It feels like a whole different world when compared to selling games. With games, its mostly "Hey, here is the payment. Thanks!" and it goes smoothly. With dealing with laptops, I have always had something interesting happen, which includes but not limited to: -Someone buying a laptop then saying they were hacked (Understandable, but a excuse noless) -A woman buying a laptop, then getting pissed off when it was 2 days later then promised because of a snowstorm, then going on a hissy fit with paypal and ebay. Ebay thing was resolved, but she managed to weasel out a refund from paypal...which I eventually got back once I gave proof of shipping...10 months later (Paypal was slow with responding, and I sent it in a few days after she got the refund). -Nigerian scam artists giving me a fake money order to cash for a laptop. -A Nigerian who legitally paid, but the laptop got stolen from me a day before I was going to ship it out. Luckily, insurance paid up, so he got a refund and I got the insurance money. -Tech shop that got pissed off because there was a dead pixel I didn't see. -Woman who wanted me to call her (Keep in mind this was after the auction ended and she won) to find out if I was selling a legit laptop. -Man who bought a laptop at the last minute, and wanted a whole fountain of info, pictures, and any issues with the laptop that was plainly listed in the auction. Yeah, I bet dev kit selling is/was a pain in the ass, as well as art collectors...
Selling paintings on line is the worse, then again 90% of people who buy art don't know shit about what to look for when buying it. The other 10% don't buy from ebay;-).
My brother has sold two (maybe three) laptops online, and one of the buyers gave him all sorts of problems. He complained of a malfunctioning wireless card, among other things. He finally told my brother that he "opened it to check it out" (failed to mention this before he started complaining). At that point my brother told him to piss off because it wasn't his problem anymore. I just wouldn't do it - there are far too many people who want to screw you out of your money, especially with higher-priced electronics/computers.
the nature of ebay is just too shady at times... it's a hard deal on both ends I think for alot of people
I can sympathize on this one. I've sold quite a few laptops on ebay and only a handful went off without a hitch. Damned Nigerian scamers caused me to relist an item about 5 times before I got a legit buyer and ebay wouldn't wave the fees. I ended up losing money over all and they wouldn't own up to their weak ass user policing. Most people seem to get very paranoid when buying a laptop. Most all of my buyers have freaked out if I don't ship next day. They just don't seem to get that some of us have full time jobs and shipping after hours doesn't always work. Then there was this one jack ass that insisted on USPS shipping to save $1.50. I informed him that the USPS office hours clashed with my work schedule and I would virtually Never be able to ship it. He kept insisting and it shipped 2 weeks later. He then reported me for non delivery and tied up my paypal account for a month. Oh yeah I bought an Ibook once that caught fire the first time I powered it up, Wish I had gotten pictures of that one.
Wow, I figured something like this would happen again. Guy bought a powerbook from me, said he would pay via money order, and then stopped responding. Sent him 2 emails asking when he sent it out, and got no reply. Sent a rather harsh email a few minutes ago, and VIOLA: A excuse saying he was in a car wreck. I mean, I know these things happen, but why would he only respond when I sent him a harsh email, and not right after he got out of the hospital? Fortunatly, he offered to pay my relisting fee, so it isn't a loss, but I still get the feeling he is trying to weasle his way out of paying...
It would be nice if Ebay had an option where people could only bid on an item if they had the funds in their Paypal account, and when it was finished it was automatically debited.
Well, there is that one option to end the auction only when you recieve a paypal payment, if I remember correctly (Although, that is for BIN). Personally, my biggest mistake is I let him do a money order: Those almost always have problems getting through (Granted, paypal doesn't take a good $40 bucks out because of their damn fees).
