>From an ebay Sellers POV, hanks for a very informative post. (the naivete of the public, well you know what Will Rogers said, or was it PT Barnum....?)
A bit more info about Ebay buying/selling. (Dan Harold's "mogulfan" misfortune, so sorry for him). This is really intended for the hundreds of CR lurkers hanging around who really don't participate. (I thought about titling this post "FS: Mafac Top 63's, cheap!" to get thier attention but that would be unfair to the rest of you.)
I would like to echo and amplify Bill Roberts' well written informative post about seller scams and protecting yourself. . A couple of other aspects to bolster it. The 3% paypal fee is slashed in half if a seller gets the PP debit card and uses it for purchases. So the fee is no big deal, seller should not complain. I use my PP debit card with all the money in it to pay for the trip(s) to Europe and it is guilt-free since the money came from my old bike stuff and thus is off the budget.
Not to cheer for PP, since their customer service is abysmal ...As a seller, I INSIST on Paypal as it consolidates ALL the info regarding a sale and when things go awry, makes it easier for me to correct the snafu. Plus it offers the aforementioned ( by Bill) protections to buyers who use a credit card.
Yet buyers whine about it. If I say ok to money orders, they send something that looks like they made it on a copy machine. Or a personal check that bounces... etc. I agree that the Ebay/Paypal/credit card approach offers the best protection for both parties. Sadly there are just as many scammers on the buyer side as on the seller side. What a world.
If you are buying on ebay, here is a couple of suggestions from a seller's point of view: It gets dang confusing when you use an ebay handle ("CinelliRules") from your Ebay registered email address (CinoBuildstheBest@hotmail.com) from the email address that you write to me outside of ebay concerning your purchase (RoadBikeLover@confusion.com). Then write to me and refer only to "the stuff I bought from you".
Be clear and concise and consistant please. Contact sellers ONLY though Ebay and insist on only contact from them the same way. Be extremely wary of anything else. And get with Paypal. It ain't perfect, but it is the best we have right now. Keep it simple and we all get out on our bikes more often.Though I have heard many compelling reasons for NOT using PP, I have just as many suspicions of buyers who won't use it as they have of me. (I count on my feedback to speak for me.)
Thanks for listening, hope this helps things along.
Richard Bulis - RBulis on ebay - Riccardo Bulissimo in Italy and home in Verdi, Nevada