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Old 02-09-2016, 07:50 AM
Guildman Guildman is offline
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Default Selling/buying on ebay

I just shipped a guitar after selling on ebay. It was received yesterday. I am still a little nervous because of my last experience just before Christmas. Sold a Dvd system that held 400 disc to a gentleman. He waited a month to claim it didn't work. Ebay forced me to pay everything for him to return only to have it work fine. I since sold on craigslist locally with no issue.

Has anyone ever had someone reject a guitar simply because they didn't like it and experience the above?

Last edited by Guildman; 02-09-2016 at 10:53 AM.
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Old 02-09-2016, 08:00 AM
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sevenpalms sevenpalms is offline
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Ive bought and sold loads of guitars on EBay over the past 15 years and have never had an issue. As long as it was described accurately you shouldn't have any problems. The only issue I had was selling an SWR amp. Something may have gotten jarred in shipping and wasn't working correctly. I gave the guy a huge discount and chalked it up as an education. Haven't sold an amp since.
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Old 02-09-2016, 08:06 AM
Guildman Guildman is offline
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Originally Posted by sevenpalms View Post
Ive bought and sold loads of guitars on EBay over the past 15 years and have never had an issue. As long as it was described accurately you shouldn't have any problems. The only issue I had was selling an SWR amp. Something may have gotten jarred in shipping and wasn't working correctly. I gave the guy a huge discount and chalked it up as an education. Haven't sold an amp since.
Same here..selling for 10 years. I would be hesitant to sell anything audio/video again however. I have sold a couple of electric guitars as well. The impression I got from the bad experience was that the buyer has within 7 days to simply opt out for any reason.
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Old 02-09-2016, 08:12 AM
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DenverSteve DenverSteve is offline
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I've sold & purchased over 400 items,including many guitars, via Ebay with a slight issue here or there but never with a guitar. I usually communicate a lot when buying or selling a guitar to make sure there are no unknown issues. I've never dealt with any unreasonable guitar buyers.
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Old 02-09-2016, 08:28 AM
Bunnyf Bunnyf is offline
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Default Yup!

I sold a guitar on Ebay recently (nice instrument, got it here on AGF. It was well cared for and in really excellent condition, not a scratch, ding, etc. on it. I got an email after it was delivered and the buyer was disappointed in the condition. He said it had "too much fretboard wear", "more than even his 12 yr old instrument (did he ever play it?). My Taylor was less than 2yrs old and guy who sold it to me had other instruments, so how much wear could he have put on it? I played it only for a few months. Anyway...he wanted a substantial discount or threatened to return it, plus, he also wanted a couple weeks to think about it. He already got a super fair price and I refused to be strong armed. I'd rather lose the shipping cost than give in. I told him no dice, send it back to me. They really have you over a barrel on eBay and I'd never sell on it again. Reverb is much better! Best though is Craigslist. Sell locally, save shipping costs and when the deal is done it's done, no worries. Resold this guitar, new buyer was very happy with it. Now I only sell locally, or folks I am familiar with from forums. I've never had a bad experience with forum purchases.
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Old 02-09-2016, 08:36 AM
Guildman Guildman is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bunnyf View Post
I sold a guitar on Ebay recently (nice instrument, got it here on AGF. It was well cared for and in really excellent condition, not a scratch, ding, etc. on it. I got an email after it was delivered and the buyer was disappointed in the condition. He said it had "too much fretboard wear", "more than even his 12 yr old instrument (did he ever play it?). My Taylor was less than 2yrs old and guy who sold it to me had other instruments, so how much wear could he have put on it? I played it only for a few months. Anyway...he wanted a substantial discount or threatened to return it, plus, he also wanted a couple weeks to think about it. He already got a super fair price and I refused to be strong armed. I'd rather lose the shipping cost than give in. I told him no dice, send it back to me. They really have you over a barrel on eBay and I'd never sell on it again. Reverb is much better! Best though is Craigslist. Sell locally, save shipping costs and when the deal is done it's done, no worries. Resold this guitar, new buyer was very happy with it. Now I only sell locally, or folks I am familiar with from forums. I've never had a bad experience with forum purchases.
I would say 99% of time everything will flow. On ebay it only takes one bad experience like the above to reconsider selling. The guy I sold that DVD player to waited over a month to say anything about it. Ebay backed him 100%.
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Old 02-09-2016, 08:59 AM
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nedray nedray is offline
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eBay is heavily biased against sellers (I know, buyers will claim the opposite). But the truth is, if you don't have buyers, you don't have a market, so if a buyer squawks, eBay's policy is for the seller to give the buyer everything they ask for. I bought and sold about 70 guitars on eBay and only ever had one problem. That was with a thin skin Telecaster I sold to a guy who claimed it was scratched and worn, which it was not. The finish was a little dull as thin nitro finishes will be. I ended up refunding $250 of a $900 sale, which I suspect was what the buyer had in mind all the time. It's an easy system for an unscrupulous deal hunter to game because the bar is low for proving misrepresentation.

I haven't used eBay in years now--mainly because of the cost--but I probably would if I had to. I've sold three high-end guitars on Reverb with good success, but I don't know how much differently they would react to a determined disputer. I've also used the local CL, which can get the job done, but it has issues too. In the end, you're dealing with people and if you do it enough, you'll meet all kinds. Just be very careful. Photograph your guitar exhaustively and disclose any blemish, no matter how insignificant you think it is. Photograph your packing procedure and photograph the box as you ship it. Record everything. Most of the time, you'll be fine, but if you do it long enough, you too will experience the joys of customer service.
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Old 02-09-2016, 10:24 AM
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I used to buy and sell a lot on ebay including lots of guitar, and automotive related stuff. Changes in fees and rules prompted me to drop my account some years ago. That said I had very few transaction issues on anything bought or sold.
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Old 02-09-2016, 10:48 AM
PTC Bernie PTC Bernie is offline
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Between the fraud, fees and how heavily they side with the buyer, I gave up on eBay a long time ago.

Anything like a guitar, I'll only deal face to face or with very well defined conditions. It's not worth the hassle and most people buying a high end instrument are a different kind of buyer anyway.
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Old 02-09-2016, 11:31 AM
bkharmony bkharmony is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PTC Bernie View Post
Between the fraud, fees and how heavily they side with the buyer, I gave up on eBay a long time ago.
This.

I sold a low-end guitar on eBay several years ago. The buyer waited nearly a month then told me the pickup didn't work. Ebay took his side, but I fought for three months. I had to get a police report, and jump through all kinds of hoops, but I eventually got my money back. (And the guitar, which worked perfectly). Basically eBay paid both of us in the end.

I've sold on eBay once since then with no issue. Sometimes you just have to if it's a guitar no one on the forum is interested in, no bites from Craigslist, and GC is offering you an old shoe in return.

If you do sell on eBay, document, document, document. Take photos of everything, even video of the packaging process. Stay in constant contact with the buyer. Get the buyer in writing to say the guitar arrived and was fine.

I recently sold a non-guitar item on eBay and the buyer tried to do a refund two months later. I had every sort of documentation and PayPal quickly sided with me.
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  #11  
Old 02-09-2016, 11:47 AM
Ted @ LA Guitar Sales Ted @ LA Guitar Sales is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Guildman View Post
...Has anyone ever had someone reject a guitar simply because they didn't like it...
Anyone with any eBay sales experience has, it's part of dealing with people, and selling on eBay.
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Old 02-09-2016, 12:49 PM
Guildman Guildman is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ted @ LA Guitar Sales View Post
Anyone with any eBay sales experience has, it's part of dealing with people, and selling on eBay.
I think it is the "selling on ebay" part that has us shell shocked. I can deal with people as long as the rules are the same for both sides.
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Old 02-09-2016, 12:54 PM
kozsak kozsak is offline
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I've had positive experiences in the past both buying and selling. But I've also been burned both ways.

Once sold an old Alamo tube amp, listed as "Non-working, for parts only."
The buyer reported to eBay that the amp didn't work. They refunded his money and shipping charges.
He was supposed to return the amp, which he never did. So, I was out the 1) the amp and S/H costs.
Paypal just took the money out of my account and that was the end of it.
I tried to tell them what happened but it was fruitless.

And once I bought a thin-skin 52 RI Telecaster from a nice enough guy a few years back.
He said the guitar weighed 7 lbs. Turns out it weighed almost 10 lbs. eBay said that the weight difference was inconsequential and sided with the seller.

It's been hit or miss for me. I buy lots of stuff online but I don't buy or sell eBay anymore.
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Old 02-09-2016, 01:17 PM
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fazool fazool is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PTC Bernie View Post
... how heavily they side with the buyer....
I had exactly the opposite experience. I posted about it extensively so won't repeat the whole thing. A seller listed 12 tuners from a Taylor 12-string with a best offer option. I offered half his price (he was way high). He declined but the next day changed his price to half the price. I bought the items and he only sent me 6 of the 12.

Well, what happened was that he decided to split the sale into two sets of 6, but he left the title the same and added a note (at a later date) saying the listing is for one set of 6. The title of the listing still said 12 tuners from Taylor 12 string guitar and the picture was still the same pic of all 12.

Well, eBay sided with him. I fought this one long and hard and they finally relented and eBay gave me my money back but never charged him for it.
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Old 02-09-2016, 03:28 PM
reckhart reckhart is offline
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I used to buy and sell all the time with great results. I quit using eBay as a seller because their fees were getting too high and, like others have mentioned, they are too pro buyer. I don't remember all the details, but the one that put me over the top went something like this:

I sold some old Nikon camera gear as a Buy It Now sale. Within 10 minutes some guy bought it, then never made contact and never paid. I tried to be patient with him but he ignored several emails for over 2 weeks. Meanwhile, I noticed that he was buying almost all the nikon gear that came up on ebay. Finally, after I opened a dispute through ebay he paid, but still didn't communicate. I shipped the gear, and before it even arrived, according to UPS tracking, he claimed the gear was "not as advertised" and demanded a refund of all his money including shipping. Ebay sided with him, then he drug his feet for a couple more weeks before he returned my stuff.

All in all, my gear was gone for about 6 weeks. I was out shipping fees, but ebay did eventually refund their selling fees. I still buy on eBay occassionally, but no more sales for me. And, if I remember correctly, sellers can't leave buyers negative feedback, for any reason.

Last edited by reckhart; 02-09-2016 at 04:04 PM.
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