Does anybody still buy from Ebay!?

[Allyj50]

I buy sizzix dies on ebay. I have a price guide in my head and if it goes above what I want to pay, I will drop out but continue to watch it for the price. A large scalloped tag sold last week for £32 and a rare 4 hearts of differing sizes all on the one die went for £16. I was flabbergasted at the prices and if you get in a bidding frenzy you need to be strong to drop out.

What I have noticed just lately is that although my id is listed, sometimes there is a private identity bidding against me which I sometimes wonder if its the seller trying to put the price up as its odd they always seem to bid minutes after me. This puts me off the item completely then.

I've just bought something that isn't craft related at all and the seller gave me a deduction of £1 on the postage so I was interested to see how much it would actually cost him to post the item. 2 small first stamps in a post office plastic envelope on the parcel and he charged me £3 postage. I gave him neutral feedback for postage charges.

Another seller sent me a die in a plastic envelope and when I opened the parcel the plastic case was broken. In the actual advert the seller had said it was cracked. On the feedback I said if it had been sent in a padded envelope it would have been intact when it hit my wooden flooring. The seller actually contacted me to complain about the feedback I had left but I refused to change it because I store all my dies in their cases and there is a big difference in my eyes from cracked to broken and shattered.

[Nerlly]

I use 'the auction site' a lot, lol! (Are we allowed to call it by name now? Why weren't we calling it by name, anyway?? I'm confused....!)

Anyway...I've never been stung on there, touch wood, but I do check sellers out quite carefully, especially if their item looks a bit unusual in some respect. You can often get stuff on there cheaper than elsewhere, altho you have to make sure it's genuine, for example cosmetics. There are a lot of fakes in some categories.

My boyfriend buys quite a few bottles on there, he's a collector, and I've sold plenty as well.

It's like any other huge marketplace - of course you get dodgy traders, although Ebay do close people's accounts if they're breaking the rules. You also get people asking too much for items, but as someone else said, no-one's having their arm twisted. And if buyers want cheap deals - why not?

As for craft stuff, I suspect the market's a bit flooded. I don't buy anything now except stamps, ink pads, and paper I just can't resist, lol!

[Weaselwise]

As for craft stuff, I suspect the market's a bit flooded. I don't buy anything now except stamps, ink pads, and paper I just can't resist, lol!

Well that leaves............ er what does it leave?

[BeautifulThings]

What I have noticed just lately is that although my id is listed, sometimes there is a private identity bidding against me which I sometimes wonder if its the seller trying to put the price up as its odd they always seem to bid minutes after me. This puts me off the item completely then.

They probs do what I do - decide my top price (taking p&p into account) and then I make my one and only bid (pretend it's £10). Say there's an asking price of 99p, my bid goes in there, and if someone else bids, it will come up with their bid of £1.99, then my bid will automatically go straight up to £2.99 without me doing anything. No frenzy. I win or I lose. And it doesn't always go up to my top bid either. Works for me. I tend to lose a lot of auctions for Cricut cartridges, though, but so be it. I probably have enough!

I don't think there are that many great bargains on there, really, but I did get my Expression for a really good price. I'd still rather buy stuff from sponsors, though, cos it's more fun.