Ever encounter a seller like this?

[Nes]

So the seller of an item produces 1 sort of crappy view of an item I am interested in. Wanting to ensure the item is authentic (which it may have been) before I throw my money down the toilet, I ask for another picture with a different view. Here is his/her response.


"I could,but i have no incentive too.i found that 99% of those who ask for pics never make a bid or offer.I doubt you are the 1% who will!"


Self-fulfilling prophecy as I did not bid.

[Tupin]

It is not 1998. Digital cameras are not hard to operate. If you really want to sell a product to somebody and are not prepared to at least give them information about it, why bother selling it?

Even if that person doesn't buy it, you'll have better pictures for the next person who is interested, so it really doesn't hurt to take a photo either way.

[T2KFreeker]

What a dick. I may have a crap camera, but I at least try and take the best pictures I can. That guy needs to go away.

[mikesides]

I had a bunch of sellers tell me that when I was looking for certain SMS games. They would say this when I was asking for photos of the manuals and/or the barcode. Very frustrating.

[bb_hood]

Just send him a reply saying 'you just lost a sale'

[Gameguy]

When people ask me for more pictures or more information I do give it, but I understand what that seller was getting at.

I was selling a book featuring a collection of old newspaper comics from the turn of the century. I had someone ask me to list every comic strip that was included, and after listing out all of the strips(100 of them) I was asked to count how many pages each strip got in the book(I did this too). That buyer didn't bother to buy it because there weren't enough Popeye strips to their liking, they just cared about Popeye. I generally find that the more questions a person asks about something the less interested they are in buying it.

[mikesides]

In my opinion this sort of thing just isn't an issue. If someone on eBay (or anywhere else) asks me for specific information or photos I will provide them and then either add the info into to my auction (post, etc...) or save it so I will at least have it in case another person asks.

[understatement]

Most of the time when I ask for more info it’s because I suspect that something is fake or not what the seller is making it out to be and if they do give me the info most of the time I’m right so I don’t buy/bid. If they don’t give me the info it more than likely it is what I think so I don't buy/bid.

I am the 99%, occupy...ing eBay :ass:

There are just too many sellers that play dumb, the vaguer they are the more they can make like:

50 Nintendo games
“I don’t know anything about games and I got 50 Nintendo games up for sale”
But the only pictures are of like 5 good games up close and the stack of all 50 from five feet away.

Some people want to hope for the best and bid like there are 50 good games there only to find out that the other 45 games are Mario/Duck hunt when they arrive.

I got a bad burn from ebay like this a long time ago, lost about $400, now if I get a reply like what you got I take it as the worst possible outcome and act accordingly.

[FABombjoy]

As a seller, I can only think of a few times that I didn't give a prospective buyer the info they were looking for.

1: I was selling an Emerson Arcadia. Had someone ask me what the serial number was. This person had been asking the same question to every Arcadia seller for months. I replied with genuine curiosity as to what they were using the S/N data for, whether there were looking for a specific feature, hardware revision, etc. Mainly I know firsthand that the system's guts aren't original to the case so I wanted to verify what they were actually trying to find. I never heard back. Soon after, their constant inquiries of other sellers appeared to stop.

2: Was selling a PDA w/ original software bundle. A buyer wanted to know the serial number of the PDA. In this case, the S/N was used to register some piece of 3rd party bundled software, so I told this person that I would be willing to send the information post-payment, but I wasn't going to send it beforehand because of the registration issue. They claimed that they wanted to check with Palm to make sure that it wasn't stolen, even though Palm ran no such service at the time. I'm pretty sure they just wanted a S/N to register their own software, but to a paranoid buyer this probably appeared to be dodging their question. They didn't win, or even bid, so the actual buyer received the goods along with a valid S/N to obtain a reg code with.

Other than those two incidents, I can't think of another time that I haven't answered even the most mundane or trivial questions. When I sell things, I'm interested in, ya know, selling them, so I do what it takes to make people happy.

[Sunnyvale]

I always try to accomodate buyers if I can. But it can get ridiculous! I've learned to try to make them feel obligated a little... If they ask for a pic of the back of the cart, I'll email them after I post it, with something like 'It's up. I hope it's pretty enough for you!'. But still... half the time, nothing, even if it's minty. I listed an Atari 400 computer ecently. I had several emails from the same guy. Started with 'how much memory' and ended with 'do you know how to install a RAM expansion?'. :roll:
Some buyers think a seller with over 100 feedback is McDonald's or Wal Mart :|

[Tempest]

1: I was selling an Emerson Arcadia. Had someone ask me what the serial number was. This person had been asking the same question to every Arcadia seller for months. I replied with genuine curiosity as to what they were using the S/N data for, whether there were looking for a specific feature, hardware revision, etc. Mainly I know firsthand that the system's guts aren't original to the case so I wanted to verify what they were actually trying to find. I never heard back. Soon after, their constant inquiries of other sellers appeared to stop.
.
That IS weird. I wonder what they were after? AFAIK there was only one version of the Arcadia 2001 released in the US (it's not like it took the market by storm).

[FABombjoy]

I think they were just collecting serial numbers. Maybe they were looking for an uncommon PCB revision or something, but I doubt it.

[Jaruff]

As a seller, 90% of my questions relate to "will you ship to 'x' outside of the US". My listings usually say "no shipping out of the US" but if someone asks, I copy one of several responses I have depending on the item. Usually I make sure to take multiple pictures so that is rarely an issue.

I don't think I've ever had a problem with a seller not giving me information but then again, I rarely buy on eBay and when I do, I bid on listings that provide all of the details upfront unless it's just something that I really want and it's really cheap.