SillyDog701

[Subir]

I just purchased my first ever item from eBay, using PayPal (Debit Card). I only purchased from eBay as I could not find the item I was looking for anywhere else.

I was just wondering if it is safe to buy from eBay?

I don't plan on buying a lot of things from eBay, just the things I can't find anywhere else.

I don't want to sell any of my stuff on eBay either (I use the Amazon Marketplace instead).

The buyer from which I bought the item from has had nothing but positive feedback (that sort of reassured me), but he did insist on immediate payment via PayPal (Debit Card). Is this normal?

Do you think I will be OK???

Thanks, any help is much appreciated!

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[profman]

I just purchased my first ever item from eBay, using PayPal (Debit Card). I only purchased from eBay as I could not find the item I was looking for anywhere else.

I was just wondering if it is safe to buy from eBay?

I don't plan on buying a lot of things from eBay, just the things I can't find anywhere else.

I don't want to sell any of my stuff on eBay either (I use the Amazon Marketplace instead).

The buyer from which I bought the item from has had nothing but positive feedback (that sort of reassured me), but he did insist on immediate payment via PayPal (Debit Card). Is this normal?

Do you think I will be OK???

Thanks, any help is much appreciated!

Good feedback for a seller is the best reassurance that a buyer has. Also, many sellers demand that you use PayPal for at least two good reasons:

1. A PayPal payment is either impossible or very difficult to cancel compared to credit cards for which payments are easily canceled. The seller, therefore, has less to fear from a PayPal payment. On the downside, this also means that you probably do not have the force of protection that a credit card company may give you for recovering payments.

2. PayPal is now owned by e-bay so e-bay makes it very convenient for sellers to use this method of accepting payments.

I've bought several items off of e-bay from sellers with good ratings. I have never been cheated, although I have dealt with a couple of fairly "weird" sellers, one of whom disappeared shortly after I received my purchase. You may always complain to e-bay about problems, and e-bay has some sort of insurance on more expensive purchases, although I hear its hard to prove your loss to e-bay's satisfaction.

In short, be careful, check feedback (especially the bad feedbacks), check how the seller communicates back to you after an inquiry about the product, and be absolutely sure that the item's description absolutely nails down any details that are important to you. [It does me no good if I mistakenly purchase the wrong model of a motherboard.] Check the price against retail and on-line outlets, and be certain of the shipping and handling charges which sometimes may be quite high. Some sellers offer conditional guarantees while many offer the product "as is." Finally, be ready to possibly be scammed with limited means of recovery of your money.

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[Subir]

Thanks for all the information profman!

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[kswamyhema]

i have been ebay power seller for more than 3 years now and it is a great marketplace to buy and sell everything.

You can get things very cheap and you can get things that are very rare........

you can sell almost anything....

BUT WHATEVER YOU DO ON EBAY, YOU MUST FOLLOW THE SAFETY TIPS FOR EBAY:
many websites talk about pages and pages about ebay safety tips. The one that i like the most, because it is short , and to the point:
http://www.internetGuru.co.nr/ebay.htm

8-)

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[James]

I used it once; never again. The risks far outweigh the benefits as far as I'm concerned. To each his own and my decision is to make purchases from reputable corporations rather than individuals about whom I know nothing. Saving a few bucks just isn't worth the trade-off: being scammed.

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[Mandrake]

I've bought and sold in well over eighty transactions on eBay, I've only ever had one problem with a pathetic seller. There's a thread on this forum about that from a few months back.

Profman included some excellent advice, checking the feedback and so forth. It's important to remember that the overwhelming majority of people are honest sellers and buyers on eBay, just like yourself.

It's also noteworthy that eBay recently announced some important changes. The major one is that sellers can no longer leave negative or neutral feedback to buyers. This means that buyers can, and should, leave honest feedback about a seller without fear of reprisal. That's exactly what happened to me. I bought some computer components from an awful seller who didn't make any effort at all to package the fragile components appropriately and they were damaged in transit to me. The seller offered a refund then refused, and tried to run me around in circles. After a while I gave in, reported him to eBay and left negative feedback. As expected he left retaliatory negative feedback even though I had done nothing at all wrong. The seller eventually relented and issued a refund, after I threatened to involve my bank to get the money back. (As I had paid with a bank transfer, not with PayPal.)

The second only involves eBay Australia, but could well be extended throughout the world in time. That is, from mid May it was mandatory for all sellers to accept Paypal payments in addition to cheques, bank transfers and so on. Then, from late June, only PayPal would be accepted though with a few exceptions. For instance, if I bought a desk on eBay, I could still pay in cash when I went to pick up the desk.

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[Dylan550]

ebay is a completely safe way of buying & selling products over the internet, and is used by a lot of people nowadays to get rare items or good deals on items, but recently i have been annoyed because I saw these really cool looking nike air max 95's, & I'm only allowed to buy cheap items off there (due to the fact that I am 14 & have to ask for permission), & they were £49.99, quite expensive, I had the money for them, but I wasn't allowed to purchase the item because it was too expensive for my parents liking, so I'm just going to have to wait until I'm 18 to purchase such good items, but atleast I can buy some items (up to the price of £10)

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