From Buying YES, from Selling NO (Are You Disillusioned with Ebay?)

Member Name: jpegington

Product:	Are You Disillusioned with Ebay?
Date:	28/04/07 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Bargains to be had, Can make money on side

Disadvantages: Con Artists, Bad Descriptions

Am I disallusioned with Ebay? Well to answer that question I first need to state my opening thoughts on Ebay.

Therefore, I need to go back a number of years to when I first started using EBAY. Back then, many moons ago, I thought EBAY was a great idea. A useful site where I could buy items that I want which I might not find elsewhere and hopefully get a much better prices from it. Also it was a site where I could sell my old rubbish (or at least old items which I no longer wanted) and hopefully make a little bit of money from unwanted items.

OK, I think that I have made my initial opinion clear in regards to EBAY - I thought it was a great site for 2 clear reasons.

Now have I been disallusioned with EBAY? I would say that in part I certainly have been in other areas I haven't. To clarify my points, I will split my opinions into two parts in regards to EBAY, Buying items and Selling items.

BUYING ITEMS:

In regards to buying items I would say that I certainly have been slightly disallusioned with EBAY. You read about a lot of cases of FRAUD, items being offered, paid for and never delivered and this has made me very wary about buying from EBAY.

I now always check feedback on EBAY to see what other people have said and prefer to only buy new items and generally from people who have set up shops in EBAY as this gives you I believe slightly more protection as it is harder to setup a shop than just a normal EBAY account.

I also prefer not to buy items that are a large price over EBAY mainly because if it costs a lot of money then I can probably get it new somewhere for a simular price over the Internet away from EBAY.

I also no longer check Ebay as much when I am looking to buy something and the above reasons are the cause of that. So I think that it is clear that I am no longer quite such a happy buyer from EBAY as I used to be.

However I must admit that it is possible to pick up some great bargains and amasing childhood memories that are just not possible to buy anywhere else.

SELLING ITEMS:

Now I must admit that I no longer sell that many items over EBAY as I first did. When I take into account that we recently did a boot market and earned over £100 from old odds and ends which I would usually have sold over EBAY I would say that in part I am disallusioned with selling items over EBAY as well.

At least I would be except for the fact that we recently sold some items over EBAY that made me much more money than I expected. I had originally offered this furniture to some friends who I thought would want it, but thankfully they said NO so thought why not sell it via EBAY. It started getting bids and got to £30 and I was happy with that, but before it finished it ended on over £100 and I was over the moon.

This has definitely changed my opinion a little about selling items on ebay. I was not bothered about doing so and not interested in going through the hassle of taking photos and listing the item, but now will have to reconsider. I expect that I will probably start using EBAY only for more expensive items that might actually make it worthwhile to go through the effort.

So I would say that I was definetely getting disallusioned with EBAY on a selling side as well, but have now changed my mind with our recent windfall.

All in all I would say that EBAY is a good site that certainly has its advantages, however you do need to be very careful what you buy and who you buy it from. However if you are buying anything second hand those same principles apply whether it is from a mate or EBAY.

Summary: There are good opportunities, but you need to be careful.