Ebay

[SC pontil collector]

My brother in law bought a bottle on ebay. He paid with Paypal. Bottle arrives, total rip off. I tell him what to do. He contacts seller, they threaten him with the FBI, some type of fraud squad b.s. accusing of wanting to steal this crap of a bottle.
So, he contacts ebay and presents his case. Make a long story short, he gets a full refund including shipping each way.
Yeah, I know of a lot of plain rip offs from ebay. In the early days I was ripped off for over $400.00 from one of ebays best. I am not saying ebay is a great place to sell or buy anything, just posting an ebay transaction that went well for my brother in law.
sc pontil collector

 

[AntiqueMeds]

I would agree that currently fleabay is more tilted in the interest of buyers rather than sellers.

 

[Penn Digger]

How about the ones that claim open pontiled when the are obviously not??? Key moulds...

PD

 

[SC pontil collector]

Penn Digger,
Contact Ebay and explain that the bottle was misrepresented. if the bottle was paid through Paypal, then its relatively easy to get a refund.
That has been my experience (twice). It took roughly about 2 weeks for ebay to make decision on my brother in laws case. You have to follow their procedure to the letter. His was about about color of the bottle which is very subjective, however he still was given a total refund.
sc pontil collector.

 

[bostaurus]

ORIGINAL: Penn Digger

How about the ones that claim open pontiled when the are obviously not???  Key moulds...

PD

Or early Owens bottle machine suction marks.... pontiled?

 

[ironmountain]

Ebay is all about "protecting" the buyer. They can retract bids, leave negative feedback at will with the seller not able to offer an explanation.

Was selling my father in law's '66 T-bird for him. Had the 428 motor that they only put in them for the last 6months of production. Started it at 1600. Had a guy bid on it, call me a number of times to make sure of directions up here and then call me on the day he was supposed to drive up to get it and say that he had bid on another motor and won that and it was closer to his house. he bid on both so he'd be sure to win one...Ebay allowed him to retract his bid and the other guy who had bid on it figured he didn't win so went elsewhere for one so we couldn't offer to him at his bid.....At least he offered to pay my listing fee...which was .99 cents...

Or people who seem to "never get the package" and then mail you and tell you they're going to leave negative feedback if you don't send them another one for free...So paypal refunds them and you get stuck with fees and then they open a case.

We just started an Etsy account. Going to check that out and see how it is. Wife is getting sick of the hundreds of collectibles/vintage stuff I have downstairs...

 

[SC pontil collector]

Ebay at one point was rip off central for buyers. Many buyers (including myself) were openly ripped off by some bad sellers. This went on for a while and then I heard that someone in the government came down hard on them about the rip offs. This may be true or not. I stopped buying on ebay after being ripped for a bottle for a large amount of money. I returned the misrepresented bottle and the seller simply never returned my money. Ebay did nothing at all to help me.
I agree that now it has turned towards the opposite way for the seller. They now put the irresponsibility more on the sellers. I know because I have been seling my dug bottles on ebay and its becoming more and more unfair.
Right now, ebay has a large market share of online auctions and seems to play buyers against sellers and then switches to the opposite while staying in the middle making huge amounts of our money. This may not always be the case.
Personally, I liked going to bottle shows, bidding on the auction houses (Glass Works, Pacific Auctions, etc) and trying like hell to get my copy of Jim's magazine early enough to beat other collectors to those bottle listings in the for sale section.
Its seems that ebay will always be a love/hate type of situation.
Sc pontil collector

 

[LtlBtl]

Things I'd love to see happen on Ebay:

1. institute buyer fees and lower seller fees. They would still get their money, more sellers would come back and buyers would get a clue that it costs money to be on Ebay.
2. If I got to pay a final value fee on shipping, then take the star rating for shipping and handling off the table.
3. Bring back detailed buyer ratings. And allow me to give a negative too to them. not that i have ever handed one out as a buyer or received one.
4. Split. I don't want to see new stuff that I can pick up at any local Chinese import retailer mixed in with what I am searching for.