So far, I haven't ran into any major problems, but some of my associates have had similar issues with some of the sellers on eBay. I haven't begun to sell on eBay, as my store's website is bringing us more business we can handle, but When I sell items online, I provide images of the actual item in question, in as many dimensions as possible, and do my best to describe each item as acurrately as possible.

I've noticed that a lot of sellers don't do this very well, or sometimes at all. I've ran across many that provide stock photo images (meaning that it is an advertisement image) and provide little to no information on the item in the description field. I tend to stray away from sellers that do this, as it can be rather decietful and confusing to consumers. There are even some eBay sellers that provide little to no communication with you during the shipping process, and fail to answer questions that the consumer has about the product.

Use a little caution when making purchases online. My personal advise: If the next seller you attempt to make a purchase from tries to shaft you, file a complaint with paypal or ebay, and inform them that the item you recieved is not the advertised item, and they will attempt to work with you. I've actually used the eBay buyer protection policy, and so far, they have been very curteous and have been willing to work with me to get my issues resolved.

When a seller lists condition for games or DVDs there should be check boxes. If they are not checked they should not be able to complete the listing, and should be graded according to the checklist:

Like New: Does it look like it was just unwrapped?

Is all the art and paperwork included?

Does the disk have any scratches, scuffs, cracks or fingerprints?

All the way down to:

Acceptable:

Does it play completed regardless of how it looks?

I think ebay should take more time fixing these problems as they are REAL ISSUES and spend LESS time messing with the other CARP they keep fiddling with! Now because of this I WILL NOT BE BUYING anymore USED Games on ebay!

I am sure I speak for other buyers who have been burned by the grading process: EBAY FIX YOUR LISTING PROCESS AND I MIGHT COME BACK and BUY AGAIN!!

Hi Fredimous,

Yes there was a stock photo. The description was 2 words " FUN GAME!"

I do not want to open a case and return, but I do feel that I overpaid for the game. I would not have made the purchase had I known what I would really be getting.

The game itself was in really poor condition and was not close to very good. My "very good" is mayyybe one or 2 small scuffs/scratches. This thing looked like it had lost a battle with a cactus. I won;t even leave feedback on it. I will just completely stop buying used games on here until ebay does something about the grading system.

Wow, you're welcome to buy from me any time! I always have PS2 games in stock and in Very Good condition. I treat my merchandise the way I treat my own games!

I've seen a game listed as Like New and from the pic, you can tell the plastic from the case was ripped, the artwork looked water damaged, it was just horrible, seeing that game being listed as like new! Then the description stated the game was in "Perfect Condition" Go figure! I feel bad for who ever bought that piece of crap.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts - Bertrand Russel

I used to sell used NES games on ebay years ago, under "nesgamazers".... and I have to say back in those day's I did two things with game cartridges, because of the age of many of the games they do fade, alot of the discoloration is caused by smoke.

I used to use magic eraser's on all of my cartridge's, most of the time it removed any marker's but did leave a shadow.
Secondly I alway's cleaned the pins on the game.

The Nes systems, I ALWAY'S replaced the pins inside, and adjusted the loading screws appropriatly (once adjusted, there is seldom any problems with playing any game).

At one time I had owned almost the entire released collection of nes games, and sold one lot of games well below the then current market value, I think a lot I had sold that contained over 200 different nes games had sold for around $400.00 , each one of those games were cleaned just as I describd above, often I would do that while doing other things, so it was a great use of time.

However I also have noticed how many describe something as being very good, and it be less than half as expected.
It doesn't help when ebay allows their pre-filled description for classic games to have a stock photo used.

I know that ebay no longer allows sellers to grade coins based on personal bia's.
I think the same should apply to used video games once they have become a classic (10 years or older).
I am sorry to hear you've had so many problems recently, however I have a decade ago bought disc games that were advertised as vg, and they were without a box, cover art etc. however I was ok with the product because of pricing, the games usually were like $0.99 +$1.99 shipping.
I think price should always play a major part in deciding whether or not the transaction is satisfied.

I bought a pc game for my son over on the Jungle a few months ago, after receiving the game he found out the online password for gameplay had already been used, and it wouldn't allow him to play online (the game itself was less expensive here on ebay, but because he wanted it for the online feature I bought it on the jungle, the seller replied, they could not get another password so they refunded 100% of the purchase price, I even offered to ship back, but they said naw just keep it.

If only there was a way to see a picture of the game before you buy it, or even ask a question about it.  They could put a link or something that says "contact seller" on the listing.  That way a person could talk to someone and find out.

I'm having a problem at the moment with a seller. Their ad stated "Like New Xbox 360 Pro. Hardly used because I bought a new slim right after i got this console so it has just been an extra." so I thought it was going to be a system with hardly any signs of use, they did state it was hardly used. But what I received was a system with signs of heavy use, some scratching, some markings, a dirty dusty power  brink with a bent plug. And also found two screws in the box, the type of screws that's used in the system. I pulled off the face plate, yep, the Official Microsoft Seal had be ripped in half showing it had been open. Now the seller states that they never said it was in "LIke NEW condition." So if I were to send it back with UPS its going to cost $30. USPS is more. I lost $30 in shipping from an order before this.

Lately been having trouble with sellers sending items that dont work or totally damage. I've tried to buy two Wii on here and both where totall broken and had to return, Return shipping ISNT cheap!!! Alot of sellers dont care these days..

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2452/3936695018_83ee7435bf_b.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2465/3936701368_c8816a05a1_b.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2652/3936698762_552cc0f445_b.jpg

This is how I received one of the Wiis, the brown stuff was STICKY and all over everything, the bubble wrap was just smashed in the front and not around the system. It was damage.The next wii was just tossed in box with NO PROTECTIVE WRAP AT ALL, Was totally scratched up and cover doors broken off and when I tried out the system it got super hot, really HOT.

But one seller SHOCKED ME. I just wanted the wii motion controllers and the Wii Sports Resort. But what I got in the mail was  A BRAND NEW Wii, unopened, still in box. It had the game with it.

I disagree, good condition should be where if only a cartridge, then ,very good ,has to have the book and case.

Like new, should be the whole thing that came with the game and in good condition.

Acceptable should be only if they work.

More items for everyone to see..

Sorry to read about your problems with the bad sellers. I've had no small amount of these myself, and have become rather picky in what I buy these days.

Permit me to tell you a little story from my experience as a video game seller a couple of years ago. (Very long post)

I had a large collection of mint condition PS1 and PS2 games. Many were still in the shrink, and never opened. Of the games that were opened, I'd only played them once. None of these were sports titles, which typically don't fare so well on resale (at least from my experience). A lot of these were the "black disk" PS1 games, and they became damaged VERY easily; even from basic handling.

So, I decided to sell them using auctions that starting at $.99.

Here's what happened:

1. I received many messages from people asking me to end the auctions early, and sell to them exclusively. Some of them were quite creepy. Most of these chaps came across like resellers — guys scamming for a quick buck at someone else's expense. These offers came from all over the world.

2. Some of the potential legit buyers, collectors and the like, were also creepy, in their own special way. I discovered that lots of them had a history of bad treatment from other buyers, who'd sold them crummy, damaged games. Some of them were quite abusive and threatening, even before they'd bid! I'm talking about e-mails that read like this:

"IF I BUY THIS GAME FROM YOU AND DISCOVER EVEN ONE SCRATCH ON THIS DISK I WILL F*&^%$# TRASH YOU AND RUIN YOUR BUSINESS."

or

"Your auction states this game is 'like new,' and only played once. Are there any scratches, blemishes, stains, marks, writing, chips, cracks, etc, on the disk, case etc. Also, is the manual completely intact, whole and complete, with no tears, rips, highlights, etc?"

or

"If I get your game, and discover any flaws with it at all, you'll get bad feedback from me." (This same guy, after buying one of my games, took it out into the sunlight and examined it with a magnifying glass. He discovered what he called "scratches," not visible with the naked eye, and admonished me accordingly. Seriously, I'd only played the game for five minutes, then put in back in the box.)

So, as a rookie seller, these messages intimidated the heck out of me! I took all the auctions off line, put the games into a box, and put them into storage. That is, I should say I put the games that remained in storage.

In frustration, I'd already taken a 16" stack of the shrink wrapped games and tossed them down the garbage shute.

A bit extreme, but I decided to stick to what I really know, and that's vintage board games and toy soldiers. I like selling goods that can take a beating and not become damaged. I enjoy selling stuff that does not require a magnifying glass and extreme lighting to inspect.

I sympathize with the buyers who've been burned, and I completely understand their reluctance to trust anyone. As a seller, I don't know if I'll ever dare to open that box of video games again. Seems like a bad proposition to me.

Cartridges however, from what I read from you people, seem a bit easier to get along with. Since they may be serviced by the seller, as some of you are doing, maybe I should consider selling some of those.

Cheers - and sorry for the long post! Joseph.

Whatever you do, be careful of buying or selling games from lukiegames.  They can and will scam you and eBay will help them do it.  If you don't believe me just check their feedback.  Over 1000 unhappy customers in 1 year.  If sellers were allowed to leave negative or neutral feedback they would be out of business by now.  I should have blocked them after the very first problem I had with them but I took eBay's advice on it and ended up getting scammed hard.  Learn from my mistake and block buyers or sellers that seem untrustworthy fast.

jimnsarasbargainba.. wrote:

 

Yeah, we(My wife and I) agree with you 100% on that joker. Early this year when we started selling and didn't know the protocol of how things worked on here, we sold a game lot to them. Large lot of SNES games and another lot of N64 games. 3 weeks after shipment they opened a case against us that the items weren't recieved. Then once we proved they were delivered they claimed that 50% of the cartridges didn't work. Being new, we worked out a partial refund with them(Which I would never do ever again and state that in our listings).

 

Woudn't you know it, I start going through what they are selling and it is the same cartridges they claimed didn't work. They even had the same stickers and in some cases the same writing that was still in the pictures from our listings.

 

Shame how evil and f'ed up some people are. I can only hope that it's true about Karma!

Well if he/she/they really screwed you... hopefully they get screwed as well.

But anyways I sold a PS2 Game lot of around 30 games to "lukiegames" and they gave me 5 star positive feedback... (I know it was 5 stars because after they left FB my DSR's went up).

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts - Bertrand Russel

I haven't had trouble, but maybe I'm just lucky. :P