Buying on eBay

As many of you know, eBay has been a great source for antiques and collectibles since the late 1990s. When it is good, it's great...when it's bad....someone gets burned. There are times when opportunists plot and ploy to develop new methods of defrauding buyers and they use eBay as their means to that end. While some of us see these defrauders very obviously for what they are, it is not always readily apparent to the individual buyer. There has been a tremendous amount of discussion, within the pottery discussion group community about some recent alleged fraud on eBay by sellers based in Indonesia. We have received a couple of messages from our membership related to this alleged fraud as well.

The AAPA has not studied every aspect of this alleged fraud, so we will simply provide the information, which has been provided to us for your review. You can read the comments and follow the links and come to your own conclusions. We encourage our members and other interested parties to continue to notify eBay staffers when you suspect that something fraudulent is occurring on eBay. The AAPA has no legal authority to end fraudulent activity in the US or abroad, on or off eBay. We can however, try to provide the information so that you can evaluate the issue and decide how you might want to deal with it. We hope you find this helpful.

eBay Follies and Fallacies

by Bill Johns

(Click above to read an article published in the latest newsletter of the Coxsackie Antique Center in NY State.)

Auction Alert! Wave of Indonesian Sellers Figure in eBay Scam

from the Maine Antiques Digest, April 2003

*Tips for Avoiding Problems on eBay*

Be very careful about buying from a seller with less than 50 positive
feedbacks, particularly if they do not accept PayPal or credit cards. PayPal
and credit cards offer protection against seller fraud. Most of the
fraudulent transactions on eBay are in this category. It is just as easy for
a seller to sign up on eBay as it is for a buyer. Someone can sign up as a
seller, offer an item for sale and never deliver on the item. These people
will have shills leave positive feedback or they can make the high bid
themselves under various eBay names and then leave feedback for themselves.
Never buy an expensive item from a relatively new seller without using an
escrow (see below).

Always check feedback. If you find more than 1 negative per 100
feedbacks, read the negative comments carefully. If you see a pattern,
believe it! You can get a program called BayCheck Pro at
http://www.hammertap.com/ that will give you just the negative and neutral
feedback very quickly. Often times an eBay user avoids giving negative
feedback to prevent retaliation, so the negative feedback you see is
distorted in the seller's favor.

Avoid buying items with poor photographs or request better and more
photos from the seller. Unfortunately, if the first photo is bad usually the
follow up photos are just as bad. Either the seller does not know how to
take good photos or they are trying to hide something. Either way, pass on
the auction if you cannot get acceptable photos.

Avoid auctions with poor descriptions. Most reputable sellers give all
the information you need positive and negative. Ignore all the hype and look
for condition and size. Most reputable sellers will tell you if there are
chips, scratches, cracks and crazing (crazing is normal for many lines of
pottery. If you reject a pot for crazing, you may never be able to own a
particular line or style) and stains.

Be careful of auctions which say "I will leave the cleaning to the buyer"
or something to that effect. Ask the seller what needs to be cleaned. Often
that phase is used to mask stains or other problems that cannot be
corrected.

Read the seller's instructions regarding payment and shipping. Sometimes
you will be able to see that they may be trouble to deal with. Some sellers
seem to be paranoid about payment and make threats about how they treat
non-payment or slow payment right on the auction page. This is not to say
that their product will be faulty, but how much grief do you want to deal
with to own that pot?

If you have any doubts about the seller, send the seller an email to ask
questions. If they do not respond or you do not like the response, do not
bid!

Did you ever wonder what the reserve price is? Send the seller and email
through eBay. About 50% of the sellers will tell you the reserve or at least
give you a ballpark idea.

On very expensive pottery, ask the seller if they will accept a buyer
paid escrow. You send your money to a neutral escrow company, which holds
your funds until you receive your pot and approve the condition. If you do
not approve, you return the pot to the seller and your funds are returned to
you (see escrow information on eBay). This will cost you more money, but on
a very expensive item it may save you thousands of dollars.

Paying too much for that pot that you have to own is not the seller's
fault. Accept the fact that you may pay too much to own a particular piece,
even on eBay. On the other hand try your best to set a limit on what you are
willing to pay prior to bidding and be willing to let go of that pot that
absolutely must have!

You will save yourself a lot of grief by being willing to avoid any eBay
auction that may get you into trouble. Remember, that the pot you have to
have may not be the pot you wanted!

You will not find all of the best pottery, all of the time on eBay and
you may pay as much on eBay as you would buying directly from a dealer. All
dealers who are members of AAPA guaranty all pottery sold either in person
or on the Internet, which is more than can be said of a majority of sellers
on eBay.

by Charlie Wollitz, AAPA Member

email: cwollitz@attbi.com

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