a cautionary tale about buying kits on eBay...

A cautionary tale about buying kits on eBay:

I just scored a Tamiya Ferrari F40 kit on eBay for 18 cents and a Tamiya F40 Competizione kit for $12. :grinyes:

But then I discovered the shipping from Hong Kong is $50. :eek: D'oh! :banghead: I figure I'm still a little bit ahead ahead... two kits for $62. :)

You might think you've got yourself a good deal but, don't get too excited until you actually have the kits in your hands. There have been loads of people ripped off by sellers from Hong Kong selling kits at very low prices but with high postage costs, in the event that you don't receive your kits and you put in a complaint to ebay for a refund all you will get back will be the price of the kits and not the postage, so be very cautious if you order any more stuff from Hong Kong.
:2cents:

and as a counterpoint,
I have ordered many kits from Hong Kong without a single problem.
On the other hand, I have had a failed deal (paid but no item) from a seller in the US (an AF member no less but that is all that needs to be said).

Also, it is always recommended that you check with the seller BEFORE you bid what the likely costs of shipping/postage are.
it seems like you failed to do this.

if there's a lesson to be learnt from this, it is that you should check out what you are doing before doing it.

and as a counterpoint,
I have ordered many kits from Hong Kong without a single problem.

likewise.

Also, it is always recommended that you check with the seller BEFORE you bid what the likely costs of shipping/postage are.
it seems like you failed to do this.

if there's a lesson to be learnt from this, it is that you should check out what you are doing before doing it.

thanks, mom. :grinyes:

what screwed me up was the prices were listed in British pounds... forgot to check the exchange rate.

Well my ebay rule of thumb is never buy anything suspicoisly cheap that is from kong that usually means ,if not always, that the shipping will out way the cost of the item by 10 fold

Most listings include shipping costs to the United States, if you're from somewhere else it can give you a good clue as to what crazy costs they are going to charge you after all. If the listing does not include shipping, I steer clear of it entirely. Checking feedback compulsively and avoiding too-good-to-be-true prices have led me to a few Hong Kong buys that were great, though they were mostly for resin garage kits and not plastic. I figure if I wait, the plastic kit will appear eventually from a domestic source.

I would steer clear of any auction item where the shipping charges are exagerated to make up for a low bid price on the item. Your recourse with either eBay or Paypal (if thats how you paid) is limited to the cost of the goods, not the shipping.
Generally it is not allowed on eBay to inflate shipping costs to make up for cheap prices as eBay receive less commission on those transactions. I have noticed a seller from Macau running nearly all of his auctions at 0.99 Buy It Now with exhorbitant shipping charges qouted to make up his costs, I am amazed eBay has not shut him down. I would avoid sellers like that like the plague.

On the whole, I have always found eBay a very safe place to buy and sell, I personally have nearly 1400 positive feedback from both buying and selling and have only ever had 2 bad deals in 7 years.

Just my 0.02

omg. and i just asked a friend who has paypal (paypal's not available in the philippines) to get me the 1/24 tamiya 1992 paris-dakar pajero on ebay...

yikes. oh well. :D

It is a violation of the rules on ebay to inflate the shipping charges to try to bypass the fee's.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-circumventing.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-shipping.html

I've witnessed people selling 500 dollar items for 1 penny, and then charging the 500 as shipping. I almost always report those listings immedietly. It's people like that who make the fees for the rest of us go up.

I've double-checked, and the guy's got 98.5 percent positive feedback and most of the comments are along the lines of "excellent kit" and "fast shipping," so i'm not too worried about it. like i said, i'm still getting two kits for $62 - not the best bargain in the world, but i could do worse.

i'll chalk it up to a lesson learned.

..and as another counterpoint.

when shipping items to another country, customs and excise (or the equivilant in the US) usually applies a fee to any item that costs £X or $X and above.
sometimes, the apparently "low" item cost but high postage/shipping/handling fee is to bypass that customs charge, especially if that particular e-bay seller is registered as a shop/business because the transaction is then for an item that costs less than the taxable amount and there would be paperwork to prove so.

Personnaly I only got problems one time when ordering from china. The guy had a good feedback, but after that, he just starts to get the cash and never send the kits.

But I have lots of transactions with toy-hill, tamiyatomchina and lawbodel, the kits were always perfect, the shipping was fast, 2 weeks and they were no custom fees to Canada. I never got any custom fees when ordering from china, but I got 2-3 when I ordering some things from USA.. :-S

I think I know the guy you are buying from, his price are good, but I never trusted him, since I got ripped off by Darren Wong.

Since we are on the subject...check out this seller here

http://stores.ebay.com/VOZ-AUTOMALL-INC_OBSOLETE-MODEL-KITS_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ7QQftidZ2QQtZkm

selling revell kits for 60 dollars each and claiming they retail for $1,599

Since we are on the subject...check out this seller here

http://stores.ebay.com/VOZ-AUTOMALL-INC_OBSOLETE-MODEL-KITS_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ7QQftidZ2QQtZkm

selling revell kits for 60 dollars each and claiming they retail for $1,599

I don't think he will sell too many of those...

I've double-checked, and the guy's got 98.5 percent positive feedback and most of the comments are along the lines of "excellent kit" and "fast shipping," so i'm not too worried about it. like i said, i'm still getting two kits for $62 - not the best bargain in the world, but i could do worse.

i'll chalk it up to a lesson learned.
Hello there,
A little contribution on the discussion : I'm an humble "auction sniper" who hunts old aircraft models for friends ( and new aircraft and cars for me) and I learned a few things, sometimes the hard way (more than 220 in feedback, only buying ):

_ when you look at feedbacks, the most important are negative and neutrals ones, combined from whom they come ( if the buyer has a feedback of 3 and is unhappy, I rate it much less important in my apprehension of the buyer than a negative from a 100 feedback); the negative and neutral is what could happen to you, not what will happen actually

_if the seller is a professional (you know it by the volume of transactions) I don't buy anything from a feedback of 98.5 % or less as I rate the seller "risky"

_ individual sellers sometimes tend to promote the product as more beautiful/newer/in better condition... than it really is; professional sometimes just don't send you the item you paid for.

_ I got swindled once by an American shop :" don't worry, there will be a little delay to send you the model"; alright, no hurry, it's a hobby; then time passes and you go back to the auction page and notice the feedback of the guy is diving faster than a torpedo bomber (I'm mainly an aircraft addict) and that he hit the road with your bucks; the guy "no longer belongs to the ebay community" and you can start to cry.

_I got swindled thrice from Hong Kong sellers, twice from model shops (among them twice from one seller-shame on me) and recently from an electronics shop; the latter one had more than 2000 feedbacks and a good ratio (much better than 98.5 %) but he went with my money and is no longer on ebay, anyway.

All this is to say that:

_ even with some experience, "they" can steal you sometimes

_ the loss of money is never big ( after all, you were there because it was cheap, no ? ) but it hurts anyway

_ as for me, I don't know what to think of Hong Kong sellers, as I had a numbers of "bad trips" with them

_ I wonder whether ebay really cares about those situations as they get their fees anyway till the final clash, and they don't care if some buddies here or there are disappointed, as the show must go on.

I hope this little story will help you

Kits arrived today. They're fine. Shipping was such that I won't be buying from the guy again though.

$50 for shipping from HK is too much. Should be around $15.

$50 for shipping from HK is too much. Should be around $15.

yeah, i figure the guy jacked up the shipping to compensate for the low selling price. my bad for not double-checking shipping before bidding. :banghead: