Is Ebay a waste of time these days?
Discussion
Three times now in the space of the last couple of weeks, I have been bidding on vehicles, that have been mysteriously withdrawn from sale between 1 day and 1 hour from end of sale.
Honestly, it's such a waste of time. You might see a vehicle, bid on it, and another comes along, and you think as a reasonable buyer "no, I've made an offer for this,I'm the winning bidder, I can't afford to had 2 bids consecutively in case I won both!" So you monitor the auction, and every vehicle I have tried to buy, - the sales are delisted. Is it that sellers cant be bothered with a reasonable buy it now, but are doing deals off the bay to avoid fees? Is selling a car really that costly? Or do sellers just crap themselves if the car is still at a low price with a few hours to go, not realising it can go mental in the last few minutes?
It seems Ebay, from my limited recent use, has no credibility what so ever these days, and I have now taken to reporting all these non sellers. It seems so prolific, that it's not a 1 off, and seems a "mode of behaviour" of sellers.
Can anyone explain whats happening?
I just want a cheap car, I know what I want and what to pay. As long as it's as listed, I have no issue buying blind on a sub £2k car, but why wont anyone actually sell me one? Its just bizarre to me!
Honestly, it's such a waste of time. You might see a vehicle, bid on it, and another comes along, and you think as a reasonable buyer "no, I've made an offer for this,I'm the winning bidder, I can't afford to had 2 bids consecutively in case I won both!" So you monitor the auction, and every vehicle I have tried to buy, - the sales are delisted. Is it that sellers cant be bothered with a reasonable buy it now, but are doing deals off the bay to avoid fees? Is selling a car really that costly? Or do sellers just crap themselves if the car is still at a low price with a few hours to go, not realising it can go mental in the last few minutes?
It seems Ebay, from my limited recent use, has no credibility what so ever these days, and I have now taken to reporting all these non sellers. It seems so prolific, that it's not a 1 off, and seems a "mode of behaviour" of sellers.
Can anyone explain whats happening?
I just want a cheap car, I know what I want and what to pay. As long as it's as listed, I have no issue buying blind on a sub £2k car, but why wont anyone actually sell me one? Its just bizarre to me!
Sounds like the auction wasn't going as well as they wanted it to, so they ended it rather than let the car go for peanuts. The other extreme is people using other accounts (or a friend) to bid on their own item to push the highest bidder up.
I've not had any experience on ebay with cars, but going by what people say on here it is a nightmare.
I've not had any experience on ebay with cars, but going by what people say on here it is a nightmare.
There are still genuine bargains to be had but they are very few and far between and take days/weeks of constant trawling.
It does make your piss boil when you see a car, think that's for you then add to your watch list ready to bid and then it disappears!!
But on the other side, eBay fees are getting that high now if someone said 'end the auction and I'll give you X for your car'. That saves you paying the final selling fee and as long as you've listed it without a reserve it could have only cost £7 to sell!
It's a toss up between morals and money? How many times have cars sold then the winning bidder doesn't complete?? I've has atleast 6 in the last 2 years. All this makes the seller want to grab a potential buyer by the nads and, at all cost, sell the car.
It does make your piss boil when you see a car, think that's for you then add to your watch list ready to bid and then it disappears!!
But on the other side, eBay fees are getting that high now if someone said 'end the auction and I'll give you X for your car'. That saves you paying the final selling fee and as long as you've listed it without a reserve it could have only cost £7 to sell!
It's a toss up between morals and money? How many times have cars sold then the winning bidder doesn't complete?? I've has atleast 6 in the last 2 years. All this makes the seller want to grab a potential buyer by the nads and, at all cost, sell the car.
I hear of this quite a bit. I've only bought one car on ebay - bid what I thought was my limit and won the car.
Went and collected it, paid the winning bid amount, car was as described and ended up being a great buy.
Then I have recently sold two cars, did 99p start auctions with no reserve. A bit brave / stupid but I figured the market would decide the price.
Sold both for more than I would have been happy with - one I would have let go for £500 but I got £670, the other I would have been happy with £1500 and it went for £1850.
So for me at least, ebay has been great
but maybe I've just been lucky, who knows...
Went and collected it, paid the winning bid amount, car was as described and ended up being a great buy.
Then I have recently sold two cars, did 99p start auctions with no reserve. A bit brave / stupid but I figured the market would decide the price.
Sold both for more than I would have been happy with - one I would have let go for £500 but I got £670, the other I would have been happy with £1500 and it went for £1850.
So for me at least, ebay has been great
but maybe I've just been lucky, who knows...I've bought cars by winning auctions on eBay, but I've also gone to view a car before the auction ended and sealed the deal there and then.
Perhaps the auction ended because someone viewed and bought it - given the grief potential of an eBay sale, a willing cash purchaser has to be worth ending an auction for.
Perhaps the auction ended because someone viewed and bought it - given the grief potential of an eBay sale, a willing cash purchaser has to be worth ending an auction for.
Think the main issue is that ebay are siding more and more and tailoring their service more and more to the buyers. They are massively affecting the balance of power making ebay less of a useful tool to grab bargains or purchase anything. The hassle of any potential come backs on purchases now means sellers will take any decent offer by the balls.
If you see a car you want on eBay that's on an auction you have to make an offer. If you don't someone else will. Makes more sense for the seller to do a deal out of eBay and not have to pay final value fee. Sad maybe, but just how it seems to work. Then the seller will let you know if the auction will be left to run. Also no reserve auctions = higher end price 'usually' so when this plan backfires the seller may kill the add. Then theres the mutually agreed 'we're not going ahead with the sale...' But for all its faults its still great for buying hideously rusty 80s metal =) Polonez (Bought it now) Samba Cabrio (swap) Monza (made offer, seller accepted and killed auction)
infact i once sold a car no reserve for spares, due to xmas period it went for under £100 and I refused point blank not to let it go. Buyer obvs wasnt happy, from up the road. Told me he'd rented a lorry and I owed him money. He was swiftly told to f
k off. That single incident in 10 years off trading ballsed up my 100% pos feedback. But yea cant win em all can ya
k off. That single incident in 10 years off trading ballsed up my 100% pos feedback. But yea cant win em all can yaSambaS said:
infact i once sold a car no reserve for spares, due to xmas period it went for under £100 and I refused point blank not to let it go. Buyer obvs wasnt happy, from up the road. Told me he'd rented a lorry and I owed him money. He was swiftly told to fk off. That single incident in 10 years off trading ballsed up my 100% pos feedback. But yea cant win em all can ya
heard of a reserve? your the one thats got the problem just because the auction didn't go your way.k off. That single incident in 10 years off trading ballsed up my 100% pos feedback. But yea cant win em all can yaFurthermore, out of 10 or more cars I've bought unseen on eBay I have never once tried to haggle an agreed price. Or complained about the car. Even when once came back cat c. Like I say. Cant win em all . And ive stil got the cat c car and its great. As is the monza whose anti roll bar snapped off the chassis after 2 months due to rust 
STW2010 said:
Sounds like the auction wasn't going as well as they wanted it to, so they ended it rather than let the car go for peanuts.
More likely someone got in touch and made them a cash offer and they accepted. It'd be a bit daft to kill an auction early as the price tends to remain low for the duration before rising rapidly in the last few minutes. i have sold 8 cars on ebay, ones i used all the time and was not selling them because something was mechanically wrong.i drive 30 miles each way on the m11 every day for a month before i sold them. however 1 of them went wrong and another a woman complained that the clutch had gone.
on these two occasions the buyer had not come to view the car before bidding and winning as the ad had advised them to. when they arrived they asked to go for a test drive, i said why, youve already bought it, you should have test driven before buying. it amazes me the amount of people that buy cars without looking first, i understand if you see something you like you might take a chance rather than lose it but buying unseen and undriven is plain daft.
one of the cars was an old v8 land rover for £600 which i had used regularily including that day. 4 blokes turned up to collect it and roared off down the road with windows open. i called him later to see if he got home ok, but he had blown a head gasket.
the next was a renault turbo diesel with 140,000 on the clock, the woman came to buy it £325 with a dvd screen inside, again i had used it that day to come to work. her husband sat in the car they came in, turns out he was an mot tester. they drove it home in the rush hour to leicester from tottenham, and then left me neg feed back aas the clutch had "gone" in fact it had had a new cable the week before and it was stated in the ad.
if you are clever you can buy bargains from ebay, but with cars people should be more sensible unless they are prepared for all eventualities
on these two occasions the buyer had not come to view the car before bidding and winning as the ad had advised them to. when they arrived they asked to go for a test drive, i said why, youve already bought it, you should have test driven before buying. it amazes me the amount of people that buy cars without looking first, i understand if you see something you like you might take a chance rather than lose it but buying unseen and undriven is plain daft.
one of the cars was an old v8 land rover for £600 which i had used regularily including that day. 4 blokes turned up to collect it and roared off down the road with windows open. i called him later to see if he got home ok, but he had blown a head gasket.
the next was a renault turbo diesel with 140,000 on the clock, the woman came to buy it £325 with a dvd screen inside, again i had used it that day to come to work. her husband sat in the car they came in, turns out he was an mot tester. they drove it home in the rush hour to leicester from tottenham, and then left me neg feed back aas the clutch had "gone" in fact it had had a new cable the week before and it was stated in the ad.
if you are clever you can buy bargains from ebay, but with cars people should be more sensible unless they are prepared for all eventualities
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff