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I am done!

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TR3TomG

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Something I thought existed, I guess doesn't, though this web-site and certain others keeps some hope alive for me.

I have been working on MG TF for some time now. Previously, I restored a TR 3. As I replace parts, I post the old parts for sale on EBay, somewhat to recoup a bit of the money, but I thought more importantly to keep them in circulation and knowing that there are people out there who either don’t have the money to buy new parts, or who are just somehow interested in having the Brit parts that I post.

In the long run, considering all the time it takes to pack up the parts and deliver them to the US Post Office or UPS, my time could be much better spent doing other things, and the money is quite minimal.

But - I am done doing it! I have been beaten down. The brotherhood I thought existed in restoring old Brit cars does not seem to exist, or it’s not what I thought it was. The buyers just are not worth dealing with. I will not do it any more!

Just yesterday as an example, without even giving me 24 hours to respond (yes, I do have another real world job and do not sit by my computer 24/7), a person who paid $20 for 4 TF hood buttons (Moss charges $40.95 per button) and miscellaneous other parts (i.e., headlight rings, old check straps, steering c ring, etc., that I noted in the add were "rough"), filed a complaint with EBay and froze his payment money with PayPal, saying I didn’t send him the buttons and the rest of the stuff was junk!

Do I need this kind of aggrevation for $20! What happend to a bit of courtesy? When I finally got the guy on the phone, he essentually accused me of pulling a scam, and had no patience when I tried to figure out what happend to the buttons that I am sure were in the box when I took it myself to the USPO (and stood in line for 15 minutes)! I have all positive feedback (270), a full time job, a wife and two kids in college - is he kidding!

Sorry for the rant, but I just had to vent. Perhaps some time I'll get over this and have a huge "parts lot" to sell, but it will not be any time soon.
 
I can totally commiserate. I have a massive pile of various LBC bits. A year or so ago I started putting them on fleabay, but finally became so exasperated at the experience that I just gave up. I actually got mad enough (at fleabay) that I started developing an alternative to their services (my day job is programming).

However, I've found that starting a company in the garage is even more work than restoring cars, so the project is somewhat on hold.


Honestly, I'm much happier giving the parts away when I can to someone who needs them.
 
Always a few, in any hobby. And for some reason, eBay seems to attract them.

Keep your temper, answer the protests politely but firmly (to eBay/PayPal I mean, I wouldn't bother talking to the buyer). It's his word against yours on the buttons, after all; and the other stuff is "as described".

Worst case, you are out $20 + shipping and your feedback drops to 99.6% positive. Not right, but not the end of the world either.
 
I sell a few parts myself but don't even try Evilbay. Several folks are here on BCF. Everyone has been great, I do try to send a picture of any part before a payment is sent to make sure the customer knows exactly what they are getting. I've been disappointed at some of the parts I have bought (Evilbay) but they weren't enough value to hassle with, just won't buy from that person again.

Marv
 
I feel your pain. With Ebay there is good and bad out there unfortunately and I've found as a seller the whole 'freeze the money' thing is incredibly irritating.

I was burnt a couple of years ago when we sold an antique clock. It arrived broken but the buyer was immediately insulting and other than calling me a liar basically went straight to ebay for a refund. And I lost.

On the flip side, I bought a used TR part about a month ago, which was not simply used but obviously broken and unuseable with an attempt to hide the problem. I was polite but firm that I wanted to return it, and when the seller said 'as is where is' I went to ebay and got my money back. I don't feel bad for doing so.

There are plenty of good buyers out there, and plenty of good sellers - but the bad ones are there too and Ebay doesn't do much to sort it out. My advice, don't use them if its not worth the aggravation, but if you are trying to sell off stuff they are arguably still the best thing around at the moment - so protect yourself as much as possible with pictures, descriptions, etc.
 
Thanks all for listening and the responses/encouragement. Seems I have a lot of company.

BTW, I returned the guy's money right after I hung up on him. For a total of $32, its just not worth dealing with this/ebay/and a difficult purchaser. So, I am out the parts and $12 dollars for shipping. He wins I guess. Its unfortunate that becaus of guys like that, just a little bit of the Brit car thing we all enjoy dies in some way.

Oh well, I'll get over it!
 
any time I sold stuff on Ebay I asked for a Money order, but I also never tried to scam anyone and they usually got a good deal on the parts


Hondo
 
That's why I give my parts away and if someone wants to sendme money after they get them ,that is fine
 
Ebay buyers are the bottom of the barrel type, which is why I don't use it to sell. Most of the sellers are inexperienced about what they sell and either expect the world for their goods or price things too low and whine when they don't get their fortune.
 
equiprx said:
Ebay buyers are the bottom of the barrel type....Most of the sellers are inexperienced about what they sell and either expect the world for their goods or price things too low and whine when they don't get their fortune.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I simply <span style="font-weight: bold">cannot</span> agree with such an overly broad statement! I have bought literally <span style="font-weight: bold">hundreds</span> of items (mostly car parts) from eBay in the last dozen years and have yet to be "burned" with bad merchandise. Yes, I've had one or two instances where the seller's and my opinions of "good condition" varied somewhat, but not enough to warrant complaint or Federal investigations.

Basically it still boils down to both <span style="font-style: italic">Caveat emptor</span> and <span style="font-style: italic">Caveat vendor</span>...and luck of the draw. Granted, there are some people who wouldn't be happy if, after spending a whopping $2500, Bob Tullius himself delivered a pristine Group 44 TR6 to your driveway and dusted it off as he backed it out of the trailer.... :rolleyes:
 
Andrew Mace said:
Sorry, I simply <span style="font-weight: bold">cannot</span> agree with such an overly broad statement!
Click to expand...
:iagree:
I have been burned a few times on eBay, but even more often on transactions outside of eBay. Even face to face is no guarantee.

Thanks for the warning, Steve. I try to avoid buying from anyone who thinks I am the "bottom of the barrel type".
 
"Caveat emptor and Caveat vendor."

I think this is where most of the issues arise. Originally Ebay was an equitable marketplace. There was a number of arbitrage mechanisms in place, but none of it was draconian.

Over time the focus shifted almost wholly to the protection of the consumer. For ebay this was important as the customer is the source of the money. What has happened is that the marketplace is now so totally consumer focused that vendors run fairly significant risks on any given sale. When a single gripe from your customer can freeze the financial transaction (which would almost never happen in a retail store) then the vendor is at great risk because they no longer have the saleable item nor the profits from it's sale.

The whammy here is that unlike the open market there is no downside for the consumer who takes these actions. In the open market, should I want to cancel a payment I would have to put a stop payment on a check or credit card purchase. There's cost to me on this, and thus I am likely not to do it.

Despite these issues there are millions of transactions occurring on ebay across the world weekly, so the issue rate on purchases is probably very low (>1%). The problem is that once you've been involved in one instance of this you're much less likely to want to come back.

For me, the other aspect that I greatly dislike is the yard sale haggling that goes on underneath the bidding. I got tired of people being cheap and continuously trying to get me to sell things off bid cheaper than I originally posted it for. Since almost everything is sold used, at least by me, there is that blanket assumption on the part of many consumers that simply because they only want to pay me pennies on the dollar for a given good that I must somehow accept this.

What got me off ebay was when I found myself responding far too often with the phrase "[censored] off" :smile:
 
equiprx said:
Ebay buyers are the bottom of the barrel type...
Click to expand...

I bought my TR4 sight-unseen on eBay and it has been a great ride for the past 10 years. I got lucky -- okay, I got real lucky -- but with a fair amount of care and a bit of luck the buying experience on eBay can present some deals that would have been hard to find 20 years ago.
 
Just broke my own rule and bought something there.
But the good news is.
Part of my house is featured there by a seller.
 
Like Geo I bought my 4A on eBay sight-unseen and also got lucky. Took cash, worst case out $500 down. It's not like these cars show up in the local paper.
 
I have sold a lot of my TR6 stuff through here and listings on 6-Pack. I prefer to make a donation here, which I did before I sold one part, than pay PayPal for it. Not that PayPal is bad, I prefer to sell to like minded owners and will take their checks or word that they are sending payment. I probably could have made some more cash on eBay and I have bought a lot there over the years, but I just didn't want to do it that way.
 
Last year I sold a $2,500 (new) machine for $400 on ebay. I packed it impeccably and shipped it FEDEX insured. The buyer emailed me to say when they received it a part was damaged but they ordered a replacement part from the manufacturer and sent me a copy of the invoice. Since I shipped it insured, I IMMEDIATELY sent the buyer a check for the invoice amount plus shipping. It took a few weeks, but I got reimbursed from
FEDEX. In the end, the buyer left me negative feedback. Hard to please unreasonable people.
 
I've got to agree with Andrew and the other positives about E-bay. I often talk about it when someone ask about the restoration of my TR250. The usual questions is it hard to find parts for these cars and aren't they expensive. I explain that I used e-bay a lot where I sold spares from other cars to get $ for my restorations and was able many times buy for pennies on the dollar even for new parts. I must have saved over 60% in parts for the restoration. It was a blast doing it.
Now this was done from 2000 to 2006 at the beginnings of e-bay and a lot has changed since. More guys buying so items get bidded up higher now then 10 years ago. Along with the increase in traffic comes the increase in schemers too and that's what you always hear of the most. I once did buy a back light frame (surrey top) from a guy in Texas and through a nice e-bayer alerted me that he was a schemer. I immediately filed for a credit through Pay pal and got my money. I know others weren't as fortunate. Lesson being is stay within the e-bay and PayPal protections. But all in all when I start my 69 TR6 project I'm looking forward to using e-bay again.
 
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