EBAY LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT?

Since 2001 EBAY has been listed on my favorites menu and remains an important source of information and a valuable purchase and selling place for my family and me. I proudly have a transaction history of 239 transactions and 100% positive feedback. So I’m no professional but am well enough versed in EBAYing to speak with some authority in both the pros and cons.
Pros
Convenience- for many years I lived in a more remote area (North Georgia Mountains) where a shopping trip meant a 50 miles drive for most anything other than food. I found EBAY to be a great quick easy source for some things that we needed as a family and especially good for holiday occasions and birthdays, etc. It’s today’s version of the Sears Catalog for the modern family. Just look for what youre seeking, click on bid or “buy it now” pay for it with your PAYPAL account, the only way to do it (more on that later, and then wait for the UPS truck to arrive.
Price – EBAY, unlike your usual retail store, you decide what you want to pay for an item.Try that at Walmart and see how quickly you get laughed out of the store. Even if you do decide to buy retail from a box store EBAY provides a great forum for price comparison. Look up the item and see what a myriad of vendors are selling the item for as well as being able to research previously sold merchandise for a history of any item recently sold on EBAY. I love and have been known to buy, sell and collect older rare Mercedes and use EBAY as quick pricing guide that I find more reliable than the internet auto pricing guides that are available. I cannot venture a guess at how often I have seen an item mentioned on TV and wondered what it cost. A quick look on EBAY can come close to telling you the current retail but gives you a chance to see what kind of better price you can get it for. I mention, as an example, my most recent purchase. I have shaved, most of my life, with a variety of safety razors and foam. With my Parkinsons worsening I have found it more and more difficult and downright dangerous to do that any more. My best friend of 40+ years “Crash and Burn Hennecy” (reference some of my previous mentions of his mishaps) recommended that I buy a Panasonic “wet and dry” electric razor. I live on a very tight budget so the idea of going to the local retailer and buying one is just not in my realm of possibilities. So I looked them up on EBAY found that new they were from $90 to $130. It may as well been $1000 with my resources, but a quick search found me a brand new in the box identical shaver, received by someone as a gift and never used. Seller was asking $29.95 + freight but had it listed as “make and offer”. I offered $25.00 including freight and within 30 minutes had bought it. I bet that most of you who do not frequent EBAY were not even aware that you can make an offer on some things.
Safety and Guarantees – This is something that I will also touch on in the “CONS” section because it can be the best and worst thing about dealing on EBAY. If you are careful in your selection, read the sellers ad carefully, and uphold your end of the bargain you can be assured of getting what you ordered as you expect it to be and when you expect it. Between EBAY and PAYPAL you are offered some very strong buyer protection guarantees and money refund promises, but it begins with your knowing what you are buying and from whom.

CONS
Price – yes I mentioned that in the PROS section but there is a danger to price on EBAY. As I mentioned earlier you should do your research before buying anything. Take a look at as many like items as you have the patience for. Decide what price you are willing to pay and stick to it. Just like any auction if you are not capable of sitting on your hands when the price passes your maximum then you don’t need to play the game. Additionally watch for hidden handling fees and exorbitant shipping fees. Many sellers will low ball the price and then get their profit in those fees. Use common sense, you know that a priority mail package less than 1 lb will go to any lower 48 states location for about $5.00. If a seller is charging more than that for what you want to buy ask him why? Or refuse to buy and move on to the next item. Thousands of people bid on something and win at the price they wanted to pay only to get to checkout and find the price to be way over what they wanted to pay. By then you’ve committed to buy and if you renege you chance getting a black mark on your EBAY account. Most reliable sellers provide a shipping calculator for you to determine the amount on your own but if the shipping and handling charges are not clearly defined ask the seller for the amount to your zip code before you enter the first bid.
Quality – I am very cautious about buying any non name brand item. There are many sellers selling cheap import items, from electronics to computers, that look great in the pictures but are not apples to apples as the name brand item and most have no warranty. If there is a warranty on any item on EBAY it should be clearly noted in the seller’s ad. As in my searching for “wet dry” shavers there were literally hundreds of them offered from $.99 but not a one was a named brand. Again I stress read the AD thoroughly before you ever make a first bid.
Safety and Guarantees – as I previously mentioned an EBay purchase can be safe and fully guaranteed but you need to know who you are doing business with. Study the seller’s number of transactions, always at the top of the listing as well as his percentage of satisfactory feedbacks. Read the feedbacks don’t just trust the numbers, some can be very enlightening. Always pay with your PAYPAL account which offers the best in security for your credit cards and banking information and virtually guarantees that if you don’t get you shipment you get a refund.
In summation EBAY can be fun and rewarding but Caveat emptor.

A trusted EBAY seller of long term is the H.M.Wallace family of online businesses such as National Builder Supply and Performance Toilets. Their EBAY stores are listed in their names, nothing to hide, they both are EBAY ‘POWER SELLERS”, maintaining spotless reputations and offer extraordinary values in closeouts and overstocks from their online retail stores and as always offering free shipping and no handling charges. So get your feet wet and dive into the EBAY experience.