My other eBay whine (s)

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Cattaraugus225

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Rare knife....but there are 14 current listings for the same knife. ;) It is either laziness, ignorance or dishonesty, none of which I appreciate.

While I am at it; another thing is the seller who gives a one sentence description and poor photos of the item he/she is selling, then have four or five paragraphs of their "rules" of what the will and will not do. Why would I want to do business with someone that spends that much ink telling me, up front, what a butt-head that they are?

Yea, I am cranky in my old age; it is one of the benefits that comes with being a septuagenarian. I have earned it and I will spend it!
 
Cattaraugus225 said:
Rare knife....but there are 14 current listings for the same knife. ;) It is either laziness, ignorance or dishonesty, none of which I appreciate.

While I am at it; another thing is the seller who gives a one sentence description and poor photos of the item he/she is selling, then have four or five paragraphs of their "rules" of what the will and will not do. Why would I want to do business with someone that spends that much ink telling me, up front, what a butt-head that they are?

Yea, I am cranky in my old age; it is one of the benefits that comes with being a septuagenarian. I have earned it and I will spend it!
Click to expand...

Both things happen here on the Exchange as well. More than a few threads in the Customs sales section where the lens on the seller's smartphone were smeared with chapstick or finger oils, obscuring the knives, and dude's like "XYZ Full dress custom, $1350 PPFF" and that's it. That's the entirety of the wording of the post.
 
Cattaraugus225 said:
Yea, I am cranky in my old age; it is one of the benefits that comes with being a septuagenarian. I have earned it and I will spend it!
Click to expand...
I am not too far behind depending on where you are in that path. I am not much of one to give advice; in many cases I am not qualified (experience means little these days, it's how many followers or posts that make credibility) or don't find the situation worth the time. So, that being said, two pieces of advice. Please ignore as needed!

1) Don't cast your pearls before swine. An oldie but goodie. You won't fix the distasteful system and methods you mention on ebay, here, or anywhere else. If you think it is a trap, scam, or just dishonest, stay away from it. I have an amigo that I see from time to time (83 years of cranky) that loves to tell me "you know, at your age you are old enough to know better!"

2) Stay off ebay. At one time, many years ago it was fun. I bought quite a few old German folding knives from the '50s - '70s and got some at a pretty good price. Now everything on there is "rare", "scarce", "antique", "LNIB except for a few scratches". Broken blades are translated to "reasonable wear due to age". Missing blades are "slight damage from use", and really broken pieces of crap are "needs slight repair, but other than that ready to go!".

My last purchase there was a old German branded "OWL" brand knife. I didn't pick up on the fact that it wasn't branded "Solingen" which my law means it met certain manufacturing and material supply standards. I got the knife, and it was perfect in just about every way. I was ecstatic! I contacted the seller to see if he was going to put other knives up for auction, specifically the OWL branded knife that was brand new. He told me he had no idea, he was a reseller/affiliate of the big knife seller in the Smokey Mountains. He was up front and honest; when they got another larges shipment in from China, they would call him and let him know what they had for sale. If there were more OWL branded knives there, he would call me.

Lesson learned. The knife was marketed as "German OWL brand" and had language like "OWL brand has been making knives for over 100 years" and never crossed the made in Solingen line, nor did they mark the knife or box with "Solingen". And truthfully, the guy I bought the knife from wasn't knife guy at all. He sold all other kinds of stuff like cheap/small high powered flashlights and camping odds and ends, he wasn't even trying to misrepresent his product and he took his ebay promo write up off the box and from the wholesale vendor.
 
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Cattaraugus225 said:
Rare knife....but there are 14 current listings for the same knife. ;) It is either laziness, ignorance or dishonesty, none of which I appreciate.

While I am at it; another thing is the seller who gives a one sentence description and poor photos of the item he/she is selling, then have four or five paragraphs of their "rules" of what the will and will not do. Why would I want to do business with someone that spends that much ink telling me, up front, what a butt-head that they are?

Yea, I am cranky in my old age; it is one of the benefits that comes with being a septuagenarian. I have earned it and I will spend it!
Click to expand...
About a year ago I bought a William Henry I had been looking for that was no longer in production. Seller had photos of it, and it looked new, which it was supposed to be,
It arrived in a banged-up box and was obviously used, and there were scratches on the scales. It was not the knife in his photos, and I took side-by-side photos to prove it. And he lied several times in his email. eBay took my evidence and immediately refunded my money.
 
I haven't had any bad experiences on ebay and I buy there somewhat regularly. That being said, I only buy from sellers that have a 100% rating and a substantial track record.
 
Ebay has instituted a "free" authentication service for used shoes, and for that I am thankful as a new school year approaches and our favorite company has become very proud of their running shoes. From the start, the company has always covered my back as buyer, not one failure following stated rules with sellers, and sellers know this.
Some rules I use: don't do business with anyone below 98 percent rating, hinky pictures are not truthful, no one with no or little sales history, must offer 30 days return, liberal use of "Contact Seller" feature as a prob tool- no reply or hinky - no business, filter thru ad types- "OBO" and "Ending Soonest" has yielded good results, look at bid histories and feedback to spot stinkers (but got a great used Kershaw Knockout second, from a guy who's feedback fell below 98% after long track record at 100%, our contacts gave me reason to try buying), document transaction out to 30 days using print to pdf or screenshots, specify USA or North America sellers only, look at at least a dozen ads within your parameters - you will learn things (got a lab grade Fluke with circuit n chip testing features, uncertified, but learned how to test unit by jumping out to web with word bank). How do others CYA?
 
I bought a lot of three SAKs and the seller sent completely different knives. I would not have cared but there was a scientist in the lot which i wanted. Ebay stepped in and refunded the amount and the shipping. The process was great and even though I returned the item I could not give the guy a bad review. You have to be careful on fleabay.
 
Cattaraugus225 said:
Rare knife....but there are 14 current listings for the same knife. ;) It is either laziness, ignorance or dishonesty, none of which I appreciate.

While I am at it; another thing is the seller who gives a one sentence description and poor photos of the item he/she is selling, then have four or five paragraphs of their "rules" of what the will and will not do. Why would I want to do business with someone that spends that much ink telling me, up front, what a butt-head that they are?

Yea, I am cranky in my old age; it is one of the benefits that comes with being a septuagenarian. I have earned it and I will spend it!
Click to expand...

EB "whines"?

One sentence description, poor or NO photos, 4-5 paragraphs of "rules" . . . ?? Sounds like BF to me.

And this thread is locked and you can only contact me via PM -- no 1st "I'll take it" will apply. Yeah that's BF. LOL! ;)
 
Ebay is only as good or bad as the individual people selling stuff. I've had both good and bad experiences, but even with the bad experience the powers that be at Ebay saw to it that I received a full refund.

When it comes to knives though, I don't consider Ebay a reliable source. Too much potential for counterfeits. And then there are all the "customs" that originate from Pakistan.
 
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