eBay, Selling, Buying and Issues.

[Bill Garvy]

I will admit to being one of the fortunate collectors to have benefited from your recent liquidation both in our Marketplace and "that auction site", ahem. . . I am very sorry to hear of your misfortunes.

[USSR]

I have the same experiences as Auke has, although less worse. In a other thread about fake orders of glories, I asked a question about ebayers from the Baltic states. Sure, I'm wise anough to never buy from them, but how do you protect your sellings? Everything above €100 will be send int. signed for when I'm selling it. But still, paypal demands more than a signature.... As somebody said before, you can't leave negative feedback to a seller. So how recognize them?
Anyway, I've sold many items on ebay but I always have problems with people from the Baltic states. Either buying, or selling... My advice: keep away from them as far as possible!

[CtahhR]

I may be wrong but I don't believe there are many former Soviet Baltic folk here....

[Jeffrey Meffert]

The problem is with the inconsiderate or dishonest buyer rather than the country (although I've had things held up in customs for weeks in Russia, China, Great Britain and Canada). I had some early bad experiences with "lost in the mail" items being sent to Russia but lately i've sold some more expensive items to both Russians and buyers in the PRC that have gone very well. I've had more non-paying and "did not recieve" complaints from Spain and Italy than any other countries lately. Ebay is very much slanted towards the buyer's benefit but that is the price we pay for unscrupulous sellers

[andrew6767]

Art, just wondering if you have considered a better system of feedback for sales on the forum ?

The current feedback system doesnt really show us of any "trades gone wrong" so to speak. I have no doubt that most trades go fine (if they didnt their would be complaints everywhere ), but it would be good to see some better honest feedback on sales and trades.

The iTrader addon for VBulletin has been around for a long time and I have used it for many years on my forum and it has been a great asset.
iTrader

Clicking on a members feedback score immediately shows up all their transactions and the feedback left for them.

[Bob]

Early 2014 I won an auction for a documented group of Soviet awards (incl an Order of Lenin.

Aside from the awards and the documents, it was also advertised as containing "Copies of official research from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian
Federation, including award card (fully confirming his awards), and one citation."

Shortly after payment I received the awards and the documents but without the research.

Since then, I have been repeatedly reminding the (well known) dealer that the research is still due. It was claimed to have been lost in the office and that it would show up later. Reminder after reminder has been sent. Each time a polite email back, but no result. I've dismissed the option of returning the goods and then getting a refund (which, in a way, is insulting... I paid upfront and did not receive the full set... so my trust should not be in doubt as opposed to the trust of the dealer...).

Finally I've urged him to get new research... which normally should not take that long.

Two years have passed... still no research... now what to do?

[Bill Garvy]

[SIZE="3"]This is what I would do: I would not purchase any additional items from this vendor, I would leave objective feedback regarding the facts of the transaction, assuming the auction site allows you to do so, finally, I would have the item researched at my own expense utilizing the abundant and eminently affordable research resources now available, and write the rest of it off given the set contains an Order of Lenin. At my age it isn't worth the time, aggravation and additional expense of further action against the vendor.

Can't get blood from a stone, just my opinion. . .[/SIZE]

[CtahhR]

As Bill says, research it yourself. It's a lot cheaper than it was and "the site" is the right price all the time.

If the research turns out that the seller was making up the original research then you should take actions a bit further.

[Pobeda45]

I tend to agree, cut your losses and get new research. The unfortunate part of buying and selling any kind of collectibles is that you do get burned sometimes. I've bought several fakes (coins as well as medals) and also have had sellers renege on promises etc. At the same time, there have been some fantastic deals in there too...so I'd like to think it will all balance out in the end.

[Auke]

I agree. Nowadays it's easy, fast and relatively cheap to have research done. Tell as many people as possible about this dishonest dealer, never deal with him again and just redo the research.