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I know what you mean. I was bidding on a torque converter two weeks ago, then when there was one day left of bidding and I was winning - the seller removed the item. Said he had too low of a shipping cost and was going to lose money. So I messaged him and told him I would pay the difference in shipping. He said that would be fine and never got back to me after that. What a crock. My wife says I should report him to eBay, I just say why bother?
because they also get 10% of the shipping costs as well :laugh: They will overlook what they can when the money is rolling in. I just got a guy that shill bids his auctions ejected but it took some doing on my part to get ebay to do it, and while for the time being I know that eBay yanked his listings for now but I doubt that will stop him for long, Because they get 10% of whatever he bumps that final price up to.
And while you can just stick something in envelope and mail it, anymore you are taking a risk doing that. If someone in the mail system suspects it might be something of value inside it disappears or the envelope mysteriously gets damaged and item is missing inside because its fair game without the tracking number on it, or the buyer can simply say "gee I never got it" I want a refund. There is no way to prove it didnt arrive. Not to mention on ebay if you don't load a tracking number into the system when you ship ebay will ding you for it and what little discounts or good ratings they give you they will take away.
And while you can just stick something in envelope and mail it, anymore you are taking a risk doing that. If someone in the mail system suspects it might be something of value inside it disappears or the envelope mysteriously gets damaged and item is missing inside because its fair game without the tracking number on it, or the buyer can simply say "gee I never got it" I want a refund. There is no way to prove it didnt arrive. Not to mention on ebay if you don't load a tracking number into the system when you ship ebay will ding you for it and what little discounts or good ratings they give you they will take away.
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The flip side is that I've bought a bunch of stuff on ebay over the last few weeks and have had nothing but good experiences. I'm fixing up a couple of old motorcycles and lots of the parts that I need are obsolete. I like that I can just search by part number and immediately be taken to sellers who have NOS pieces. I try to stick w/top-rated sellers and avoid those who won't take returns. I have not had anyone try to gouge me on shipping.
I had a guy literally throw a blockzilla motor into a regular cardboard box with just other pieces of cardboard and side cover, carb, etc all smashing against each other inside. USPS shipped it, cheap as possible I imagine. Charged a bit for shipping but that is to be expected. The mail dude handed it to me and I swear to God it was like a little bean bag chair made of cardboard with corners blown out and bolts falling out.
And the guy tried the "I don't take returns" BS with me.
What really got me was I shipped it back to him properly (by my standards) and the UPS guy could have thrown it off the back of the truck and it would have still been fine. Plenty of wood and screws, bolted into a cradle basically, and get this - it cost me half of what he charged me to basically take a dump in a box. He finally did refund my money but then at the end he stiffed me on the shipping, after I didn't leave neg feedback(I know, my fault lesson learned).
That really made me mad, because shipping is what caused the issue in the first place. It's like he didn't learn anything from the experience.
But I sure did :wink:
And the guy tried the "I don't take returns" BS with me.
What really got me was I shipped it back to him properly (by my standards) and the UPS guy could have thrown it off the back of the truck and it would have still been fine. Plenty of wood and screws, bolted into a cradle basically, and get this - it cost me half of what he charged me to basically take a dump in a box. He finally did refund my money but then at the end he stiffed me on the shipping, after I didn't leave neg feedback(I know, my fault lesson learned).
That really made me mad, because shipping is what caused the issue in the first place. It's like he didn't learn anything from the experience.
But I sure did :wink:
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Just to be crystal clear, the bad experience I described above was not with my current engine.
My current engine I bought from Nic Woods and I could not be happier with my purchase.
The neg experience described above was a motor I bought off eBay, the kid even admitted he had never shipped anything big like that in his life.
My current engine I bought from Nic Woods and I could not be happier with my purchase.
The neg experience described above was a motor I bought off eBay, the kid even admitted he had never shipped anything big like that in his life.