You will get a positive response from eBay. And I'm guessing it'll be worth your while. Clearly that is a "not as described" situation.

Guess I have been lucky. Bought a Haunted Mansion record (featuring Rom Howard!) and the seller failed to mention that all the artwork was missing from inside. He ignored me, I got my 3 bucks back.

Not too bad, but a frustrating experience. Non pinball related.

Bought some computer speakers from a seller on eBay. They were sent with postage due of $8. To save money on the seller's end, they self-labelled and put in a fictitious weight on the package. When I contacted them, he said I was solely responsible for all shipping expenses. Entered an eBay support ticket. One was surprisingly denied by eBay. After three calls to eBay and multiple emails, I ended up rejecting the package and got my money back. $8 isn't a lot, but I was pissed the seller was trying to squeeze a few extra dollars out of the deal at my expense.

The seller seller left me some nasty feedback that was "positive". Not a huge deal, but I was frustrated that a seller was trying scam a few extra bucks from me.

Kaweaver in Illinois sold me a very dirty RS I still hate him,the bastard. It was my second pin,it was my last eBay purchase They say you learn more from you mistakes then your successes

He has had a well earned reputation as a scum bag since I've been in the hobby.

I sold a major havoc working cpu board for 330ish some time ago. It was a buyer from france. I printed a label from home and was going to ship but wasn't able to for a couple days. Seller files dispute saying item not in conditioned described. He thought I already shipped item. I was lucky. I never sell on ebay anymore. Back in the late 90 s to 2006 it was extremely lucrative for me.

I get burned by Buyers from time to time.

just one off the top of my head was a brand new wood plane that sold for 350

about 2 weeks later guy wanted to send it back. said it didn't work right. had to refund him, got the plane back with tons of scratches, damage, and the box had a large hole in it.

as a seller your hands are pretty much tied.

I also have had people switch their broken item with the one I sent, then file a return, sticking me with a broken item.

I have free shipping on like 95% of the items I list, currently at over 1000 items. cant stand some peoples ridiculous shipping charges and would never dick over people like that.

I still do well on ebay but can be a pain for sure

Ebay ??!? Just another waste of time. Why even bother with it?

John

I've been lucky so far...no major problems buying or selling yet, thankfully. A few minor disappointments here and there with me missing something in the photos, but other than ebay's fee gouging, I haven't had a hard time with anything.

Thinking of the money John wart is collecting for those roms he doesn't send. He could at least shut off the auctions. He has 15 dollars from me

Thanks for the heads up, I was going to order some.

$1200 for a Wizard! in excellent condition. Seller later informed me it was an estate sale and I needed to pay first before being given contact info. Seller used internet photos in the item description. Complete piece of crap, burned by a pos who I never met!
Lesson, don't buy from a third party. Especially on EBay.

image (resized).jpeg

Sold the machine for about $350 from what I remember.

Mine are on the way, ordered them over a month ago. He is making headway.

He recently responded to me on facebook, have you tried reaching out to him? What roms are they that you need?

I have A story from the "other side." I used to make short films and have a bunch of what used to be pretty nice cameras. Never having used eBay for selling, I posted and sold a Panasonic DVX100B ($3k MSRP) to a church a few years ago. I completely forgot that I had even posted it, and didn't get emails from eBay for some reason... weeks went by and I didn't ship, and the poor guy had to file a claim and all that. Shame on me.

No worries ordered them from another eBay seller got them quick

Just bought a brand new rottendog power driver board...seller said it was new, unused.
Well it had been used and 2 capacitors fell off when i pulled it out to look at it.
Also had the wrong value fuses in it.
Geez.

Sold a tspp ramp to someone that claimed it was damaged in shipping. Sent me a picture that I remember seeing posted on the internet years before. I just refunded the money as it wasn't worth the hassle. Turned me off to selling anything on EBay again.

I use to buy/sell a bit on ebay but after being burnt by a few dodgey sellers i gave up a few years ago, and haven't looked back.

I have honestly had better experiences with sending money to obscure parts of Europe for pinball parts i can't find locally.

Sold a Star Wars upright arcade back in mid 90s for $750 or so. Buyer said it didn't work when he received it. PayPal reversed the payment. Didn't even have a chance to have it shipped back to me...

I sell about $10-20k per year on eBay in small crafted items, but never a big item again. Average transaction now is $10 per sale.

What a nightmare. Thanks for sharing your story with us. That is one big reason why I am reluctant to sell on ebay anymore.

I sold two used e-m pinball machines on ebay several years ago and was fortunate to have had them purchased by decent buyers. I put in my ad "buyer to pick them up, no shipping services offered". Maybe that also helped me out with not getting scammed.

From 2004 to 2012ish I mostly used ebay to purchase items, and was fortunate to not be scammed, other than maybe a small item worth less than $3.

However, based on what I have heard/read over the last 4 years or so, I generally have just stayed off of ebay and not bought anything via ebay for past 4 yrs or so.

I had winning bid on a new extra large capacity fuel tank for my dual sport bike, then paid for it. It did not ship & then finally I receive an email from the fiance of the seller explaining that he had died in a car wreck, & she was attempting to settle all of his ebay sales, but did not have access to his PayPal account. I did a search on their local newspaper & sure enough I found the obituary. Damn. I sent link to the ebay dispute & explained what had happened- about 3 weeks later the fuel tank arrived!!

Not an ebay burn, but a weird turn of events.

I sold a phone to a person in the Czech republic ( I actually sold a fewer smaller ticketed items there a few years back with no issue, so I figured it would be ok again).
The money went into paypal, 4 weeks pass and the 650 I made is now being disputed. I called ebay or maybe it was paypal (cant remember) to find out what my options were. They said if the buyer says the item didn't arrive your SOL since there was no way to track it. They suggested I wait another week until refunding payment. I told them to refund it, either the buyer is honest and will pay me the money when it arrives or the buyer already has it and is screwing me. Guess it's possible it got held up in customs, regardless I learned my lesson about selling stuff overseas.

You definitely have to be careful. I don't sell big ticket items and/or anything where I am not prepared to just lose it all together anymore. It's just way too easy to get burned. I've been fairly lucky, but I am also pretty cautious.

I had a person recently try to rip me off on a Nintendo Gamecube. Buyer had a 0 rating which made my spidey sense buzz a little more than usual right out of the gate. I tested it at a local game shop before shipping it out as I didn't have a game of my own to try it with and the system worked perfectly. When I was packaging it up, I had an extra box and in an odd coincidence I ended up double boxing it and packing it up insanely securely, way more than I normally would have. Plus the system was only going from St. Paul MN to Chicago. 2 days later with no communication I get a return request filed. Buyer said the disc doesn't even spin and the system doesn't work. This didn't pass the smell test, there was NO WAY this could have possibly been damaged in shipping the way I packed it. It was obvious to me the person was trying the old switcheroo with their broken system. I responded to the claim and asked for more details and tried to help...no response. So I wrote again saying he could return the system, but that I had already forwarded on to eBay the serial number from the unit, so I was just letting him know as a word of warning that if he didn't return the original system, they wouldn't give him his money back and he would lose the item. Sure enough, he never sent the item back, the time to return passed and I called eBay and they closed it out and released my money.

As a buyer the worst situation was when I bought a stone waterfall garden feature. Seller said it was brand new, but didn't have a good picture, so I was very skeptical with the price they were selling it for and that they didn't seem to know much of anything about it. Never could get better pictures, but we settled on $120 so I figured it was worth a shot. This thing was huge and heavy, so I knew it was going to cost at least half that to ship. Well, it shows up and may have been new, but the original packaging material had been removed. Needless to say it showed up crushed and damaged in a few spots without any packaging in the original box. I wasn't very happy, because dealing with the seller was a hassle and in a way I could see this coming to a certain degree...I just hoped I was wrong. I sent him an e-mail about the damage and didn't get a response, so I filed a return request and added pictures. Got a response right away on that. They ended up just refunding me all the money and letting me keep the item as there was no way they wanted to pay again to ship that thing back to them.

The biggest scam nowadays I have issues with is people buying things broken/as-is/untested, trying to fix them and then if they can't fix it, they open a return request...even if you say no returns. They get items cheap this way and manipulate eBay to have a guaranteed return policy in the case they can't fix it. It's a no lose situation for them. Buy cheap, fix and resell for way more or just return the item if they can't fix it and get all their money back.

Best place for ROMs...Dave Astill in Canada.

Dave Astill. He's in Canada.

yes. Rompin girl on EBay

Bought golf clubs for a friend who has no credit card. After a few weeks, still no clubs, and the seller's feedback was dropping fast. It had been spotless previously. I think maybe he died or something. eBay refunded the purchase.

Bought a lens hood that was junk, not the correct size for anything. Tried again and accidentally purchased from same seller. Sent them a message it was poorly manufactured. Tried again from an American seller, for much more money. He was clearly buying from the same Chinese seller and reselling the junk product. The American seller never responded to my return request. The Chinese seller eventually shipped me a correctly manufactured one.

That's how I read it, sounds like an escort service. I think it's probably ROM pin girl. I don't quite get the "girl" part, maybe his wife handles the eBay transactions.

Little different Ebay story- A pin I was looking for for months came up as a lot for live auction 2 states away.

Contacted seller and got approved for bidding.

The day of the auction, before live start tossed a bid on the item to make sure I was approved, interface worked and that I was at least in the ground floor.

Item comes up, I go to increase bid... nothing. I'm locked out. 60 seconds go by.. Item gone for $25 more than opening bid I tossed down.

I call Ebay and they admit they have no idea why aside from the claim that the software used is under control of auction house running live event. I tell them "guess what, you lost money and I'll not waste my time doing another live event on Ebay since I jerked around my whole weekend to make sure I was available for the auction and got boned" They admit they can see I was approved for bidding and that I placed a bid early in the day.

They said they will escalate and look into it.

I have listed some pins on ebay with the disclosure.."contact me to discuss payment BEFORE buying this item. Failure to comply will result in cancellation of your bid".
In other words...I want cash upon pickup only. And this is perfectly legit according to eBay.
I also include "listed locally and may be removed ar any time"
I have received some of my best trade offers ever thru ebay. Different group of people that roam the site.

The lesson was to never sell anything using Paypal (and, by extension, Ebay). Overseas has nothing to do with it.

same here, been lucky so far, aside from a few minor issues.

I had a seller with something I wanted that was local. It wasn't expensive, and I know it's sketch but I offered him $50 offline if he'd stop the auction. He refused.

A few days later, I win the auction for $20. Local pickup was offered in the ad, and that's what I told him I was going to do. I show up, hand him $20 and he asks where the rest of his money is. As I stand there baffled he proceeds to tell me that I owe him another $20 for shipping.

Apparently, he built in another $15 profit in the shipping and got pissed when I wouldn't give it to him. He finally gave me the item but he was not happy.

Ebay Stories...Ill have to be briefer than I want, because I started with Pierre, when Ebay was 3 pages long selling Pez.

I helped set up images on Ebay, and worked with Margaret, when it started exploding.

This relationship swayed dozens of BS buyers complaints to go in my favor.

A couple quick ones. Bought a Pin from Washington State, 20 plus years ago.
High bid auction, paid requested $225 shipping then, Seller protested Ebay for me to pay an Additional $200 in shipping
being in Florida.....their error, but imagine getting emails to "send more money" 60 days later.

Another was offering 6 Sterling silver Chains for $19.99 shipped. Very clear about "6". In 3 places, including Six.
Pictures of 6 chains. But one picture was a Kilo.
Customer felt they were getting several hundred sterling chains for $19.99.
They finally returned me an empty box.
Had that happen about a dozen times.

Ive had diamonds switched by customer....try proving that!

Very rare issues with sellers, but buyers being simply "dumb", changed how I use ebay.

I will say there are bad apples on ebay, there are bad apples everywhere. All n all its a great avenue to look for spare parts and find things pinball.
I have over 2000 positive feedback and 100% no negative. Ive sold on ebay for 15 plus years.
Just sold an Addams ramp couple days ago. My pinside add had no response. Ebay just has a larger target area and bigger audience. Part of selling and buying is the occasional bad apple on the barrel. But in general i find it a positive experience. Remember to always keep in mind you will lose 15% of final bid. Ebay gets 10, paypal gets 4 on average, then you have to ship.

I have bought 3 machines thru eBay. My black knight came from eBay and actually a member here but didn't know it till pick up. Thanks Skymont.

PayPal story, not eBay but close enough.

Sent out a batch of the single handed accessibility controllers we build. Guy files a claim on PayPal "box was empty" and PayPal holds the money instantly, on buyer's word. A great benefit for scammers, because the burden of proof is on seller.

I submitted my USPS receipt, which showed 8 identical packages of indentical weights. Took photos of my scale showing an empty box vs a packed one. Got my money back.

PayPal buyer protections are a bit too much IMO. Six months no questions asked?

I, too, started with Ebay circa the 'old Pez days'...man was it fun. It was actually a great selling forum until, I think 2006(?) when they adopted the "buyer is ALWAYS right even if they're trying to scam you" rule.
Do any of you remember when you'd be able to leave feedback for something you didn't even buy/sell? Check out this guy-he was epic BITD-his comments STILL make me laugh!
http://preview.tinyurl.com/awwcff

I have about a thousand eBay transactions going back the mid 90s. I've purchased three pinball machines, and all of them were misrepresented to varying degrees. Two of the three I definitely wouldn't have pulled the trigger on if I would have been able to see and play them first. The other one I bought back in 1999, so I don't think that counts anymore.

Years ago I bought a laptop from someone who it turned out was trying to scam a lot of people, to the tune of around $50,000, by taking money and never shipping. I sent him an email and contacted the DA of the state he resided in. Lo and behold, he refunded my money.

Good deals are still to be had, but they are much harder to find than they used to be. I just bought an effectively new item for $300 that has a new retail price of $1600, but I have been waiting a year for that item and passed up on dozens of similar ones.

I wouldn't be comfortable selling anything on eBay because of the buyer scams and the very high fees.

Purchased a totally nuked BOP from Chattanooga, Pinball. Was to neive to realise at the time that I truly got ganked. 1st time for everyone. Excitement and impatience usually yield poor outcomes. I was completely blinded by poorly shot photos and zeal. I couldn't fault Chattanooga pin for showing me A bride of Frankenstein and pulling the trigger. I ate the cost.

I have made that purchase right over the years though. Had it completely restored by top score gameroom and can say its better than new now. My bride is truly something to behold now.

Not something too bad but at least its pinball related and I learned from it..
A very long time ago ( around 15 years) a local pinball dealer was selling a lot of pinball promos and I had just started to collect them.. put on some bids on most of them and on some I put a higher reserve..
Seems someone else was also interested and put on a bot to snipe them.. he had put his max usually a bit lower than mine but the last minute every promo increased $5-$10 in price suddenly, making these 10 or 20 $5 bids suddenly a lot higher..
I remember the most expensive promo I bought that evening was Road Kings at $45.. while I had bought the actual pinball machine for only $150...
From then on I set my reserves lower and counted what everything would cost me at max reserve price...

+1 No more oversea sales period. Learned the hard way, Sold one item got screwed by seller claimed item not received. So I tried again and low and behold same thing claimed item not received (diff buyer on both items) and both I had to refund money. They got the items and there money back. No tracking overseas, So once it leaves the USA, Your pretty much SOL

I bought a $40 gps card for my Mazda from eBay. The add said "it worked when I removed it from my car, I sold the car don't need it anymore." There was only a couple minutes left in the auction and there were no other bidders, so I bought it quickly. All of the other gps cards on eBay were $100-$150 so I thought I was getting a good deal. The Mazda dealer wanted $450 for it, so I was sure that it was a good price.

Unfortunately, the gps sd cards lock to the cars VIN# and can't be swapped into another car. I found this out when it didn't work for me. I put if in my PC to try and update it, I called Mazda Canada to see about getting it unlocked, nothing would work to unlock it.

I just ate the $40 and bought another one that was OEM new stock for ~$120. In total I still saved over the new cost at the dealership.

The original card came with tracking, I just didn't know that once it was used in one car it wouldn't work in another. The item came as listed in their add, so I didn't dispute it. I doubt eBay would have done anything for me. After all their add never said that it would work in my car, they just said that it was working in theirs. Maybe I should have looked into it before buying. I guess finding a deal at 1/3 the price of all the other listings with no other bidders was to good to be true.

Thanks for that! Here's a good one:

"Tub o jelly. 12 gallon belly. Greasy layers, oh so smelly. SEXUALLY ENTICING."

I bought a WEBER grill for about $800. Never got it and seller didn't respond. EBAY gave me a full refund.

A CZECH bought my Lotus Esprit though the sale stated US sales only. I told him cash in hand, no cashier's check. 'Smelled a rat, relisted and sold to a California dealer.

where did u send these items, theres tracking available to most countries. i wouldn't sell anything without tracking..

I got a huge Miller beer mirror in a million pieces once. UPS delivered it still knowing it was shattered. It was insured so I did get a refund.

I sold an off road shock quantity of 1 and would throw in a broken one for parts only. The received and filed with eBay that one was broken I even had to pay exta shipping to get it out to BFE where he was. Won't sell again on ebay!

On a positive note I did buy a $500 grinder for a dollar they said was inoperable and paid $50 for shipping. Got it and it needed a $6 part to repair