Everyone collects something. I collect games. You know - the games you played as a kid - and the ones you pull out of the cob webs to play when friends come over on a Saturday night! Yeah! Those games! Olde - New - Thinking games - Action games - The ones I HAD when I was a kid - The ones I WANTED to have, when I was a kid! Yep!  I also used eBay to decorate my home - Chili Peppers in the kitchen - Southwestern / Cowboy decor in the living room - hey! It's our own little "Ponderosa" everyone calls it! ha!

Not everything is roses here on eBay though.

I have learned some valuable lessons from eBay - My transactions as both a Buyer and as a Seller have gone very smoothly, EXCEPT the two times I attempted to buy large lots of Glow Sticks for our groups Halloween event (a haunted house)  We sell the glow sticks as a way of raising funds for the event, since the admission is free.. we need to be creative in ways we can raise money for Make A Wish....

Well, a few years ago, a guy in Sheboygan, WI (not too far from my home) was selling large lots of glow sticks, and when I emailed the seller, before the auction closed, there was no reply - My email asked when I could come pick up the item - I was still willing to pay the OUTRAGEOUS fee for shipping (You know the kind - where the auction is listed with a "Buy It Now" price of 0.01 ~ but the shipping and handling is $45 or more... They run this SCAM just so they can cheat eBay out of the Listing price fee) but I wanted to pick up the glow sticks rather than ship them, cause our event was only a couple days away - Yeah - it was a last minute brain storm we came up with... but it didn't work. The guy REFUSED to ALLOW me to go up to Sheboygan to pick the item up - I even said we could meet at a restaurant or something - I don't care where he lives! Nope. That wasn't good enough for him. I wound up receiving nasty feedback from him, so I reported him to eBay and refused to pay, and went with someone else, who shipped EXPRESS to me, so I would have them in time. Ugh.

What did I learn from this transaction, that didn't even go thru? Look not only at the Feedback, but also at the Members User ID History! Look at this! She/He never stays with one ID for very long!

Here is the Members User ID History:

ourmemorys 5/8/05 to present  

purple4tami  3/29/05 to 5/8/05

onetimespecials  7/25/04 to 3/29/05

candiegirl17   1/30/04 to 7/25/04

the_clothesline   11/03/03 to 1/30/03

giftsinaminute    9/23/03 to 11/03/03

make_me_a_zillionaire   6/4/03 to 9/23/03

tmsmarketing1    10/6/01 to 6/4/03   (this is the screen name she/he was using)

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Now, this past Halloween (2005) I started out a bit earlier - 10/12/05 - and I emailed the auctions seller, eelopnaryb explaining that our group would NEED the item by 10/27 at the very latest - His reply? "Please read the auction description!" which read "once payment is received, your item will be shipped within 5 days" HA! I think he worded that one wrong... He should of said "I will PRINT OFF the label and stick it on the box within 5 days - but I won't cart my arss to FedEx until ANOTHER WEEK GOES BY!! Yep! I got his reply, and immediately paid the "Buy It Now" price of $179.99 for 5000 glow sticks, plus $5 for Insurance - and it was Free Shipping - Paid for via PayPal! Much better than the previous experience, at least I thought!

Yep - He screwed me over. He SHIPPED them out via FedEx on OCTOBER 26th!!! UNREAL!! Why did I bother emailing him!?!? 

The package was shipped via FedEx, and I was given the tracking number. The tracking number did me no good, cause I guess I really didn't know how to read it - but when I saw that on 10/26 it left Belleview, WA - I was a little pissed off.

I had to run around town AGAIN, looking for glow sticks which we had included in our advertising (nope - couldn't just forget them and skip it! No sir ee!) 

And when did the box show up you ask???   NOVEMBER 1st.

I immediately called FedEx and told them I was refusing the package. FedEx gave me a tracking number for the return, which a few days later, showed that it was delivered on 11/15/05 - too bad they couldn't deliever it to the little island the seller lives on - so in reply to my emails demanding a full refund, the seller (in very poor english) said "I got no return" - You would figure, he would be looking for it just as much as I was.... nope. By avoiding the package, he avoids refunding my money. It is now July, and FedEx finally tells me they are putting a trace on the package cause it was mis-delivered... and a claim has been started - but do you think the seller will call FedEx to complete the claim - AND better yet, send me the money??

Time will tell. I guess I should of learned by then to check the feedback AND the member ID history... but I was so happy to see the actual item price and not the penny thing going on, I forgot to check the sellers horrible feedback. Ugh.

Outside of this - eBay has been absolutely wonderfull! I am back at selling again, after taking a while off - I had other projects to do - Now I am also helping others start their own little side business....

It's better than lugging all your "stuff" out to the garage - setting it up - roasting to death in the heat - putting out signs pointing the way to your home - and if it doesn't sell, hauling it back inside again!

I love eBay. You just need to use common sense. I have more common sense now... to the tune of almost $200