Ebay Experience

Although I had only purchased a few random items on ebay in the past, I took a plunge and bought over 60 different pieces from 40 different sellers over the past two weeks on ebay. I have started collecting covers and postcards on a particular subject and got a bit carried away. About 80% of the items arrived at my door within three business days of purchase/payment and all of them ultimately within a week, which exceeded my most optimistic expectations.

Is this a typical experience with buying on ebay? I'm sure there is the occasional unfortunate instance where an item is never received or there is some type of dispute with the seller, but is this the type of fast delivery that can normally be expected from a reputable seller?

I ask this not only to make sure my expectations as a ongoing buyer are realistic, but also to understand what would be expected of me as a seller if/when I start selling items on ebay.

Thank you for your comments.

That pretty much matches my ebay experences. I think that you'll find most ebay buyers will expect promt delevery.

I post items the day after payment (unless it's a Sunday, as Sunday collections are now a thing of the past here). Cheaper stuff goes 2nd class, anything over £10 goes 1st. More expensive items go 1st signed for. So I'd expect lots to reach bidders in five working days at worst, Royal Mail and Zeus willing.

It happens to me to not receive something about once every 100, all the time the sellers are refunding very quickly. All the time it's item I was the only one bidding on it and sell at very low price, my guess is the seller don't send them and are happy to refund, but what a pain in the …. to wait 30 days to go to this end. In one case, the first and last time I purchase from Nystamps, they refuse to pay, PayPal did,, it was a lighthouse album the album was in a box no padding, the plastic angle holding the 2 post was completely broke, they don't even want a return, I get the money the album go in garbage and I ordered a new one to put the pages. I asked ebay to refund only a partial part for the binder, they give me everything.

After "over 60 different pieces from 40 different sellers", you are qualified to speak for yourself ;)

If we are payed by 2.45 pm on a working day, the very most of our Australia buyers get their stamps delivered by the next day.

1 big reason for this is we get our mailing cancel at the PO counter and then they go into the express no need to cancel mailing bag!

ikeyPikey, your point is well taken. However, since all of these were in one fell swoop over a two week period, I wanted to get a reading on others' experiences to see if I just happened to get lucky with this batch of sellers during this relatively short period or whether in fact this represents the norm with slower deliveries/seller problems representing the extreme exceptions.

Again, I might start selling at some point and want to make sure I know what will be expected in terms of my responsiveness to establish a reputation as a dependable seller.

Thanks.

Oracle, part of what makes your sample more useful than most is the temporal compression.

Memories drift over time, what with waxing, waning, forgiveness ... but your binge-buy finesses all of that.

Q/ Now that you've cornered the market, are you gonna post some of what you've been scooping-up?

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I'm afraid that the market I've been cornering consists of material that's not particularly valuable and is specific enough to probably be of lesser interest to most other collectors. I've just been compiling a collection of old postcards and covers relating to my alma mater Yale University. Nothing of any general philatelic interest, just more of a personal nostalgic interest.

as a reputable seller of pre 1950 covers I send out quickly when payment is received from various buyers most are very pleased with the speed in which they get their items. Quickest ever was three days from Oz to America. My feed back says it all so if you experienced quick delivery from that many sellers you'll find most ebay sellers ultimately try their best to get you any item you bought as quick as possible. On the other hand I encourage my bidders to combine their lots over several days and save on postage charges

Good transaction, very quickly sent from Aussie to UK.

Item very quickly received considering it had to come from Australia. Brilliant.

UNBELIEVABLE in ebay experience

Thanks once again Duncan, service and entire first class

Received in very good condition as described. Highly recommended seller.

Item came quickly. Great EBayer.

and so on

occasionally things may be slower Nov through to January due to xmas otherwise you should get most items you order from reputable sellers reasonably quickly

I don't know that I've ever really been dissatisfied with an ebay purchase. Most orders arrive in 3-5 days for me, and when I sell, I always ship within 1 business day. On the rare occasion when an item turns out to be different than I was expecting, I've always been able to get a refund or exchange.

The exceptions as bad experience for me when buying on ebay is a seller who damages the cover over packaging the item with glue and tape. Or not sealing down the edge of the envelope so when it arrives the item is no longer inside. I have had a few to where cover sent without a bit of cardboard inside to protect it. Very risky if it gets bent in transit. Worst ever for me was an envelope that had been run over by the post office, tire marks still on it. But the most I have bought have been good, arrived quick and well packed. Everyone has 100% paypal protection now when buying so if anything is not right, damaged etc when you receive you can return it and get your $$ back.