Ebay Hate.

Hello All.
Another Of My Ebay Hates Are People Who Sell Jigsaw Puzzles Describe Them As New And/or Bnib Only For Them To Say That They Have Taken Off The Factory Seal, Opened The Bag Of Pieces And Handled Them. They Say That They Can Get Away With It As The Pieces Have Not Been Put Together To Form The Puzzle So Are Not Used. What A Con.
Happy Jigging
Best Wishes
Helenss

Djee, what a cheat!

Opening up the box and the bag with the puzzle pieces inside totally makes for NOT a new puzzle in my book. Bah!

Hello All
Further To My Initial Post I Have Found Out This Is Happening A Great Deal. Sellers Are Say The Puzzles Are New When They Have Been Opened And The Bag Of Pieces Also. Just Wish They Would Be Honest And Stop Doing This.
Happy Jigging
Helenss

I have bought 40 - 50 puzzles on ebay over the past decade, and my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. In a couple of instances, the puzzles arrived different than they had been described. Once, I got an old Waddingtons puzzle that had been described as new and was in fact opened and looked as if someone had been working on it. I explained the situation to the seller, and to resolve the issue they asked me to throw away the puzzle and they refunded my money. Another time, recently, I got a puzzle described as new whose factory seal had been opened. The pieces looked brand new, and the puzzle was a fairly recent (but out-of-print) one. The seller explained that he was the original owner and would refund my money if I wanted to return it. I declined - it's a hard one to find and I paid about $40 less than it had originally sold for.

In two other cases, I knowingly purchased an opened puzzle by a seller who had described it as complete, only to come up one or two pieces short. While this was somewhat upsetting, it's the chance one takes when buying a used jigsaw puzzle. Now when I buy a used puzzle, I always take an hour or two to sit down and hand count the pieces so that I can avoid any such disappointment.

Ebay, while not perfect, is a great resource for collectors of odd things such as puzzles. When I am tempted to be angry about a transaction that didn't end as well as I'd hoped, I remind myself of all the great finds -- almost all of them bought at much less than I would have paid Jigsaw Jungle or the like. And I also enjoy the novelty of a transaction between individuals rather than with an organization - it's like going to a huge tag sale.

If there's anything I don't like about ebay, it's that the site has become more difficult for sellers to use. The fees and charges are higher, and at least in the U.S., a seller can't give negative feedback to a deadbeat buyer or non-payer, which doesn't seem fair. The extra fees just make it more likely that when someone come across an old puzzle, they'll opt to throw it away rather than take the time to list it. I feel that the number and variety of (giant) jigsaws has dried up from where it was several years ago, and I'm grateful I bought when I did because many of the puzzles in my collection I've never seen again.

Hi Mike,
I wholeheartedly agree about the users of ebay being, in the majority, a great resource. Of course there are one or two who take advantage of the fact you can't actually see what you are buying but that's the risk you take for the benefit of lower prices.
At the moment it's the sellers who are getting ripped off by the ridiculously high subscription fees etc. that ebay are imposing. It's not surprising that some traders are looking to make a profit in other ways. It's not right but I sympathise with them. I buy and sell on ebay myself. I have never described an item as anything other than what it was and for the most part have been very satisfied with what I have bought. Long may it continue!

Lesley http://www.smileycons.com/img/big-smileys/2783.gif

Is there any other site like ebay?

I wish there was. There are smaller sites like ebid but at the moment they don't have the traffic that ebay gets so they don't really compare. When ebay put the shop prices up lots of the 'little people' like me decided to leave but the trouble is there's nowhere to go....

Lesley

My experiences with e-bay so far as all been positive but maybe I am one of the lucky ones. I would definately be unhappy if like Helenss I bought a puzzle from someone claiming that it was new and sealed and when it arrived it wasn't.
They keep hiking up the their fees and yes it is making it very difficult for sellers to make any money from it and this must be putting people off listing things.
Luckily I dont expect to make much when I sell I just enjoy it and treat it as a bit of a hobby and the little I do make helps towards buying more puzzles and is helping to keep my store of puzzles circulating and not building up like they have in the past.

Hi all,
I haven't been around the forum much lately but I've completed loads of jigsaws so kept very busy. I've popped up again because of this thread about eBay.

I absolutely agree with everything you all say about eBay, the costs etc. and the fact that Paypal also extract large amounts for the privilege of using their facilities. On the plus side, your goods are examined by a huge audience so I suppose that's some advantage.

I find that it's not only eBay's costs that are prohibitive, but the price of postage these days makes bargains hard to come by. I'm very selective when buying, not only looking for cheap asking prices but taking note of the p&p charges also. I find that because people are only listing their auction items at 99p (no fee), they are charging silly money for postage e.g. a jigsaw I received today, 12-5-09. I won it and paid immediately on 4-5-09, it wasn't posted until 8-5-09 and the p&p charge was £3.99. The actual cost to the seller was £2.24, the jigsaw was wrapped in a single sheet of brown paper which had ripped by the time it arrived here and the jigsaw pieces were loose in the box. I still left positive feedback because the jigsaw itself is excellent but I'm hoping that all the pieces are there. I only ever charge the actual postage plus about 50p for the wrapping, sellotape and printed labels which seems reasonable.

To sum up, my pet eBay hates as a buyer of jigsaws are :-

a.) Excessive p&p charges.
b.) Pieces loose in the box. The jigsaws all come in bags when new, why can't the sellers put them back in the bags.
c.) Insufficient wrapping. I received a jigsaw wrapped in a piece of Christmas paper the other day. How safe was that!
d.) Inaccurate descriptions e.g. a jigsaw described as "in excellent condition" when actually, there was a piece missing.
e.) When goods arrive smelling of tobacco. Why can't sellers say that they smoke in their listings. It wouldn't put everyone off so their stuff would still sell, just not to me. People often say if their goods are from smoke-free and pet-free homes so why not the reverse.

Apart from all that, eBay is still a good source of jigsaws and I have had lots of really great ones so I'll still keep looking but I do sometimes wish that there was a bit of competition.

One month ago I won a puzzle on Ebay and haven't recived it yet |e

Puzzles are still cheaper on e-bay,Steve