MY EXPERIENCE WITH EVILBAY

[Gstring]

RECENTLY PURCHASED OLD WAH-SELLER SAID IN AD BROKEN-BUT AS YOU READ ON IT APPEARED TO BE SOMETHING EASILY REPAIRED-RECEIVED PEDAL YESTERDAY-CIRCUIT BOARD WAS BROKEN IN ABOUT 6 PLACES-INDUCTOR CRUSHED-THIS IS THE BEST ONE-THIS PEDAL HAS A CAST ALUMINUM FRAME-THE EARS TO HOLD THE POT WERE BENT! I EMAILED SELLER-WAS TOLD TO SUPER GLUE BOARD TOGETHER AND USE WICK TO REPAIR THE BROKEN TRACES-SORRY IF I RAMBLE-ASK A TON OF QUESTIONS FROM THE SELLER AS THERE ARE A LOT OF F>>>>>>S OUT THERE-DONT END UP LIKE THIS

[Thomas P.]

Sad to hear!!!
I did have very good experiences with ebay! My last hit was a the new danelectro 'reelecho' for 100 bucks below salesprice but with 2 years warranty.

[Ansil]

RECENTLY PURCHASED OLD WAH-SELLER SAID IN AD BROKEN-BUT AS YOU READ ON IT APPEARED TO BE SOMETHING EASILY REPAIRED-RECEIVED PEDAL YESTERDAY-CIRCUIT BOARD WAS BROKEN IN ABOUT 6 PLACES-INDUCTOR CRUSHED-THIS IS THE BEST ONE-THIS PEDAL HAS A CAST ALUMINUM FRAME-THE EARS TO HOLD THE POT WERE BENT! I EMAILED SELLER-WAS TOLD TO SUPER GLUE BOARD TOGETHER AND USE WICK TO REPAIR THE BROKEN TRACES-SORRY IF I RAMBLE-ASK A TON OF QUESTIONS FROM THE SELLER AS THERE ARE A LOT OF F>>>>>>S OUT THERE-DONT END UP LIKE THIS

do you want me to fix it for you, i have a wah built on perf minus the inductor, but i am sure i can findone.

[blabj]

yeah i have had a good experience with ebay. i got a morley pro wah for £25 incl shipping (thats about $35 ish) sorry to rub it in, but i had to
www.wah-wah.co.uk has replacement inducutors at fairly reasonable prices.

[Gstring]

I believe some are missing the whole point-I am not saying to boycott the site-Just  read between the lines

[javacody]

I hate how people try to make money offa shipping. You think you're getting a good price, and then shipping costs more than the item you're buying.

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, you have to read between the lines at ebay, some people will screw you over if you're not careful. My experience with ebay has been largely positive. My only gripe is some bozo stealing something out from under your nose in the last 30 seconds of the auction.  :evil:

[troubledtom]

i hate ebay,
       until something changes i won't use them. i bought a scope that's a boat anchor . the prossess to return and get your money back minus shipping is not good enough .
          i have no time for BS,
                                - tom

[Paul Marossy]

You have to know enough about what you're buying off of ebay to ask the right questions. I also bought a dud scope from someone, but I knew it most likely was - and the guy's emails back to me pleaded ignorance. "Well the screen lights up and I don't know how to test it". I already knew the typical failures on that particular scope.
Anyway, since I already had an operational one of the same make and model, I didn't matter too much to me, it was more for spare parts than anything else.

[jimbob]

tomboy- good luck w your warrenty! I have had 2 Dan pedals to go back, and was never sent back repaired or replaced like i was told according to the web site. I have faxed, emailed, phoned ( its a recording)  and not not only have i never recvd my prodect but neither a reply. Ive heard it s a pretty decent pedal as long as it works..

atleast if you build you can figure out how to fix it here or ask help. And to think at one time i actually stuck up for Danelectro! May they burn in hell!!  :twisted:

disgruntled jimbob

[Gilles C]

Well, you know what I mean.

A friend of mine bought a vinyl (he collects old and new 33 1/3s) from a guy on Ebay.

It was bent when he received it. When the sellers learned about that, he answered it was straight when he shipped it.  :roll:

Gilles

[Hal]

Honestly, I think e-bay is awesome.  The feedback system just makes it work.  I've only had good experiances...

They key is to buy from someone with a high rating.  I have an uncle who sells tons of antiques and stuff on e-bay, and he tells me stories.  For inexpensive stuff (less than about $300) most of the time if someone reports that something was broken, he will refund the money, no questions asked, just to avoid neg. feedback.  Other stuff, shipping insurance will cover.  I truly believe that most people doing business on e-bay are just like that...good people.  Obviously, there are the inherent losers and scammers.  Avoid losers by NOT BUYING FROM SOMEONE WHO TYPES IN ALL CAPS OR HAS AN OTHERWISE UN-PROFESIONAL LISTING (like bad spelling).  Avoid scammers by buying from high feedback.  And if selling, DON'T ACCEPT PAYPAL UNLESS YOU'RE ACCOUNT HAS BEEN ACTIVE AND APPROVED FOR AT LEAST 2 WEEKS!!!!


Most often used scam.  They can cancel payments sent to new accounts...

[1wahfreak]

Sorry about your experience Gstring. I have bought a ton of things off ebay, wah's mostly and had pretty good transactions. I did get burned a few times but you learn to ask the right questions. The buyer needs to be the responsible party in any ebay transaction. BUYER BEWARE!!. I bought a "Mint/original" Queen Triggered wah from a guy in Canada. When I got it, all the original pots, switchs and knobs had been changed, he attempted to resolder components. He was an amature at best, parts of the board were burnt. It was a real mess. After weeks of nasty emails and long distance calls trying to educate him on what "Mint condition" meant to the rest of the world, he still refused to refund my money. I made a few threats at getting a lawyer. He jokingly laughed it off saying that there was no way to "get him" because he was in Canada. I called his bluff and with in a week my lawyer sent "the letter". I had a check 2 weeks later. There are somethings I just won't take laying down!!
Gstring- Send him a polite email stating the full condition of the pedal was not explained clearly. Sometimes if you treaten to leave nasty feedback they may change their mind about a refund and a partial refund.

[Bluesgeetar]

I've scored big time off ebay!  Luckily for me I jumped on the net pretty early and caught ebay when she was fresh and new and most musicians and collectors were still sitting around wondering whether or not they needed a computer in their life.  So I picked up some scores in the beginning!

1965 or 66 Chrome lipstick case Vox treble/bass booster -$30 perfect cond
1970 made in Italy Playa Baby wah with red Fasel -  $40 mint cond
Old CryBaby made in Chicago with the old ugly first series brown TDK inductor not the newer late 70's TDK inductor (there is two types) mint condition $25
Old crybaby made in Chicago missing stompswitch and out jack but circuit is excell. with the 03 inductor (brown stack of dimes) repaired by my bud.  and now she screams!  I love her!  $12

I can go on and on with others Iv'e scored! that are just as awsome!

Of course I couldn't dream of doing this now!  Ebay is stalked and swamped by everyone now.  I got in and out early in the game!  Now I still use ebay for scoring old OC trannies.  Their still pretty cheap on there.  And just recently I scored that old Philips mic mixer that I showed everyone on the forum when I won it!  3 OC71 and 1 OC44 in it for I think it was $30 or something.  With schematic.  I don't even go to the musical section of ebay anymore.  That place is insane!  Oh did I mention Cubase SX for $349!!!  New unregistered!  I love ebay!  Haven't been screwed yet!  But I make great use of the Feedback section!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  If your not using the feedback part your out of your mind!

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

One thing to remember is that you aren't dealing with Ebay, you are dealing with a stranger (just as he is).
And the other thing is that fortunately 95% of peopel are in fact honest.
Oh, one more thing.. 20% are stupid.
I think that explains everything.

[Mike Nichting]

as far as Danelectro goes I had a great experience with them. I bought a  Dano pedal on ebay broken for $5. Fabtone, I think it was. I couldn't fix it because the PCB was crushed. I called Dano and they called back and gave me the address to send it to and replaced it free of charge.
I then resold it on ebay for $25 so that someone else could have a great deal as well.
Those Fabtone's are heavy sounding pedals and sound like a Boogie in my opinion with all the gain you want.
I would have kept it but I'm not playing that kind of music anymore.

I haven't been screwed yet but I've had to wait a long,long time for things that I've bought. There are plenty of assholes to go around but most are nice.
I also bought 120 Switchcraft jacks (stereo) on there for $20. I saw it posted here and no one bid on it so I grabbed them. SWEET DEAL~!!! I'm set on jacks for a while.
I also have found a source for old germanium diodes if anyone neeeds them. 1n270,1n60,1n34a and I will sell them to you for what I get them for.

Anyway, best of luck to all~!!!!!!!!!!

Mike n.

[Paul Marossy]

WUTS WRONG WITHH ALL CPZ ANS BAD SPELILING?  :lol:

It does take a long time to get stuff sometimes. I pay right away, that gets the item to me sooner. I have had to wait up to three weeks for stuff. If you see "Parcel Post" for the shipping method, be prepared to wait a long, long time.

[Mark Hammer]

Imagine the biggest store in the world with the largest sales staff in the world.  Some of the sales staff are "old-timers" and know their stock but every day 10,000 more sales staff join the store. It's their first sales job ever and they know little about their stock.  All they know is that they have to move it or they don't get paid.  More importantly, NO ONE selects them.  They can just work there if they feel like it until they get drummed out through some fluke.

Welcome to E-bay.

[drew]

I have no qualms about bidding on cheap stuff, cause the number of pedals/gadgets/cds/parts I have gotten for a good price far outweighs the occasional screwup!

The place you have to be very, VERY careful is if someone lists an item as "Untested"  or "as-is". Sellers often sell nonworking gear as "Working, sold as-is." In 99% of cases, this means "Broken, and if you want to get it working, you had better know how to fix this."

Furthermore, if a seller lists something as broken, non-working, or "for parts", this means it can have SERIOUS problems, like the entire innards being gone or destroyed, or it can be entirely unsalvageable or have irreparable damage.

The only way I've stayed sane is by accepting that occasionally I'm going to lose ten or twenty bucks on something,  and that 25% of anyone who bids on items I sell is going to flake. Balance that against what you can find on there, and how much you can sell total crap for on there, and what you think of it at the end should govern whether you use it or not


drew
www.toothpastefordinner.com

[Paul Marossy]

That's a good point. Anything sold "as-is" is going to mean problems.

In my case with the scope which was sold "as-is", I knew it could have been something as simple as a blown fuse, but I was also prepared for it to not work at all.

That's why I say that you need to know a little about what you are bidding on. You may knowingly buy something that doesn't work, but be able to fix it for a lot less than it would cost to buy one in working condition.