The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Outpost Cafe => Topic started by: nofi on April 06, 2010, 01:51:21 PM
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back when ebay first started up it had the feel of a swap meet. things were more casual and much more personal. you even got to know fellow buyers and sellers. plus it was not so full of scams and the like. i sold vinyl records and cds, that's all. on occasion i would return the buyer's payment with the product if i found i missed something wrong in my description. a couple folks actually repaid me and said not to worry about. i can't imagine that happening today. i did it as a hobby so i never listed more than 25 items at a time and never a bin. i enjoyed the give and take auction aspect of it more. ebay now is much more efficient in many ways but the 'small town' fun part is gone. oh well.
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I agree. I started back in the summer of '98 and I remember buying an item and I was going to mail a money order for it and the guy shipped it before I even had sent the money order! That won't happen anymore. First thing I bought was a GK 400RB from a guy in Arizona.
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I still use it quite a bit. However, it's an easier experience as a buyer than as a seller. It really seems like they're trying to weed out small sellers.
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Such is life. When things go corporate, they go to hell under the guise of progress.
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We lost the right to charge for postage on a lot of stuff (CD's DVD's books/mags) so I just stopped...
I think it was something they were trialing over in Europe only... (?) but it looks like it may be overturned, which is a bit of a shock... I just stopped trying to sell anything, even free listings... just felt it was wrong to have to be charged a "sellers" fee for postage when we could only list the items as "free postage" - just ain't no such thing...
I find that there is a lot of stuff I can get just as cheap through Amazon, so I go there as a protest... stuff them...!
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I've only ever bought, never sold. My very first E-bay purchase was my MIJ 62RI Jazz, best deal I've ever made.
But you're right there is a different "feel" to e-bay now, though I can't really define what I mean exactly.
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I joined in '98 as well and back then it was pretty fun. Now if you search for say, Gibson basses, the last 5 pages are filled with crap like gold-colored custom pics and a bazillion t-shirts with the Gibson logo on them.
For all its drawbacks, I've scored bunches of things I couldn't find anywhere else, especially motorcycle parts.
Now you can't leave negative feedback if the seller or buyer is a douchebag, so that pretty much sucks. If the guy rips you off you should be able to give him a neg and hit is overall score.
I'll buy and sell on eBay, but I will only buy on Craigslist. After my first attempt to sell a Telecaster on CL, I gave it up because there are LOTS of jerks who browse and will flag your post for removal if they think you charge too much. WTF?
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It's not just eBay. I started internet buying around 97-98, too, and between eBay and the Harmony Central classifieds (are they still around?) I built a large portion of my amp stable and made alot of friends. My local Craigslist is pretty good, but I can see how it could be abused, too. Like anything else that gets co-opted by large amounts of corporate money (including other bass forums) the ability to buy lots of odd crap while making lots of money for its owners outweighs the comraderie and relationship factor.
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No doubt the early camaraderie is gone. OTOH there were always scammers and always buyers willing to believe them. There are more of them now but the rise of internet forums has made us more aware of them.
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I agree that it was more fun ten years ago. I've bought and sold internationally with some great experiences where we traded items of interest after the initial deal. It felt like Facebook then - making friends in a new marketplace - versus today where stuff just gets shipped using automated tools. Since there seem to be more scams now, I've stopped selling outside the U.S. - just because it would be more difficult to rectify a problem if something went wrong.
That reminds me - I should wear my Trans Am Club of Sweden T-shirt more often. A Swedish drag racer sent me that along with Swedish Hot Rod magazines, after I sold him Indianapolis 500 memorabilia from the year his Turbo Trans Am was the pace car. I returned the favor by sending some other items for his collection. It was friends trading for fun, not commerce, at that point.
At least Ebay and craiglist have been useful for making my hobbies sustainable.
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The first year or so of ebay was just amazing. I was buying lps that I hadn't seen at collector shows for decades. And for $10 or less! I couldn't believe what was turning up. The guitar parts were amazing. I had a cob job Jazz, and had it back to snuff for a couple of hundred bucks. I can't even imagine what that would cost now, with 800 sniper bids in the last 5 seconds. I also preferred paying with postal money orders. It was initially a nice way to stop postal fraud, and buying them cash in hand at the post office sure kept your budget front and center.
Selling for me is a real tough call now. They have made it a pain in the neck. The limits on shipping charges was tough. It basically requires you to either pack and weigh before listing, or over-estimate weight for larger items to account for packing material. And the scammers are getting to be crazy, as they are trying to always out-wit ebay/paypal protection. I had a really nice old Dual turntable last year that sold twice, and both times they were trying to scam me. It is a toss up as I make more money there, but I have way more hassle compared to CL. Which is also no prize, as everyone there wants something for nothing, or you get some weirdo showing up at your house. I know why some guys like to do parking lot deals - nice and public.
But I guess it all boils down to people who suck.
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I remember see the founder who said no one wanted to fund his idea becuase no one is honest or will never ship or pay.
He said he founded it on that people want to do good and want praise (buyer feed back). I have had nothing but positive experiences.
I met our accountant last week and he said that a few of his clients make over $200,000 - $400,000 a year on Ebay. They act as middle men 0 stores. They have someone else do the shipping and sell other peoples products.
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There are power sellers who make big money and they probably have staff to deal with the hassles.
Craigslist is attractive for some things but you better know what you're buying in a parking lot deal.
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I did find the middle-man seller thing amusing to some degree. There was that almost scam thing with Gibson - they owned some old brands and sold Chinese made versions of older guitars through their on-line website. I think Kramer was the stuff. Guys would take the pic off the website, list the guitar but jack up the price $10-20 with a buy it now deal. When people bought them they would just copy and paste the buyer info into the Gibson site and have the guitar shipped to the buyer. They would have zero involvement with the actual guitar sale except collecting a few bucks from each guy who didn't bother to look outside ebay in the first place.
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I wish I had been a bit more adventuresome in the early days. There were amazing deals to be had, especially in Fullerton RIs.
I also remember passing on a Sherwood Green Telecaster bass with a cap neck that went for $800. Still kick myself over that one.
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I hate to think of all the guitars that passed through ebay in the first couple of years that I was on it. I never bid on them as I couldn't square myself with buying stuff with bigger price tags. Too much risk at the time, although parts were small and cheap enough that I bought lots of that stuff. I still wish I had gambled on the 61 EB-2C that came through. It was a beauty, and clean.
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I'll tell you the best feedback I ever received on eBay, though it was a long time ago. My eBay handle was "Dentist" and the feedback left to me on my purchase was "It was a painless extraction". Brilliant! EBayers often were rather playful in those days.
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an ex ebay ceo whose name escapes me is running for gov. of california. it might be some of our ebay dollars helping to fund her campaign. it could happen... :-\
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Remember when Rickenbackers were $425 all day long and MIJ fenders were $199?
Those were the (early) days of ebay, now everyone thinks they are a friggin expert.
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Yep, My MIJ was my very first e-bay purchase and I got it with HSC and shipping for just under $400.
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ebay has become the price guide to the world. unrealistic prices become the norm.
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ebay has become the price guide to the world. unrealistic prices become the norm.
That's one of the biggest downsides. All it takes is two people in a bidding war in one auction and it can throw normal pricing completely out of whack.
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My best sale was a private party ticket signed by Page, Plant, Jones, Grant, and a certain Mr Powell... all in the same place at the same time in 1981... there were a lot of rumours post Bonham, and this was the event that gave them fuel...
£368 for a 3x5" piece of card and a couple of poor quality pics...