Anybody bought from these guys?

[Purs]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=43957

I'm looking for some new wheels and these seem to be the best price around. Does anyone know if they might be blems or such?

FYI: I'm thinking 17x8's in the front and 17x9.5's in the rear. If anyone has a spare set laying around, I'd be glad to take them off your hands...

[shifty]

Here's one thing that's really shady on his part: He's pricefixing his auctions, which is kinda lame if you ask me.

If you start clicking on all of his auctions, you'll notice that the "starting bid" is always $5-20 from the buy it now price.

Hmmm....

Why do people on fleabay gotta be so shady?

[rickspickuppart]

Private auctions aren't always a bad thing (even though they can be at times), especially in a market like selling wheels where the entire world is saturated with people selling them. What a private auction does do is keep people/other sellers from contacting the buyers and making them offers and selling them the same thing outside of ebay cheaper due to not having to pay Ebays over inflated listing and closing fees.

Also I don't see where having auctions w/ a "buy it now" price a little bit above the starting is a problem, look at everyone of my auctions and I do the same thing. The reason I do it is because if you put it in your Ebay store it can't be found via a search inside of ebay, and I don't want to wait for an auction to close when I can relist it and sell more of them in the time it would have taken to close one auction.


** Disclaimer - I know nothing about the seller in question and caution should be used when dealing w/ anyone on ebay

['70_402]

When You List Something On E-bay You Set Your Own Starting Bid....

[shifty]

Originally Posted by 70'_402

When You List Something On E-bay You Set Your Own Starting Bid....

Ah, stupid me. I see.

well, then ... that's even lamer - he doesn't even give people a fair chance to get something at more than $5 off the "buy it now" price!

[cableguy0]

its not about a fair chance its about him making the money he wants to make on the wheels

[pebbleboy]

Originally Posted by cableguy0

its not about a fair chance its about him making the money he wants to make on the wheels

Why not just use the reserve?

[byrd]

The reserve fee is about 5 times the cost of the buy it now fee. Randy

[shifty]

I dunno, it just seems like ... fleabay was founded on the idea that you can potentially score a wicked sweet and cheap purchase that you couldn't find elsewhere. Example: My friend scored a pair of aluminum heads for his LT1 today for $176 dollars. They've got 103k or so miles on them but they're in super shape. Retail price on them used is normally around $150-200 each for a cheap pair.

This is the spirit of auction - you walk away with stuff at a great price.

Not to turn the thread into a debate, but ... it seems really stupid to me to flat-out offer someone a "buy it now" option for $400, then start the actual auction bid for $395 like a lot of those auctions are. That's like ....only one person can make a bid on it, then the auction is over because you could just as easily buy it for the "buy it now" price and walk away with it.

Does that idea sound dumb to anyone but me?

['70_402]

If You Don't Like It Don't Use It...

[shifty]

I guess that's one attitude to have.

If I don't like it, I can go to the wheel and tire shop a mile down the road and get the same price...I'll still think the seller on fleabay is stupid and ignoring the core concept behind an "auction".

[screamin_c102]

Fleabay used to be about the auction, now it's everybody's "get rich quick" scheme. I personally buy and sell on it, but I don't try and make a living doing it either. Buy-it-now is a great way to either get your payment fast or get your item fast. I personally use Buy-it-Now if I want the item bad enough or don't want to wait a week and take the chance of getting outbid or "sniped".

I am in the middle of a dispute over the '88 Chevy C3500 I just won for $250.00. well, they don't want to give it up for $250.00, yet that's where they started the bid. You have to start with what you will take for the item. Anything above that is gravy.

I more than likely will never see the truck and might get my money back, but that's the chances you take when you do things at a distance and don't get a feel for the people you are doin business with.

I agree with Shifty that Fleabay has lost it's integrity and has gone the way of so many "cool" things.

Now, if yall will excuse me I'm goin to the John, where my "cool" lunch is goin' to go the same place Ebay and so many dot-coms have ended up.

[legends]

I was thinking of buying from them as well, their price is the lowest i found and they offer free shipping. You can order via telephone if you dont want to go through Ebay

[GreyHoundSteve]

I dont think some of you guys understand the point of the buy it now feature. I use it on 90% of my auctions and i will always look for a buy it now auction when i see multiple sellers with the same item. Buy it now is just like going into a store a getting the price you want and not having to wait and find out how many times it will change over the next few days/ hours. Ive seen stupid bidders on ebay pay more than retail for items and so if i see the item i want with a buy it now price that is a good deal for me i will take it over having to wait 5 days and hope that some fool doesnt out bid me and pay more than retail for something and then i have to start all over again and have the same thing heppen again. Some bidders get emotionally involved in bidding and feel like they have to win because they have been waiting 7 days for this item to end and whats a few more dollars than they wanted to pay and then 5 minutes before the auction is suposed to end someone else swoops in and bids so they up their bid again and again and pretty soon your paying way too high a price for something or you miss out on it and have to start all over again. Ive seen it happen so many times that i view ebay more as a worldwide store than an auction website. I'd rather not wait around a week to find out if some fool will pay too much for something when i have the option to buy it now at a price that is fair to me. The cool thing about ebay is that in TX a widget may sell for $100 because they are in demand but in NY widgets only gor for $50 so Joe Blow NY can make $25 selling these and i can save $25 and its good for everyone and if he has a buy it now price i can get it when i need it and not have to wait and see if someone in WA will pay $200 for the widget and leave me looking and bidding all over again. Ebay is just one more place to find things and compared to most online stores the buy it now prices on ebay are always better and if its out of state you avoid sales tax so and on small expensive items you can really save a bundle. Also, ebays feedback system is the standard against which all others are judged and is a more useful tool than ive seen on any other website. The bottom line is ..... if you dont like it then dont use it but i personally know that if i am wondering the value of something the first place i go to research it is ebay. Youd be amazed at the things you can find there and its the best reference tool on the internet imho.

[bjohn3x]

Very well put. I totally agree.

[RainFade]

I understand a lot of folks selling vehicles on ebay are switching to private auctions so the winners or runner up's don't get hit with bogus second chance offers, or otherwise contacted by scammers so that in and of itself may not represent anything shady on this sellers part.