eBay story

If you're high bidder and bid higher it only increases your reserve bid not the actual bid. The seller also doesn't have access to see the reserve bid so I'm not sure how your friend knew what the bidder was doing. The bidder who bid 28k may have found the bike for less money and decided to cancel his bids. If he wasn't able to cancel and changed his mind the transaction wouldn't go through anyway. Also, I've increased my reserve many times, on an item, if I thought I might lose it. If your friend is happy with 22k then sell the bike and move on. If he didn't want to sell the bike at 22k then he should have had a higher reserve. That said the two bidders may have been working together to get the bike at a lower price. However, the bid must be cancelled with in 12 hours of the end of the auction and if other potential buyers were watching the bike they would be notified and could then bid the bike up again.

I've been on Ebay since 99 with 561 positives. I've never had any problem to speak of. I think it's silly not to use Ebay because of one possible bad experience. Ebay gives your item the potential to be seen my millions of people. it's a brilliant site that isn't perfect and has no competition.

Hey Trader, my thoughts exactly. If he had 22k as his initial offering and can receive 22k...take it and move on. Scam or no scam, 28k is lots of money and that bidder likely got cold feet.

I had a $3850 bid on a car I was selling while back reduced by $500 for roughly the same reason. Still made out better than a local classified or CL.

I haven't logged into my Ebay account for a few years now. I have also not logged into my Paypal account either. Mainly because they had sent me an email that "someone" tried to log into my account and changed my password. That "someone" was me. So, I acknowledged it and corrected the problem. Then they sent me another email demanding I send them a copy of my driver's license as proof that I was the owner of the account. I told them to F off after that and haven't touched the account since. I've changed bank accounts too.

traderfjp wrote:However, the bid must be cancelled with in 12 hours of the end of the auction and if someone watches the bike of bids on it they will be notified that the bike is closing and that the price went down.

That's not what happened here. There was 12 hours and 20 minutes left when he cancelled all his bids. I was watching the auction and I got no notice that the price had dropped. The reason he is not accepting 22 thousand is because others had said they were going to bid, but did not because this auction was obviously tainted. Even eBay said the auction was tainted and that's why they gave his insertion fee back.

mozz wrote:Paypal takes another 3% i think? I am about ready to drop them, go back to postal money orders only.

Foor the most part Ebay does not allow that. They closed one auction I placed because I put "money orders accepted" and sent me a nasty gram "You can only accept Paypal for that item". For certain things you can accept a money order but it takes a Philadelphia lawyer to figure it out.

My brother has bought and sold cars on eBay successfully. He says he relies on reputation -- he deals only with sellers who have a lot of transactions and excellent feedback. Don't know how he screens buyers.

Interesting about PayPal. I have always been scared of them. My PayPal account is tied to my credit card, where (in theory) I have recourse by having my bank charge back to PayPal in case of a dispute. But PayPal keeps trying to get my checking account number. Now I understand why -- in a dispute they could just suck out the money and what recourse would I have?

I discussed that with my bank once. I was astonished to hear that the bank would honor ANY electronic debit, from ANYBODY, against my account, and I would have to dispute it after the fact. It seems really odd that they can do that without some sort of pre-authorization from me as to whose debits are allowed.

rberq wrote: I was astonished to hear that the bank would honor ANY electronic debit, from ANYBODY, against my account, and I would have to dispute it after the fact.

And that's why I went to a bank that I had never done business with and opened a checking account that is my Paypal account. I keep $100 in there, that's it. I would never, ever, let Paypal have a finger in my real checking account. Also, at my real bank with my real checking account I have it in writing that no one can electronically remove money from my account unless I come to the bank in person and sign permission. Once every ten years it's inconvenient as I can not phone the bank and tell them to wire money someplace but I feel safer this way.

Freddy wrote:

rberq wrote: I was astonished to hear that the bank would honor ANY electronic debit, from ANYBODY, against my account, and I would have to dispute it after the fact.

And that's why I went to a bank that I had never done business with and opened a checking account that is my Paypal account. I keep $100 in there, that's it. I would never, ever, let Paypal have a finger in my real checking account. Also, at my real bank with my real checking account I have it in writing that no one can electronically remove money from my account unless I come to the bank in person and sign permission. Once every ten years it's inconvenient as I can not phone the bank and tell them to wire money someplace but I feel safer this way.

Smart move. I need to get my bank account removed from paypal too.

Like I said, been with eBay for quite some time. Paypal for about as long. I don't champion them, as I have heard (and have seen by some of their rules) that they are on the other side of the tracks politically, as a company, from where I stand ... but it puts cash in my pocket. Pays for the fines & taxes of everyday Massachusetts life ... at least partially.

Never had a problem with either one ..... but I know a few of my buddies who screwed up some shipments, being rookies, and had cash extorted from their accounts with no due process ... not unlike our current government systems today. Makes me want to bail ... but I sell so much junk ... gotta roll with the enemy to get what I need .. for now I guess.

EBay & Paypal fees make it hard to turn a profit, so most of my stuff ends up on Craigslist for months and months and months. Don't much like using them either. That chicken's foot symbol they use is a red flag ... but free is hard to beat. Just got to deal with hippies flagging your ads if you scare them too much, and calls from 40 year old virgins from their mom's basement.

SMITTY wrote:most of my stuff ends up on Craigslist

On Craigslist, do you post your phone number, or your email, or both?

For my Craigslist stuff i never post my phone number or my "real" email but use a dummy email in yahoo that i set up specifically for this type of use. you should see all the spam it gets!

Once I weed through the emails and get to the serious buyers then I give them my phone number.

Craigslist is the wild west of online classifieds. There are too many scams going on there. Many are way transparent and easy to detect. Paypal wasn't so kind with me as the buyer when I put in a dispute. I paid a painter 50.00 to do a sample of a paint effect I wanted for a motorcycle. The guy did the paint sample but then sent me a picture from a 3 year old camera phone that was horrible. I couldn't tell a thing from that photo. I asked him to borrow a camera and take some more pics. He sent another pic but it looked to be from the same camera just re-sized larger. He promised me he would get me better pics. After two weeks of waiting and nothing I disputed the charge. Paypal ruled in his favor. They never contacted me to verify my story it's all done online. The numbnut told me that he had already paid his friend 50.00 to take the pics. Who in their right mind would pay 50.00 for this and who would charge a friend 50.00 to photograph a piece of sheet metal. It was an obvious lie. I said send me the pic and I'll drop the dispute. He never sent it. In summary, Paypal doesn't always side with the buyer as I lost my 50.00. I wu dhave even split the cost..So he lost me as a customer, all my motorcycle friends as a customer and ......Jerk

rberq wrote:do you post your phone number, or your email, or both?

titleist1 wrote:For my Craigslist stuff i never post my phone number or my "real" email

Funny how different people do different things. I put my phone number on Craigs list and say "Phone calls ONLY, I will not respond to email...too many scams & spam." And, I follow Craigslist one tip: All sales are done in person. I send no money I ship no goods. I've had issues with eBay, but never Craigslist. Well... before I started the no email policy I had my share of attempted scams & spam, but the scammers must read because since I now only accept phone calls, I get zero Craigslist spam.

Freddy wrote:the scammers must read because since I now only accept phone calls, I get zero Craigslist spam.

I get lots of obviously-canned email responses to Craigslist, the ones that say "Do you still have the item? I'm interested!"
Not, "Do you still have the [whatever I advertised]", just "the item".
I can only conclude there is a spammers market where you can sell verified email addresses, so these inquirers want to get a real address rather than the pseudo- address plugged in by Craig.

I think I'll convert to your phone-calls-only policy, Fred.

I've been cleaning up the garage & getting ready to sell some stuff but now I'm thinking I might just take it to an auction house.