Someone else discussing e-bay purchasing in another thread got me
thinking about my experiences there. I basically operate on trust just
because its too much trouble to do anything different. Sometimes you
get screwed this way but most of the time you dont. I also think that
when I get screwed it isnt cuz the screwer is dishonest, its is just a
misunderstanding. Very few people consciously try to screw others.
My experiences are based on purchasing on e-bay as I have never sold
anything there. In general, I think my positive experiences far
outweigh the negative ones. My only serious boating purchase on e-bay
was a sailboard and it was a problem as the seller did not ship for a
long time and I inderestimated the problems with shipping such a large
iterm. Almost all of my purchases have been for work and I have gotten
some amazing deals. I bought a working JEOL 35 electron microscope for
$1900 (cost me $2500 to ship), a set of 6 micrometers in sizes from .5"
up to 6" for $36 for the set, two sets of precision guage pins (a total
of nearly 200) for $62 when they cost about $8 each from Mcmaster-Carr,
and other stuff I cannot remember. My son did get screwed when he both
bought and sold paintball stuff but he was dealing with other kids and
many kids have not yet developed a set of personal ethics.
I'd hesitate to buy a boat on e-bay because a boat is sorta an
emotional purchase which suspends a lot of your good sense. I've
actually inspected a few of the boats being sold on -ebay, including a
couple of the storm damaged ones and I find the descriptions are
waaaaaaay over optimistic. The boats I've seen would not even justify
the trip to see them in person.