why do HAMBERS dislike ebay?

I like Ebay ,
Ive sold and bought on there for 7 years now with no real dissapointments.
I believe the problem some have with Ebay is the EXACT same problems they have with all their other dealings in their everyday life.

By that I mean they say they got took on ebay when in reality it probaly states in the auction or ebays rules that the policy of the seller states the truth but they were too "busy" or lazy to read and understand.
It also seems that ,they hate the paying part and along with tha they hate PayPal....well welcome to the PRESENT fellows......

If you cant keep a bank account balanced or a credit card account "current" -then you are also not gonna do any good at dealing off of Ebay either.....
ALSO #1 in my book is the lack of commitment of these buyers and to their word[and not keepin it] that I am sure is also a reflection in their "off ebay"- life as well........
Basically people are what they are ....on and off ebay .....-so with a little judgement and a little caution and plain and simple communication between the seller and buyer, normally a deal can be struck that works well for both....
I am willing to bet[ at least most] of the naysayers about ebay are also the ones here that can't conform and participate in even any organized buying and selling here on the HAMB....
yep - I do like it!

 

i use ebay all the time, since im banned from selling my stuff here. i call it "egay" only cuz its funny to me.

 

I dont mind ebay as ive done well out of it selling parts ,i mean i think weve all gone to a swap meet with your trailer full ,guys tring to climb in and look before youve stopped payed the 20 bucks at the gate(used to be 5) and stood around all day with dickheads telling you your "gold" is nuthin but shit and copping crappy offers for what you believe is a fair price ,only to pack up at the end of the day angry and havin only just made enough to cover gas ,but if you list on ebay you still get all the dickheads but you dont have to listen to them!!!
I still go to swapmeets but only to buy stuff to sell on ebay!!!a few weeks ago i picked up a mint Model A hood and sides for$40 IT HAD SAT THERE ALL DAY AND NO ONE WANTED IT,I listed it on ebay and made $245 i cant complain ,but the nay sayers that say ebay has pushed up the prices i dissagree i think the whole nostalgia scene has done that anyone with old crap now thinks its worth big money to the "rat rodders "and they price it accordingly, WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW SOMEONE SWAP AT A SWAP MEET!!!i still get up before dawn to get to as many as i can but only for the chance to get away from the wife!!!
so i think they both have there place ,it does make it easier to find some parts but i think this is outweighed by the fact that you usually buy stuff that you wouldnt have bought before as youd probably never see one and you get all excited by the prospect of gettin something unusual or cool for your ride,.....different strokes i suppose!!!

 

I do a lot of selling there. I hate Ebay simply because if you have a problem, they don't quite stand up for you as promised. Also everytime they fart they raise a price somewhere in their fee structures.

 

You all know you could fund the building of your next car selling NON automotive stuff on eBay, right? Five to twenty dollar items sell all day long.

 

if it wasnt for e-bay my car would still be setting in the field!this is the only way i can build it...being a single dad,is tough! braces ,school tutuion.clothes, she likes to eat...

 

I love eBay! I sell shit on there all the time

 

Like this bloke in the quotes said, I've funded 90% of my 49 P/U and 100% of my wifies 47 buick from Egay (and like another gent said I just think that term is chuckle worthy) I dont buy much stuff from ebay, mainly cause I dont like the bidding wars that go on...there are select items that I do go after on flea-bay...namly weird uncommon stuff that aint desirable (IE I wanted a OEM headlight switch as opposed to the overseas crap you get at the local parts house....the parts house wanted $40 for their knockoff and the dealer wanted $65 for theirs....I got a OEM switch NIB for $7 including the shipping) the other stuff I have gotten was stuff I had my eye on but really didnt need, the item ended without any bidders and I bought it off line for a fair price. Back to funding sleds from egay proceeds, Like I said I sell remote control helicopter parts about 3 times a year to fund my car account, the highest price item I've sold was 3 bills or so...those are the minority though, the majority of the stuff I sell is $15 to $150 with a heavy emphasis on the $25-50 range....it adds up quick

 

I'm old enough to remember when the popular phrase was that "Carlise is ruining everything". Before that, it was that "Hemmings is ruining everything". If you go back far enough, I think that hot rodders were ruining everything.

 

Seems the consensus is that HAMBERS actually like eBay. Out of 70 replies so far, less than half a dozen say they despise it.

You could say eBay let the genie out of the bottle when looking for hard to find parts; youve got access to hard-to-find parts now, but so does everyone else- so who's gonna pony up and take that item home?

I think its bullshit that swapmeet rats point to prices on ebay when selling their crap. If they want eBay prices, they should sell it on ebay. Why drag a trailer full of shit halfway across a state when he could have just sat on a couch and watched it collect cash on Ebay and save the money from rental fees, gas, time, food, etc...?????. When they are at a SWAP MEET, they are at the mercy of the haggling public!!! Isnt that pretty much the definition of a swap meet???

Ebay is great. Its the abuse of using it as a "Beckett" (card collectors value bible) that makes it so irritating.

 

I've actually enjoyed having access to parts that I never did before. Far as paying too much, that happened to me before ebay. Ebay provides a method of price discovery to the vintage car and parts market that never before existed. BTW ebay isn't the only place on the intrenet to find stuff you need. Hamb works pretty good too.

 

I like Ebay.

I like it better than some fucked up swap meet where the "rules" on how to haggle are friggen mysterious and the sellers are unfriendly with a chip on their shoulders.

I never really ever go to swap meets. Its too much of a greedy scene for me. Seems like at a swap meet everyone is out to screw everyone else.

I don't know how you good swap meet sellers can stand it. (yes some of my friends are swap meet sellers).



Ebay isn't a bad thing. Its just changed the rules a tad and all the swap meet vultures hate their rules being changed....

My .02.

 

I never sold anything on EBay, but I bought things on EBay. Everything from Cub Scout uniforms to Model A parts. I have sold on the HAMB, and bought on the HAMB. Most people are pretty decent on timely payment, others it takes a month to conclude the deal.

EBay is the world's bigggest swap meet. The people who use it are buyers, not lookers.

I know that I wouldn't have been able to finish some projects if it wasn't for the parts that I got on EBay...or the HAMB.

Where EBay gets silly is the people who get into the bidding at the last minute and get the parts you've been bidding on all along. So I learned to put in a bid right up front that's the maximum I'd give. Then I either get it, or I don't.

I can understand people playing the games when you're at a swapmeet.

I had a guy just the other day ask me if my 1928 Ford Model A Woodie was "for sale". I said yes, just make me a fair offer. So he gives me a $1000 offer. "Not meaning to insult you".

I've been insulted by bigger and uglier people than you.

I told him that he wasn't high enough, (the '35 Ford wheels, hub caps, trim rings, and Big 'n Littles are probably worth that much alone...)...

As far as value goes?..who knows....I'm thinking between 10 and 15 grand...at that rate I probably made less than $1 per hour building it....

EBay is the best marketing tool of the new century.

And when guys at the swap meet tell me "I can get this or that much on EBay", I tell them, "Then why are you here wasting your time babysitting this rusted junk?"

Swap meets are for negotiation, EBay is for serious buyers.

Just my humble opinion.

 

i dont know what some of these people are talking about. where im from even the salvage yards use computers to check the 'going rate' for parts. ebay isnt the problem...its the salvage yards trying to get rich off of one part rather than taking the price of said vehicle and splitting the price up by part

 

I like Ebay. However, i've had some better luck here on the HAMB with certain things. But i won't shit-talk Ebay, as it's been very good to me. I'll GUESS some HAMBers get upset when something gets bid out of their reach on Ebay. Like if a Stromberg carb goes for $75 on Ebay, and they wanted it for $3. I couldn't help myself. LOL

 

I got screwed over selling a vehicle on ebay. Not from a buyer, but from ebay its self. They double charged me for the listing, then it was hell trying to get in touch with anyone to resolve the issue. I finally gave up and paid the double charge after about 3 months. (They had sent it to collections even though we were trying to resolve the issue.)

I don't normally hold a grudge but that experience really jaded me against ebay. I'll never list with them again and haven't bought off there since. It's been about 3 years since that happened. I still browse but haven't bought anything since.

 

What I like about eBay is that finding and buying a rare item isn't a one shot deal. If you are patient, no matter how rare the item is, you're going to find it again some day and get a second chance. Before eBay, once in a while I paid too much for something, just because I thought I would never get the chance to find another.

 

Exactly. I sell at both swap meets and on Ebay, but I never use that lame line about Ebay at a swap meet. Like I said in an earlier post, I remember when it was, "Well, at Carlise I could get...", at which point I'd usually say, "Look around. Does this look anything like Carlisle to you?"

 

I am posting a picture of one of the "most rare" items that I can think of. I personally have not seen one at a swap meet in over 30 years. I got this one by advertising on a local radio program "Trade Fair", a man called me and said he had one that he removed from a VW years back, that it had been on a shelf in his garage since then, and that he didn't know if it worked, I asked what he would take for it, and he replied $5.00, I was so excited, that I exclaimed " I'll give you $10.00 for it, and hauled ass to get it. But since getting mine I have seen 3 or 4 listed on eBay and even made bids on a couple of them, but my pockets were not full enough. And before anyone ask, MINE IS NOT FOR SALE1111

 

Ill agree with most of the people here. Its like a love hate relationship, mostly love though. I have bought and sold a lot of stuff on there. There was a thread the other day about how people raise money to support their hotrod habit, and that is mine. I usually sell vintage clothes before Viva las Vegas every year and it pays for my trip. Whenever I go to the thrift stores or garage sales I usually end up finding something vintage and cool for like a dollar and reselling it for more. If you know what kind of junk to look for and how to list it correctly and take good pictures etc. you can make good extra money. I also like it, because sometimes I dont know exactly what little part Im looking for, and what it looks like. but then you can see photos and learn that way. Then if you are patient, everything comes up again. You can get great deals if you know what you are looking for, especially super rare items. Plus I like swap meets, but thats not a guarantee that you will find exaclty what you are looking for there either. I guess you pay for the convenience a little. An economics teacher of mine was explaining that it is just about as close as you can get to perfect competition. This means the lowest possible prices because sellers are competing for your business.
The things I dont like are that the car listing fees are a flat fee whether you are selling a Ferrari or a POS parts car. thats kinda not fair. Also the scams, second chance offers, paypal scams will be the end of ebay, watch... I dont click on any of those fake links asking for your info, but ill bet there are tons of people and elderly folks etc. that would, because they are not hip to all the latest computer scams etc.
I guess one reason a lot of HAMB'ers dont like it is because its not really cost effective to ship heavy car parts and the like. Paying $6 to mail a t-shirt is one thing, but when you try to buy a hood or a rebuildable engine it ends up being more for the shipping than for the actual part. Unless you just wait for something local.

 

I guess that my one gripe is that everything on e-bay is rare. Maybe its just me but it seems like everything I look at is listed that way in hopes that someone is gonna pounce at the chance to buy the bent up stainless u pulled from an elusive 1989 Lincoln town car!

 

I hate ebay because it made me hate myself. against every instinct and better judgement I had I purchased a car off there back in April and I'm still messing around with what turned out to be a dumb deal and a title mess. so yeah thaks to ebay and my own stupidity I've been kicking myself in the acorns for months.

 

There is a parts car category with the same fees as normal auctions - I do think the car categories should use a sliding scale based on the open bid, though, and charge you more only if it sells for a lot more.

I use it, and I too love it and hate it. I love it when a $100 POS goes off for $2250 or a $300 POS brings the same. I hate it when a car that should sell in about as much time as it takes to say "I have car X for sale" never gets an offer. And I hate the assholes that come along that expect me either to part out a car because they wouldn't fix it, or have nothing better to do than be downright nasty because they wouldn't fix a car in whatever shape it's in.

But for the most part if it's going to sell and bring top dollar it will do it there. I've seen prices on some stuff actually come back down now that getting it is as easy as logging in there, I used to be able to resell HO trains and do pretty good, but you really have to know numbers and hit niches no one else has to do that anymore. Or else have stuff that couldn't be more perfect if you went through a timewarp and got it brand new from 1958 -