Help and advice for buyers

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

I will declare from the outset that I am a buyer and seller on 3 different eBay IDs.

I thought I would start a thread where members, both buyers and sellers, can put advice and helpful hints for buyers in one place.  I am not looking for this to be a "whinge-fest" from sellers to complain about buyers, but a place for REAL advice to help buyers on eBay have a more rewarding and successful experience.  Happy buyers are frequent buyers, so let's keep it upbeat.

Try to keep each post short, with each post suggesting one tip or piece of advice.  Post as many times as you like, and give kudos to posts to help buyers assess the advice being given.  If you post a screen grab to help show your advice/hint it will help buyers.

I'll kick it off with a couple of posts.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

Buyers, when you bid on an auction you are asked to "confirm" your bid.  When you hit the Buy-It-Now button on a listing you are asked to "Commit to buy".

On a Buy-It-Now listing you are not bidding or putting an item into a cart for further consideration, once you hit the Commit to buy button you HAVE bought the item and you should pay for it.

On the boards here we often have sellers complaining that buyers hit the Buy-It-Now and commit and then message a short time later saying they have changed their mind.  DO NOT commit to buy unless you are going to pay for the item.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

Buyers, be careful if you bid on many of the same type of item hoping to win just one of them.  At the bottom of the Bidding list on your "My eBay" page is this warning:

If you are the second highest bidder and the high bidder retracts their bid you will become the high bidder.  If you remain the high bidder to the end of the auction you will be expected to pay for the item.  Be careful how many 'live' auctions you bid on as you may end up winning more than one of the same type of item.

With the new 'defect' system coming in in August many sellers will do an UnPaid Item case against you rather than offering to cancel should you end up not wanting to proceed with a transaction.  Get more than one UnPaid Item strike against your account and you will find that you are unable to bid/buy on items from sellers with their Bidder Blocks in place.  Strikes can affect your ability to bid/buy for 12 months.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

Buyers, when you are bidding on an auction, when you want to bid in whole dollar amounts there is no need to enter the cents part of the amount e.g. bid $30 and not $30.00

This will avoid a situation where you accidently enter too much e.g.$3000

The bid process does not recognise a 'comma' in your bid, so if you bid $30,00 it will register as $3000 which makes it really important to look at the amount you are bidding on the "Confirm your bid" window.  If you are bidding right at the end of an auction it becomes even more important.

[lalala-au · Accepted solution]

Retracting a bid has rules:

eBay allows bid retractions in the following circumstances:

• You made a mistake when entering your bid, such as bidding $50 instead of $5

• The item's description changed significantly after you placed your bid
   
• You haven't been able to reach the seller (emails come back or calls don't go through).

You can't retract a bid because you just change your mind. Sellers can see what option you have chosen and can report you for using bid retraction the wrong way. So before you click on bid make sure your willing to pay the amount before you confirm your bid.

Also remember when your waiting for an item to arrive Australia Post can take longer than Ebay estimates, and with free postage don't expect the item to be posted by express mail. It tells you what type of mail for free postage the seller is using in the listing. Read all parts of the listing carefully and if you don't understand something please ask the seller before bidding or buying the item. Especially in the description and item condition.

[kau5622]

Hi, I recently bid and won an item which was described as genuine. I had the item authenticated on ebay's forum and it turned out to be a fake.
I contacted the seller asking for the cancellation of the purchase since the item was not as described, she nicely agreed to cancel it while insisted it is a genuine piece.
When I received the request for the cancelation, the reason stated was " the buyer made mistake or changing mind"
My question is: if I agree to cancel with this reason, will there be any bad effect on my account's creditability? Or should I ask the seller to change the reason?
Greatful for any advice!
I'm very new to eBay btw.

[digital*ghost]

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@kau5622 wrote:

My question is: if I agree to cancel with this reason, will there be any bad effect on my account's creditability? Or should I ask the seller to change the reason?
Greatful for any advice!
I'm very new to eBay btw.

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In a nutshell, no, the resason selected by the seller for the cancellation has no effect on your account whatsoever.

A transaction cancellation request can only be sent once, so if you decline you're indicating to the seller and eBay that you want to proceed with the transaction, so remain obliged to pay for it. Agreeing to a cancellation means you don't want to proceed with the sale. Once the transaction is voided by a buyer agreeing to the cancellation, the seller receives a credit of the fees eBay charged for the sale. 

A seller has a limited selection of options in a dropdown menu to choose as a reason for the cancellation, and buyer changed mind is at the top of the menu list - some of the reasons a seller can choose from affect the seller's account, but never the buyer's. 

[davewil1964]

I had the item authenticated on ebay's forum

How did you manage that? Given authentication must be provided by qualified third parties and requires at least a physical examination of the item in question. i doubt the eBay forum lobbed at the seller's place to inspect and reject the authenticity.. What you probably got was a possible consensus (or even a single voice) deciding the item was not authentic. With no more information about the item than you had. And probably no more expertise than you.

[serendipityricho]

When is an item -newly listed.

Is it the first time or near every second day for weeks with a new date?............Richo.

[kau5622]

Oh, may be I shouldn't have said ebay's. But think the authenticators on this forum are definitely know what's they saying. It's a reputable forum which is in running for years and lots of ebayers frequent the forum for authentication.

[kau5622]

By the way, many thanks guys for all the inputs. They're great help.