Hey everyone, I need your advice. So there is this perfume on ebay I would LOVE to have. No one has bid on it yet, and it doesn't look like anyone will. If no one does, that could save me a little over $10 instead of buying it in a store. BUT, the seller is brand new, their feedback number is 0. What would you do? Take the chance on a new seller and save $10? Or just go buy the perfume in a store, spend the extra $10, and know that I have it in my hands? I'm kind of leaning toward the latter just because of the horror stories I've heard of sellers not sending stuff and taking your money!

Very good question, Meg. I have taken a chance on many new sellers and I've only been burned once. I was never able to get my money back either because the seller had no money in their account. In this case, I believe I'd just buy it in the store since we're not talking a whole lot of money. Or just keep your eye out for a good deal from another ebay seller. Good luck!

Hmm...everybody has to start off somewhere. But I'd be a little bit wary of a seller w/ no feedback. Normally I think people start off as a buyer to build up feedback & experience and then become sellers.

Also I'm going to do a slight thread hijack. What does everyone think about Ebay's new policies? I'm not a seller, but their new policies are making me less likely to consider selling on Ebay in the future.

as a former seller, you get the good and the bad with 0 feedback buyers.but usually if theres a bad seed out there, they wont be around for long.
as a buyer, which ive just joined in again.
ive only bought a couple of things, the first item, she could have told me no, which there are a lot of them who want you to email them first before bidding.
do what your gut tells you,

Well, I didn't end up bidding, and in the end 2 people actually did bid on it, so the ending price barely would have saved me even $7, so that's definitely not worth the risk at all. I'm glad I didn't bid, and hopefully I'll get my perfume at the store really soon!

quote:

Originally posted by Megan: Also I'm going to do a slight thread hijack. What does everyone think about Ebay's new policies? I'm not a seller, but their new policies are making me less likely to consider selling on Ebay in the future.

I am not all that familiar with selling on Ebay. I know a little, but I was wondering what the new policies are? I heard that they recently lowered the price of what it costs to list an item, but raised the percentage of what they take once the item has sold.

I would be a little cautious of someone with 0 feedback, but then again I guess everyone has to start somewhere. I think you did the right thing, since in the end it would have saved you only $7.00. If things wouldnt have worked out, $7.00 definitely wouldnt be worth the hassle.

Gizmo, the thing about Ebay's new policies I don't like is apparently sellers can't issue negative feedback anymore. Apparently this is to alleviate the problem of retaliatory feedback. I think I've heard that sellers can fill out a claim against non paying buyers, so that's not a problem, but there's a lot of buyers out there who claim an item is "fake" once they get it & it really isn't. Something tells me there has to be some other way to deal w/ the issue of retaliatory feedback other than eliminating the issuance of negative feedback.

Thanks Megan for the info. I didnt realize they had changed that. I agree with you, there has to be an easier way. That really doesnt seem fair at all.

I am not a seller on eBay, but I think the change in the feedback system is completely unfair. There are just as many dishonest buyers as there are sellers.
Also, I noticed a change in my feedback number today, it went up by almost 40.
My feedback score is still 100% though, whereas some people's went down, because they incorparate the neutrals in the calculation now.

I haven't sold on ebay in quite a while but I agree that the new system seems a little one sided. I wonder what the thought process was behind that?

I wouldn't trust sellers with no considerable feedback.

I agree Jennifer but that's a two way street. A lot of new bidders don't know the process and have a higher rate of non payment. That's why the feedback system should work both ways.

Here's a tip:
I always read all the negative feedback of a seller. Some are given by very unreasonable and impatient buyers. They sometimes leave feedback the very same day the auction ended asking where their items are.
If you go to www.toolhaus.org, you can type in the name of the seller, and filter out all the negatives and neutrals.
HTHS.

Also, did anyone get invited to participate in eBay's reward program? I signed up, and already earned $2.
Ebay's been very good about sending me $10 off or 10% codes too in the last few months too.

Fryl,
Do you know how I can still sign up for the rewards? I get email from the regularly, but rarely ever take the time to read them. Thanks!

Redhead, I think you have to be invited by eBay.
They would have sent you an e-mail and you'd have to sign up through it. I don't know if there's another way to do it. You may want to google to find out. Hope that helps.

Fryl,
Thanks for the info. I'll have to go through the old emails. I hardly ever read that stuff anyway.

Thanks for the link to the site that allows you to filter out all of a seller's negatives and neutrals, Fryl. I know that will come in handy at some point in the future and probably would've a few times in the past too.

Redhead, I don't read all the emails eBay sends either. I just try to skim as many as I find time for and make my way through them as often as I can, but I always get behind and end up deleting. I actually created a separate email for eBay, because once I started buying, selling, AND got the emails they send my main email address got way too cluttered. Now, I feel like things are much more organized, but when I have a long period of time of no activity on eBay that second address gets neglected as I hardly ever check it. Hopefully I'm not missing anything too important when that happens...

Recently they sent me a toll free number to use if I ever have any questions/problems or need help. It's another thing you have to be invited to use and create a PIN to access. I don't think I got an invitation for the rewards program though.