Opinions re: Buying on eBay?

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alecw

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Jan 11, 2002
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Just completed an exasperating experience buying two bowies on eBay. Beautiful knives but had to walk down the path of hell to get them. The guy said he would ship immediately if you sent a money order and would hold 7 days for a check. The auction ended on a Friday and I sent a postal money order via Priority (ya, right!) mail on the following Monday. I verified the money order was by some miracle delivered two days later. The guy lied by 5 days about when he received it and waited another week to mail them. All this after sparring back and forth and him calling me a liar...it got ugly.

Two lessons from this? Don't deal with anyone who won't take a credit card or PayPal and number 2, always pay attention to prior negative feedback. Discern the frequency of negative feedback and the nature of it. Was it a misunderstanding, or does it look like laziness, deception, and/or arrogance by the dealer?
 
Well, I have done some knife buying on eBay and most of them were positive experiences. However, once I had an experience very similar to yours. The seller received the payment via PayPal and didn't ship the knife until after 4 weeks... I got the knife nearly 7 weeks after the auction ended, and seller got a BAD feedback as a present from me... But eBay is still a pretty good place to shop, price-wise...
Just my 2 cents...
~Vess
 
...over the last two years, we've bought or sold nearly 100 knives on ebay, or through contacts we made on ebay...

The key here is to start emailing the seller as soon as you see something you're interested in.

You can learn alot about someone from their emails.

If the seller doesn't respond to your email request for info, (red flag #1), he/she doesn't really want to sell you the knife, so press on at that point...

Check their feedback, if you get a bad feeling at that point, (red flag #2), walk away from it...there'll be another one come along someday...

If you can, get the seller on the phone...if the emails are going well, but you're not sure, get the seller on the phone however you can.

If the call goes bad, which has happened to me about 5 times, (red flag #3), press on...

There are lots of ways to insure you don't get burned on ebay.

The knife community is extremely small, and bad word gets around fast. Work with people you know if you can, and return the favor by letting them know if you're planning to sell something....before you list it.

It'll come back to you in spades!

BOL in the future.
 
Thanks for the wisdom and experience! Please email me your eBay info if you have any active auctions and I'll check out your wares.
 
But, we're really not selling on ebay anymore.

We inherited a small knife resell business from my buddy Keith Brown a few years ago, and sold off the shop stock through ebay...

We used the proceeds of those sales to buy the knives that Keith had been collecting, in his memory, as a tribute to our friend.

We're building a Randall Made Knives (RMK) collection, an Al Mar (AMK)SERE collection, and an Applegate/Fairbairn collection.

Our needs are pretty specific right now. I think we're down to less than 10 knives needed (total) to finish those 3 collections, and the white handled A/F's are pretty darn rare... (you can do a search under "Knives wanted" to see what we still need)

We were 'gun people', so the knives were a real learning curve to get up to speed on. I think I've bought and read just about every darn book or magazine on knives that I could find...lol

The funny thing is, I got hooked on knives along the way too.

Anyhoo, we're holding back some trading stock for the upcoming show circuit, and only have a new Ryan Wilson #2 fixed blade tactical knife for trade at this time.
 
Buy and sell on EBAY all the time.Very pleasent experience most of the time.;)
 
I had a good experience buying the one knife that I have purchased on ebay. The experrience was good. I completely agree with Melvin on how to purchas properly there.
 
I have a bunch of buying and selling experience on eBay as well. As a buyer all my deals went through. Most are satisfactory, some are exceptional communication and shipping, and some are ambivalent and lazy. There was a comment that someone made about purchasing that has stuck in my head (and haunted me,too....) "It's not what's mentioned in a listing, but rather, what's NOT mentioned that you should be aware of." Absolutely true. "Assumption is the mutha' of all Fu**-ups"

Melvin makes good points, and this is so obvious in retrospect. Hard to employ in the emotion of a potential purchase, though. Sometimes you gotta take a chance. Ugghhhh.

As a seller, I am responsive to the nnnth degree. You got to talk to people quickly and give them their stuff. PayPal is a blessing for both ends.

Coop
 
The ONLY bad times I've had on e-bay was from NON-KNIFE people. You have to read the F/B, but then, sometimes that's really no help
 
I've done a lot of trading on e-bay and have had great satisfaction on all but one deal. If someone trys to burn you remember the old negative feed back. That negative feedback really sticks to a seller!:D
 
An example....That 'dink' MDBlades sold us a "Mint, New, Unused" Randall model #16 'Diver's knife' that somehow resharpened itself somewhere between Maryland and California... :rolleyes:

When we complained via email we got no response. 5 emails, 2 weeks, no response.

So, we left our one and only 'neutral' feedback, "Nice knife, complete with sharpening marks"

What did that stupid phucker do? He left us a freaking 'negative', and THEN emailed us to tell us that he'd done it!

Said we had "Besmerched" his good name...what a freaking 'Dink'

So, feedback often becomes 'tit-for-tat'...I sometimes question it's value. That said, email or phones work best for me as a guide.

And even then..."Ya just never know" :eek:
 
Melvin hit it again. The feedback system is not perfect. I have 100+ A+ with no neg's. But the MOMENT I send out a negative, it GUARANTEES one in return. It's inevitable. So..... I will hesitate to do that, regardless of my feelings. Everyone needs an honest appraisal of their transactions, but at what cost? MY goodstanding credibility relies on some dirtbag's thoughts too.

At least they give you the opportunity to respond, for whatever that's worth. I wish there was an outside arbitor for any negs.

Coop
 
I have never sold on E-bay, but only had one very strange buy experience. I bid $95.00 for a MOD hornet and apparently won the bid, but I never found the sale, and never got any mail. I would have jumped on a Hornet for $95.00:eek: :eek: I got negatived by the seller. oh well....

All my other "buying" experiences [maybe four] have been great....wolf
 
I have done at least a couple of hundred deals on Ebay without a single problem. I have done 6 deals on forums and 4 were bad. Last one I discounted and sold a knife to a forum guy and on three occasions detailed the knife desription and the fact that it was customized. He paid and received the knife an immediately emailed to say the knife had been re-worked and he was returning it. I reminded him that I had given him exact details of the work on the knife and his reply was,"OH YES I Remeber That" but it's not what I'm looking for. I sent him back his money and as this has happened before more than once, I will stick ewith Ebay.
 
Knifeman: Guess I'm just gonna have to be more patient with those lazy liars who hold on to your money and knives.
 
Every once in a while, I sell a batch of my old inventory at ebay. I have only had 2 no-shows on sales and my buys have gone without a hitch.

If I see a negative that makes sense to me, I do not bid. I would be quite reluctant to purchase an antique there unless I knew the seller.

Melvin's red flags are great. I would add another - If a seller is not willing to give you a period of time to return an expensive knife, I would steer away very quickly.

Most reputable knife dealers will give you a week or more.
 
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