does anyone else get a bad feeling looking at EBAY auctions?? I really dont think i can buy from there. durring this era of Barrett Jackson record prices, i really think people will do anything to get more for a car. I think im going to buy a car at a show or off craigslist or somewhere i can at least look at it in person before buying. My main question is: how come every car i look at on ebay has a high bidder with a name like ... f***m, or d***d ,always a letter with *** then another letter. I mean 80% of the auctions i see have this going on. a few months ago the high bidder was always: bidder1, or bidder5, or something like that. these have to be fake bids to bid up auctions, or something dishonest. Anyone else noticed this????

 

THAT auction site has added a level of anonymity for its customers. The *** names or "bidder#" are a result of this.

I bought my car on ebay and feel I got a good deal. The key is to buy something close and get agreement from the seller up front that if there is anything you can find that is not as described then you can opt out of the purchase. Then proceed to ask lots of questions.

 

The **** are for the bidders who wish to be anonymus. Dont really know if it an optional thing or not. Peace,,,Moosie

 

That is ebay's attempt at providing some security to the bidders (bidder 1, etc), and it also keeps other people from trying to contact the bidders with other (possibly similar) items for sale on the side.

I had a very pleasant ebay buying experience when I bought my '71 last winter. I'm a firm believer in obeying your "spider sense" though.

If you're not getting that warm fuzzy feeling, walk away.

 

I have purchased and sold cars and bikes on ebay. There are dishonest sellers as well as buyers. Their feedback is gives you an idea, but when buying a car, use these basic guidelines:

Only buy a local vehicle you can look at.
Expect the worst.
Be patient, if you end up in a bidding war with someone, let it go.
Decide ahead of time, what's the maximun you'd pay, and don't bid over that limit.
Pay in cash, in person, when you pick it up.
Check with the wife first.
Picture yourself six months down the road, with this heap on the side of your house, with you leaning on the fender, pockets turned inside out. If you picture yourself still smiling, buy it!

 

eBay has recently instituted some new security measures. Any time an auction gets above a certain price (I think it's $300), the real bidder names are replaced with those starred-out names.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people complain about things without doing any research first.

 

Ive bought a lot of hard to find parts for my 74, and have had no problems so far. Unfortunatly, in the last couple of weeks some one has been trying to phish my password and borrow my identity. Thats the downfall of 100% positive feedback. Im thinking about starting a new ebay identity to rectify this problem. It just shows you its like real life, you have some good people and not so good. Its just life.

 

I sold a Snap-on tool box for over a grand (ended Sunday, gone on Tuesday). No numbers, no stars, all the bidders used their "real" names.

Shills running up the price are at every auction since the first one. Nothing unique to fleabay. /:\

 

Absolutely right. Ebay was concerned about people being contacted with phony "Second Chance" offers on some auctions. Im not sure what the criteria is (bid amount, reserve amount, something like that) but on higher priced items they went from "bidder1" to w***h, which I believe is the real first and last intital of the bidder name, for anonymity and protection of the bidders.

All the crap about "fleabay" and "evil bay" is just that... BS. Ive bought and sold cars there, and I have over 800 positive responses and there's no more crooks there than every other place you buy used cars. All the phish stuff is completely saturating the Internet, not just ebay.

 

Absolutely incorrect. Look at more auctions than just cars.

 

I have bought many items from ebay and only got burned once and that was my fault, buying an item that usually sells for $175 for $29 from a seller with no feedback. I took a chance and lost the item was verified as counterfeit, but I got my money back through the credit card company.

If you feel uneasy don't buy, if it looks too good to be true it is a fraud usually

 

I have bought and sold on eBay and feel it a great tool to market or sale an item and get more exposure for them.

It is also good to get an idea of what is being sold and what is not, and an idea if more people are selling.
Note: Sellers also may use other methods of distribution which may not be reflective of the market as a whole, but it gives a person researching products (especially harder to find items) an idea.

When I had a project mustang fastback I was price guaging shaker assemblies, I felt the prices were representative of its value.

 

No offence but I think that is over stating. Lots of people have been ripped off on Ebay.

And what about the countless scams? "67 Corvette Mint... BIN $9,500" Yeah people should know better but I've seen those BS auctions run for days before they were removed.

There are also plenty of dealers and sellers with a lot of complaints in their feedback from angry people who feel they were shafted.

Ebay does have some fraud protection, which is great, but it's probably a while before anything gets resolved if you have a claim.

People just need to be careful.

 

My opinion is that "lots of people" and "countless scams" is overstating.

I never said ebay is a safe haven. I'm in law enforcement... people lie EVERYWHERE and steal EVERYWHERE. If I had to calculate the problems I had buying out of the Corvette Buyers Guide ads to my transactions on ebay, I would say the print ads represented a much, much higher percentage of fraud. Those instances sometimes ended with a cop telling me, "sorry Man." The one no-delivery problem I had was covered by ebay in a couple of weeks and I was reimbursed $175.

Lots of "complaints" on ebay are BS by the buyers, usually unreasonable people who shouldnt be allowed to buy or post feedback. (disclaimer... I have 100% positive since 1997.) And the "countless scams/$9500 BIN?" Its the same scam. Over and over. If some idiot falls for that in this day and age (along with the phish stuff and the Nigerian scams) they shouldn't be allowed outside the house without a parent.

Totally agree to have to be careful and I would never buy a car sight unseen. However, that is a general rule anyone should take to protect themselves, and is not the least bit overrepresented on ebay.

I'm really sick of the overblowing of problems on ebay, mostly from people who have very little experience there.

 

Pretty good advice....

I always email the seller prior to bidding, asking the pertinent detail questions and setting forth a couple conditions:

1. NO deposit money will be sent.
2. I reserve the right to have the vehicle inspected by a third party prior to payment.


The honest seller will respond in short order, and will generally be accepting of the fact that I will not send money to someone I don't know, as well as accept the fact that I would want to actually do a physical inspection of the car.

The dishonest seller will usually not even bother responding, and will definitely not accept these conditions as that person is usually misrepresenting the item in question.


I don't do the same with regards to small parts purchases and haven't had any issues there. But then again, small parts can most often be bought locally* for little more, and sometimes less, anyway.


* Most Mr Gasket, etc, etc, can be had locally for less than Jeg's, Summit and many Ebay auctions. Been there, done that....

 

I have a pretty high feedback rating on eBay from both buying and selling, and I've been burned exactly once. For about $15. I recently had one problem that was cleared up after a few days - for some reason my email's spam filter was eating emails from the seller.

 

I've been on ebay since 1998, have a rating of 2600 and thats about 5000 transactions. About once a year I run into an idiot or someone trying some underhanded slight of hand. I just use the tools ebay supplies. I don't really care about the other bidders identities. I used to get all sorts of offers post-auction for 'similar' items I may have been out bid on. Of course the one time I took the guy up on the deal, I got burned, so this is a nice feature.

As Vettebuyer5869 later touches on, most of the whining and complaining I've had to deal with comes from newbies. I recently sold a cd box set, was paid and shipped it the next morning (she paid for media mail). The very next day the lady wanted to know why she didnt have it yet and started rumblings of problems. Having experienced this scenario in the past from a newbie, I had pitched in the extra buck for priority mail. She had her cd's in 3 days. After she left feedback I sent her an email explaining what to expect in her future endeavors as far as the USPS is concerned.

 

Your in Law Enforcement and you say this? What type of law enforcement are you in? I guess if you think a guy is an idiot after he was taken advantage of its his tough luck? Wow, and we wonder why we are in the shape we are in in this country!...LT

 

I really think that you are misunderstanding vettebuyer, at first read it appears that you have the correct assumption, read it again and think about it. Peace,,,Moosie

 

O Boy, Me Bad, I must have got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I just get aggrevated with folks saying they are somewhere in law enforcement then say things like that. Maybe he is a security guard at wal mart, who knows..........LT