Ebay Experience

[NickJC]

This post is not meant to chide, disparage, embarass, or otherwise engage in anything that would harm ones ability to conduct transactions in the market place.

 

It is meant to inform and let others draw their own conclusion. 

 

I have sadly, lol,  been a member there for abt 23yrs...bought some sold some, overall a good experience beyond common gripes with the platform.

 

I have used and 'collected' FP for the past 30yrs....I'm more of a user than a true collector and only in the past three years started 'restoring' pens that I buy for my use or gifts. 

 

So I was looking for an old 1940's military clipped pen for a gift for my son in law who is visiting labor day weekend to help me finish splitting and stacking firewood.

 

Found one and this is the description and pics 1-8:

 

Sheaffer Balance Brown Stripe Vintage Fountain Pen

- This is a restored vintage pen. There may be cosmetic imperfections such as discoloration or brassing. Look closely at pictures.

- 14k Sheaffer size 3 fine nib

- Lever fill

- Military clip

- Restored and working

- Writing sample was done with this pen

Ok, not too bad, as long as it works, nib setup right, new sac etc.  30bucks plus shipping, I'll take it.

 

It arrived, nib tines misaligned, nib set into the section, but 'restorer' didn't make note of the orientation of the collar and nib in the section that it was sitting in for 80 years and was not fully seated.  The clip is completely loose and flops around.

 

I immediately contacted the seller.  In the interim I started working on it, as I felt they would not honor a return, and or partial refund - and I knew I can make it right.

 

Upon disassembly this is the sac that was in the pen.

 

I don't even know what rubber that is, it's like a surgical glove rubber and it pulled right off the nipple.

 

The pens got good bones....

 

I set the pen up right, dismounted and soaked nib section collar in cleaning solution, soaked the cap to remove all the ink, cleaned the barrel innards - no rust etc.

 

Reassembled the nib and collar into the section, in the correct orientation, fully seats now. New black latex sac.  Shimmed the cap for a tighter fit and used Cpt Tolley's as recommended in past threads by a proper restorer etc.

 

She writes very nicely now and is an ok looking pen for a user...

 

The seller is willing to refund $15 for the pen as a partial refund, or a full return.  I'm taking the refund.

 

Draw your own conclusions, but as there are many newer users of pens that are drawn to places like eBay to find them, and if you find yourself here - deal with the folks that have a presence HERE !  They are true restorers etc....and start d by their offerings. 

 

If you go to ebaybe sure to ask a lot of questions prior to bidding or getting caught in the frenzy of buying.

 

This seller started selling on Ebay since June of 24, and the about page indicates they have been on the pen circuit since 2015.

 

Being they agreed to a partial refund, I will not name, names thbut the pics by the seller are all the same style, you can figure it out.

 

I hope this provides some information, Sunday AM coffee entertainment and maybe can help a noob.  We were all there once....

 

 

 

[Mark from Yorkshire]

I just avoid, Amazon, eBay and Etsy etc. like the plague better to be safe than sorry.

[Karmachanic]

Ebay itself is not the problem, but the various vendors may be.  When it comes to pens I purchase from well known reliable vendors, and have had no unpleasant experiences.

 

Caveat emptor.

[senzen]

You pays your money and you takes your chances. In general I've had good experiences on eBay, I do research models, possible gotchas as well as vendor reputations and keep my expectations low.

 

My last very special (to me) pen had an 85% discount from its real average market price, looks new: Waterman Gentleman 33; risky purchase since these have very fragile sections, I wouldn't expect the seller to have such obscure knowledge for this pen.

[Doug1426]

  On 8/25/2024 at 3:11 PM, Karmachanic said:

Ebay itself is not the problem, but the various vendors may be.  When it comes to pens I purchase from well known reliable vendors, and have had no unpleasant experiences.

 

Caveat emptor.

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+1

[Seney724]

  On 8/25/2024 at 3:11 PM, Karmachanic said:

Ebay itself is not the problem, but the various vendors may be.  When it comes to pens I purchase from well known reliable vendors, and have had no unpleasant experiences.

 

Caveat emptor.

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I fully agree with your comment about the vendors but, with respect to your comment about eBay, with all due respect, I disagree.  

eBay's business practices are about as unethical as can be found in modern day e-commerce.  They have "policies" which they rigidly enforce when it benefits them and totally ignore when it benefits them.

They collect excessive amounts of fees & taxes; then when provided with well documented proof they have done so they refuse to refund the excess funds they gave collected.

The list goes on and on..........

 

Their last group of high ranking executives are now in residence at the Grey Stone Hotel; I expect others will follow.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/two-former-ebay-executives-sentenced-prison-cyberstalking

 

I, too, stay far, far away!!

[senzen]

My main problem with eBay is they do little beyond provide a place for sellers and buyers. You search for "blablabla fountain pen" and you get blablabla rollerball, ballpoint pens, mechanical pencils; it does pay to drill down by thinking how an inexperienced seller might describe the pen, when it should be the reverse: they should adapt to what buyers call them, and eBay should help them achieve this. There are probably hundreds of examples like these, which make the experience frustrating, and which means lost sales for eBay and vendors.

 

Bottom line: zero knowledge of customers from eBay or vendors.

[Karmachanic]

  On 8/25/2024 at 5:27 PM, senzen said:

My main problem with eBay is they do little beyond provide a place for sellers and buyers.

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Quite so.  I can't say for sure as I have not had your negative experiences, but I suspect said problems are related to dodgy vendors.  I've not had any problem with reputable vendors.

[inkstainedruth]

One of the things I've learned about eBay is that it is very important to read the reviews of a seller -- especially if they do NOT have 100% positive feedback.  I also learned (the hard way) that you can NOT provide feedback about a transaction if you get a partial refund.  Which makes me wonder about a certain seller (who, due to the rules on FPN, can NOT be named and shamed).  Had literally tens of thousands of transactions, but NOT 100% positive ratings.  And I got screwed and the seller decided to be an a-hole on top of that.  I returned the item(s) as "Not as described" and got my money back but was NOT permitted to provide feedback by eBay.  

Then, more recently, I had a seller renege on a deal (seller said "X price or make an offer") so I did.  Seller accepted my offer and then 2 days later I got a notice from PayPal BEFORE I heard anything from eBay OR the seller.  And eBay was like "Oh, you can't provide feedback since the transaction was cancelled...."  And I basically told THEM "Not by ME it wasn't.  And HOLD MY BEER!"  And provided negative feedback about the seller ANYWAY....  I don't know whether the seller got a better offer, or it was a case that they never had the pen in the first place....  And that was the ONLY seller who had the pen I wanted who was (a) in the US; and (b) had 100% positive ratings (well, NOT ANY MORE the seller does -- I made SURE of that...).  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[senzen]

Amazon has also become worse: there are sellers with 100% 5 stars, but when you go into their history you'll find Amazon is not counting negative ratings! It's also flooded by knock offs for whole product categories.

[inkstainedruth]

The things that annoy me the most about Amazon is that they are not necessarily the best deals (but will sometimes be "cheaper" than going *directly* to a third party vendor -- how can that be POSSIBLE?); and that their search engine is so horrible (wondering now if they're getting their code from Google because any more THAT sucks as well...).

I was curious to see if I could find Waterman Absolute Brown the other day, given that I know it's been discontinued.  And was shown OTHER colors of Waterman inks, AND Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Brown AND a bunch of Private Reserve inks.  EVEN THOUGH I had put the search in quotes.  And dealt with I think three or four *different* people in their chat window (the first person got someone else, who promptly disappeared before I could even type something.  Pretty sure that NONE of them spoke English as a first language.  And NONE of them seemed to understand that I appear to understand the concept of Boolean searches (in SPITE of not being a computer geek) better than all three of them combined.  And ALSO didn't seem to understand that when I said "I HATE people 'suggestive selling' things at me when they are not REMOTELY what I want -- which is WHY I had the specific search IN QUOTATION MARKS TO BEGIN WITH...."

I did get ONE bad seller kicked off Amazon, I think after getting jerked around by them and THEN finding that the seller was in the next county!  They claimed that DHL didn't provide tracking (what shipper in this day and age DOESN'T?) and I suspect that they had ordered the same CD from a slightly cheaper seller in Germany and didn't want me to know that).  And I had also asked both Amazon AND the seller to have the CD put inside my storm door, since I would be away over Thanksgiving; that didn't happen EITHER, and the CD was on my front porch on top of the mail we'd stopped while we were away.  Seller offered a "partial" refund if I amended my feedback.  Oh I amended it all right -- just not the way the seller wanted (and after I made sure the refund was in my PayPal account....  I said that this was the stunt they pulled with me in my "amended" review....  Of course, the joke is on them -- I'd partly paid for it with rewards points, and so the $13.99 US CD ended up costing ME around 69¢....  Which is good, because I think "remastered" was actually a euphemism for "this is a bootleg...."   (Ask me how I know....)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lionelc]

@senzenyou're right.  i keep my expectations low but over the past 3 years have had surprisingly good interactions with lesser known ebay sellers.  their ratings sometimes can be quite misleading and some touted ones (yes even from fpn) have their prices set laughingly high for the product.  one memorable lesser known seller turned out to be quite an enthusiast offloading part of their collection and provided reasonable fast shipping, something i didn't even ask for.  that's not to say everything is glowingly presented - i bought a vintage pen off a highly rated seller that required work much like @NickJCincluding some nib work for a calligraphy style nib.  this is fiddly work and coupled with the added cost of ebays global shipping, i can see why it would turn some people off buying online.

[NickJC]

  On 8/25/2024 at 8:20 PM, inkstainedruth said:

 

I was curious to see if I could find Waterman Absolute Brown the other day, given that I know it's been discontinued.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

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And I was just looking for it.... 😞

[lascosas]

On Ebay if it is a Seller who doesn't specialize in fountain pens I ask lots of questions, ask for additional photos.  Enough so that I am comfortable with what I am buying.  Even if a Seller does not take returns, if they have provided information that is incorrect (my favorite was "new sac" when the pen had no sac) I have not had difficulty getting my money back from Ebay upon filing a complaint. 

 

But in general I avoid buying expensive pens from Sellers I don't know.  On the other hand you can get damn good deals from Sellers who have no idea what they are selling.  Latest example was a Pelikan 730 sterling silver advertised as an M205 with unusual nib!

[senzen]

Here's one extreme example: Parker 105, steel trim, for all of about $16 USD... Plus $30 shipping and taxes. Super deal given they go for $150? The pen itself was in perfect nick but either dried out in hours or burped ink, even after a dozen deep cleanings. At which point I thought I'd fallen for the curse of the Sonnets yet again.

 

In the end someone on FPN produced a photo of a piece of paper with instructions from Parker that states all their cartridge pens can be filled with a converter... Except the 105! Has to be used with a cartridge, otherwise too much ink fills the feed...

 

Couple that with another arcane hard earned lesson for Waterman Carènes and you get a reliably working 105 filled with a converter, if you please: return four drops to the bottle, draw back air, ta daaa.

 

No vendor on eBay would know or care about any of this.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks!

Good to know, senzen.  I would not have known about the converter issues with 105s because I'm not familiar with that model at all.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[NickJC]

  On 8/26/2024 at 1:38 AM, lascosas said:

On Ebay if it is a Seller who doesn't specialize in fountain pens I ask lots of questions, ask for additional photos.  Enough so that I am comfortable with what I am buying.  Even if a Seller does not take returns, if they have provided information that is incorrect (my favorite was "new sac" when the pen had no sac) I have not had difficulty getting my money back from Ebay upon filing a complaint. 

 

But in general I avoid buying expensive pens from Sellers I don't know.  On the other hand you can get damn good deals from Sellers who have no idea what they are selling.  Latest example was a Pelikan 730 sterling silver advertised as an M205 with unusual nib!

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On another selling site, there was a Sheaffer Crest Deluxe from 49/50 - needs a cleanup, but for $27, how can you not take a chance !  The seller says:

 

Vintage well loved fountain pen. Not in perfect condition. It does need a cartridge. I believe it works. 

 

Ok !

 

[Bisquitlips]

I have bought literally 100s of fountain pens from Ebay since I joined in 1998 and I can honestly say that I have only had one transaction that went south.  For which I am very grateful. This was before PayPal's guarantees.

 

I do live by some Ebay rules that I am sure have helped me over the years. These are rules I adopt for expensive pens and other items (above $200.00). Here are a few of them:

 

1. I digest a seller's feedback.

2. I do not trade with overseas sellers I do not know or cannot verify.  They must have a valid phone number which I will ask them for.  They must be willing to send via DHL tracked.  UK can use Royal Post tracked.

3. Always insured.

4. Only PayPal. They were instrumental in giving me a refund when the seller wouldn't respond. This was on a $450.00 purchase of a leather backpack. Not a pen. 

 

Those are the main ones that have helped me over the years.

 

 

 

[Seney724]

  On 8/27/2024 at 7:20 PM, Bisquitlips said:

I have bought literally 100s of fountain pens from Ebay since I joined in 1998 and I can honestly say that I have only had one transaction that went south.  For which I am very grateful. This was before PayPal's guarantees.

 

I do live by some Ebay rules that I am sure have helped me over the years. These are rules I adopt for expensive pens and other items (above $200.00). Here are a few of them:

 

1. I digest a seller's feedback.

2. I do not trade with overseas sellers I do not know or cannot verify.  They must have a valid phone number which I will ask them for.  They must be willing to send via DHL tracked.  UK can use Royal Post tracked.

3. Always insured.

4. Only PayPal. They were instrumental in giving me a refund when the seller wouldn't respond. This was on a $450.00 purchase of a leather backpack. Not a pen. 

 

Those are the main ones that have helped me over the years.

 

 

 

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Thanks for sharing your tips.

When was the last time you tried to get a phone number from a seller?

To the best of my knowledge, eBay has completely shut down any attempts by buyers and/or sellers to get contact information from one another.  There are still some (illegal) "work-arounds" for creative souls but eBay's AI screening tools get better and better all the time. 

eBay works assiduously hard at eliminating any loop hole which will cost them money whereas they are much less interested in doing something if the potential negative financial impact is on someone else.  

[lionelc]

have all of my regular ebay sellers phone numbers and contact details.  as i usually return to buy another item, the good ones give out their contact information and slip a business card in with the pen shipment