Bought a pristine Stern Dracula backglass off EBay. It was insured through USPS. When it arrived it was in a million pieces. The seller just threw it in a box with packing peanuts and nothing else, so of course it shattered. This was a double edged sword because the insurance was denied because it was improperly packed, but that is the claim I had to use with Paypal to get my money back. Seller proved shipping and everything. I had to take pictures of everything and send them to Paypal and finally won. The seller was being a douche because he was now out of a glass and his money. It was his own fault.

I usually message the seller and ask how they plan to pack it, when the item is a backglass, playfield, or a lot of displays. If they aren't sure how to properly pack them, I offer some suggestions.

I once ended up with a box of displays where the seller just sandwiched them between two layers of styrofoam. So, not only was there the issue of static electricity, the displays got dumped around inside the box during the shipping process, and a portion of them ended up getting broken.

I just went through this, item shipped to France.

Ebay even warned me that no tracking was available after it left the U.S.

Got a Star Trek TNG in like 1998 that was supposedly in excellent condition. It was not. The few pictures had been creatively staged or were from a different machine.

When it arrived it was so filthy, gunked up, and sporting burned connectors and "creative" wiring, I had to do a complete, disgusting teardown to the wood on it. When I was done, it was beautiful, but I was so turned off by the whole experience, I didn't want to even look at it, so I sold it. The person I sold it to locally couldn't believe I was selling it so cheap - they got a great deal. It was literally the last pin I got on ebay. I don't recommend it.

Maybe you should correct cnn and a million other sites that say the eBay Pez beginnings story is fiction.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/smallbusiness/1103/gallery.business_creation_myths/index.html

You know... I have heard and read a lot of ebay horror stories, but I haven't experienced a single one.
Now that's not to say there hasn't been a glitch here and there.
However, my experience has been pretty smooth over the years.
Took to selling 'bout year ago and have done quite well selling off some vintage toys from my childhood.
In fact I am approaching 1k.
Not bad for a little house cleaning.

... and that grand, plus whatever else I sell, will be a nice chunk-a-change to put toward a nice, shiny new pin!

I once sold an iPhone with broken sound on eBay (I disclosed this). Person buys it and sends me a note that he put a SIM card in it he needs to get out (but can't) and needs to return it because the phone is useless without his main SIM card in it. (Who tests their new phone with multiple SIM cards?)

He obviously tried to fix the sound and when he couldn't do it he wanted to return the phone. He filed a claim with eBay for returning it.

I wrote him and said essentially we both know he is lying and couldn't fix the phone but life is too short for me to argue with him so I'll eat the shipping cost but he had to send it back... I also put him on notice that the serial number of the phone was photographed with my original shipping label and he had to send the correct phone. He replied back "thanks" and never denied my accusation.

I argue for a living and even I didn't feel like fighting the losing battle with eBay where the buyer is always right. Life truly is too short. It was a $20 lesson in shipping fees never to sell on eBay again.

Don't list it on eBay unless you are okay with literally giving it away to a liar. The possibility that it happens isn't that remote.

Classic arcades pinball parts.

Bought lots of DVD box sets off eBay. Come to find they were all fakes. Don't by any media off there unless you are okay with fakes. Hard to tell the real deal anymore unless you have the real one right next to it. I'd say for every 100 of a title maybe one is real.

My worst burn was a set of" NOS Atlantis cabinet art" . " Just found these on the shelf in the back of a Coin Op we bought". Ya I was green and excited and OMG I cant believe there is a set of these out there!!!!!!!!!!!. I bought those SHITTTY remakes. They were so bad I eventually bought another set and they sit in purgatory life lesson learned . Free to anyone who needs them . Not recommended .

Free for you, then. Every fake I've every reported, Ebay refunded it and told me to just throw it away.

I have a wholesale video game business and sell mostly pre-owned console and handheld games and systems. I have been in that business for almost 30 years . Around 6-7 years ago I was selling close to $30,000 in gaming products a month on Ebay. I had a 99.8% rating on Ebay and I was paying between $5000 -$6000 a month in commissions and fees to Ebay/Paypal. A competitor on Ebay decided one day to purchase 6 items from my Ebay store on 2 separate accounts that he had . He purchased about $30 in items; most likely finding the least expensive things that I was offering . Once the items were delivered, he gave me 6 negative reviews (3 on each account) all within 20 minutes of one another. I informed Ebay about this and was assured that my account would be fine when it was evaluated at the end of the month as all accounts were evaluated. Less than a month later my account was banned from Ebay, and I was told " You are not Ebay material". I was permanently banned for life and had no ability what so ever to change the decision made by Ebay. I had over 3000 listings on Ebay and each and every one was immediately shut down because some jerk did not care to think that selling on Ebay could possibly be how someone fed his family. Fortunately for me, I was able to move the product over to Amazon, and although it did take some time to build up the store ; I was able to do it in a relatively short amount of time . To this day I can not believe how little value Ebay has for its Sellers. I guess this is a story of how not to put all of your eggs in one basket..... I was lucky that I also had retail stores at the time, and that selling on Ebay was not my only revenue stream... It is also terrible that someone can hurt another persons livelihood so easily and carelessly...
This makes me want to call Ebay and try to get my account activated again lol.

I learned my lesson the hard way. Back in the day there were very few pins for sale in NorCal. Something unexpected happened. My daughter chose UCLA over Beserkley, and our younger daughter went to UC Irvine instead of Davis. A whole new world opened up. Many trips to the Rose Bowl as our daughter was the cheer capt.

What? I can borrow my dad's truck and pick up a few pins while I'm down there? Got a lot of pins, and met a lot of great people. Only one name I remember. Mike Paris from Canyon Country. Did however buy an awesome SS shirt from Robert Winter.

But I digress. Got the bug back in the day, and had many pins shipped. We had a dozen or so pins at the time (newspaper want ads, remember those)? and a half a dozen from Sam's Town before they were going out of business, and then sold off their remainders to rich peeps from up on the hill who had no idea what they were even bidding on.

So back to Epay. You can push a button and a pin shows up at your door. Shipping costs seemed normal back then. Haven't done that in over a decade of course.

Kaweaver, FUN, Barrywjn, you know them.

Ivo Jebsen! Google that a-hole!

But of course there is George Riley. I know that blows my decade claim, but I really wanted that pin! Actually turned out a plus because another victim of his sent me an NOS cleared coated (Bill Davis) playfield for 450 shipped!

Then. The best ever pin guy, totally restored the PUNK! pin for us. Just because.... long live blownfuse....

Sorry for the over post. We have sold over 40 pins just to stay alive, including our BBB last week, to a great local pinsider.

A buddy dropped off our Lawman that he has had for several years. He put a lot of work into it, and didn't charge us a dime. It is gorgeous and plays great. We will have no problem just keeping EM's. Not Vic Camp quality of course!

I Bought a white water from Barry White I saved $400 instead of buying one that was totally restored top to bottom had to rebuild all the flippers had a screw coming through the playfield at two cracks on the playfield from somebody over tightening the bolts had to get a boulder and also one of the ramps for Bigfoot was cracked few other things too but that guy is a piece of work

When I was 18 or so I listed my laptop on eBay. Someone sent me a PM and offered to buy my laptop for above list price to do the deal outside eBay.

I cancelled the listing and started talking to the seller. Wanted me to ship the laptop to Nigeria. He said he would pay upfront. Long story short through a few fake emails, I actually paid about 200-300 to send the laptop. In transit I ended up calling PayPal about not receiving the money. PayPal told me that they don’t hold funds and it was a scam. I called the shipper to cancel the shipment. The laptop made it all the way to Nigeria before getting all the way back to canada.

Tough lesson to learn and so many mistakes on the way. This was over 10 years ago.

That must be why the Nigerian Prince stopped emailing me back - his laptop broke and you wouldn't send him a replacement!

A few years ago I offered $2600 to a Pinsider that listed a game for $2800. Didnt take my offer and told me it was going on eBay. He said game would bid up over 3k.

I was winning bidder at $2,225!

Year back I bought a 2 dog set of Dogtra training collars. They where brand new from a seller that had a store selling new training collars. All but $500.00 for the collars. Day after I bought them Ebay closed the sellers account. She was linked to her husband who also sold training collars. I avoided him because of the horrible feedback. Turned out he got in a jam, When one person bought an item, he would use that persons money to buy the person before them their item! Ebay shut down both accounts, Her feedback was too low for buyer protection! 6 months later, after many angry phone calls, I finally got my money back through bankruptcy court! Oh and Dogtra themselves where no help because while they where selling brand new Dogtra products they where not an authorized distributer!

So did you end up getting the game for the lower price? I bought a Camaro from a guy he wanted $3,600 for it and I was willing to pay $3,400 he wouldn't budge on the price then when I said I would pay the $3,600 then he got an attitude and said he didn't want me to leave mad so he wouldnt sell it to me. I was glad he didn't cause after a few weeks I ended up getting it for $3,200.

I've got someone in the process of trying to scam me right now on eBay. It is not going to go well for him.

Wow! There's some pretty compelling stories here about good 'ol eBay! Truthfully, they jumped the shark back when they started unconditionally siding with the buyer (2002-'03?) even if said buyer was an outright thief. To this day I cannot understand how or why eBay would've done this. To me it's been relegated to buying cheap, dollar-store style shit from China. Phone accessories, etc. Gone are the really cool unique items from the attic. THAT stuff stopped somewhere around '06. Ebay is now the Walmart or the internet, and I do't mean that in a positive way.

What could a buyer say to eBay to get your account banned? Seems very strange what did the buyer claim you did?

It's not "what could a buyer say" that got him banned. It was hitting him with several negative feedbacks in a short period of time from several accounts. This quick hit and run tactic is quite common to knock competitors off ebay. I used to sell a lot on ebay and knew many other sellers. Heard of several people that had this happen to them. IIRC once if your seller rating percentage got to a certain low point you were kicked off.

Recently purchased an item that was listed "New in Box." When I got it, it was shrink-wrapped, but the box was a re-creation using pixelated artwork. The item inside was refurbished with cheap Chinese knock off parts. I have requested a refund, which they have accepted. Now I just need to wait for them to receive the item back to get my refund.

What was the product?

I'm getting burned as a seller (again) right now. Sold and shipped a $300 item through the Global Shipping Program where I only ship it to a hub in Kentucky and they forward it internationally, in this case to Chile, using a discounted rate. I listed the item with a picture of a tape measure going edge to edge. The buyer claims it is not the right size, and when eBay made him post a picture of measurements he clearly put the tape measure inside the edges for the photo and claimed it was one inch shorter. This was good enough for someone at eBay, who apparently doesn't know how to use a tape measure, so they are making me retrieve the item and give a refund because it is "not as described." Problem is that having it picked up and sent back to me from Chile is going to cost about $100. So I am told to eat that cost and give a full refund or they will automatically give a refund and the buyer gets to keep the item. I've had stuff like this happen but never a situation where it costs so much to get the item shipped back from another country. And people wonder why some won't ship internationally.

Was a 5th Generation iPod. I used to have one and sold it years ago. Just wanted another one to put in my collection of retired electronics.

Yup, as a general rule, I don't ship internationally. It's a royal pain, and these no-questions-asked type of return policies make it risky for the seller.

The only situation where it might make sense if you're a retailer with a lot of volume and can make up a potential loss for a package.

barrywnj...not saying any more than that.

here is a new one. I had a buyer make a claim. I contacted the buyer. They said the claim was an error . they then gave me a positive feedback. Great , but ebay keeps sending me messages . I knew it would be a 1-2 hour process but after receiving a threatening e mail i dove in. After several calls and a message from the buyer to ebay , i was told to await the ruling. Surprise! they took the money out of my account. Do they ever side with the seller? Luckily the purchaser promptly resent the money.

I am a currency collector, world paper banknotes is what I collect the most.

I was buying a 20 Pound note from England that is/was no longer printed. It looked good in the pictures as well as was described as "UNC" or un-circulated, which to a collector means it has no folds, tears, pinholes, etc. "UNC" is a very common description of notes in the collector world.

I get the note, and it looks like somebody had thrown it in the washing machine. Contacting the seller why it was not an "UNC" note, they replied, yes its un-circulated because it is no longer in circulation.....

I bought a STTNG off Epay once for 3K. I asked numerous questions about it and even had someone go by and look at it but he wasn't a pinball person. When I got the game it stunk like beer and the PF had obviously had beer spilled on it. The ramps were broken and every plastic on the game was nothing but plexiglass with photocopies cut out under the plexi. The guy did a bang up job taking pics to hide these issues. When I said something he asked me what I expected for 3K that a nice game would have been way more money. This is when they were going for cheap. I ate it and sold it to someone else.

The GSP is a big risk. Anything the buyer wants to return you have to accept the return, 100% refund and pay the shipping cost back to you from a foreign country. Usually that shipping cost is pretty high and you already ate the shipping cost to the shipping center.

Got a $50,000,000,000 billion Zimbabwe dollar bill. I could take either of your EM pins for it.