Ebay Experiences?

[Sojourner]

This will be a thread about any experiences you've had--good or bad--with eBay vendors. Here's mine...

Recently bought a bunch of late-'90s P&G Attends from eBay vendor jaideegirl:

Product: 5, exactly as described, even threw in 2 generic samples unexpectedly.

Price: 4, a bit pricey but that's P&G Attends, they're simply no longer available.

Shipping: 4, discreet, undamaged, timely, a bit pricey.

Communication: 1, won't respond to requests for feedback return. Her prior auctions show she doesn't leave feedback for others, excepting one buyer.

Total: 3.50 out of 5. Her refusal to return feedback hurt the mutual experience. It matters. Communication means a lot.

Also, a purchase of a few hyper-rare 1992 P&G Attends from eBay vendor joshuatree4u2:

Product: 5, exactly as described, immaculate condition.

Price: 4, pricey, but again, they're P&G Attends. Ya wanna play, yer gonna pay.

Shipping: 4, packed well and discreet; pricier than need be.

Communication: 5, quick, effective; excellent feedback return.

Total: 4.50 out of 5. Pretty darn good experience. Not perfect but rather happy with it.

[beallucanb]

I buy many items at ebay, none of them are ab or diaper related, but I always get what I bought in the quality it was suppose to be.

If you deal on eb deal thru pay pal, this gives you a much better chance to get your money back if you are unhappy with your purchase.

Like anything you buy anywhere make sure you have the right product before you plop your money down.

[Loveable_guy]

My last Ebay purchase was five pair of vinyl pants in a transparent blue. Not the quality of Suprima but for the price it’s a good purchase. Delivery was under two weeks from China. Here is the link for the product and seller.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5x-ADULT-BABY-SNAP-PLASTIC-PANTS-Silver-New-P004-/270852495928?_trksid=p3286.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D5337370410048786123

[Bettypooh]

Nothing but good words for sellers of ABDL item's I've bought on Ebay, but:

1- I don't buy 'vintage' or unusual stuff; only new or recent production diapers, plastic and rubber panties, and birdseye diapers.

2- I don't buy from anyone without a histiory there; If they've sold 3 items I pass them by for someone who has sold 300.

3- I check feedback before buying; anything suspicious and I'm going elsewhere.

4- I usually do "Buy It Now" so I know the price; auctions are just for running up the price sellers get so I won't bid unless I must.

5- I look at other stuff they're selling; if they are out-of-line elsewhere I get suspicious and leave.

6- Check their shipping prices and policies carefully- repeat- check their shipping prices and policies carefully. Got it?

There are two sellers there who occasionally have a particular style of rubber panties I like that I can't find anywhere else. They charge a fair price for them, not a rip-off, so I am happy to get those there. Other than the above I have always been able to find the same things cheaper by buying from the company who makes them or from an online store who gets volume discounts they don't. It's Ebay and Paypal policies that I detest which have driven me away from there- and that's not the seller's fault. I've been burned on Ebay, but not by the ABDL sellers I've bought from; that has been other things. Follow my 'rules' and you should be OK.

Bettypooh

[Dirty Diaper/Maxipad Lover]

2- I don't buy from anyone without a histiory there; If they've sold 3 items I pass them by for someone who has sold 300.

3- I check feedback before buying; anything suspicious and I'm going elsewhere.

4- I usually do "Buy It Now" so I know the price; auctions are just for running up the price sellers get so I won't bid unless I must.

5- I look at other stuff they're selling; if they are out-of-line elsewhere I get suspicious and leave.

6- Check their shipping prices and policies carefully- repeat- check their shipping prices and policies carefully. Got it?

Bettypooh, mostly good advice here, but I have to disagree with at least part of it.

2. If people don't buy from new sellers, they don't get the feedback they need to become "regular" sellers, and they don't get the detailed seller ratings that they need which are tied directly to the fees that they pay. I'm more interested in how long a person has been an eBay member and what their feedback percentage is then I am with how many people have bothered to leave feedback. If an eBay member has 25 feedback ratings an a 100% positive score, I'll go with them over the person who has a 95% positive rating and feedback totaling in the hundreds or thousands. Even if the person with 25 feedback ratings has never sold anything before, I know that they've paid for what they've bought and am willing to trust them. I define "low" feedback history as fewer then 10 ratings--I don't care what color the star is, I just want to see one next to a person's name.

3. This is a mixed bag in my eyes. If a person has a rating below 90% I won't buy from them, and if I can find the same item from someone who has a rating that's higher, I'll buy from them, even if the first seller had a feedback rating of 500 and the second seller only has a feedback rating of 50. I won't buy from anyone whose negative(s) total more then 5 either, or anyone whose monthly negatives total more then 3. I'll also check the feedback of the person who left the negative feedback when possible--if they look like trouble, I'll discredit their feedback. I once saw a buyer who would leave negative feedback while clearly not reading the seller's description of the item that he had bought--I ignored his feedback, which was the only negative that the seller I was working with had received.

4. Most people use "Buy It Now" for the reason you've stated when sellers offer it. What I'll usually do is compare items with "Buy It Now" to auctions and see how much more expensive the "Buy It Now" option is. If the item with the "Buy It Now" option is significantly more expensive then its counterpart in auction format, I'll go for the auction instead. If an item has both options and isn't that rare, I'll go for the auction and manually snipe it at the last minute--I've won a lot of good stuff using this method for well below what the "Buy It Now" option would have cost me. Auctions cost less then "Buy It Now" for sellers to list, so I can understand why some sellers don't want to use them for specific items, especially when a bidding war will benefit them and is almost guaranteed.

5. I'm not sure what you mean here. How would you know if a seller were "out of line" elsewhere?

6. Excellent advice--most sellers mark up shipping in order to cover the cost of their fees. This doesn't bother me, and I understand why they're doing it. Some sellers however flagrantly violate eBay's ToS by significantly overcharging for shipping--I'm not talking about charging $10 for an item that costs $6 to ship--I'm talking about charging $80 for an item that costs $6 to ship. Returns aren't much of an issue if buyer protection is offered, so long as the shipping isn't expensive.

I've been on eBay for several years now as both a buyer and seller. I've been burned twice in the past year, once as a buyer, and once as a seller. As a buyer, I took a chance on a new member with no feedback who was selling a game console. The sale came with buyer protection so I knew that I'd be able to get my money back if things went south. The sale ended, the guy didn't ship my item, didn't contact me, and was clearly using stolen IDs. The guy also deactivated his eBay account, but he didn't count on me bookmarking his listing and being able to report him to eBay. I filed a dispute with eBay and got my money back as soon as the required waiting period was over, which was about three days. As a seller, I was dealing with someone who had almost no feedback as well. The buyer never sent payment, and I don't ship until payment is showing in my Paypal account. I waited a week, warned the buyer that she needed to pay, waited another week, and filed a non-paying bidder report. I never shipped the item, and the case was closed almost as quickly as I had opened it.

Most eBay members that I deal with are excellent; they pay quickly if they're the buyer and ship quickly if they're the seller. As a buyer, I always leave feedback within a week of receiving an item--usually within a day. As a seller, I leave feedback as soon as I can after I receive it from a buyer. The fact that I can count the number of negative experiences I've had on eBay using one hand with fingers to spare is definitely something that I'm proud of.

I know how you feel about eBay and PayPal's policies as well. I'd have quite a bit more feedback, but there was a period of roughly two years where I avoided eBay because they really were treating their buyers and sellers like crap. I gave them another chance and wound up doing quite a bit of business on eBay in the past couple of years. One reason I prefer to engage in transactions outside of eBay when I know I have an item that a particular group of people will want, is because I hate to charge someone more then I should have to just to cover eBay fees.

[Bettypooh]

My thing about low-number sellers is simply this: Let someone else take the risk. If they are a good seller then they will get good numbers soon enough. I've bought a number of things from people with a 95% rating without a problem. It takes more than looking at feedbacdk numbers, it takes real research. I dig out the negatives to see exactly what is said then check to see how well thety've dealt with others- often a pattern emerges which gives me an idea of what that person is like in their Ebay dealings which gives me an idea of the risk of dealing with them.

What I meant by checking other items a seller lists for "out-of-line-pricing" is to check them against similar items offered by others. If someone lists a pristine Honus Wagner 1st printing baseball card for $5 I know something ain't right. Ditto if they list a 2003 Volvo that had been badly crashed for $50K when it's not worth a tenth of that. This is my way of doing a reality check on the seller before I decide to buy from them- someone who is unrealistic with anyone anywhere is someone who I don't deal with, period.

Techniuqes vary and mine are just what I do- YMMV. My aim is for having minimal problems, not just the lowest price or highest profit. Ebay has moved far away from it's original business concept and to me a lot of it was in the wrong direction. It's still the easiest way to find and buy obscure items you don't normally see for sale in your local stores, and there are still some good deals for both buyers and sellers, but overall I now try to avoid it. Here's a list of some of those I've had good experiences with for ABDL related items: huzi729; jfk4664; granitesmith; abdlaware; itsplastic

There are many other good ABDL-related sellers and I don't use Ebay much- especially recently! Nor can I guarantee you will have good experiences with these people even though I did. I will recommend "granitesmith" as my source for the Birdseye diaper squares which I sew my own cloth diapers with, though I wait till they are on sale before I buy. When on sale they are cheaper than anyone else's by a mile and the quality is excellent

It's a big and sometimes bad world out there, so Caveat Emptor then Have Fun!

Bettypooh

[Sojourner]

I've had well over 200 good experiences on eBay in everything I've bought, and the wares I've purchased have run the gamut: DVDs, CDs, stickers, car parts, books, electronics accessories...and even AB/DL items. What's paid off has been:

• scrolling carefully through the items: always read the article throughout, know what you're looking at!

• carefully scrutinizing the vendors' feedbacks: if a vendor has negative feedback, look at how many and why. I've seen butt-hurt people leave negative feedbacks en masse, out of spite, or there may be an issue a vendor's having trouble with...such as when you order multiple items and you receive only one because the vendor didn't look at the quantity during picking and packing. Judge carefully, sometimes you get a good vendor with an unfair rap and that's usually what I find on eBay.

• communication: this is especially crucial, IMHO. Communication represents more than half of a transaction, and if it's not bad, then a questionable experience deteriorates quickly. If a problem erupts, contact the vendor, they'll usually reply timely (if not immediately) and try to remedy the matter. Don't leave a negative feedback out of anger, it's not revocable. Talk it out, find a solution; more often than not, everyone ends up much happier in the end. But if the other party's not willing to talk or even offer a mutually-agreeable solution, then there's feedback and possibly even eBay mediation.

• feedback: mutual feedback is vital as well. You paid immediately, that alone is worthy of stellar feedback! But there are indeed vendors who simply will not leave feedback out of courtesy. They get the good rep and cash, you get product but are left in the cold. Thankfully, vendors who won't leave feedback are rare and some simply get too busy or forget, so don't be afraid to ask for your fair share of rep if you gave it...you earned it. If they won't oblige, just move on, others obviously have. Vendors and buyers do each other a favor in every transaction and repeat business is based on that notion. Fairplay rules!

In all my eBay experiences, I've only willfully blacklisted one vendor and have given only one neutral (and only one negative) feedback. Do your homework, be a willing fair-player, communicate, stick to your principles and your experiences should go just as well.

[Dirty Diaper/Maxipad Lover]

Okay Bettypooh--I see what you're getting at now and understand what you mean. I usually compare things on an item by item basis, but as you yourself said, YMMV. What I mean by an "item by item" basis is that I'll look at the item and see if anyone else is selling the same or a similar item. If there's an item to compare it to, I'll look for the less expensive one as long as its in the same condition.

• carefully scrutinizing the vendors' feedbacks: if a vendor has negative feedback, look at how many and why. I've seen butt-hurt people leave negative feedbacks en masse, out of spite, or there may be an issue a vendor's having trouble with...such as when you order multiple items and you receive only one because the vendor didn't look at the quantity during picking and packing. Judge carefully, sometimes you get a good vendor with an unfair rap and that's usually what I find on eBay.

• communication: this is especially crucial, IMHO. Communication represents more than half of a transaction, and if it's not bad, then a questionable experience deteriorates quickly. If a problem erupts, contact the vendor, they'll usually reply timely (if not immediately) and try to remedy the matter. Don't leave a negative feedback out of anger, it's not revocable. Talk it out, find a solution; more often than not, everyone ends up much happier in the end. But if the other party's not willing to talk or even offer a mutually-agreeable solution, then there's feedback and possibly even eBay mediation.

• feedback: mutual feedback is vital as well. You paid immediately, that alone is worthy of stellar feedback! But there are indeed vendors who simply will not leave feedback out of courtesy. They get the good rep and cash, you get product but are left in the cold. Thankfully, vendors who won't leave feedback are rare and some simply get too busy or forget, so don't be afraid to ask for your fair share of rep if you gave it...you earned it. If they won't oblige, just move on, others obviously have. Vendors and buyers do each other a favor in every transaction and repeat business is based on that notion. Fairplay rules!

Sojourner you touched on several good points. The only time I don't scrutinize the feedback is when the seller has 100% positive feedback and some kind of star next to their name.

Communication is HUGE and sellers should remember this. The one negative feedback that I left, was to a seller who stonewalled me and refused to communicate. He did eventually get in touch with me, I gave him "netural" with the chance to get positive feedback if he addressed my issue, and he stonewalled me again. I blacklisted him after a month passed and he continued to ignore me. The problem may or may not have been his doing, but it was the stonewalling that pissed me off. I could have tolerated the damaged item if the guy had apologized and offered a partial refund for an item that wasn't described accurately. (Return shipping was more expensive then the item itself--the thing was heavy!) Like you, I've only blacklisted one seller and this is the guy. I had to laugh at his pitiful attempt to leave retaliatory POSITIVE feedback though--idiots like this are the reason sellers can't leave negative feedback anymore. I gave this guy two weeks before I left negative feedback, so seeing him complain while leaving positive feedback was hilarious, especially when that was the most communication he had offered me.

If there's a problem I expect buyers to contact me if I'm the seller, and I expect sellers to respond to me if I'm the buyer. eBay messages exist for a reason--I check mine every time I see that there's a new one, and reply to all of them as soon as I've read them. I avoid e-mails specifically so that a shady buyer/seller can't use the "it was stuck in my spam filter" excuse for not replying, and so that it actually doesn't get stuck in a spam filter for a reputable buyer/seller.

Mutual feedback should just be common sense, but there are some sellers who don't seem to get this. As a seller, I don't leave feedback until after I've received it from the buyer, and as a buyer, I don't expect feedback until after I've left it for the seller. As a buyer, my feedback should tell the seller that I'm satisfied with our transaction, and I consider it complete. As a seller, leaving feedback signals that my buyer is happy with the transaction, and thus I am happy with the transaction. If something goes wrong, I want to try and fix it for the buyer before leaving feedback.

[rosalie.bent]

We have been both buyers and sellers on ebay (non-AB) and my hubby buys almost all his baby girl outfits from there. Generally, it is exactly what you would expect. The quality is related to price and a cheap outfit looks and feels cheap. Pay more and get a properly lined and sewn garment and he can wear it for much longer and get more value. My problem with AB clothes in general is that they tend to be costume quality and made my amateurs. For the occasional wearer that is fine and that is probably most of the market, but if you are a very extensive wearer then you need clothes that will last and will wash well. There are a few sellers that make that quality but they are expensive. the trouble is that they end up not selling much because of the price and so quit making them and so we have to go and find yet another seller who makes them high quality. It's not that hard to be honest but as in everything eBay there is good and bad.

We bought an extraordinary outfit from a seller with 0 feedback. to be honest, Ive seen almost no correlation with feedbakc and ultimate performance. I know what it is like to get a negative feedback for an item that wasnt the EXACT SHADE OF COLOUR as appeared in the photo or for being slow in delivery (apparently anything longer than 24hours from one side of te country to the other is slow). So I see negatives in feedback through experienced eyes. Experience and a little bit of intuition can usually pick out the shonks. Feedback to me is pretty meaningless unless it is obviously very low.

[Dirty Diaper/Maxipad Lover]

Late-'90s Huggies Ultratrim from eBay vendor lavonnerose:

Product: 5--Exactly as described, shipped quickly and discreetly via USPS Priority Mail.

Price: 5--Very inexpensive. Yes, these have a cloth-like cover, but they're over ten years old, and the Ultratrim product line was discontinued around 2001-2002, so for less than $10 before shipping, these were reasonably priced.

Shipping: 5--Discreet and prompt. All things considered, the shipping costs were very reasonable--diapers are expensive to ship even using economy methods, and I refuse to penalize a seller for fuel prices that they have no control over.

Communication: 5--Shipped discreetly upon request, included a kind "thank you" note, and was just an all around nice seller. She received positive feedback and left it in return exactly as I would expect her to--I'd definitely recommend her if you're looking for older baby diapers, especially Huggies.

Total: 5 out of 5. An all around smooth transaction--the kind I appreciate both as a buyer and a seller. I'll be keeping an eye on her listings in the future. She may or may not be AB/DL aware, but as long as a seller is willing to package diapers discreetly, that shouldn't be a problem. (There's no reason a seller should need to know that I'm DL, and no reason for me to mention that fact to a seller either.)