What have you bought from on line auctions?

I haven't.................I'm, er

Really? I thought you were the adventurous type.

I'm with Phoenix. I've looked at E-bay and a few other sites but.. I just don't have much confidence in them - at least not enough to shell out any $$ yet.

What I like about ebay, you tell them your top price. Then ebay automatically bids for you until that limit is reached. In the case of my Pogo comic, I noted that I would pay up to twenty dollars for it. They put me out front in the bidding, but did not soak me for the entire twenty, since nobody else went as high as thirteen dollars. There is a rating system for dealers. The person that sold me the book had had just one less than perfect feedback.

I've bought from Ebay and Half with no problem - I've spent upwards of $1,800.00 on ebay at one time and my sister sold an antique for $8,000

believe me when I sell I tell about my 100% positive transactions, I'm willing to stretch a little if a guy has like 4,000 sales and a hand full of negs or neuts. when buying. Heck with that many transactions it's going to be difficult to keep everyone when yer talking about the postal service and emails getting in the way.

I'm also very happy with buy.com and soon to find out about amazon.
Buy.com seems to have the best book prices for new books I can find on the net, Amazon has a bigger selection.

Buy/Amazon/Half all let you search on ISBN# so you can pick the prices very easy.

Oh well, I VERY much enjoy ebay...especially around the holidays! I find just what I want, what I want to pay, and I dont have to fight the traffic.
Besides where else can you find all the interesting stuff?
Ive been Ebaying for oh..I dont know...two years or so...and Ive found that since its grown so much you just really have to read the auctions much more now. You know, be careful of the shipping amounts and stay away from undisclosed terms, etc. Other than that...I had one item get lost...and it was lost in the USPS only to arrive about 3 months later...and this was during Christmas so, eh...thats what I get for going for that. Most ship USPS with tracking or the ther shipping that comes with tracking now, so you dont have to worry.

Ive had great luck I guess with all sorts of on line shopping so, I dont mind. Amazon is always simply fabulous, and ive done buy.com a few times also.

I have to check back, but I think I just bought Mrs. SealPoet a visit to a taping of Victory Garden from WGBH / NPR fundraising auction. Bidding closes this evening, and when I last checked I still had the bid...

First ever.

oh yeah...I won a phone once in the WGBH auction...that was forever and a day ago though.

Good Luck SP!

She'll LOVE that.

(She'd better! Odd to buy a visit to a television program for someone who doesn't watch television.)

They dont carry the victory garden at our Philly and Baltimore PBS stations anymore. The last shows were with this incredibly scraggy guy with a bad beard and bad teeth. Then , pfffft. I thought it died. I need to find a guide for other stations
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PS. Regarding on-line auctions This months (DEC) issue of Maine ANtique Digest, had an article that was a "caveat emptor" for eBAy purchasing.
It was a caution about how people misreport condition of antiques (personally , if your in the antique sales, you MUST inspect everything you buy)
The problem with the misreporting is that sellers call things "mint" and "excellent condition" when , in an area where condition dictates price, there are many things like tears, dings, cracks etc that go ignored.
Also, the author reported that over 14 Million dollars in bilked sales were reported just on eBAy last year.
My wife sells wpinning wool and knitted items on ebay and has done quite well for the amt of effort required.
However, nobody who is a collector of good quality stuff would trust buying from photos of items . I often check the antiques listings on Blanket Chests in eBAy , Im usually at odds with the picture vs the description. I recently saw a "primo old blue painted blanket chest from the early 1800s" Listed and the photo and description were at odds.
The hinges had been replaced cause you could see that the lid tilted slightly and that there were cutouts and patches where the original hinges were

The paint covered what appeared to be an old scratch, thus the paint came after much use, and was therefore a new coat of paint that was distressed.

Ive often called sellers asking whether I could visit and see the item . Most of the reputable dealers didnt mind , and were after all, just using eBay as a sales tool and they had a reputation separate from on-line selling.

The article went on saying that people ,, until he did some investigative journalism, were afraid to complain because of the "cross negative feedback feature in eBAy" and They get little real support from eBay itself.

Im not trying to trash Ebay , Ive always stayed away friom buying good stuff on line unless its so tempting, then I ask to see it in person. youve gotta read this article. maybe their website can help locating it .

http://www.maineantiquesdigest.com


By the way, Maine Antiques Digest is the best trade paper on antiques and the antiques market. There is none better. Its only local in name, it covers sales,shows, etc all over the world. Pretty good for a couple of guys from Waldoboro

I've been buying from ebay for about three years now and have bought several things including CD's, video games, craft stuff, leather boots, cassettes, jewelry, t-shirts for my son, etc... I never buy anything that's very expensive and I've never had any problems. I do my Christmas shopping for my son on there since he likes the video games and CD's and I save myself a bundle, but I buy that stuff in the summer when ebay is slow, so it works for me.

It had slipped my mind until just now, But I actually have made two ebay purchases. There is a relatively new five cd set (with a book) of Harry Belafonte recordings. The set is from Bear Family and sells for about $150. I got it from a dealer on ebay for $90. It was unopened and perfect condition.
Antiques or valuable collectors items, such as comic books, I agree are a risk.

I have a thing for antique marbles and, knowing my stuff I am able to work pretty well on ebay..I guess the thing really is knowing what you are buying or willing to take the risk if you dont.
There are a great many people selling on ebay now that make claims for antique, first rate, rare and its all so not true. Like I said though, Ive done well and not had problems...knocking on wood.

I sold a McCoy Cookie Jar - that just made me nervous as can be. If went for $87.00 plus shipping and insurance. Sold plenty of video camera battery's for the $20-$30 range - those are slam-dunks. Most fun is saying I don't know anything about this item, but it looks ok. Or NIB.

I just bought a DVD/CD changer, surround speakers, and a subwoofer for my home theatre. I've also bought DVD's, posters, and a couple other small things.

I also sell things that target old people, and instead they get boxes of sand for the tune of $45-60.

i've bought books from ebay as well as Princess House (Nouveau) cookware

The highest end thing Ive seen sold on ebay was a house valued at 4 mil. it was a reserve item, and, with eBays policy with their reserve cost, they made out ok if it sold or not.
there were a couple of others besides ebay, there was ehammer.com and eauctions etc. I wonder if they went belly up/

if they did, maybe its because it's ebay is quicker to type in lol