Post by Brandon on May 13, 2008 18:30:38 GMT -6
I found this on a BMX board, but it applies to anyone who uses eBay... kinda funny....
"Early bidders" - several days to go 'til the auction end and here we have all these people (usually couple newbies) bidding over each other like it's the final 20 seconds. Guys, relax. It's not going anywhere.
"It's MINE! - bidders" - similiar to early bidders but these guys have taken it to personal level and are now bidding over each other cause they can. It doesn't matter how high the bids go, all that really matters is setting a higher bid that the opponent. "it's mine - NO - it's MINE, no, MINE" and so forth. Blame it on the burst of testosterone.
"We've got it all! - sellers" Isn't it annoying to browse some hundred and fifty pages of used holiday cards, protective soccer gear and used car parts (not that there's anything wrong with those whoever is into them, but as an example) to locate that particular seatpost clamp you might need? Goes for just about anything else too you might be looking for thru the listings of those not-so-specialized sellers.
"I don't have camera - sellers" It's everything and anything you want it to be between the heaven and earth and in perfect condition too ...but there isn't a single image of it for proof. It's understandable that not everyone in the world have cameras, but these days it seems to be the standard more less, especially if you're a seller at ebay. Sometimes an image speaks for itself better than long/inaccurate descriptions.
"It's like new - sellers" ..speaking of inaccurate descripitions. Take handlebars, "It's in awesome shape - only that it's been cut for about 1½ iches and the paint has been stripped". Super.
"I just got my camera - sellers" It's round, it's red, but it kinda reminds me of the Maximillian robot shaped bath soap i had as a kid from the movie "Black Hole", but the description says it's a set old school Haro Multisurface tires and they're supposedly in NOS condition? In this day and age with the digital cameras widely available in low prices with automatic focus and macro functions, WHY IS IT STILL SO DIFFICULT TO TAKE A DECENT, SHARP, WELL EXPOSED PHOTO OF THE ITEM? I mean, you don't even have to know much about cameras in order to take good photos.
"I have aaaall this cool stuff ..but-the-auction-is-for-that-one-right-there, see? - sellers" Please, just take a picture of the item you're actually selling, and not your entire collection of stuff with plastic garden chairs and and plastic bags hanging around in the background to show off what all junk your basement/garage/attic consists of. Goes with the auctions with multiple color/size options. Classic: The image with all that stuff is in your face, yet it says "you're bidding on the red one" ...in the far right corner of the image, half of it showing.
"Absolutely no international shipping - sellers" Ahhh... my favorite subject to complain about. You ask them nicely if they would be willing to ship stuff overseas and you're clearly saying you're ready to pay all the additional costs and the effort and whatnot there might be just to get that single part or whatever you haven't seen anywhere and what you've been looking for the past 20 years. And the reply is as cold as ice: "Sorry, no international shipping" without further explaining why. I mean, they WILL make profit regardless where it is going to be shipped right? It's not out of their purse cause the buyer just said he's is ready to cover all the costs, right?
It makes you want to smash the computer to pieces and throw it out the window instantly. Alternatively, it also makes you want to go over to the sellers door personally with the extra money in you hand and hand it down to the seller along with the packing material. "Here's the money and the box, will you NOW ship overseas?" - "No" LOL!
"I was scrounging for packing material - sellers" The purchased item arrives loosely wrapped inside a single page of a month old newspaper ..for "protection". I once received a set of 1pc cranks from germany, with the half of the cranks sticking out the box. It wasn't pretty sight.
"I had too much packing material - sellers" The opposite for the above example. But, it's always better to be safe than sorry so i'm definitely NOT complaining. Unless the packing materials alone weigh so much it adds to the shipping costs, lol! Sometimes it's amusing too to find that one tiny part inside a HUGE wrapping. It's all good.
"I had my 3-D magic glasses on when i was packing your stuff - sellers" A tiny item arrives in a box 100 times bigger that the actual item. And yes, ofcourse, by the time of payment the shipping costs were figured by the dimensions of the box.
"My effort is priceless - sellers" It will cost you anywhere from $ to $$$ bucks to get me throw your stuff in a box and loosely apply some tape on it and drop it to the postal office. Ok, it's understandable if the seller is located in a remote area without the materials and far from the nearest postal office, but still. If you want money for the gas, for the 2ft of tape, for the crummy old carboard box, for the coffee you had (+the mug), for the single page of newspaper you threw in and all that the time you spent out of the office for the lunch break dropping my stuff at the postal office, please let me now all that in advance please.
"Yes i will ship overseas - but it won't be cheap! a.k.a. You will be penalized for living overseas - sellers" And here we have an item that will somehow cost the buyer some 400 USD to ship overseas. I do not think so. For that cash i might aswell fly over to pick it up personally.
"I have no idea what i'm selling - sellers" You get a vaigue or totally bizarre/obscure description of the item, yet, if there's one thing the seller knows very well, it's rarer than rare.
"L@@k! NOS! VINTAGE! OLD SCHOOL!- sellers" And here we have a bike/part some 20 years old sitting alone in the basement in well used condition with all the "vintage" dirt, grime, ugly stickers and decorations and dust on it. But because it's "old" it means it's valuable. Right? Or alternatively, the seller has done some "restoring" and messed up something important in some horrible way. So basicly they're selling crap but are suggesting it's worth more that it actually is and what's more worrying is that some people actully fall for it. Take the silver spray bombed Master for 500 as an good example. There are such jokers around the web it's not funny. But, it's not stupid who asks, it's who pays.
"This cost me $$$$$ back in the day - sellers" Who really cares what it cost you 20-30 years ago? What really matters is the condition NOW and whether it's rare and in demand or not. As if the price 20 years ago is somehow directly compareable to the prices today? With the collectable stuff, like we well know, it's mostly about condition, collectability, rareness as in supply and demand.
"I am selling cut out pages from a vintage magazines - sellers" How many of you have seen those auctions for "vintage/old school skateboard/BMX ads from the 80's"? Basicly, the seller has cut out bunch of pages from old (mostly skateboard Thrasher, TWS etc.) magazines and is now selling them as "vintage ads" separately?!?! What the..?! In that case, i have thousands dollars worth of "vintage bike/skateboard ads" sitting in my in magazines collection waiting to be cut and sold... separately sheesh. Atleast you can't blame these peope for trying every imaginable way to rip off clueless buyers. It's not like they're from rare or anything, the stuff is mostly cut from mid to late 80s magazines and for the smae price they ask for a single page you have a good chance scoring the whole magazine elsewhere.
"It's Old School - sellers" A bike, a magazine, a sticker, a t-shirt.. whatever, that came out five years ago is NOT old school. It's not mid school either but if you're in your early teens it might feel 2002 happened already ages ago. Or if it came chrome plated it might look like it's old school because everything comes painted these days. Well, it's not.
"Early bidders" - several days to go 'til the auction end and here we have all these people (usually couple newbies) bidding over each other like it's the final 20 seconds. Guys, relax. It's not going anywhere.
"It's MINE! - bidders" - similiar to early bidders but these guys have taken it to personal level and are now bidding over each other cause they can. It doesn't matter how high the bids go, all that really matters is setting a higher bid that the opponent. "it's mine - NO - it's MINE, no, MINE" and so forth. Blame it on the burst of testosterone.
"We've got it all! - sellers" Isn't it annoying to browse some hundred and fifty pages of used holiday cards, protective soccer gear and used car parts (not that there's anything wrong with those whoever is into them, but as an example) to locate that particular seatpost clamp you might need? Goes for just about anything else too you might be looking for thru the listings of those not-so-specialized sellers.
"I don't have camera - sellers" It's everything and anything you want it to be between the heaven and earth and in perfect condition too ...but there isn't a single image of it for proof. It's understandable that not everyone in the world have cameras, but these days it seems to be the standard more less, especially if you're a seller at ebay. Sometimes an image speaks for itself better than long/inaccurate descriptions.
"It's like new - sellers" ..speaking of inaccurate descripitions. Take handlebars, "It's in awesome shape - only that it's been cut for about 1½ iches and the paint has been stripped". Super.
"I just got my camera - sellers" It's round, it's red, but it kinda reminds me of the Maximillian robot shaped bath soap i had as a kid from the movie "Black Hole", but the description says it's a set old school Haro Multisurface tires and they're supposedly in NOS condition? In this day and age with the digital cameras widely available in low prices with automatic focus and macro functions, WHY IS IT STILL SO DIFFICULT TO TAKE A DECENT, SHARP, WELL EXPOSED PHOTO OF THE ITEM? I mean, you don't even have to know much about cameras in order to take good photos.
"I have aaaall this cool stuff ..but-the-auction-is-for-that-one-right-there, see? - sellers" Please, just take a picture of the item you're actually selling, and not your entire collection of stuff with plastic garden chairs and and plastic bags hanging around in the background to show off what all junk your basement/garage/attic consists of. Goes with the auctions with multiple color/size options. Classic: The image with all that stuff is in your face, yet it says "you're bidding on the red one" ...in the far right corner of the image, half of it showing.
"Absolutely no international shipping - sellers" Ahhh... my favorite subject to complain about. You ask them nicely if they would be willing to ship stuff overseas and you're clearly saying you're ready to pay all the additional costs and the effort and whatnot there might be just to get that single part or whatever you haven't seen anywhere and what you've been looking for the past 20 years. And the reply is as cold as ice: "Sorry, no international shipping" without further explaining why. I mean, they WILL make profit regardless where it is going to be shipped right? It's not out of their purse cause the buyer just said he's is ready to cover all the costs, right?
It makes you want to smash the computer to pieces and throw it out the window instantly. Alternatively, it also makes you want to go over to the sellers door personally with the extra money in you hand and hand it down to the seller along with the packing material. "Here's the money and the box, will you NOW ship overseas?" - "No" LOL!
"I was scrounging for packing material - sellers" The purchased item arrives loosely wrapped inside a single page of a month old newspaper ..for "protection". I once received a set of 1pc cranks from germany, with the half of the cranks sticking out the box. It wasn't pretty sight.
"I had too much packing material - sellers" The opposite for the above example. But, it's always better to be safe than sorry so i'm definitely NOT complaining. Unless the packing materials alone weigh so much it adds to the shipping costs, lol! Sometimes it's amusing too to find that one tiny part inside a HUGE wrapping. It's all good.
"I had my 3-D magic glasses on when i was packing your stuff - sellers" A tiny item arrives in a box 100 times bigger that the actual item. And yes, ofcourse, by the time of payment the shipping costs were figured by the dimensions of the box.
"My effort is priceless - sellers" It will cost you anywhere from $ to $$$ bucks to get me throw your stuff in a box and loosely apply some tape on it and drop it to the postal office. Ok, it's understandable if the seller is located in a remote area without the materials and far from the nearest postal office, but still. If you want money for the gas, for the 2ft of tape, for the crummy old carboard box, for the coffee you had (+the mug), for the single page of newspaper you threw in and all that the time you spent out of the office for the lunch break dropping my stuff at the postal office, please let me now all that in advance please.
"Yes i will ship overseas - but it won't be cheap! a.k.a. You will be penalized for living overseas - sellers" And here we have an item that will somehow cost the buyer some 400 USD to ship overseas. I do not think so. For that cash i might aswell fly over to pick it up personally.
"I have no idea what i'm selling - sellers" You get a vaigue or totally bizarre/obscure description of the item, yet, if there's one thing the seller knows very well, it's rarer than rare.
"L@@k! NOS! VINTAGE! OLD SCHOOL!- sellers" And here we have a bike/part some 20 years old sitting alone in the basement in well used condition with all the "vintage" dirt, grime, ugly stickers and decorations and dust on it. But because it's "old" it means it's valuable. Right? Or alternatively, the seller has done some "restoring" and messed up something important in some horrible way. So basicly they're selling crap but are suggesting it's worth more that it actually is and what's more worrying is that some people actully fall for it. Take the silver spray bombed Master for 500 as an good example. There are such jokers around the web it's not funny. But, it's not stupid who asks, it's who pays.
"This cost me $$$$$ back in the day - sellers" Who really cares what it cost you 20-30 years ago? What really matters is the condition NOW and whether it's rare and in demand or not. As if the price 20 years ago is somehow directly compareable to the prices today? With the collectable stuff, like we well know, it's mostly about condition, collectability, rareness as in supply and demand.
"I am selling cut out pages from a vintage magazines - sellers" How many of you have seen those auctions for "vintage/old school skateboard/BMX ads from the 80's"? Basicly, the seller has cut out bunch of pages from old (mostly skateboard Thrasher, TWS etc.) magazines and is now selling them as "vintage ads" separately?!?! What the..?! In that case, i have thousands dollars worth of "vintage bike/skateboard ads" sitting in my in magazines collection waiting to be cut and sold... separately sheesh. Atleast you can't blame these peope for trying every imaginable way to rip off clueless buyers. It's not like they're from rare or anything, the stuff is mostly cut from mid to late 80s magazines and for the smae price they ask for a single page you have a good chance scoring the whole magazine elsewhere.
"It's Old School - sellers" A bike, a magazine, a sticker, a t-shirt.. whatever, that came out five years ago is NOT old school. It's not mid school either but if you're in your early teens it might feel 2002 happened already ages ago. Or if it came chrome plated it might look like it's old school because everything comes painted these days. Well, it's not.
