The Energon Pub

Watever BugBite said. Research feedback history. Buyers and sellers alike.


EBay still rocks dat hard.

Never pay for something with a bank transfer, money order or cash. I don't care how much you hate paypal's policies, you will have NO recourse if you do not receive you items.

I also would like to point out to the newer G1 collectors that the rating scale you see in some auctions i.e; C-9, C-9.5 etc. are completely subjective. Here is what it should be

C-10 = factory sealed
C-9.5= opened but never touched
C-9= maybe handled and transformed a couple of times
C-8.5= decent piece with the slightest of wear
C-8= loose joints and paint wear but no broken pieces

Most sellers use this scale

C-10 = opened, unused
C-9.5= handled and transformed a few times
C-9= loose joints and wear but no broken pieces

JBrock wrote: Here is what it should be

C-10 = factory sealed
C-9.5= opened but never touched
C-9= maybe handled and transformed a couple of times
C-8.5= decent piece with the slightest of wear
C-8= loose joints and paint wear but no broken pieces

JBrock, that is interesting. I was always under the impression that C8-10 are all unopened, the number refers to the condition of the box itself. I base this on orders from online stores like BBTS. Are they wrong, or are there two different scales?

Also C9 is interesting. What means opened, but never touched?
Why open it if you're not going to touch it?

Also, I like to check the sellers other items for sale. Some accounts are hacked into and used for evil. I didn't read all of the posts in here, so forgive me if i'm repeating myself.

If the seller has random items all posted within a minute of each other ... there's a good chance that you're going to get screwed.

However, if they have quite a few of the same types of items posted within a minute of each other ... that's normal.

For example: If you see seperate auctions of a barbie, a guitar, a car and a pair of socks all listed within a minute of each other ... flag that mofo!

<-- Also new at using this "Ebay" thing.

And I've got something to ask. When I made my purchase, I won the item and as soon as the auction was over (And I mean as soon as; I was hitting refresh and watching the seconds tick away.) I entered checkout and sent the money through my paypal. I won the auction and sent the payment on the 29th but the payment through Paypal didn't clear until the 3rd.

Is that considered fast payment? I emailed the sender and the first thing I said in my message was an apology for Paypal taking so long to clear. In his response, he didn't even say anything about it. He just said he'd received payment and that he was heading to the post office Friday to ship it.

Next question: This was last week, so the item was shipped (Regularly) last Friday and today is Tuesday... Tracking information said it would take anywhere between 2-9 days to arrive. Is that 2-9 days total, 2-9 business days, or 2-9 days not counting weekends... Just looking for clarification on the term "days."

EDIT: Still would like the second half of the question answered, but just tossing it out there, the item arrived just now.

DeathNoble wrote:<-- Also new at using this "Ebay" thing.

And I've got something to ask. When I made my purchase, I won the item and as soon as the auction was over (And I mean as soon as; I was hitting refresh and watching the seconds tick away.) I entered checkout and sent the money through my paypal. I won the auction and sent the payment on the 29th but the payment through Paypal didn't clear until the 3rd.

Is that considered fast payment? I emailed the sender and the first thing I said in my message was an apology for Paypal taking so long to clear. In his response, he didn't even say anything about it. He just said he'd received payment and that he was heading to the post office Friday to ship it.

Next question: This was last week, so the item was shipped (Regularly) last Friday and today is Tuesday... Tracking information said it would take anywhere between 2-9 days to arrive. Is that 2-9 days total, 2-9 business days, or 2-9 days not counting weekends... Just looking for clarification on the term "days."

EDIT: Still would like the second half of the question answered, but just tossing it out there, the item arrived just now.

The speed of payment depends on what type of payment you used through Paypal. The fastest is instant payment that is linked to your checking account or a pre-approved credit card.

The slowest payment I believe is an e-check because it has to go through all the clearing processes through Ebay and the source of funding before any money actually changes hands.

The shipping days usually refers to business days. Whenever I buy something through Ebay, I don't expect it for at least 2 weeks time (and about 90% of the time it comes way before that)...anything longer than that, I start emailing and asking NICELY about when the product was shipped, when I may expect it, etc...

Hope that helps!

-B

Thank you, Bhaalistik, it does help.

DeathNoble wrote:Thank you, Bhaalistik, it does help.

We aims ta please

Bonecrusher27 wrote:

JBrock wrote: Here is what it should be

C-10 = factory sealed
C-9.5= opened but never touched
C-9= maybe handled and transformed a couple of times
C-8.5= decent piece with the slightest of wear
C-8= loose joints and paint wear but no broken pieces

JBrock, that is interesting. I was always under the impression that C8-10 are all unopened, the number refers to the condition of the box itself. I base this on orders from online stores like BBTS. Are they wrong, or are there two different scales?

Also C9 is interesting. What means opened, but never touched?
Why open it if you're not going to touch it?

I should have been more specific. I was talking about buying loose G1 pieces. For instance, if someone is selling a loose and complete Wheeljack and they claim it is in C-10 condition, then they are misguided. They only C-10 figure you will have is one that comes right from the sealed box into you hands.

As for buying from TFSource or BBTS, they give C-# to buying non-vintage toys. Vintage toys get a 0-100 scale rating on BBTS and they are much more in line with what it should be. My focus was on the EBay sellers who swear that everything they sell is C-9 and up just to boost their profits.

JBrock wrote:
As for buying from TFSource or BBTS, they give C-# to buying non-vintage toys. Vintage toys get a 0-100 scale rating on BBTS and they are much more in line with what it should be. My focus was on the EBay sellers who swear that everything they sell is C-9 and up just to boost their profits.

Thanks! And what about this "opened, but never touched?" business? Why open it if you're not going to touch it?

I have a question on message to sellers.
After sending off a message to one seller, I continued surfing and tried to send another one to a differen seller. I get a message saying I have exceeded the maximum number of messages I can send.

Any clue what this is about? Doesn't make sense to me that I can only contact so many sellers a day; why limit my potential purchases off e-bay?

Susinko wrote:
Are you saying that you put the paypal and eBay fees in your item's shipping and handleing charge?

Any business includes the cost of doing business in their sales price. If you go to Target you are paying for their employees, building, advertising, etc.. every time you shop. Why should I, as an eBay seller, do any different? Handling is just that - the cost of handling the transaction in order to make the item available to the market. Shipping and handling is always stated up front and includes enough so I break even with auction and packing expenses in addition to the postal cost.

Lapse Of Reason wrote:

Susinko wrote:
Are you saying that you put the paypal and eBay fees in your item's shipping and handleing charge?

Any business includes the cost of doing business in their sales price. If you go to Target you are paying for their employees, building, advertising, etc.. every time you shop. Why should I, as an eBay seller, do any different? Handling is just that - the cost of handling the transaction in order to make the item available to the market. Shipping and handling is always stated up front and includes enough so I break even with auction and packing expenses in addition to the postal cost.

The reason why I'm asking is because eBay does NOT allow sellers to charge buyers Paypal fees. I know that for a fact. I do believe that it is also against the rules to charge buyers the sellers eBay fees for the item.

I'm not trying to cause a fight. I just thought you may want to know if you didn't already.

When I'm buying on eBay, I also shop around for the lowest total cost when I have a choice between many different auctions. That means I add the insurance, shipping and handeling, and total cost in several auctions before I buy.

Susinko wrote:

Lapse Of Reason wrote:

Susinko wrote:
Are you saying that you put the paypal and eBay fees in your item's shipping and handleing charge?

Any business includes the cost of doing business in their sales price. If you go to Target you are paying for their employees, building, advertising, etc.. every time you shop. Why should I, as an eBay seller, do any different? Handling is just that - the cost of handling the transaction in order to make the item available to the market. Shipping and handling is always stated up front and includes enough so I break even with auction and packing expenses in addition to the postal cost.

The reason why I'm asking is because eBay does NOT allow sellers to charge buyers Paypal fees. I know that for a fact. I do believe that it is also against the rules to charge buyers the sellers eBay fees for the item.

I'm not trying to cause a fight. I just thought you may want to know if you didn't already.

When I'm buying on eBay, I also shop around for the lowest total cost when I have a choice between many different auctions. That means I add the insurance, shipping and handeling, and total cost in several auctions before I buy.

I also shop on ebay and focus on the total cost even though most shipping costs are ridiculous because most sellers want to save ebay fees since ebay doesn't charge fees on shipping. As long as the total cost is cheaper than other e-tailers or local stores, I'm happy with it. Of course, the seller I'm buying from must have a great amount of positive feedbacks. Also read the details of every feedbacks (especially the negative ones) focus on the feedbacks of similar items you're looking for.

Susinko wrote:

Lapse Of Reason wrote:

Susinko wrote:
Are you saying that you put the paypal and eBay fees in your item's shipping and handleing charge?

Any business includes the cost of doing business in their sales price. If you go to Target you are paying for their employees, building, advertising, etc.. every time you shop. Why should I, as an eBay seller, do any different? Handling is just that - the cost of handling the transaction in order to make the item available to the market. Shipping and handling is always stated up front and includes enough so I break even with auction and packing expenses in addition to the postal cost.

The reason why I'm asking is because eBay does NOT allow sellers to charge buyers Paypal fees. I know that for a fact. I do believe that it is also against the rules to charge buyers the sellers eBay fees for the item.

I'm not trying to cause a fight. I just thought you may want to know if you didn't already.

When I'm buying on eBay, I also shop around for the lowest total cost when I have a choice between many different auctions. That means I add the insurance, shipping and handeling, and total cost in several auctions before I buy.

You can't directly charge more for PayPal, like add a surcharge to the bid amount or something like that if the buyer pays with Paypal. eBay does let you add a reasonable handling fee, so when I add that fee I make sure I will cover my expenses.

As a buyer, I also always look for the total cost (including shipping). There are some sellers who will add way too much for handling.

I'm poking around at some sellers,and they ask to be contacted through direct e-mail for questions, yet I see no email specified. Does the "contact seller" option automatically send the seller an e-mail?

Also, I'm annoyed that most of the pictures of products are of poor quality. Is it worth my time to request a seller provide more or clearer pictures?

publicvisage wrote:I'm poking around at some sellers,and they ask to be contacted through direct e-mail for questions, yet I see no email specified. Does the "contact seller" option automatically send the seller an e-mail?

Also, I'm annoyed that most of the pictures of products are of poor quality. Is it worth my time to request a seller provide more or clearer pictures?

Yep, the contact seller link will get your question to them via email and Ebay message.

Usually when the pics are of poor quality (or just plain lacking) I get a little wary of the seller. If they really are on the up and up, they will provide as much info as they can to make their product attractive enough to bid on. If the effort isn't there, then I wonder what the quality of the product will be (or even worse...what could they be trying to hide by not showing a quality pic?).

Hope this helps!

-B

Bhaalistik wrote:

publicvisage wrote:I'm poking around at some sellers,and they ask to be contacted through direct e-mail for questions, yet I see no email specified. Does the "contact seller" option automatically send the seller an e-mail?

Also, I'm annoyed that most of the pictures of products are of poor quality. Is it worth my time to request a seller provide more or clearer pictures?

Yep, the contact seller link will get your question to them via email and Ebay message.

Usually when the pics are of poor quality (or just plain lacking) I get a little wary of the seller. If they really are on the up and up, they will provide as much info as they can to make their product attractive enough to bid on. If the effort isn't there, then I wonder what the quality of the product will be (or even worse...what could they be trying to hide by not showing a quality pic?).

Hope this helps!

-B

Yes, that's what I was thinking as well.

I also see several auctions where the item pictured is not the item the seller says it is. I contacted one seller about this and he fixed the link...but I'm still cautious.

Bonecrusher27 wrote:

JBrock wrote:
As for buying from TFSource or BBTS, they give C-# to buying non-vintage toys. Vintage toys get a 0-100 scale rating on BBTS and they are much more in line with what it should be. My focus was on the EBay sellers who swear that everything they sell is C-9 and up just to boost their profits.

Thanks! And what about this "opened, but never touched?" business? Why open it if you're not going to touch it?

It really concerns the Transformers that came in foam trays. Megatron, Soundwave, Omega, Devastator,giftsets, etc. People would open the boxes to make sure everything was complete and unbroken before putting them on display or into storage.

I have

JBrock wrote:
It really concerns the Transformers that came in foam trays. Megatron, Soundwave, Omega, Devastator,giftsets, etc. People would open the boxes to make sure everything was complete and unbroken before putting them on display or into storage.

I have

Ah so.... thanks for that.

Guys, in general what would you expect to be a normal lag time for response?

I asked a few questions from a local seller for a Unicron he was selling. No answer.
Then I decided to just Buy This Item Now, and clicked on the button. I needed to ask about shipping charges to input into that box, as without they won't allow payment.

Still no response! This has been a day and a half, and in my limited experience on Ebay all sellers responsed on the same day, if not the same morning, afternoon or whatever.

Also, if I still have not received any reply from seller re charges after x number of days, there is way I can pay even though I have committed to buy. Is there any way to cancel the transaction? I understand that once you hit that buy button you're committed to buy, but if you receive no responses from the seller is the whole deal to be left in limbo? Meanwhile I'm missing out on the countless Unicrons for sale out there.

If they aren't responsible enough to get back to you in 1 day ... that's bad business.

I expect speedy service, so I always give it in return.

AlienQuiksilver wrote:If they aren't responsible enough to get back to you in 1 day ... that's bad business.

What's surprising to me is that I've not heard back even though I've confirmed I want the item.

So what should I do? Any way to cancel the transaction, and if so how long should I wait for a response before doing so?

If I get a negative for this, is there any forum to explain the reason I cancelled?

Well, I entered and won my first two auctions today...I guess I'll still have to wait several weeks to find out if I've been had.

Anyway, I really appreciate all the advice and feedback you guys have given.

Thanks!

I've another question.

I was looking at a toy with much interest, and the description confused me. It said that the toy was unopened and 100%, but the packaging is 95% new. What on earth does this mean? I queried but no response.