"Good Sellers to Buy from on Ebay"

HMF

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Let's make a list of those sellers we have dealt with on Ebay for machinist and related items that we have been satisfied with.

This way, before we deal, we can check someone out.


Nelson
 
Bill Gruby said:
I have three I will swear by.

#1 -- tools4cheap -- Jeff Beck
#2 -- webstore 11-- Mikes etc.
#3 -- irvineman -- bearings (extremely reliable)

From an international point of view, tools4cheap and irvineman (vxbearings) can't be beaten!
The speed in which things are dispatched and delivered is incredible. Sometimes days ahead of an item ordered from within Australia.
 
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I only buy from those who have very close to a 100% feedback score. If they have a bad mark or 2, I read their feedbacks to see why. If it is an honest mistake,or just a unreasonable customer(and there are plenty,some of which were expecting free merchandise),I go ahead and buy. So far,I haven't been cheated by a dealer.

There are some private,or frequent dealers who are just too ignorant to know what their item really is,or if it is broken,or incomplete. A while back,I bought a turntable(for playing records) from a woman in California. It was advertised as new. Turned out to be missing the very special connecting cord,and the disc that enabled it to transcribe records into the computer onto discs(which was exactly what I wanted to do). These items were not sold separately,either. They had bought it that way. I got my money refunded,though it took time since the dealer was on vacation. All came out well,and I did not leave negative feedback. We both pretended the sale never took place. Things like that can happen. The dealers are at a disadvantage really,because of PayPal,and the ability of the buyers to leave negative feedback. So,I think they have to be careful. I KNOW there are some bad apples in the barrel,but they seem to be few,and if they get a few bad marks,they get banned.

One thing that really irritates me are the number of "salesman's samples" out there,that are NOT salesman's samples. One such was a STANDARD Swiss pattern watch maker's hammer. I advised the dealer that it was such. His reply was that he had never heard of a Swiss watch maker!!! I asked him if he'd ever heard of Rolex. I think that guy was a crook.
 
OK, I'll chime in on this one. I've had very little success on e-bay, especially in bidding. I have however,bought a couple of items in the Buy it Now category. The first time, I did get what I purchased, but the shipping costs were listed at over $10, and when I got the little package it only cost the seller $3.85 The seller was "junkman".
The second occurance is still on-going, but to sum it up, I bought a 48 tooth change gear. When I got the shipment, it was a 46 tooth gear. The seller still hasn't replied to my e-mail nor the message I left him on e-bay. I'll give him a little more time before I post his seller name.
I'm new at e-bay trading, so maybe these occurrances are trivial. If so, then ignore this post. :)
 
I just bought bearings from irvineman. Locally the bearings would have been $5 each and I needed 3 bearings. I got 10 bearings from irvineman for $14.40 delivered. Now my steady and follow rests have all new bearings and a spare set for less than it would have cost me to replace the three questionable units.
 
Re:

author=nctox link=topic=3593.msg26222#msg26222 date=1316278444
OK, I'll chime in on this one. I've had very little success on e-bay, especially in bidding. I have however,bought a couple of items in the Buy it Now category. The first time, I did get what I purchased, but the shipping costs were listed at over $10, and when I got the little package it only cost the seller $3.85 The seller was "junkman".
The second occurrence is still on-going, but to sum it up, I bought a 48 tooth change gear. When I got the shipment, it was a 46 tooth gear. The seller still hasn't replied to my e-mail nor the message I left him on e-bay. I'll give him a little more time before I post his seller name.
I'm new at e-bay trading, so maybe these occurrances are trivial. If so, then ignore this post. :)

The reason why the postage is often higher than the actual price paid by the seller is that it covers handling and packing.

For example, the cost of the actually postage may have been $3.85, but the guy would have spent time and effort to go out and get/buy a packaging box, time to wrap it including label it and then go/drive to take it to a post office.

I know this myself as I used to sell a lot of items on eBay and often the time/cost involved in packaging an item was many times more than the item was worth. I used to sell plants and bamboo at one stage on eBay. By the time I washed the soil away from the roots (quarantine reasons) put in moist packing so the plant will survive, go and find/buy find suitable size boxes, wrap it so it doesn't leak, ( a big no no with the Post) label it, and then had a 40 minute return drive to the local post office, I would charge an extra $10 for doing this, as you can imagine this would work out costing me much more than the extra charge and it was costing me money to sell these things. So I stopped doing it unless it was pick up only.

Even items such as tooling and computer bits still require time to go out to find/buy boxes, packaging materials so they don't get damaged and the time and fuel cost to drive to the post office. Unfortunately they is no cheap way out of this and the extra cost just offsets the cost involved in selling items. Most of the time the seller still is still losing on the deal.

I know it's annoying and you do feel ripped off when you see the actual price of the postage compared to what you paid for the postage but unless you have sold a lot of stuff on eBay most people aren't aware of these hidden costs.

As for the wrong item sent, "put in a item not as described" in ebay and there will be some response quickly, if he doesn't reply to it put in a complaint to ebay. Mistakes do happen, I have bought a few tools which weren't the ones I was sent and most of the better sellers will rectify the problem quickly at no cost to you, I bought a NT40 arbor from Hong Kong and I received a different size one, notified the seller and he paid for postage back and send the right one free of charge. Bought a scissor knurling tool for my lathe from England and recieved an incorrect shank size, notified the seller and he sent me the right one and didn't even want the wrong sized one back, so I have 2 now. The postage back would have cost them more than the tool was worth, there are a lot of reputable sellers out there and a few dodgy ones too.

Cheers.
 
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See? I never knew about Irvineman. Thanks to this list I now do. Let's keep the names of GOOD SELLERS coming guys!

Thanks,


Nelson
 
I have bought a lot of items off the bay and would say that there are many good sellers. Just do your homework and if bidding don't go there with I have to have it attitude. Many times I have taken a month or two to get or find the deal on a product that i wanted. I've bought from VXBearings several times but now skip e-bay to do so.
 
Re:

author=Hamstn link=topic=3593.msg26336#msg26336 date=1316349789
I have bought a lot of items off the bay and would say that there are many good sellers. Just do your homework and if bidding don't go there with I have to have it attitude. Many times I have taken a month or two to get or find the deal on a product that i wanted. I've bought from VXBearings several times but now skip e-bay to do so.

Can you give us a few you have had good seccess with? Thanks!


Nelson
 
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Thanks for the list so far. I just put in an order of bearings to Irvineman last night. How'd you guys know that I needed some sealed bearings?? ;)

-Ron
 
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