eBay - A bit of advice

[mudman]

Which is: don't let your ten-year old son loose with your account.

The story behind it is that number one son is looking for a Dreamcast games console and was browsing eBay. As he'd been unusually helpful (and I owed him some pockewt money), I signed on to my account and told him he could have an upper limit of £15 and to be wary of postal charges. Then left him and went to get some grub.
Son comes downstairs a bit later and says 'Dad, I forgot something', 'What's that then?' says I.
'The decimal point'
:?:
'I typed in £13.90 but put in £1390 instead'.
:shock:
'It's okay though because it didn't take it and came up as £13.90'
(Emoticon going 'Phew')
Goes back upstairs and a bit later comes down and says.
'Dad, there's something strange going on. It just went to £16.80 but says I'm still the highest bidder'
:?
Go upstairs and take a look at My eBay. Sure enough, max bid registered as one thousand three hundred and ninety pounds. :shock:
'I think you'll win it' says I.
Number one son looks suitably embarassed and sure enough, goes on to win the item. I breathe a huge sigh of relief that noone has mad a slip and entered a similarly large amount.

So, all is well that ends well and actually I found it kinda funny. Especially as ultimately it's my own fault.

Oh, and P&P came to £10. :evil: I hate it when they rip you off like that. But at least it puts me in credit on the pocket money front. :wink:

 

[froglet]

Mudman for future reference you can retract a bid on ebay under certain circumstances, one of which being when you have accidentally entered the wrong amount. I don't think you are allowed to remove the bid completely, but you are allowed to correct the amount.

Graeme

 

[tx2man]

Mudman,
I done the same thing myself recently.
You can retract a bid in these circumstances, if you
retract it straight away.

TX

 

[mudman]

I did know about retracting a bid. However, there were only a few minutes to go by the time I got to the PC and by the time I'd worked out how to do it, it would have been all done and dusted.
There wasn't any great danger of anyone else bidding a grand for a dreamcast so I was pretty safe.
Actually, it has given me a good tale for the pub. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I guess you were a bit lucky on this occasion.

A savvy seller on ebay won't know what your upper limit is, but can register a phantom account on ebay which they can use to place bids with, thus pushing up your bid. Once they've figured out where your limit is they can retract (or modify) their higher bid, so someone would have had a field day on this occasion!

I dare say that ebay would say it can't be done. But even though I haven't used this myself I'm pretty sure it can.

Andrew

 

[Noel]

An interesting tale:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3734462.stm

Noel

 

[Adam]

An interesting tale:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3734462.stm

Noel

All caused by people not reading Ebay's suggestions of how to avoid being scammed. Or if they do read it, they then ignore it and transfer the money directly into his bank account. Doh!

Adam

 

[Anonymous]

I still don't like ebay!!!! :evil:

 

[Adam]

I still don't like ebay!!!! :evil:

You were unlucky. Millions of people use it daily, for advertising millions of items. It's be interesting to know if more, or less "dodgy" transactions occur relative to total transactions as compared to normal life. You didn't actually get conned after all, just a bit gutted that you didn't win.

I'm waiting for two items currently, the insides of a centrefuge for extracting honey, and a tank for storing 120 lbs. Should be all set up for next year now. Just need a friend in a local engineering company to weld me up some food grade stainless steel for centrfuge - and I'll be quids in. Electric honey extractors retail for about £6-900. I got the motor free, the frame for the extractor was ~£50 - so just the cost of metal/welding. I need to pick up the honey tank myself, so am going over next monday. Another two successfull transactions!

Adam

 

[Anonymous]

I still don't like ebay!!!! :evil:

You were unlucky. Millions of people use it daily, for advertising millions of items. It's be interesting to know if more, or less "dodgy" transactions occur relative to total transactions as compared to normal life. You didn't actually get conned after all, just a bit gutted that you didn't win.
Adam

A con was attempted in my telescope escapade and this 17 year old in the link above nearly got away with it too. I'm sure that many find ebay superb - it's just not for me.

I think that we'll see a few more news items about ebay problems in the future due to the high volume of sales and the potential to easily coommit fraud :wink:

 

[Adam]

I still don't like ebay!!!! :evil:

Perhaps this will further confirm it then!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3738930.stm

Just as an indicator of how much it is used though.....

"Payments totalling $4.4bn (£2.4bn) went through Paypal's 50 million accounts in the April-to-June period. "

£2.4billion? I'd realised it was widely used....but not that widely! And that's only a 3 month period! :shock:

Adam

 

[kityuser]

ebay, the perfect place to buy solen stuff or bootfair rejects.

 

[Adam]

ebay, the perfect place to buy solen stuff or bootfair rejects.

I'd say most stolen stuff is flogged down the pub or at the local boot sale - people are less traceable than having name and contact details on ebay. Remember you have to provide your credit card details to register - to prove who you are. So should you be selling stolen goods, they have your details, and photos - pretty incriminating eh?

And in an environmentall consious world, the recycling benefits of ebay are significant. All that stuff would end up in a landfill otherwise. It's no different to any other auction house either. I think 50 million customers versus the bad transactions makes it a highly regarded company. Just think how many dodgy plumbers/sparkies/builders etc which people loose large amounts of money too. Timeshare, etc.

Even watching the news - companies like the new "Train Franchises" always have complaints.

OK, the guy who took peoples money needs locking up - but if you gave £50 to a man in the pub, who said he'd get you a camcorder and give it to you tomorrow - you tell him he's having a laugh. No different to how this lowlife made his money on ebay though is it? People actually transferred the money directly into his bank account before getting the goods.

Adam

 

[Anonymous]

I don't doubt that some of the stuff which appears on ebay might come from a shady background, but I don't think I'd want to be advertising stuff for sale on ebay with a photo etc - too much risk of the original owner or one of his mates seeing it. Let the buyer beware is a reasonable attitude to take.

For sure there's a lot of end-of-line stuff which has to be shifted when a new product range comes in. Some bargains to be had there.

There's quite a few able-minded characters who have spied an opportunity to make money out of other people, by buying product new from a warehouse or similar and then punting it on ebay - it isn't strange to see a bargain on there with an inflated postage charge.

However there are some great bargains too. A short time ago I needed a cable network test kit. These cost in the region of £30 at Maplins and other high street electrical suppliers. Got mine on ebay for less than a tenner, with about 6 quid postage - from Hong Kong. So roughly half price. Brand new, does the biz and I'm a happy camper.

Andrew

 

[ike]

Is Ebay a waste of time if you've only got dial up?

 

[Adam]

Is Ebay a waste of time if you've only got dial up?

? No, it works fine.

I have only admiration for people who manage to flog stuff for more than it's original value. Not just brand new stuff - you regularly see S/H stuff going for more than the price new. Some people are either A) just plan stupid or B) get caught in a frenzy of adrenalin and keep bidding.

Either way, someone (including ebay) are laughing all the way to the bank.

Adam

 

[ike]

I asked because someone (you?) was explaining about last minute bidding - it all happens down to the wire.

 

[gidon]

This is my best ebay selling story:

I had an Canon Ixus digital camera a while back. The zoom got stuck so I took it apart . Once it was in probably 100 bits and having cleaned the zoom mechanism, I couldn't figure out how to put it back together again! So I thought sod it I'll chuck it on Ebay - with clear pictures and a note saying why I'd taken it apart and that the bits may be useful to someone. I also sold the charger, battery etc etc all seperately. The whole lot sold for over £130!! About the same as it would have sold if it was in full working order. The chap buying it from me said he'd thought he would be able to put it back together again but couldn't - doh!

But I've sold and bought lots of things on Ebay and not really had any problems. It really is a seller's market though - you can pay well over the odds as a buyer if you're not careful.

Cheers

Gidon

 

[Noel]

Cracker one. Very funny. Presume you disposed of the jigs, aids, whatever they were?

Noel

 

[Anonymous]

Yep at an adult auction sites, I sold and run never to return.