I have been reading some of the other guides, blogs & reviews. They are all very good but I feel its time to get down to the brass tacks and be open and honest! This is for all you jewelry people out there! (buyers & sellers)
1. Lets take me for instance. I buy and sell on ebay and I love it! Its fun, pass's the time and I find some interesting things. So I decide to bid. Well, there's no postage listed, so I decide to take a chance. (there's only minutes left, no time to contact the seller) so I win my item and I'm happy!! Then comes the invoice! I won a 1.5 gram 10kt gold ring for 8.75 and its only going to cost me 24.95 for postage! Lets get real people!! Then I get the envelope and it cost them 62 cents to mail it. So BEWARE of people who don't list shipping. Its 4.05 for priority and you get all your shipping supplies free from the post office. Charge a little for your time and ink to print the label but I've seen it from 9.00-154.00!! You sellers that are doing this, I personally hope ebay catches up with you soon. You aren't being fair to buyer's or other honest sellers. You can't beat the fee's or make more off the item by raising your shipping.
2. Also, when buying make sure you read the whole auction. People have found a million ways to hide what they are really selling. Example: 14kt gold post earrings. Ok, you think you are buying a pair of 14kt gold post earrings (studs) , only when you receive them, they are earrings but you start looking for the 14kt gold mark and then discover the only thing about them that is 14kt is the post. Not the front or the backs, just the little metal piece that goes through your ear. So you wear them and the next thing you know, you have nice little green circles around the earrings on the front and the back of your ears but the post is 14kt gold!! Then we have the diamond listers. Oh they give all the info, size, ct weight, color etc. The band is 14kt gold and wow its only at 22.50. Oh my could I really win a diamond that size for that price?? Of course not, maybe once in a blue moon, but down deep inside all their little writings, it says simulated! Ah you missed that huh? No matter the title says Diamond Ring. And then of course, we have the gold titles. 14kt, 18kt, 10kt etc. So if your looking for gold of course you go read all of these. You spend 5 hours staring at the computer screen and maybe 20% of what you looked at was really gold. All the rest in their fine print, you find words like vermeil, plated, coated, EP etc. If only they would of been decent enough to have added that one extra word to their titles, or at least listed it in costume jewelry where it belongs, you could of spent 2 hours in front of the computer and the other 3 hours taking a bubble bath or heaven forbid cleaning the house!! Then, after all this, you win the auction of your dreams. So you wait for your invoice and wait and wait. So finally you contact the seller only to be told, "I don't know what happened, I had a reserve on that item, there's no way I am selling it for that price"!! Or you pay for it and they return your money with a note "sorry I can't afford to sell that item for that price"!! That makes them as bad as a non paying bidder!! I've had this happen to me 3 times in the last little while and I haven't really found a way to deal with these people, I guess ebay doesn't expect for this to happen!!
3. Then much to my dismay, we have the ebay, paypal double standards. You have to watch the way you word everything to their satisfaction. Most of the time that is not a problem but..... there are some. Take for instance, I paid 800 for a yellow gold ring, now I decide I only want to wear white gold. Thats fine but I want to sell my ring. I don't want to give it away, I worked hard for the money to pay for it. So, I write in my description that if it doesn't get close to my asking price, I will remove it before it ends. Thats a no-no!! Ebay doesn't like for you to do that. Its not true auction procedure. That is true. When you list something, if you don't list it at the price you want, then you take the chance of selling it for pennies on the dollar. Thats what a real auction is. But....... Then comes paypal. Sally bought the ring and its just not the right shade of pink. So she writes to paypal and says the ring isn't as described and she wants her money back. No thought to the seller who listed it as pink, but not listing the 101 shades of pink!! Sally seen the picture (thats really the best any of us can do) but bid anyway. So now she has brought paypal into it and the seller is stuck between a rock and a hard spot. They face negitive feedback for not giving in to Sally and worse yet, 90% of the time, paypal is going to give her her money back. Never mind that you spent the money at the grocery store last night! Sellers aren't real, normal people trying to help make a living. They are rich big corperate business's and they aren't going to miss that 35.00 when paypal gives it back to Sally!! So then your out the 35.00, listing fee's, final value fee's, paypal's fee's and Sally still gives you a negitive!! Now I don't know about you but I used to go to auctions all the time and Oh I loved them. I miss them so bad now but you know, never once in all my yrs did I ever see any one get money back at an auction!! You bought it, its yours!! Thats the real auction way. So ebay and paypal need to get together and decide which way its going to be. It can't swing both ways!! Sorry but I do have to add, there are exceptions to this. If the seller lists it as 14kt gold and you get it and the plating is already coming off the back of the ring, then you deserve your money back. Lying doesn't belong on ebay!!! Which brings me to number 4.
4. Lying, Cheating, Crooked Sellers!! There's nothing worse and nothing that hurts good honest sellers worse than this. Now everyone can make mistakes and I'm not talking about an honest mistake. I'm talking about down right lying. I seen a ring one day, it was listed as a diamond and I wrote and asked the seller about it. She came back that she didn't even know if it was real or not. I wrote back telling her that she shouldn't list it like that if she wasn't sure. Do you know what she had the nerve to write back??? "I don't care if I get a negitive, I'll just change my name AGAIN and keep selling. Now if thats not scary for a buyer, nothing is!! READ THE SELLERS FEEDBACK WITH COMMON SENSE!!!! Which brings me to number 5.
5. Now for another biggie, Feedback. Its a wonderful tool, gives us an idea of what other people have thought of the sellers and their items. Its also a play ground for children who like to play tit for tat. I bought a ring, paid for it within minutes through paypal and sat back and waited for it to arrive. When it did, it was fake!! The gold was flaking off the back and it looked like it had been in a war zone. So I wrote and asked for a refund. I was ignored, so I left negative feedback. Next thing I know, I had a negative!! I hadn't done anything wrong, in fact I had done everything right (for once! lol) and yet there was a negative staring at me!! For those receiving their first negative, its devestating!! And all because the seller was playing childish games. Please think before acting!! And always read a sellers feedback with an open mind. If you see a tit for tat thing going on, don't hold that against them. And there are several other things that could of happend that caused them to get a negative. Read and learn, if you just look at the numbers, you could be passing up a great seller and good items just because of someones games.
Well I think I hit most of the high points. I know mine doesn't compare to most of the others, theres alot of information to be learned from these reviews & guides. But I hope mine hits on just plain common sense and you learn something from it. I have been doing this for 6 yrs and I still learn everyday. Remenber:When you stop learning you stop living!!!!!!!! Take care, jeans1955
Orignal From: JEWELRY BUYING GUIDE FOR HONEST PEOPLE
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