Do any of you still use ebay?

[Rigmaster]

I just purchased genuine TYC headlights and some rear "european style" tail lights from ebay. Everything came as promised, and was less than $300 all in with shipping, for brand new units. They work great too!

"Genuine TYC"???

Isn't that like saying "Genuine aftermarket copies"????


I thought TYC was a cheap Taiwan/Chinese made product?? Maybe people's standards are just really lowered because of all the total crap that's out there??



Bret

[Axxe]

I just purchased genuine TYC headlights and some rear "european style" tail lights from ebay. Everything came as promised, and was less than $300 all in with shipping, for brand new units. They work great too!

[BigD]

There are some deals on there, especially when people don't know the value of the item.

I find that it doesn't work with ebay. With regular classifieds, sure. You see someone post up the complete struts/trailing arms off of an E30 M3 for 100 bucks you snatch it up. But if that goes up on ebay, a few dozen E30 enthusiasts will be happy to correct that up over 2 grand in a bidding frenzy.

[BigD]

My latest experience with that clutch pack was with someone with 99% positivie feedback with something silly like 10,000 entries. After it was over, I looked through his feedback and there were people buying the same thing I did, and were leaving positive feedback. They just didn't know any better! I even emailed a guy who bought one before I did, and he said it worked. Yeah it worked, but they were still lied to and were ripped off, they just didn't know any better. Like all those performance chip sellers, who peddle stock chips, brandes as Turner or DINAN or whatever, and people of course claim they felt the difference (they had to right, they just paid for it!). They have thousands of 100% +'ve feedback.

[GaryE30]

There are some deals on there, especially when people don't know the value of the item.

[ldsbeaker]

yeah, I try to go with good feedback.
(knock on wood)
I've pretty much been satisfied.

E30/E28 parts I try to get from people on the forums. Most of the people that are actually selling stuff are the same people that are actually making worthwhile posts and "seem" trustworthy. Most of the crap I don't want to cheap out on, so I just get from BavAuto or the dealer, whichever is cheaper considering shipping and BMW CCA discount and all that happy crappy.

[dude8383]

It all depends on the persons feedback dude.

If they have like 10000+ and its like 98% positive I doubt that anything this person/store is selling is going to be a scam.

I just bought an aftermarket clutch and flywheel combo for about $500 shipped...everything came as described.

Another example:

I bought an E34 master cylinder on the cheap and only because I've bought from the ebay user before and they had great feedback. Again, the item came as described...

Ebay is still A GREAT PLACE to find a deal on used stuff and every now and then, new parts...

[BigD]

In addition to the fraud, I think what has really annoyed me with ebay the most is the lack of commitment. They try to scare you with "legally binding contract" crap but at the end of the day, when people decide to back out, they just shrug it off. I can remember a few times when I've lost an auction, being outbid by more than one person often, and I'd watch the price soar to well beyond reasonable. Then a week later the seller would email me saying if I still want it for my highest bid because the others won't pay.

I think to make it really a "legally binding contract" what ebay needs to do is take your money in escrow that you bid. They own paypal, 99% of the transactions go through that, they could make it mandatory. So if you say your max bid is 200, then 200 bucks is frozen on your credit card.

[BigD]

I buy stuff on there. Mostly 2002 parts, though.

True, I guess for more obscure stuff it could be worth while since even though everyone looking for what you are WILL find that same auction, there just aren't that many of them, if any, at the same time.

[Turf1600]

I buy stuff on there. Mostly 2002 parts, though.

[BigD]

Do you guys still use ebay to buy parts or anything else? I was looking for a cone filter for my s52 and I logged onto ebay for the first time in months, and I found myself calling bullshit on just about every auction... I just have zero trust in it now, I don't think there's a single scammer that hasn't figured out how to abuse it. Everything on there now that's too cheap to be true, usually seems to be so. I remember before I got my kevlar clutch built locally, I thought I'd buy the 280 dollar "new OEM Sachs" M5 clutch kit. It arrives, the pressure plate is no name, the clutch disk is Valeo (cheap shit), but the throwout bearing is Sachs. I send it back, and leave negative feedback. It wasn't until I filed a chargeback that I got my money back even though the auction said satisfaction guaranteed. Ebay then retracted my negative feedback saying that the seller has set the situation straight... I'm like what the fuck does that mean, you mean lying to me and wasting 40 bucks of my money in shipping fees is setting the situation straight?

Can anyone even find good deals on there anymore? It seems like any time there's something worthwhile for sale, there are a billion other monkeys who see it and drive the price up often higher than MSRP (let alone the price at a good online retailer).