hifi ebay advice

Hi Gareth

As with any internet-based (ie. remote) system of transacting, there is always the risk (however small) of scams etc. In my experience, however, eBay overcomes many concerns with its inherent peer-review system, ie. feedback: if your buyer has conducted 20 or 50 or 100 transactions with 99% good feedback (which would be nearly impossible to fabricate, barring hacking into eBay's mainframe), what are the chances that YOUR transaction will be any different? I am confident enough that the answer is "tiny", such that I have purchased and sold several high value items (including buying a near-mint 112x and 150x for £801 - bargain!).

You can always further protect yourself by, eg:

only accept cash or at least cleared funds (NB: watch out for the latest "money order scams")
only accept bids from members with x feedback
make contact with the winner by phone and sound them out - you can tell a great deal from intuition and gut feeling

No for sale or wanted ads! No Reps! Please note forum rules when you register.
Maughan

Hi gareth, I broadly agree with maughan. I would also add that whether buying or selling, if it looks to good to be true, it probably is. A lot of the scams revolve around a buyer offerring to give you more money than you are asking for to cover postage abroad/currency exchange deals. Don't go there. It can also take longer to "clear" funds from abroad than you think. Apparantly, a cheque can still bounce even though it seems to have cleared. Using paypal, or a face-to-face transaction (cash on pick-up) etc seems to be fairly safe.
I have bought a cdx2 & a 282 on ebay for good prices & all has been legit, so it can be a good way to do business if you are sensible.
matt.

Gareth, Try Audiogon as well. Fewer scammers and audio interested buyers/sellers compared to Ebay.

"**** ***** ***** ****"

I think this thread will be closed, as we're not supposed to use the forum for selling.

However, the advice on eBay is sound enough.

Personally, I'd only buy through a dealer, but that's just me.

quote:

Originally posted by Gareth_:


Now, I gather ebay is the way to go to do this but I've never really used it and I'm also slightly apprehensive about putting items on this scale on their what with all the stories of scams, etc.

Just wondered if anyone had some ebay tips or advice. e.g. paypal, cash, etc.

Thanks

If you've not used ebay so far I would start buying some small things (eg CDs) to get a bit of feedback built up and some experience. Then sell a few small items before you put anything big on .... this is as much for the benifit of potential buyers as yourself.

Become familliar with the categories you plan to sell in and prices that the items will fetch.

Download Turbo Lister and get to know how to make a good listing.

Research the items you're selling so you can post links to reviews etc.

Take some good pictures of your items. It works out cheaper and creates a better listing if you put your pics on Image Shack of something similar and link to them on your listing (Ebay / turbolister will tell you how to do this).You get one free ebay pic, so use this and have it as a Gallery pic.

Paypal costs a bit but is safer for the buyer and so more likely to get interest.

The key is to get as many people watching your item as possible. You will get a lot more interest if you start the item at a low price (e.g. 99p) with no reserve, but it requires a bit of nerve!

List your item at the right time of year....not in the middle of summer. Summer tends to be a good time to buy but I have found that it is better to sell when the nights are drawing in, particularly in the run up to Christmas. It goes a bit quiet after Christmas for a while but picks up again Feb / March time.

Arange it so that your auction does not end at a time when Ebay gets slow (e.g. 6pm -- 8.30pm) as this can spoil the last minute bidding. Don't have it end in office hours, or very late at night/morning, i.e. after midnight.

It can be great fun and gets the adrenalin going as the auction gets to the last few minutes and they all put their last minute bids on.

Mark

Hmmnn, "great fun and gets the adrenalin going" - not really sure if that's how I want to go about doing things - however I'm sure that this would be beginners nerves.

I had a quick look at Audiogon but it seems to be primarily US based - so that's out. Is there any UK based equivalent for 'good' HiFi gear?

Ah! Just found pink fish media classifieds - looks like it might do (and be less adrenaline based than ebay).

Any members here have any experience of the pink fish classifieds process?

quote:

Originally posted by Gareth_:
Any members here have any experience of the pink fish classifieds process?

Yes, I have bought & sold numerous items on pfm & in every case, the transaction has gone smoothly.

Potential buyers usually contact the seller by Private Message initially. This is often followed by telephone conversations to clarify outstanding details & finalise the deal.

As Maughan said earlier, your intuition will usually tell you if the seller is genuine when you are able to talk to him directly. General questions about past/current/future systems for example will quickly tell you if you are talking to another enthusiast.

In my experience, pfm members prefer to meet to complete the transaction face to face whenever possible & this gives further protection against scammers.

Finally, this route would eliminate eBay & Paypal fees - based on the equipment shown in your profile, these are likely to be significant.

Good luck.

Gareth

I would suggest that if you are selling an expensive item on eBay that you ensure there are no others listed at the same time. That way you focus interest on your item.

Nigel

Hi Gareth I would recommend using hififorsale web site its free and not an auction so you can name the price your after as in any private sale.good luck

pfm has always been good in terms of the admin and trustworthiness. Things don't always sell, but it's good for Naim and especially new-style Naim.

Neil

Another vote for PFM.

Does seem to be full of "good eggs" when it comes to transactions.

regards
Richard S

Am I missing something, or has pink fish pulled its 'for sale' forum? I could only find wanted ads.

Second recommendation for hififorsale.com as this is UK based and very reliable. Tomtom as well of course.

I've used eBay to buy my 250, a second 140 and second pair of SBLs. But there are many scams around the number of phishing/scam emails I get after a bid tell me that.

I will only buy, in general, if I can collect, know the kit works and then pay cash.
This would be after getting serial no's and checking with Naim to check service history and it wasn't registered as stolen.

The one time I didn't do this it was swaping a 140 for a brown envelope at London Bridge station (as our comuter paths crossed) but he had good feedback and it's hard to fake a 140 LOL.