How often do you "risk" it?

[Steven]

i.e. buy from a seller with, say...

-a rather poor feedback total (negative or two... or many... or 0 feedback at all, eBay noob etc.)

-no pictures

-weak description

etc.

?

I usually avoid it but this past week I couldn't resist and decided to try my luck. Hey it was only $8 if I lost out. Everything worked out OK :)

[Griking]

I guess it depends on what they were selling and just how many negatives they had. eBay newbies don't really know how to post an effective auction. They either use a poor choice for their subject or don't describe the item well. While this can suck for the seller a buyer who pays attention can sometimes find a steal. As for negs, anyone can get a few negs from an unreasonable buyer. If it was a somewhat new eBayer who had one or two unhappy buyers I'd give it a shot if it were for something I wanted.

If it was a power seller I probably wouldn't bother, they usually have so many transactions that you really have to have a pattern of screwing your buyers to get a low feedback percentage. Besides, you generally won't get a great deal from a power seller. They either know what it is that they're selling and over charge for it or they charge a rediculous amount for shipping & handling.

[Hounder]

On rare games, totally depends on what kind of price and whether or not they accept paypal. On not so rare games, I'll chance it. Heck, D_N_G chanced it and got a CIB Stadium Events for $220. I would have done the same thing. The seller had no pic or feedback and it was legit. So I guess it just depends on what the item really is.

[ryborg]

I do pretty frequently. It's the only way to find true great bargains on ebay. The only time I ever unconditionally stay away is when they have horrible feedback, as in under 90%.

Of course, I always make sure to cover myself by only using a credit card via Paypal. So far, I've never lost money on the buying side of ebay. I've had items be not-as-described and I dealt with it as such, but as long as you protect yourself, I wouldn't worry too much about it if you find a great deal.
________
DEPAKOTE SIDE EFFECT (http://www.classactionsettlements.org/lawsuit/depakote/)

[Simply Dave]

I've gotten some of my best bargains from either:

A. New ebayers who have no feedback

B. Sellers who do not accept Paypal

I'll take a chance on almost anything. I'm sure my chances of being burned increase, but I'm willing to go for it if it's a great deal. I haven't been burned yet.

[MattyXB]

Most no big problem by me. I not often look on the feedback and buy by 0 feedback too. Everyone must begin someday. ;)
In the past I have buy one thing for 150,- Euro by someone with 0 feedback and it has work great.

But when I see that someone has a very bad feedback (negatives) I most not bid by him.

When the discribtion is bad its no big problem too. I have some luck in the past, that I find some rare Demo or Promo games this way. And this sometimes very cheap, because the seller discribtion was wrong or something not 100% correct or to less information for most other buyers. But sometimes a picture say more then 1000 words. :D

[scooby105]

I usually don't buy if there's no picture or if the seller has no feedback. I know there are good deals to be had and that I can protect myself using paypal and such, but when you do get scammed and have to spend time dealing with paypal trying to recover funds, then talking to your credit card company and sending them info, it's not worth it. I usually just want to be able to buy my stuff and get it, not spend lots of time dealing with issues. I'd usually just rather pay the extra money. All that being said, I usually don't buy too much rare stuff, so there's not much money to be saved.

[exit]

I always look at their feedback to see if there are an odd number of dupilcation positive feedbacks, I also look at the negatives to back up any suspicions.

In some cases I've found less negatives to be more helpfull than a lot of positives, some negatives tell the whole truth instead of just looking the other way.

[Speedy_NES]

I've gotten some of my best bargains from either:

A. New ebayers who have no feedback

B. Sellers who do not accept Paypal

I'll take a chance on almost anything. I'm sure my chances of being burned increase, but I'm willing to go for it if it's a great deal. I haven't been burned yet.
Likewise. I have never had problems with newbie sellers. Auctions without pictures and/or with a poor description usually sell for the going rate of the auction's contents in used and sometimes damaged condition, so if the item is damaged, I paid market price, and if the item is in superb condition, I got a steal...either way I'm no worse off ;)

It's also funny that I've only been burned by sellers with lots of feedback who decided to just get out of the eBay selling scene and scam the last batch of buyers.

[Vroomfunkel]

If I was buying a new laptop or something then this would be a different story, but I have to say that with retro games I have practically never come across a zero feedback seller who wasn't completely genuine.

Let's face it, if you are going to open an eBay account to make a fast buck, there's a lot easier ways to do it than try to con someone with obscure collectibles that your buyers will almost certainly know more about than you do.

Vroomfunkel

[tornadostormxl]

I do it all the time. Only if they take paypal

[Vroomfunkel]

The idea that you can't be burnt if you use Paypal is a bit of a myth, unless you only ever pay directly from a credit card.

Also, the idea that you aren't covered if you don't use Paypal is also a myth - eBay's standard cover protects you for transactions up to the value of £120 (minus a £15 excess).

Since I rarely, if ever, buy anything that costs much more than £120 then I don't tend to worry too much - I'm quite prepared to take a £15 risk ... to be honest, if something is not worth a £15 risk, then it's obviously not something that you want very much anyway.

Vroomfunkel

[Vinnysdad]

I have only bought one item on Ebay that didnt have a picture. It was an Atari Lynx ver. 2. I had the first model and wanted the second version and they were selling it for $8 buy-it-now. So I said what the hell and bought it. The Lynx was mint with no scratches on the screen or scrapes on the unit itself. So I hink I got lucky. Not willing to test my luck again though.

[Mayhem]

My complete Ultima: Mount Drash for Vic20 came from a 0 seller... had no problems there at least.

[PapaStu]

A few months ago I took a risk on a Dreamcast lot (system and 15+ games) that had a Sonic LE in it (barely noticable via a bad picture). Kept quiet, didn't mention anything to the seller, nor did I ask questions as I didn't want them to get posted in the auction and ended up winning the lot for 50 bucks. shipped The thing was Immaculate, and other than the Hollywood Video disc cover on it, it didn't even look like it had been handled.