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General discussion

4/05/05 Do you use eBay? If so, how often?

Apr 4, 2005 3:39AM PDT

Do you use eBay? If so, how often?

Yes, daily; I'm an eBay addict
I buy and sell regularly
Tried it few times
Had a bad experience (tell us about it)

Discussion is locked

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Honest sellers
Apr 7, 2005 2:07AM PDT

I agree with you altogether. I have been selling on eBay for over two years and consider myself to be an honest seller. It is very satisfying when somebody buys one of my items and writes back saying how satisfied and happy they are with their purchase, how they had been looking for this particular item, or what a good deal they got. I also had one bad experience, where the seller said they shipped but I never received. No insurance, nothing anybody could do--my loss. All in all, I love eBay!

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Tried buying once from surplus computers...
Apr 5, 2005 7:59AM PDT

One time, I was buying a palm for my friend on ebay, since he didn't have internet. The model was a refurbished Palm m105, from surplus computers. I didn't know that refurbished items were THIS bad, but here goes the story.

About 4 days later, the palm arrived in the mail. WE opened the box, and the model we were given was the Palm m125. However, it came with the m105 cradle! To top it all off, when we put the batteries into the m125, it started to heat up and blow up the batteries. After 2 weeks of getting the run-around from the "lunch break every freakin hour" RMA, a working unit finally came. We looked at the RMA form, and do they need to lean to spell. Under description of bad unit said: "bad palm, wrong ceadle." You would think the RMA would have 2 seconds to spellcheck 4 words? No, of course not. To make their management skills look even more dreadful, they sent us another unit in the mail. It was an m125 and it had the wrong cradle again, the m105 cradle. And yet again, the m105 cradle didn't work. And just when I thought that they couldn't get any more stupider than The Three Stooges, the suprise me yet again. This time they sent us a m125 unit with... OMG! A matching cradle! We ordered one M105 unit with cradle, and ended up with 1 working m105 unit, 2 broken m125 units, 2 m105 cradles, and 1 m125 cradles. Don't ever buy from surplus computers, ever!

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Ebay
Apr 5, 2005 8:13AM PDT

As a regular user I have had problems both ways but with four simply safe gards all have been solved without large or costly problems.and most are a bream to put through.
Part one have a proper ebay bank account with set auto limits with no links to your normal accounts.
2 take time to look into who you are dealing with.
3 always follow though will those that give you hart acks both local and over seas orthority are usualy very help full and free if you have all paper work stored.
4 never send or recive unregested mail I E uninsured.

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Too easy to be conned.
Apr 5, 2005 8:13AM PDT

You can't assume an approved seller or buyer is honest regardless of their rating. Someone completely trustworthy could have an 8 while a complete crook may have 1000+.

Inspect the listing carefully. What you see may actually be what you get (for the worse). Read carefully the return/exchange policy. Try to contact the seller by voice first. This will give you a good indication of what to expect later. For cars, go look in person before bidding. Then if it seems worthy, spend the money on a pre-buy.

Warning: Many cars from South Florida are wreck rebuilds. Carfax and Autocheck ONLY report what has been reported. For example, if the owners exchange phone numbers and have a "friend" fix it, you'll never know without an inspection. Buy with a credit card. Any fraud problems can be handled by the credit card company. I've used this route twice with the second being for $4100 in repairs on a $4500 purchase.

Don't play nice once you're sure you've been frauded. Gather your evidence and start the process. Remember though, eBay will only ever award $200 less a processing fee. In my case, eBay pulled the seller's membership for fraud just after purchase without offering why. And PayPal won't help unless the listing is part of their assurance program.

When you're selling, hold nothing back. Being detailed means there are no surprises for the buyer. A suprised buyer instantly suspects fraud. Do as you say. Don't list shipping via UPS then go FedEx. If you list next day, use next day. Don't inflate your descriptions. You want you're customer to feel good about their purchase; getting better than they thought and not the other way around.

Always use extra care with foriegners. You'll see listings "located" in the US only to receive payment instructions for overseas. The english used is big give away. Typically they'll want wired funds from Western Union. Do you hear the toilet flushing too? Contact other buyers, but even then it may be the same person with another ID or associates.

Bottom line is that it is very easy to get conned and very easy to become part of illegal transactions with very little help from eBay or PayPal. Report any suspicous activity immediately.

Good Luck.

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Ripped off 4 times. First time by heavy seller. Took months
Apr 5, 2005 8:16AM PDT

to find out I was not getting what I bought. Ebay's reposne: she doesn't reply to emails. She is still selling. 2. Bought a web site. But their return policy only covers things that are actually sent. Web sites don't count. Too bad for me. Seller could care less and ripped a bunch of people off right before he joined the marines,. 3. Bought a traffic business and traffic guarantee from someone with lots of sells and good references - over 200 responses. He was closing down and ripped off tons of people. It was during the Chirstmas season and was told I would get everything as soon as he had it. It was beyong the 30 days by the time I figured I was ripped off. My tough luck. Total costs for all of this was around $1700.

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Common Sense Prevents Nightmares on Ebay
Apr 5, 2005 8:28AM PDT

I buy and sell regularly on Ebay, Amazon, etc. - usually with good results. The only time (perhaps 1) I've had a bad experience, was when I ignored the common sense precautions to avoid fraud.

No one should ever pay with cash, personal check, or money order (or equivalent). On the one occasion I broke this "hard and fast rule," because the price was less than $15, "I got burned." I did finally receive a passable product from the vendor, but it took 6+ months of correspondence and threats to send my buddy "Tony Soprano" to visit the guy, before I got my product.

Just remember, the rule is - any vendor who does not accept PayPal / credit card payment is not anyone with whom you want to do business - if you do you'll regret it, no matter how little the price! You can always return the product and obtain credit from your credit card vendor, if the product is not as represented by the seller, if you pay by PayPal / credit card.

And another "common sense" rule, I always follow - I never buy anything that is described "as is," which is not "NIB," or "like new" with original box (with pictures), from a seller who will provide me their name, address and phone numbers - sometimes I talk with them directly to make sure the product is actually "like new."

Another rule - "you get what you pay for" - I never buy from a pawn shop, or salvage vendor - their prices are great, but their products are lousy - nothing but headaches. As I said - exercising a little common sense, and skepticism, will save you a lot of headaches later.

I've also observed that a lot of "uniformed buyers" will pay more than the MSRP new price for a used, or "like new" product - when they could buy a new product from a known retail vendor for less - its unbelievable how often this happens. Do a little research / shopping on-line, before you bid / buy.

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VERY GOOD ADVICE
Apr 5, 2005 2:05PM PDT

on using ebay. Many of the problems described here,would not be problems, using a little common sense as described in this post.GOOD JOB
EZ

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Had a bad experience
Apr 5, 2005 8:42AM PDT

Seller kept money and I never received all of the goods. Square Trade is not what it says it is.....ebay's responce is we are just the site like newspaper ads.

When someone does something against you and it is a mistake the chances are you will come to some kind of agreement. When you have been takened you do not have a leg to stand own. It does seem like both sides of the story could be told and ebay makes the decision which of you are able to continue using the site. This is done on each case.

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4/05/05 Do you use eBay? If so, how often?
Apr 5, 2005 8:42AM PDT

I used to- until i got burned for about $4,000.00 by an ebay highest rated power seller. what a load of manure! i saved 3 years to buy a top of the line laptop, and when i didn't get my laptop, ebay said they couldn't help me because the auction" wasn't checked out properly. i called LA police who arrested him and said his apt was empty and no bank account. he apparently defrauded about $4 mil from people and ebay even removed the feedback when i complained. i say if you want to flush your money, the toilet is quicker. i have lots of friends and relatives. we ALL tell people not to use ebay and why. i may have lost $4K, but i will make sure they lose a lot more than that before i am through! i hate ebay. ebay helped their power seller steal four thousand dollars from me with the "great feedback and highest rating! they knew there was a problem with calvin's auctions but never told me not to bid/send him $. he should have been suspended and his buyers notified.

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Not Even a Consideration
Apr 5, 2005 8:49AM PDT

I would never consider purchasing a big ticket item from anyone selling on eBay. I only buy in person at a reputable store or online directly from a reputable company (Gateway, Dell, etc.)with no middleman involved.

EBay is not 100% reputable.....as you have unfortunately found out.

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Very risky business
Apr 7, 2005 2:26AM PDT

If I have $4,000 to spend on an item, I'm gonna make sure that I can see it, touch it, and try it before I buy it. And this applies to any item for sale on the internet, not just eBay!

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record is one for one - bad experience
Apr 5, 2005 8:46AM PDT

The one time I tried to sell something on eBay didn't go all that well. I purchased some tickets to a football game to attend with my son. Unfortunately, activities at school prevented him from coming to the game with me so I figured I'd sell them on eBay. After giving them my life history and signing up for payment by credit card, I put them up for sale. When I contacted the high bidder, he also bought another set of tickets, so he cancelled on mine. As suggested, I contacted the 2nd high bidder and he offered me 1/2 his original price. Needless to say, I sold them on my own without eBay. Well, eBay thought the sale was made and wanted their additional monies. I tried to email them to explain, but never received any response. They charged my account for the fees and tagged me as a bad risk. Go figure.

I will try to find a way in the future to screw them or at least get my money back.

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outbid by invisible bid
Apr 5, 2005 8:59AM PDT

i was outbid by a bid that never appeared on the board, until bidding ended, despite several emails from ebay as to what happened. the other bid never appeared untuil termination, it was sent in hours before termination but never showed on the board, all my proxy bid show on the board, increasing until my limit is surpassed,. this bid appeared out of nowhere to win. i have complained to ebay and got the usual computer bs

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(NT) (NT) YOU WERE SNIPED
Apr 5, 2005 1:41PM PDT
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Mediocre e-Bay Experience
Apr 5, 2005 9:31AM PDT

I've only been ripped off once (merchandise was not as described and went right into the trash). My problem seems to be that I just don't "win" the items I bid on. For example, I tried to get a food processor that had no bids on it. Then in the last few minutes someone outbid me. That happens almost every time I try bidding, and I'm almost always the only bidder until the last second. On the other hand, my boyfriend has ordered all kinds of stuff and has never been ripped off or disappointed. Go figure.

I do like half.com (part of e-Bay) - no bidding, just really low prices. I've ordered all of my textbooks from them for less than half (includng shipping) what my college bookstore would get. I try to be really careful about what I order so I'm not in a situation where I would have to return anything. :o)

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Another scam on Ebay
Apr 5, 2005 10:57AM PDT

I recently listed a Tablet PC on Ebay and was in a bit of a hurry to sell it so I listed it with a "Buy It Now" price. The next morning I happy to see that someone had already purchased it. A couple of hours later I got an email forwarded from Ebay.ca (the canadian Ebay site). It was the buyer contacting me about the purchase. I immediately knew something was wrong when he said he was ready to pay me $1000 when the buy it now price was $725. He asked for expedited shipping which he claimed he would also pay for. He stated that he was buying it for his fiance and gave me the shipping address. I stopped as soon as I read the shipping address. It was in Nigeria. I immediately reported the obvious (to me at least) fraud to ebay. They emailed me back about 2 hours later stated that THEY had detected a possible fraudulent activity on the item I was selling. Yeah, no kidding! How nice that they found it first! They backed out his bid and deleted his account because they could not verify his identity, but my auction was still closed and I had to request the final value fee be refunded. I'm still out the listing fee, although they say I should qualify for a free relisting. Why, so I can get scammed again? I've been scammed outside Ebay as well, and until local law enforcement agencies DO something, these scammers will keep getting away with it. The other scam involved an individual in Georgia and when I called the local police, they said since I wasn't in Georgia, they couldn't do anything about it. When will the lawmakers fix this?

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Funky Experience...
Apr 5, 2005 11:25AM PDT
Had a bad experience (tell us about it)

A number of years ago, I bought a fax board for a fax server I was setting up. I saw a deal that was too good to be true.

Boy, was it.

The card in question was a Brooktrout TR114 4 port ISA card. I won the bid and got the drive in a timely order.

The problem was that BrookTrout has been making TR114's for years and over the years, they've made several variations and submodels. The card I recieved was about 8 years old, made to connect to the Japanese phone system and the current crop of drivers would NOT see the device and make it work.

Prior to putting in my winning bid, I did as much research as I could - the seller wasn't very helpful. He had NO information as to any specifics on the card.

Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware. Fortunately, I wasn't inconvenienced too badly, but when I'm under the gun to get something up and running, I need to be sure of what I'm getting and don't have time to muck about with buying obsolete junk that won't work.
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Ebay - potentially fraud on a massive scale
Apr 5, 2005 11:25AM PDT

I have stopped using Ebay although it's the only place where somethings might be found and I freely admit there are bargains to be found. Unfortunately, significant losses can occur and, if you factor in resolution time, my losses definitely exceeded my gains. In retrospect, I have come to the conclusion it's gambling and I don't want to gamble at their table anymore. I had attempted over 100 transactions. Over 20% of my transactions (all as purchaser) went poorly. Misrepresentation was the usual problem. Definitely defective, advertised as perfect. What was shipped was not what was advertised (exs., sent piii933hz cpu instead of 1 ghz, shipped computer w/o hard drive as advertised, shipped wrong program - not the one advertised, shipped wrong motherboard)and dollars involved made ebay resolution program useless . Outright fraud (paid - no merchandise - to busy to chase down $20/$30) on five. Ebay deletes these sellers/transactions from your history so no one can see how you've been burned. So I am out of the game but hope someone will clean it up... as I said it is the only place to find some things.

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E-Bay
Apr 5, 2005 11:29AM PDT

I've won two scanners, a visoneer 3100, and a visoneer 3300, via bid on E-bay, both from 98% sellers, neither product worked, infact one, when I plugged it in, fried itself. I'm disabled with a family and cannot afford the losses. I've sent e-mails and followed protacal to help get answers from them, but no such luck. Please help.

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bad experience on eBay
Apr 5, 2005 11:33AM PDT

nice place eBay
but heck if anyone will ever tell the truth about a bad seller
as the seller will punish them in retribution

i had a unfortunate experience with a seller who showed item
and then shipped something similar, it was not what was described

so i put down a bad rating as the seller charged me to ship the correct item over a month later,

ergo, they deserved a bad rating
but they "got even" and red listed me

so i don't think many people tell the truth
cuz they don't want bad ratings!!!!

kodi

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Daily User, mostly good but you must be carefull
Apr 5, 2005 11:50AM PDT

I use ebay every day and buy or sell something just about every week. For the most part I have had very good luck with both.
But you have to be very carefull. Be wary of sellers that don't list a fixed shipping price or at least employ the shipping calculator. A lot of sellers will have a low price and then kill you on shipping.
Also make sure you clearly list every detail of the items you are selling. This is especially important for used items. Too many people out there can't or won't read the listing correctly and then expect you to make their errors go away.
Apparently some catagories are much better than others, I've found snowmobilers to be a great group to deal with.

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To Canadian buyers in particular
Apr 5, 2005 11:57AM PDT

As a buyer, I've had few problems though I've purchased items anywhere from a few cents to over $1000 CDN.

As a seller, I've run into a few deadbeats who bid, then disappear; fortunately Ebay has 'second chance' for sellers.
..................................
Some very basic tips:

Email the seller with a question before you bid; if you don't get a reply, don't bid.

If a seller from the U.S. is shipping via UPS or equivalent, be aware that you'll pay a $40+ brokerage fee (above shipping cost)to get your item if you live in Canada.

GST to Canada from U.S. is 7% on the declared value of your purchase plus a $5.00 customs fee.

If a seller of inexpensive items is suddenly selling a big ticket item, investigate before bidding.

"As is" means that if it doesn't work, you're screwed.

Warranties may or may not be transferable from country to country or owner to owner. Call the manufacturer before bidding and make sure that the owner has a purchase receipt if you want warranty coverage.

Ebay is only as honest as its sellers and only as intelligent as its buyers.

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(NT) (NT) WELL SAID!
Apr 7, 2005 2:45AM PDT
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Works for me... About HALF the time.
Apr 5, 2005 1:15PM PDT

It seems that of my 10 or so transactions (always as a buyer) about half were perfectly smooth. The other 4 or 5 were hassles in babysitting. Having to get on sellers to reply to questions BEFORE close of auction, getting things sent, getting things sorted out, having items shipped, or not getting feedback left for me for 7-8 weeks. I've always paid within 24 hours of auction close, and try to be respectful of others. Plus, if it SAYS that processing can take 5-7 days and is sent parcel post; I can't complain if it takes 7 days processing and 9 days shipping- it was explained up front, right? So I'm going based on what the specific expectation is from the seller's info.

Then there was the case where I had SEXUALLY EXPLICIT feedback comments left that were totally unwarranted (and a negative left for me). I had others from the eBay community contact me (as a recent buyer from this seller) asking if I had problems. I left it alone until I DID have problems. Others said they'd complained before and tried to get this sick, perverted guy off eBay. He was leaving comments that I could hardly handle reading.

Well, I decided he had met his match when I was a victim. I wrote to eBay (e-mail), sent a feedback dispute (e-mail to eBay), and also emailed PayPay (they had to pay resolutions in about a dozen other cases before me- so they had a financial interest in getting him off'ed I figured). Maybe PayPal made things swing. The SAME DAY PayPal responded to me, he was ousted from the eBay community.

Of course, eBay cannot legally say what action they took, so did not even inform me, but while I was writing e-mails to others that he left disgusting feedback for; I was informed by a couple people that I should check his account on eBay, because they couldn't find him anymore under his user ID.

My best advice: ALWAYS write a question to the seller a couple days before close if it's a "big-enough" ticket item you're worried about getting scammed (my buying 5 foreign coins for $4 plus $2 shipping doesn't qualify for this). I mean it, find SOMETHING to ask about (info not listed in the description). If they are responsive, it can only help to assure you they are paying attention. As a buyer DON'T leave feedback until your transaction is complete- meaning you've received the item and know it is as specified. After all, you've already paid THEM, so have them leave your feedback first. Lastly, read ALL the info in the auction CAREFULLY. If they say they leave feedback for all their auctions once every four weeks, this probably means you should expect exactly that. If they say they only ship on Tuesdays and your auction closes on Wednesday, don't email asking for an exception, they wrote the deal. If you bid, you're agreeing to the terms they explained.

As a seller, beware of money order scams (especially from international bidders). Craigslist.org has detailed info about how fraudulent money orders become the responsibility of the party CASHING them. I'll tell you, I've posted a few things on CL (like cell phones) and gotten DOZENS of people asking for me to send them the phones overseas (especially to African countries). They even tell me they would add $20-40 for handling- beyond all shipping charges. BEWARE!

If you want more info on how I got this seller off eBay, drop me a line.

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Re EBay Ousting Bad Sellers
Apr 5, 2005 1:59PM PDT

After dealing with one lemon of a seller (and being contacted by other buyers who were also scammed by this particular seller) and filing several complaints with eBay, the seller was booted from selling on eBay. Did that stop her? No! She resurfaced on EBay again under another name but same town. How could I tell? She rejected my bid on an item and I found that unusual. I checked her website listings and found them the same(unusual) wording and bearing some very strict and unusual terms of the original seller. I brought this to eBay's attention and she was booted again. As I kept bidding on items within this particular category, I came across her listing again except now she didn't list her city anymore, just "Somewhere in the USA. Again, I complained to eBay and she was booted. My complaints were in great detail citing specifics in her previous website ads and asking eBay to check them out. Eventually, I gave up on my sleuthing.

So, eBay is far from perfect as proven by bad sellers who just keep resurfacing and go unnoticied unless as burned buyer brings it to eBay's attention. Just another example of "Let the buyer beware".

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YES STANDARD PROCEDURE
Apr 5, 2005 2:08PM PDT

No matter where you buy, or who you buy from.
EZ

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BillyMac777/WWW.CLIENTMAX.COM
Jun 9, 2005 8:58AM PDT

Just wanted to highlight a dodgy situation that happened to me and to many others as I am finding out by emails from those making a purchase through clientmax. I bought a $5 bottle of cleaner and they wanted to charge $150 to ship it to the UK. Others living in the US have spent $10 on a product and had to pay $60 to get it shipped. I found them unreasonable, not forthcoming, a challenge to get a hold of and unwilling to negotiate.

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watch out for "Mcphian" - a conartist Ebay seller
Oct 18, 2005 1:01AM PDT

Hi: I won a bid for a used IBM T23 laptop (Item #6793840750 ) on August 21, 2005. The seller 's id is 'mcphian'. Seller described the item in good working condition. He mentioned that he installed a fresh copy of Windows 2000, and also mentioned that the battery does not charge. Anyway, after I received the item, I tried to turn the power on, and the laptop does not power up. I contacted the seller right away, and told him about the situation. I told him, I will have to ship the item back for a refund if this laptop does not power up. He gave me some tips to turn the laptop on, but it would not turn on. I told him again that I will have to send it back to him, and he says "I put a straight forward note in there (auction) with all sales final meaning I don't want it back ." He even suggests "I'm an IT guy myself, and watched those T23's sell on ebay before
seling mine. They were going for 200$ just in parts alone, but this one
worked minus battery power. And if you didn't want it, you could sell
it on ebay."
So, I contacted the paypal right away and started dispute on item received that 'is not as described'. Paypal finally asked to to have the item diagnosed by a third party( a computer repair shop), and find out the repair cost. I spent $40 to get the item diagnosed, and found out that the power circuit on the motherboard is bad, and it will cost me $279 to fix it. So, paypal declared the judgement for me, and asked to to send the laptop back to the seller for a full refund. I spent another $22 to ship the item back to seller through UPS. Finally I get my refund from PayPal. Now the seller leaves a negative feedback against my ID. Now I am working with Ebay to get the negative feedback off (rather than leaving a negative feedback on him - which I should have done in the first place. So, my advise to the buyer...watch out for 'mcphian' in Ebay (email: mcphian@gis.net), cause he will try to get rid off his garbage using the line "All Sales Are Final" (not for me).

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good luck with ebays - feedback
Aug 31, 2007 5:14AM PDT

ebay does not care if someone lies in the feedback. I recently received an email from them stating this very fact. When I told them it was slander and they are a part of by allowing it they only quoted some unheard of law that allows them to do it. Ebay could care less! Maybe we should call them E Bait.

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BUY AND SELL REGULARY
Apr 5, 2005 1:49PM PDT

And know many other people that do also.Very few problems encountered, like everything else, must use common sense,the old adage still applies, if it sounds to good to be true it probably is. Just like anyplace else you would buy anything, you can't get something for nothing.
EZ