The one caveat I would add is that I have run into auctions from sellers
with stellar feedback, but their identity had been stolen to commit
fraud. You can usually tell tho, if it was someone selling nothing but
antiques, then all of a sudden their selling a Canon 1Ds MKII, then you
can smell the rotten fish a mile/1.6km away.
rg
Paul Stenquist wrote:
Ebay ratings tell you how many ratings the seller or buyer has and from
how many different sellers and buyers they came. It would be very
difficult to create several hundred ratings from several hundred unique
buyers. In part, because you can also trace the ratings of the sellers
and buyers who are cited. The system allows for multiple levels of
tracking and verification. It would be extremely difficult if not
impossible to create a fraudulent trail.
On Oct 18, 2005, at 10:16 PM, Tom C wrote:
I may be asking this out of total ignorance Paul, I hope not. As far
as reliability of ratings goes, what makes them reliable?
What's to stop me from conducting a series of BIN auctions on e-bay
and having my wife create multiple e-bay accounts with different
e-mail addresses from multiple locations, and then having her make the
'purchase' and leave positive feedback? Little I suspect.
The one time I got ripped on the guitar, the seller had a rating of
over 99.5% with 1000's of transactions. I am inclined to believe that
the vast majority of transactions go smoothly, but a seller who
decides to be occasionally unscrupulous is easily able to hide the
fact in the numbers. The more successful transactions a seller may
have, the easier it can get to hide the stinkers.
Tom C.
From: Paul Stenquist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Used gear
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 21:19:04 -0400
Fraudulent auctions aren't hard to spot, except for the fact that
they're very few in number. Ebay seller ratings are reliable, and the
site is closely monitored. Have you used ebay extensively? I have.
Without problems. But each to his own. I just think it's a shame to
skip what is actually a valuable resource due to misinformation.
Paul
On Oct 18, 2005, at 9:20 PM, Tom Reese wrote:
Paul Stenquist wrote:
I've made literally hundreds of purchases on ebay without any problems.
I received two lenses that were defective. In both cases, the seller
took them back. Of course the days of really great deals on ebay are
probably over, unless you can get lucky on a just posted buy it now.
But there's nothing to fear.
I've seen way too many fraudulent auctions to agree with your nothing to
fear statement.
Tom Reese
