What is Your eBay "Comfort Zone"?

braddick

After spotting the coin you're looking for and agreeing to the terms and conditions of the auction, how far do you investigate the Seller? A simple and quick feedback check? Do you look further at the feedback? In other words, do you check to see what items the Seller has sold before or see if he is mostly a buyer and not a seller?
What is important to you? At what point are you pretty satisfied the Seller is honest? 50 feedbacks? 100? No Negatives? Or, is the occassional Negative acceptable to you, but only after you read what the feedback was for?
I'm sure much of the above depends on the purchase price, but lets say, whatever that is, it is toward the upper end of what you like to spend on any single coin.

MastaHanky

I rarely even check their feedback rating, to tell you the truth.

But I rarely buy items that cost over $50 on eBay, so if I DO get ripped, it's not a huge loss.

I guess I have a high comfort level.

FC57Coins

Generally I purchase items from individuals who have more or less an established business. This caught my attention when I was reading your text and thought about the fact that I rarely buy from individuals with less than 50 transactions. If I do buy from an individual, as opposed to an organization, I'll check their feedback - but only to see what they've done in general terms, I don't drill down too much. In the over 100 transactions that I've had with ebayers I've never been ripped off, and only once did I have a non paying customer.

Frank

UncleJoe

Ditto FC57Coins.

In addition I would add NO pic, NO bid. I will not base a bidding decision solely on a description (of course we're talking about individual coins as opposed to bulk lots)

Now for a confession. I sometimes submit auctions for a small group of low-rent coins without a pic (time, effort etc.) and have been pleased with the results. However, I also would like to think that I am relatively conservative in my grading and I don't sell damaged coins without disclosing that in the description.

So far in over 100 transactions, mostly as seller, I have had only two auctions that needed resolution. The first was with me as buyer. I received a small lot of buffalo nickels which was supposed to have included a 1924-S in VG. When I received the coins there was a 1924 but on the reverse were a couple af small cuts where the mintmark should be and at first glance looked like an S. However there was no mintmark it was a 1924-P. I contacted the seller and described the above and asked him what could he suggest to make us both happy. He suggested either return the whole lot for a full refund or if I keep the coins that he would send me a $7. refund which I accepted.

I wrote the above to point out that I could have posted a topic here about how I got ripped off by some sleazy e-bay seller and negged him and so on and so on. But if you let cooler heads prevail more often than not that faceless buyer/seller is a real person with real feelings and not necessarily trying to rip you off. Most people will do the right thing given the opportunity. (yes, the others' exist but this message board and your own experience will help you avoid those buyer/sellers)

The second time I was the seller. The buyer contacted me to tell me that the coin I sent him had been cleaned. He wrote in his e-mail that he would not leave me a Neutral or a Negative and would be returning the coin for a refund per my 7 day return policy. When I received the coin, I agrred with him that the coin looked like it may have been lightly cleaned at one time and I refunded him all his money including S&H since I felt it was my fault for not having noticing and describing the cleaning. When the buyer received his full refund, he left me POSITIVE feedback. Again, the buyer could have jumped to conclusions and decided I was trying to rip him off and neg me but he didn't. He was made whole and he left me a positive. (By the way, I always leave positive feedback when I receive payment. Yes, that may leave me open but I think it is the only right thing to do, after all, somebody has to go first.)

Wow, I'm going to have to cut down on my coffee.

Joe.

DHeath

Interesting question. I may be the exception here, but I prefer buying from individuals. I've always believed the odds were better of finding a bargain. I never believed anyone who sold coins professionally would be as likely to sell below market. As for the feedback, if the seller has less than 100 transactions, I look for no negs and certainly any more than one or two will cause me not to bid. If there were negs, I'm interested not only in what the buyer said, but in the sellers response. If the seller handles a legitimate complaint in a fair spirited way, I'm more likely to purchase from them. If the seller has 500 transactions, 8 or 10 negs is acceptable. I believe their odds of finding that many trouble buyers is reasonable.

beartracks42

I pretty much agree with what has been said above. I do not buy without a picture and usually not from newer sellers. If the coin is high end/high price, I will not bid unless there is a stated return policy and the seller accepts credit cards. I have had a couple of transactions where my credit card company was the only saving grace. One of them was to get my money back from PAYPAL.

hookooekoo

So far I'm only a buyer (havn't had much luck as a seller). Because of the very real potential for fraud, I treat every eBay purchase as if I'm going to get taken (i.e. I don't risk money I can't afford to lose). This pretty much means I've limited myself to purchases below $200 (because with eBay's insurance policy, I'm really only putting $25 at risk).

Staying within that $200 mark, some of my best deals have been with sellers with very low feedback because there seems to be so many bidders who will skip any seller with a feedback of less than X.

As an example, I won the dime shown in my icon from a Canadian seller who had a feedback of about 15, with only about 3 of those as a seller, and never before had he sold a coin. I picked up what I consider a beautiful XF coin at a very low VF price.

nwcs

I'll generally look at the feedbacks and the quality of them. I'm more wary of few feedbacks (<30) but depends on what it is I'm getting. I sometimes look at the type of things the seller sells. So far I've been overall happy with the transactions I've been in although a few of the coins were not what they were advertised to be and some sellers were slow.

stman

Myself like some others have stated usually buy fom someone I know. The few transactions I've had on Ebay I always check feedback. I will scroll down some and check some of the listings.
Will also check how and if the seller leaves feedback for the buyer.

One thing that will make me not bid is if I use the ask the seller a question feature and they do not answer my question. I understand they could be busy or on vacation but I need an answer to bid.

Clankeye

<< <i>If there were negs, I'm interested not only in what the buyer said, but in the sellers response. If the seller handles a legitimate complaint in a fair spirited way, >>



I am totally with Don on this. I look real hard at the way people respond to negative feedback, and the way they give it. I often am more leery of those posting the negative feedback than the seller, depending on the shrillness of the message and the way it is handled by the recipient. If a seller has a few negatives, and he has responded to them in a measured, mature way, that is actually a plus for him in my book.

Russ

<< <i>Interesting question. I may be the exception here, but I prefer buying from individuals. >>



Don,

Exception number two here. Frankly, when I see "Power Seller" after clicking in to an auction listing when scouring proof sets, I assume that I'd be buying picked over junk.

Russ, NCNE

dorkkarl

i admit to being dumbed-down on this 1. i don't check feedback for neg's, & sometimes don't even realize what the feedback level is. have bought some higher priced items, too.

K S

relayer

If the price of the item is over a few hundred dollars, I look at the feedback to see if the seller has sold other higher priced coins.

mbbiker

I don't buy very expensive stuff off e-bay most of it is under 50 bucks. low feedback=better deals, no pics dosn't bother me i just l lower my bid a little. I only won 1 item that didn't have a pic. the seller described it as a 1798 large cent in AG+ condition. I needed one for my type set so i bid $20 and won it. After getting it in the mail it was a no problems VG Maybe i got lucky but so far i havn't had any problems on e-bay.

Flash

I first check the sellers shipping, payment, and return policies. No return policy, no bid. I will only bid in auctions in which the seller accepts payment via Paypal w/Credit Card. I look at the picture. A poor quality picture or no picture at all, no bid. Then I check out the seller's feedback. If the seller has a relatively low feedback count, then any negative feedback will cause me not to bid. If they have a high feedback count then a few negatives are ok as long as none of them are recent. I read most, if not all, the seller's feedback.. especially the negative ones. I then check out the feedback and participated auctions of those individuals that left the seller negative feedback in order to see if that person is just proned to leaving negative feedback at the drop of a hat. I check to see what the seller has sold in the past. If this auction I'm considering is the first coin-related auction for the seller, I won't bid. And finally, if I'm still in doubt, I will ask about the seller in this forum.

Other than that, I don't really care who I buy from.

Neptune

I check feedback rating, and if they have a neg, I then go read it - if only one, I figure it could have just been a problem Buyer. I won't buy from folks with multiple negs, no matter how good of a deal. I then check shipping charges, pics and sometimes do a search on other auctions current running and those that have ended to see what items actually sold for if comparable - and to see what type of items they sell. I generally try to buy more than one item from a Seller, if they have anything I am interested in, so that I can combine my shipping charges and save a few bucks.

I am with DHeath, as I prefer to buy from individuals, chances are better for finding a good deal. I do prefer that they have at least "sold" before and that they have at least 20+ feedback rating. Sometimes I check out the competition too, if it is an item I really want.

Dave99B

I always check feedback. Always.... I've seen a couple dealers go bad in a hurry.

I'm not so much interested in what people have said. I'm more interested in when he/she opened their eBay account, and how many negs they have. I like to deal with people with a rating over 200, that have been around a while.

Dave