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i'm not sure if this is the right section to ask, but can ebay, or infact the seller be trusted. i see many good deals on 40k models, whether new, constructed, partially painted or fully painted.
a couple of my mates have bought a couple of 40k kits of ebay, but i just wasn't sure whether its good.

the main reason is my dad, who thinks ebay is a good way to get scammed. i just want to ask you guys so i can back myself up should he deny to buy something.

It depends on the seller, really. Generally, eBay is pretty good about policing its own, plus Paypal has its own investigations protocol if you get scammed. Just be mindful that there are some countries where scammers are commonplace, so pay attention to where something is coming from. My typical eBay deals only ever come from Commonwealth countries or the States; the one time I bought something from China, I got robbed.

You can always get eBay involved if there is shenanigans (paypal too for that matter)

A good way to tell is to see how many sales they have made (numbers next to their user id and star) and what their feedback score is.

Generally a person with over 1k sales with a 99% satisfaction rate or better is an excellent person to do business with.

i have used ebay hundreds of times and its great, one scammer once from scotland but as i paid through paypal i got my money back. use paypal and you should be ok

My advice is to always use paypal. That way if there is a problem you can use their resolution center to at least get your money back. There is a time limit though so be aware of the date of payment and file your claim in a timely manner. Also for some odd reason certain countries are not covered by paypal (IIRC Italy is one of them) so be very wary of dealing in those countries.
Stick to local sellers at first if you what to try it without too much risk (local meaning in the same country). That way if there is a problem you can go to your local authorities for help and, if necessary, legal action.

My eBay rating is at 1329 with a 100% positive score.

I have literally NEVER been screwed via eBay.

I've had some things ship to me VERY late, but they eventually arrived.

I've had to file a claim or two with PayPal and escalate them too, but in the end, IF you follow all of eBay's and PayPal's 'buyer/seller protection' terms, you'll be good to go.

The only time I was ever the victim of 'theft' is via trading on the various Wargame sites.

Once on Heresy-Online and once here, quite famously by 'redstarone', for quite a bit too actually.

dark6spectre wrote:i'm not sure if this is the right section to ask, but can ebay, or infact the seller be trusted. i see many good deals on 40k models, whether new, constructed, partially painted or fully painted.
a couple of my mates have bought a couple of 40k kits of ebay, but i just wasn't sure whether its good.

the main reason is my dad, who thinks ebay is a good way to get scammed. i just want to ask you guys so i can back myself up should he deny to buy something.

Are you planning to sell or buy? When I sell (from the UK) I only sell to 'European Union' not 'Europe', because I don't like posting somewhere too exotic, and similarly I post to USA and Canada, not "The Americas". You're pretty safe when buying. It's all handled through Paypal so the seller doesn't see your bank details. You can be ripped off, but it's straightforward to put in a dispute claim and fairly not not they usually favour the buyer...which as a seller is a bit of a worry when selling larger value items. Generally you are best advised to check a person's feedback, the dodgy people do not have high quality feedback on hundreds or thousands of transactions. It's also worth pointing out these are model soldiers we are trading in, a lot of the cons on eBay involve high value electrical items like phones and laptops, not packs of metal figures.

As people have said you're usually safe with buying from someone with good feedback (99%+).

I don't worry unduly about the odd negative as there are always some people you just can't please.

My big gripe with eBay is that they don't care about counterfeit/copied stuff - as long as buyers buy and sellers deliver, they're happy to take their commission.

As I mentioned in another thread, I once saw some copied software for sale, so made winning bids and sent the guy really bad photocopied money!

Buyers have huge protection, several ways to go about filing claims through both paypal and ebay, and total control of the feedback in the transaction.

If anything, the protection of the seller has gone too far.)

BloodQuest wrote:
My big gripe with eBay is that they don't care about counterfeit/copied stuff - as long as buyers buy and sellers deliver, they're happy to take their commission.

As I mentioned in another thread, I once saw some copied software for sale, so made winning bids and sent the guy really bad photocopied money!

That is also a major issue that I have with eBay as well. The photocopied money story is hilarious. Was that back when sellers could still leave negative feedback?


@dark6spectre

The advice given so far has been sound. When you find an item that you want check the seller's feedback rating and if it is satisfactory to you be sure to also use Paypal to pay for your items. Paypal tends to favor buyers over sellers on eBay so if anything unfortunate were to happen with your transaction odds are good that Paypal will set things right.

Also, with the holidays approaching mail traffic tends to get backed up. Be aware of that when buying and allow for a reasonable amount of time for an item to reach you before getting concerned that a seller has swindled you.

I almost got stung, paid via paypal 3 weeks no response to emails (do this through ebay, so they have a copy) and he had closed his ebay account.

I had my money returned after I opened a dispute.

you can't trust google -.- Ebays fine.
Craigs list no.
Facebook maybe.

DarkTraveler777 wrote:The photocopied money story is hilarious. Was that back when sellers could still leave negative feedback?

Yes. Strangely enough, though, I never heard from him again!

dark6spectre wrote:i'm not sure if this is the right section to ask, but can ebay, or infact the seller be trusted. i see many good deals on 40k models, whether new, constructed, partially painted or fully painted.
a couple of my mates have bought a couple of 40k kits of ebay, but i just wasn't sure whether its good.

the main reason is my dad, who thinks ebay is a good way to get scammed. i just want to ask you guys so i can back myself up should he deny to buy something.

ebay has a ton of protections for buyers and very few for sellers but that doesn't mean it isn't possible to get scammed when using paypal. more likely, you'll eventually get something in a condition that you didn't expect or missing some bits that you expected which might not be on the pics but not usually outright scammed. if you bid on someone's stuff and they have less than 100 rating, paypal IIRC holds the money (they can't withdraw it) for 30 days or so (which corresponds to how long you have to file a complaint to get your money back). if they have over 100 feedback and it is overwhelmingly positive, they *usually* don't want to screw it up and get a negative from you. overall, there are alot more ways now (as mikhalia alluded to) that the seller can get screwed than the buyer. basically, use paypal to pay and only buy from bidders with high ratings that are 95% or more positive feedback on auctions that include quality pictures (not blurry waaay far out ones). if you do that, it will be rare that you get scammed.

Every user has a feedback rating on the right side of any given auction. If it's between 99 and 100%, they're legit. If you really want to see detail, click on their page and check and see what their negative feedbacks were.

PS: Everybody everywhere uses eBay. 40k stuff, especially if it's been used and in need of paint stripping, is usually available for 20% or more under retail. It's where myself and a lot of other Dakka folks get their armies built.

Generally do not go by the actual rating, but go by the volume of actual complaints. Depending on how much you're willing to shell out, Ebay can give you discounts from 20-60% off. However the lower the price gets, the crappier the models. Once or twice you'll get lucky and get some that are either metal or largely intact, but cheaper ones tend to come from people who have no idea what plastic glue is and are just trying to off the item on someone who couldnt read the fine print. Also, take note of what condition they say the models are in. MIB or NIB are a green light, while "used" can be anywhere from "painted table top quality with a few chips" to "Marvin McMeltyface", usually leaning towards the latter.

Also be aware of auctions with inflated shipping prices. Since Ebay doesnt ask for user fees based on shipping, most sellers drive up the cost of the shipping so they can bypass Ebay's user fee (which is generally a percentage of how much the item sells for). I've seen 30 Terminators go for a paultry 20 bucks, but the shipping alone was 200 and the seller denied me from picking up the item even though I lived locally. This could also be a red flag for people who are trying to scam you.

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:Generally do not go by the actual rating, but go by the volume of actual complaints. Depending on how much you're willing to shell out, Ebay can give you discounts from 20-60% off. However the lower the price gets, the crappier the models. Once or twice you'll get lucky and get some that are either metal or largely intact, but cheaper ones tend to come from people who have no idea what plastic glue is and are just trying to off the item on someone who couldnt read the fine print. Also, take note of what condition they say the models are in. MIB or NIB are a green light, while "used" can be anywhere from "painted table top quality with a few chips" to "Marvin McMeltyface", usually leaning towards the latter.

Also be aware of auctions with inflated shipping prices. Since Ebay doesnt ask for user fees based on shipping, most sellers drive up the cost of the shipping so they can bypass Ebay's user fee (which is generally a percentage of how much the item sells for). I've seen 30 Terminators go for a paultry 20 bucks, but the shipping alone was 200 and the seller denied me from picking up the item even though I lived locally. This could also be a red flag for people who are trying to scam you.

Honestly no, shipping cost is another way of getting even with the precent of what Ebay and Paypal charges you to put something on Ebay and the percent that they charge when you sell your item. plus you can't get Red Flag for shipping

Actually you can flag someone for shipping. Once I saw a seller who was attempting to flog some models for a $1 bid, buyer pays $100-winning bid on shipping - ie, no matter what you do, you're paying $100 for the model. And this was postage WITHIN america, cost overseas was undisclosed but set to be more.
I flagged him and 2 days later the auction was taken down.

Overall, the only bad experience I've had with ebay is when I ignored all the warnings and bought from a chinese seller with low feedback. I've bought more than a hundred items otherwise and all the sellers have come through, though sometimes the items were not in quite as good a state as I had imagined.

Carefully check the wording of the tile and item description. Also read the feedback for the seller you are buying from, don't just look at the % number. I have bought from sellers with what I would normally consider to be a low % but felt safe because upon reading the actual feedback I could see that they were the victim and sold to a stupid customer.

Ebay is mostly safe, just do a bit of research on the seller, ie. feed back rating, amount of items sold in the past, how old the account is yadda yadda.

I've only ever had one problem with an ebay seller but I got my money back through paypal. And I get a lot of stuff off ebay.

Like everyone else posting here, I've used e-Bay for years, mostly for gaming stuff, and never had a problem.

As said, the key is reading all the info provided on the auction and not buying anything with sketchy details, or from sellers with poor feedback. Also, learn as much as you can about the time frames for dispute resolution claims just in case.

almost $2k in unopened demon stuff for $700. a super steal.
yes you can get screwed on e-bay but you could also get run over by a truck going to a local store. If you play at a store and buy most of your stuff off of e-bay, the driver of the truck is probaly the store owner.

millions of sales on ebay, you're going to get some scary storys. Check the buyer, where you're buying it from and the postage. Also how you pay (paypal is best). Then you should be fine.

If things dont work out, email the seller first. work out the issue. once you give them a bad ranking they're less likely to help you.

i had a cd sent to me which was incorrect. lost my money on that. Heard of people buying pets which turned out to be the wrong breed. Also heard of dodgy cars. Some things you just dont buy over ebay.

I've never had a probem with eBay. Like everyone else said though just foloow the guidelines and you wont go far wrong.

I have had problems with Paypal though. Always make sure you plug your credit card into it and not your debit/bank card.

Paypals "file a complaint and we will sort it in x days if they have money in their account" [harsh but in my expeience accurate] is not acceptable. When I bought a game on a website via a paypal checkout they were next to useless when the shop didn't make good on an order and didn't respond to comms. Paypal didn't really commit to doing anything for a week so I set Visa on the job, cash back in 2 hours!

Virtually all of my models are from e-bay (probably well over 10,000 points worth), as are many of my hobby tools and equipment. Never had a problem. I buy from both private individuals and e-bay stores and have been using e-bay for a few years.

Just try and buy from people with good feedback ratings and you should generally be fine.

Brother SRM wrote:

. 40k stuff, especially if it's been used and in need of paint stripping, is usually available for 20% or more under retail. It's where myself and a lot of other Dakka folks get their armies built.

very good point. Just a week or so ago I was looking at getting a Ghaz to convert into a mega armor warboss for my Ork army. The best prices for new I could find was $30. I ended up scoring a used one, disassembled and stripped, for $15. In the pic it looked like it was missing a bunch of parts, but had the basics...body/legs and arms. When I got it only thing missing was his horns. It will need a bit more cleanup and removal of old superglue, but for more than 50% off retail it was a huge deal.

overall just follow all the previously mentioned advice.

Use Paypal. As a buyer it costs you nothing.

Search for the item you want, then choose the seller with the best feedback rating possible. Sometimes you may give a bit depending on the sellers location to you, item and shipping cost, etc...but stay with someone in the 99-100% range if possible. Also read the sellers negative feedback...some people just seem to expect too much and post negative feedback for silly things..."I bought a used item and it wasnt in brand new condition and took more than 1 day to get to me"...seriously, you see that kind of thing now and then.

If you are in the UK (think it is just the UK) - register with quidco.com and every time you use them to visit ebay and buy stuff (as well as many other websites) you will get part of the referral fee back (usually only a few pence for most ebay auctions as it is a % of the seller fee - however I've had it go as high as £1-2 on more expensive things) - also means you can get cash back from places like play.com and so on...

Yes, ebay can be trusted.

I practically deal exclusively with ebay sellers for all of my 40k Model/kit needs. It is the least expensive way ot put an army together. Whats even better is the fact that you can buy individual bits and potentially save even more. Just depends on who you buy from, but all of my experiences have been great. Sellers are happy ot combine shipping to save you money. Even when my order is missing something, they promptly send it out to me within a few days. I would HIGHLY recommend ebay to you!

OM*G lol, thats the most replies i have EVER had on a post of mine within less than 24 hours, thanks a lot for all the help guys =D

Lots of transactions do not necessarily mean that you wont get scammed, checking feedback can be a good indicator, check the sellers location and check postage times and double check the item description.

However...

dark6spectre wrote:

the main reason is my dad, who thinks ebay is a good way to get scammed. i just want to ask you guys so i can back myself up should he deny to buy something.

If your dad is concerned about eBay, how the heck will he feel when he is confronted with 'facts' taken from strangers on a forum called Dakka Dakka?