To Buy or Not to Buy, That is The Question

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

To Buy or Not to Buy, That is the Question

(With thanks to Mr. William Shakespeare)

Part I:
Background

     Because E-Bay has so  many viewers,  it's difficult to buy on E-Bay. 

The reasons are:

E-Bay has policies. However, they don't always enforce them nor do they always listen to people who speak with their help assistants to complain. Let me explain. 

1. Counterfeit Merchandise Being Passed Off as "Authentic"

a. I was able to have E-Bay contact (I don't know 100% since E-Bay wont tell) a seller 

who was using a "?" (question mark) to be ambiguous. The seller was selling a 

supposed "antique, but was finding them week after week in 1 of the smallest state in

the US.  I don't think so!  Because there was a "?" in the listing title and in the description, I felt that the seller was "getting off the hook" with selling counterfeits! Why, because, as I mentioned, you cannot find these antiques week after week in a small state!

It took me 4 telephone calls and complaints before I think e-Bay talked to the seller. The particular item is no longer listed, or perhaps the seller ran out of inventory. 

Unfortunately, the same "ruse" (trick or scheme) is being used with the "?" to sell at least 5 other "antiques".

Why did I complain?

Because one week I had an authentic item starting at $ 70.00 and this person had the "fake" starting at $ 20.00  I immediately lost 40% of the potential bidders who probably wanted either a "bargain", didn't know what was authentic or not, or simply didn't care!

2. Are the bidders authentic?

     One of the "rules" on E-Bay is that bidders have to be genuine (real). It's hard to know if when you bid that i s true, and there isn;t much information when you do a search for that on the Net. E-Bay has enough things to worry about, that they may not pursue this policy to the extent that it should bechecked. In other words, one could say that if bidding is high because of "fake bidders", then the price of the item will go up. In the end, E-Bay makes more money on the sale as part of their charge.

   Personally, I like to think that most sellers are honest on E-Bay, but one never knows. If I feel the bidding is going too high, I simply stop bidding. There will always be another day and anopther listing for a similar item!

3. Honesty of the Listing

a. Unfortunately,  not all sellers are honest on E-Bay!. I try to be cautious, but I've been bitten a couple of times with less-than-honest sellers. It's difficult to try and bid on what I like as there  many Americans that won't sell to Canada. AS well, E-Bay puts a lot of pressure on sellers with E-Bay's Policy of protection. The problem here is that E-Bay is really not doing anything. 

Let me Explain!

E-Bay's "Buyer Protection Plan" is predicated on the fact that sellers are pressured to ship via USPS Priority Mail. Priority Mail is costlier (300-500% more) than USPS First Class International.

However, the benefits are that you get insurance and tracking.

Now why did I mention that E-Bay really isn;t doing anything? Because if an item arrives broken with Priority Mail, the buyer must initiate a claim with the Post Office. I have to file a claim with the USPS (American Post Office) which then sends the file to Canada Post, which then investigates, asks me to take a whole lot of photos, then I assume talks with the American Post Office.

This can take as much as 90 days, and there is a deadline (limit of days) to which one can file a claim.

I once filed a claim and the Post Office (American) turned me down. I didn't want to contact E-Bay.

Why Not?

Because I didn't want to risk negative feedback. Most sellers are friendly and you can solve an "issue"before you have to "consult" E-Bay. 

However, when you do contact E-Bay, they will open up a file, and immediately "freeze" the sellers funds to the amount of the sale. It's happened to me once, and I didn't like that at all! As well, I would have resolved the problem as it was eventually by simply speaking with the buyer.

I just had a buyer who paid by check  (cheque). Being a high-rated seller on E-Bay, I will inform E-Bay about that. The negative to that is that I cannot process the shipping labels through PayPal, and It costs me more to ship that was stated on the listing!

I didn't ask the buyer why he asked if he could pay by cheque, but he told me. He sold high-quality used tools to a buyer, who then initiated a claim against the seller. E-Bay immediately froze $ 500.00 in his account!

b.  Not all sellers spend enough time or bother to take enough time to photograph items properly or describe the items honestly or accurately.

Most sellers are honest and take the time and photograph their items properly. Starting June 1, 2012, E-Bay will allow everyone to submit 12 free photographs.  I'm sure E-Bay is aware of dishonest sellers, and thinks more photos will solve some the the unscrupulous sellers. However, I don' think so. Many of those seller who sell 500 items a week won't bother, and those who are dishonest certainly won't!

c. There are  many sellers who either are unskilled at taking photos, or dont; have the proper equipment.

Most people don't have a tripod or a close-up lens, or know what proper exposure and colour-balance are. Also, they may not have a photo-editing software or know about that. You can purchase Photoshop Elements at a great price, or even the Photo-Editing software from Corel. For free, you can get something called GIMP, simply by downloading it to your computer.

As for those hand-held camera, you can in fact buy an inexpensive camera to avoid camera shake.

And for the same camera, you can purchase a close-up glass filter tan will fit on the front of your lends and allow you to get bigger images of small items.

Part 2:

Finally getting to the Point!

I checked the feedback of the seller from whom I was deciding to bid .

He/she had 2 "neutral" feedbacks in 139 transactions. It's not 100% positive, but it's enough for me to have OK'd the seller.

You have to do your homework if you're going to bid on an item.

You can do an advanced >> Sold Items search to see what previously-auctioned items of the same item went for.

Also, you can do a search for the item on the Net to find out more information.

The Item that I bid on (below) is an Arcade Cast Iron Ice Truck , circa late 1930's.

This is the Arcade Ice Truck

Because it's been repainted, I had to check to see if in fact this 

was an "authentic" item, and not simply a "fake".

The paint job is fine, but I don't think that the person who repainted the truck used an auto-body primer. The primer creates a slightly-roughened surface to which a paint can better stick to. The reason that I say so is because of the paint chipping that went to the bare metal.

I did some investigating research, and knew what to look for, for authenticity.

IThe name "Arcade" punched into the inside of the cast iron body

ITHe U.S>A> initials, and more indentifying numbers on the inside chassis opposite the side saying "Arcade"

IThe retoucher should not have ground (buffed) the front bumper so much.

He/she almost wore the number away!

The # 3 is a characteristic number punched on the bumper on "authentic" Arcade Cast Iron trucks.

The wheels are cracked and old, and the axle is rusted.

You can replicate these characteristics (like a painting forger), but most E-Bay "crooks" are not going to spend so much time to do this.

I'm 90% sure that these are old original or old replacement rubber tires.

Another view of the axle and the old tires.

The restorer made an error in cutting off the end of the original axle. 

As a consequence, he/she had to add a glue to keep the tire on the axle!

Notice the roughened texture that was painted over.

This was most likely rust that was ground down, but not enough.

Better side lighting to show the texture of the painted-over rust.

The rust on the other side of the truck.

The front of the truck

I checked all of the features of an original 1930's Arcade Cast Iron Ice Truck, 

and this item matched all of those features.

I bid on the item, and since there was only 1 other bidder, the interest was low, and I won  the auction.

IYou can check who else is bidding.

You can;t know their identity but normally you can see what else they are bidding on.

In the above case, "a private listing cancels anybody from seeing what this person is bidding on.

I don't like this, but that's E-Bay's policy and it accepts this.

I was able to win this item on E-Bay for a very good price with a lower-cst shipping.

The "proof of the pudding" in this case will be if I am able to sell this item at a very good profit.

It will be up to me to  write a very good and honest description, as well as provide quality photos.

We shall see!

Thanks for visiting, and to everyone, 

have a good morning, afternoon, or evening,

wherever you may be.