I am not sure I ever fully understood eBay. I have never purchased on there although I know you can get great deals. I have tried to sell on there and have sold nothing. I get many Amazon certificates so I tend to use them. You can get fantastic deals on their marketplace items which are typically way under market and similar to eBay. Amazon is the place I always look first, although if someone were to ever offer gift certificates for eBay, I would give them a try!
I've used eBay a handful of times, with varying results. About half the time, typically when I was purchasing something plastic, I had no issues. Got a handful of figurines through eBay about a year ago that were good-quality and solid. Before that, though, I purchased an older video game through eBay, and it didn't work properly at all, because the save battery in it was long dead. Got into a fight over it with the seller. I prefer Amazon overall. Everything I get from there seems perfectly fine. Still, I guess if you want to use eBay you'll want to stick with stuff that you can tell is in good condition just by looking at the pictures provided.
I shop on eBay frequently, and occasionally sell on there. I used to have a shop there, until the fees got ridiculously high, then I migrated elsewhere. I find many good deals on eBay, and will often check there when I'm looking around and price checking items. If I'm in a hurry to receive my item, I will buy specifically from a U.S. seller, but otherwise, if it's something I don't need immediately, I will buy from overseas, and save some money on the product, and definitely on shipping.
My sister has had great success on Ebay both buying and selling. Recently, she sold a lego set for nearly 1,000 certainly not what she paid for it initially. She has also bought gaming systems and games for her kids on there at vastly reduced prices. It is safe to say, she is a fan.
I loved it when I first learned about it, because I had always been interested in auctions and how they worked. I enjoyed the thrill of live bidding, and sometimes getting deals. The chance of losing at the last minute always provided some thrills, but then people got to the point where they seemed to take pleasure in swiping in at the last minute and grabbing up all of the good items. These days, I mainly stick to the Buy It Now listings, although I will occasionally buy something at auction. It sounds as if she's had some good luck with it, maybe she can win you over at some point.
I've had generally good experiences purchasing stuff on there. It generally arrives in a timely manner and is in perfect condition, even when used. However I've only really bought shirts, pants and shorts on there - I don't really have any experiences buying appliances or electronics or other stuff on there. The only time I kind of got screwed was when I bought what I thought was a full size bottle of cologne for $12, only to find out it was the small trial size you see in most drug stores selling for around the same price. However the listing clearly stated that, and I just overlooked it. I would strongly suggest checking for better prices on Amazon first though before buying on eBay since there are people out there who are merely drop shipping products from Amazon to eBay customers and tacking a little extra on for a profit. As for selling stuff on eBay, I've not had as good of an experience. I sold some camera gear on there a few months ago - and between all the shipping costs as well as eBay's rather steep commissions, not to mention all the hassle and expense of packaging up and bringing the items to the post office, it wasn't really worth the trouble. I sold a few items on eBay then found another company, KEH Camera, and sold the rest to them directly. Even better, they took care of the shipping, and I only had to send it all in one box, so no multiple trips to the post office.
There's no reason a person should ever have a major issue with shopping on eBay because you should be able to identify quality sellers and avoid the bad ones. That's true whether you're buying used or new items, and you can definitely safe a lot of money through eBay with some searching and diligence, even compared to buying items on Amazon. I've used eBay dozens of times as both a buyer and seller with great results.
I like using ebay, especially when I'm searching for older electronics. I've only ever had one major issue, when my item didn't arrive, however, I contacted the seller and they shipped out another item, free of charge. When it arrived it was absolutely perfect. I think it depends on what you're looking for!
Ebay used to be really good back in it's heyday circa 1999-2004. I used to shop and sell on there and made lots of money back then. It's gone under new management a few times since then and the atmosphere is nothing like what it used to be. It used to be fun to shop and full of good deals. Now it's just junk and full of scammers. I am not surprised you haven't found many good deals on there. It's been like that for a number of years. I used to always shop on ebay first, but like you, now that Amazon is here, I always look there first now. I don't even bother with ebay anymore. I don't even have an account with them.
I've had small issues with eBay in the past but overall I love the site. I'm always able to find great deals, I love that some sellers offer free shipping. I've sold on eBay and have made a decent amount of money, but mainly I love to shop on there verses selling. If you like to save money then I would suggest buying from eBay.
I've also had success in using eBay, mainly for selling my old video games and also from buying new ones. It helps that you have PayPal's buyer protection when you're buying stuff, but you should also be careful since when you sell items, the buyer also has the same protection - do anything unsatisfactory and it'll bite you in the back.
I used to buy and sell on eBay all the time. But I moved countries and now don't tend to use it as much. I think eBay has also deteriorated quite a fair bit. I do still buy a few odds and sorts from time to time, but the sellers have become complacent, and because they don't always ship to where I am, I don't bother as much.
I use ebay but not that much, to be honest. Our local sellers usually don't allow Paypal and instead they require us to pay at a bank which I find defeats the purpose of shopping online. At least I'd wish they would just allow COD and some of them do but often those sellers don't tend to last very long. Personally I'm much more inclined to use other bigger stores that offer better shipping and payment methods.
eBay is a great source of great deals especially when you're dealing with used or refurbished things. Of course I wouldn't buy something like a car there but when it comes to smaller things it's pretty okay. I've used it a bunch of times and for the most part everything that I bought seems to be in order. The only thing you have to watch out for are the sellers. Make sure you can trust them and that the community trusts them. Also, read everything before you click buy. Once you clicked that 'Commit to Buy' button there's no turning back.
Same here! I heard wonders about selling on eBay and here you got me signing up for an account on the early days I came online, but I didn't understand a word on how to use it for selling. Eventually I wasted to buy from eBay and didn't understand either, not to mention that it was allegedly reported the numerous scams resulting from this place. I have tried to understand how it works more than twice more recently in order to sell or buy something but I haven't succeeded in the know-how, so better going to Amazon too.
