116 Krupp.

Besides all this, there are increasing numbers of counterfeits. (With the way CRKT's been going lately, I almost hope to get the counterfeit!) There are many Cold Steel counterfeits out there, especially in the Recon 1s and the AK-47s. And today I got an older Recon 1 Bowie that was advertised as having G10 handles and an AUS8 blade. It was in perfect shape, but came in a battered box and seemed fine. But I wouldn't have paid what I paid for the older version.

Anyone else having these problems? Anything we should be on the watch for?
 
Too much Chinese counterfit stuff out there for me. There are some reputable sellers out there (usually links to their actual stores website) but you need to be careful. Thats why many folks will pay a few bucks more at New Graham, AG Russell, etc. They know what they are getting and have reputations for great customer care.
 
I have two or three people on ebay I have done business with and I trust. I deal with them exclusively and have never been burned as a result. I don't do searches for knives anymore, I just look through their inventory.
 
mongomondo said:
I have two or three people on ebay I have done business with and I trust. I deal with them exclusively and have never been burned as a result. I don't do searches for knives anymore, I just look through their inventory.
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Same here, although I will still search occassionaly looking for the odd diamond in the rough.

Kevin
 
I have a few simple rules for buying anything on ebay.

If the seller can't be bothered to post a picture of the actual item, then I say no. A stock photo doesn't tell me anything. Even if it's "new in box" I want a picture of the actual item.

I want more than one picture of the actual item. If it's a knife, I want open, closed, spine, tang, lock, tang stamps, etc.

I won't buy from anyone who can't be bothered to spell check their ad and use proper English. I won't buy from anyone who includes !!!!!!!11!!111 or @@@@@@ in their ad.

I won't buy from anyone whose terms and conditions for buying the item are longer than the description of the item. The item's description is the same as a photo for me, no stock descriptions from a website. Describe what you see.

I'm sure by following my rules I limit my searches, but I haven't been burned on ebay yet.
 
Psychopomp said:
I have a few simple rules for buying anything on ebay.

If the seller can't be bothered to post a picture of the actual item, then I say no. A stock photo doesn't tell me anything. Even if it's "new in box" I want a picture of the actual item.

I want more than one picture of the actual item. If it's a knife, I want open, closed, spine, tang, lock, tang stamps, etc.

I won't buy from anyone who can't be bothered to spell check their ad and use proper English. I won't buy from anyone who includes !!!!!!!11!!111 or @@@@@@ in their ad.

I won't buy from anyone whose terms and conditions for buying the item are longer than the description of the item. The item's description is the same as a photo for me, no stock descriptions from a website. Describe what you see.




I'm sure by following my rules I limit my searches, but I haven't been burned on ebay yet.
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Good advice....also....read the seller`s feedback ! If the guy`s a scammer or a douchebag, there`s probably at least one person who`s posted a warning....feedback ain`t perfect, but it`s usually a pretty good indicator of the seller`s knowledge & integrity.
 
Psychopomp said:
I have a few simple rules for buying anything on ebay.

If the seller can't be bothered to post a picture of the actual item, then I say no. A stock photo doesn't tell me anything. Even if it's "new in box" I want a picture of the actual item.

I want more than one picture of the actual item. If it's a knife, I want open, closed, spine, tang, lock, tang stamps, etc.

I won't buy from anyone who can't be bothered to spell check their ad and use proper English. I won't buy from anyone who includes !!!!!!!11!!111 or @@@@@@ in their ad.

I won't buy from anyone whose terms and conditions for buying the item are longer than the description of the item. The item's description is the same as a photo for me, no stock descriptions from a website. Describe what you see.

I'm sure by following my rules I limit my searches, but I haven't been burned on ebay yet.
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+1! This goes for me also. Particular about conditions for sale being longer than item descriptions. Absolutely!
Another peeve of mine is when they want immediate payment yet want 3 days before they send it.
 
I'd rather just go to New Graham and drop 25$ on a Byrd if I needed a budget beater, or come here and deal with some very upstanding folk if I want something higher end at less than retail. Ebay's site is too cluttered for me to want to even try using it.

Confederate, not trying to sound rude, but why are you so concerned with budget knives? You seem like you've read a lot of info around here, and from what I gather you own a couple knives. Why not just spend a little more, get a quality piece, and be done with it, rather than gambling with CRKT and the like?
 
Psychopomp said:
I have a few simple rules for buying anything on ebay.

If the seller can't be bothered to post a picture of the actual item, then I say no. A stock photo doesn't tell me anything. Even if it's "new in box" I want a picture of the actual item.

I want more than one picture of the actual item. If it's a knife, I want open, closed, spine, tang, lock, tang stamps, etc.

I won't buy from anyone who can't be bothered to spell check their ad and use proper English. I won't buy from anyone who includes !!!!!!!11!!111 or @@@@@@ in their ad.

I won't buy from anyone whose terms and conditions for buying the item are longer than the description of the item. The item's description is the same as a photo for me, no stock descriptions from a website. Describe what you see.

I'm sure by following my rules I limit my searches, but I haven't been burned on ebay yet.
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Agreed. Heck, there's more than a few people selling here on Bladeforums those rules would apply to as well...
 
You can get good knives off eBay if you buy from the people with sharp pictures, good feedback and that have descriptions that sound like they know what they are talking about.
There's also some dealers on eBay that have good pricing, fast shipping and brand new knives. If I see a store and they have 1000's of positive ratings and a great price- I've bought from them and have yet to be sorry.
The private sellers with fuzzy pictures and half witted text and wanting no returns, I avoid. I got burned by one guy once and he said the Spyderco was NIB, when I got it, it was in the wrong box and wasn't new the clip had some wear. I told him and he said "What are you talking about! That knife is brand new!"
The more I tried to explain it wasn't and the box was wrong the more of a ass he became, so I wound up saying, Ha! I'm glad you only got 70 bucks for it now and I see why nobody bid hardly! (I really did get a sweet deal for a older Millie, replaced the chrome clip and it was just like new, but no box and he still lied)
Now I never buy anything there from anybody with crappy pictures and moronic text.
And, I've noticed their items bring a lot less than the ones that are professinal.
 
Masteroffajitas said:
Rather buy it new.
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I wouldn't have a lot of the mint Spyderco's in my sig line if I hadn't bought them off eBay.
Cause they don't make them anymore.:)
But, I don't buy second hand if it's available though dealers.
You take a chance anytime you buy something somebody else owned before you did.
 
I got ripped on a custom there last year. It was supposedly hand made by a knifemaking guild member local to me/ It is more like a cheap pakistani damascus kit knife with crap workmanship.
 
I use eBay whenever I can. Sometimes I get taken for a ride.

I always use PayPal (hey, I'm a buyer so I don't care about their fees), and whenever I've issued a complaint for resolution, I have always managed to get my money refunded. Just takes a while though to go thru the process. Scammers haven't challenged me yet.
 
I haven't bought any knives on ebay. But I have bought other items. In doing so, I have found that it works best if I know what I am looking at. That is to say, if I am knowledgeable about what I am buying. I also go by the old aphorism, "If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't true."
 
Ever since Ebay required users to supply banking info, I stopped using their services.

It's too bad that there are still so many scams despite their boasted "security" measures. Over the course of many years and hundreds of items sold (and some bought), I was never scammed. A couple times I had to convince my buyers that it was better for them to pay for the item they won rather than risk the consequences, but generally, my Ebay experience was a positive one. I tried hard to make sure the other party was a reputable one before buying or selling, but perhaps some of it was luck? The creator's of Ebay really had an awesome idea. It's a shame that a few bad apples have ruined it for many and it's also a shame that Ebay can't seem to stop them.

Sorry, a bit of a rant, just my two cents.
 
I recently bought a knife on the bay.It was a knife I previously owned & regretted selling.I'd prefer not to say the make,only that it was a Spyderco.
I bought from this merchant before & never had any problems,so I don't want to say their name either.(everybody gets one;):cool:)

Anyway,long story short.It was advertised as "Brand New In Box" & it clearly wasn't.It has obvious signs of carry & very light use.The G-10 scales showed signs of carry,but the pocket clip was replaced & it was cleaned up.Also, it didn't have that world class Spyderco (out of the box) edge.

Otherwise,It locks up rock solid.Zero blade-play.I tuned up the edge on the sharp-maker(to the ultra-fine stones) & gave it a good stropping.Now it'll treetop hairs.

I just don't like being lied to.I don't like to be played for a fool.I've been buying,selling,studying & using production folders long enough to know when one's been used or even carried for a week.

I sell & buy knives there...sometimes here.It has always been to my understanding that Brand New In Box means three things(please correct me if I'm wrong).
IT HAS NEVER BEEN USED,CARRIED OR SHARPENED.If it has any one of those,it's not BNIB.

This guys one of many on my "saved sellers" list NOT to buy from.He/She got me once,but lost any future business from me.
Fool me once,shame on you.Fool me twice shame on me.:o;)
 
You start great threads, but, geez, Confederate, AUS 6, AUS 4 or "Manufacturer may change specifications without notice," why even bother? I would not buy any knife without knowing the steel used. Ebay is a scary place. Yep, usually, it's OK, and it is a cheap place, usually. But you can get bit. I looked at buying an Extrema Ratio on Ebay, and the fakes outnumbered the legitimate knives, and I couldn't be sure of the legitimate ones.
 
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