Hi, Time has come to update my ageing Graphics card, an old ATI Radeon 7200. I read a few reviews and it sounds like the Radeon 9800 pro is the new top dog, however it's a bit pricey, so as it's only slightly slower the 9700 pro looks better value. The new Nvidia card is also expensive and the noisy fan doesn't really appeal. Reading more reviews it looks like there's virtually no performance difference between the various makes, Connect, Saphire etc. So, I set about finding the best price. Best I can find so far is at Crucial.com/uk/ at £240.00, if you know better let me know. However, because I'm basically tight, I thought I'd take a look on Ebay and see what's around. I've been watching for a few days and it seems that things only go for about £10 to £15 less than I can find at a retailer - around £225.00. Hardly a bargain when you consider that if there is a problem I haven't got the guarantees that I might have with a retailer. Is this usually the case?
You'll probably end up paying more. Quite often I can find it substantially cheaper at a retailer. EBay is great for selling because people go into a bidding frenzy, which also means you'll get ripped off if you try and buy anything from EBay!
I never understand why people bid hours and days before the bid closes even when the reserve price has been met. If they don't want to drive the price up with each bid they should just all bid at the very last second so that they can try to get the cheapest price. Anyway I've had the same kind of experiences from ebay. Nothing I've bought has ever worked or been what I wanted. Mainly due to me but also the seller in a couple of case. I've only sold one thing which was my Voodoo 5 5500 which someone bid a £10 increment on the previous price at the very last minute - which was nice...
I've used ebay a couple of times so far, and they were all really cheap prices. I made sure that the seller had quite a lot of good feedback. Don't just rush in to bidding. If you are not sure about an item then email the seller. If they are any good then they will reply quickly and give a decent response.
People do tend to get carried away with bidding... if your buying the card from there check what postage will be. A lot of sellers will charge over the odds for postage to make up for a low sellling price. If anything goes wrong you have NO comeback unlike a store.
Sorry guys, but that simply is not true. Take it from someone who's used ebay a lot, there are always measures you can take to protect yourself and unless you've been a complete fool, comeback when things go wrong. If your seller has a good feedback rating, you can pretty much feel as secure buying from them as you would paying by plastic in the highstreet. If the seller is that good, they'll probably have shipping prices listed in the auction description. If you have any concerns, as mentioned already, email the seller and ask about them. I have no sympathy for the likes of people who send cash through the post to traders with crappy feedback. Especially when there are facilities like PayPal (which has fraud protection) and escrow so easily available. Ebay itself also has fraud protection for up to £100. Keep an eye on the auction, and if it gets too rich for you, just move onto the next one. Proxy bidding is a great thing, but ebay's full of nubbins who can't grasp the concept. You can either get annoyed or exploit it. Overall, just be sensible and you'll be fine
Also, the whole point of bidding is that you enter how much you are prepared to pay. So if you end up paying more than you could elsewhere then you are a fool to be honest!!
I'm still having this problem though, I've just started selling things on ebay, 1 or 2 items, so I have no outstanding feedback yet, making other buyers weary of me. So I think the feedback system has made it hard for users to get started selling things on ebay. Any recommendations Bradford as you seem to be the ebay top dawg around here?
A few tips. these are things I have looked for when choosing a seller. Make your page with the item look professional, IE don't use crappy animated gifs that have been ripped off from other peoples sites, and use good quality pics (showing packaging as well). Put lots of info in the advert and make sure your email address is clearly visible. Also encourage people to email you if they have any doubts, and if they do email, respond quickly and politely. Don't be harsh with your demands, IE "you have 24 hours after the auction ends to send payment or i will cancel your bid and leave negative feedback". (I actually bought from someone a week ago who sent the mp3 player I had ordered before the cheque had cleared!) You could also buy a few items from other people. they will then leave (hopefully) positive feedback about you. Sorry about the long post!
nedsbeds, gives sound advice there, that's all good stuff. Iamgoodyy, you can either use the method nedsbeds mentioned and buy up a few really cheap items (cos unfortunately, for all it's good points ebay has filled up with cheap crap you'll need to wade through before getting to the good stuff). When things run smoothly with those, you'll have the start of a good feedback rating. Or (and this depends on your long term plans with using ebay) you can take a hit on your first few auctions and price them into the 'too good to refuse' price bracket. (With a bit of luck, you'll get a few keen bidders who push the price up to something reasonable anyway.) DeX, I've always found that (some) people find it very difficult to differentiate ebay's style from a traditional auction format. So they'll act like it's a traditional auction and put in a bid that is just that bit more than the current winner so they become the high bidder. Then another few people come along with the same idea, and before you know it you're up to a price that's no cheaper than retail. Now 'bidding fever' kicks in and people will either take it personally and need to win the auction, or they'll fail to just step back and realise the item just isn't a bargain any more. Teh intarweb can be a very strange place at times
I actualy used ebay quite alot a couple of years ago, until I got messed with once. To make a long story short, they basicaly denyed ever selling anything to me, and after leaving negative feedback, they replyed by saying "I've never done busness with you, never sold any software, you weirdo!" I think I must have been buying from the Iraqi dis-information minister, old Baghdad bob himself Needless to say, I tried everything. Ebay said they can't do anything, and on and on... Now, with fraud protection, that has a lower likelyhood of happening, and I doubt you will have any more problems. I just know that I don't care to do that again any time soon...
Yeah, but the idiots did that to every negative comment posted, I couldn't do anything. Plus, ebay deletes the selling page after a while, so I didn't have anything to stand on. I'm happy they started fraud protection, keep other people from being ripped off.
i've bought some stuff and sold some stuff off of ebay... so far, I've had two people who won items and then never got into contact with me despite numerous emails and reminders. Fortunately, eBay gives you the ability to report people like that. not had an issue with buying stuff, gotten exactly what I expected from it.
How chuffed am I? I placed my bid with just 2 hours to go, and still got out-bid. The card I was bidding on eventually went for £202.00 all up. Looked again a few hours later and there's another card with a "Buy Now" button, the card was mine for £180.00 REEEEEEEEEEESULT.
I've used it a couple of times, no problems... You can build up your feedback by buying stuff... if you can do that. If you're planning to sell a lot on ebay, but people don't buy from you just because of feedback, you could try buying stuff on there you normally wouldn't bother to, and that way you can build it up. [Good luck getting your card // Dan]
