Bull Shrimp......

[d. ward]

I been working freebay bouts long as anyone...And I keep notes of certin items and different things that interest me...Types of bows...prices..different models.....But one other thing I have noted over the last several years are bows that get sold on freebay...will sometimes resurface a month or two later...being offered by the same seller as originaly sold the bow...I recently emailed a seller and ask if that was the same bow he had listed awhile back....he responded Nope sure ai'nt...but I knew different because I saved the info includeing the serial number of the bow and the sellers name...so this made me start thinking someone may have returned the bow...maybe twisted ?? whatever...So I emailed the seller again and said I was wondering if it had been returned....nope again he said he sold the other bow...So after a little research and way to much of my time being burned....I contact the buyer,knowing I could get kicked off **** again for being an underhanded scum bag...but figured what the heck.I am an underhanded scum bag...I never did get caught or turned in to **** by eather one of them ??? ya want to know why ?? I'am gonna tell ya anyhow,because you may what to which for things like this if your tring to buy a bow off freebay...Once I talked with the buyer...whom turned out I knew the guy...he copped to running the price up for his buddy and really never did buy the bow...I see some nice bows listed now with high reserves and was kinda wondering if the boy's are up to their old tricks again....You know his friend bids 5.00 under the reserve so the next buyer may be the next owner,if you get where this is going....Just ask plenty of ??? I hate scum bags..cheeseballs and sandworms....bowdoc

[Migra Bill]

Bowdoc-
In addtion to Trad Archery I am also a collector of Sports Cards. This is a practice that has long been in place as far as sports cards go on the big auction site. Guy A is selling a Brooks Robinson rookie card. He doesn't want to sell it for less that $300 so he has Guy B (who is a friend of his) bid $300 on it. If Guy B is the high bidder, the transaction is ignored by Guys A&B. Very common. Easy to spot too. If you see the same bidder consistantly winning auctions from the same seller - Bingo!

[d. ward]

Your right on Bill...same reason drove me and my son out of the card business...When we used to go to the card shows to buy and sell it was great..one on one in person....Then the internet intered our lives and that was all she wrote...You can still make some great buy's but I am a little more careful about it now...bowdoc

[alaskabowhunter]

yea, I know I couple of guys that are on e8ay regularly buying bows then strong arming the uneducated sellers into refunding some or all of the money. They also try to kill auctions for bows early, offering the seller some money to stop the auction early, especially for rare or desirable pieces. With E8ay now hiding the identity of the bidders it is harder to determine the "ghost bidders" who are just bidding up the price of the bow for their buddy. I don't buy a lot from sellers I don't know anymore and like Doc advised, I ask a lot of questions. buyers beware... good luck.

[PAPALAPIN]

A while back some guy was copying and pasting auctions on bows that went for big bucks.  About a month later he would run the auction as if he had the bow.  I had bid on a Jack Howard JET and within a couple od hours I got an e-mail from a guy saying that he had bought bow a month before and verified the serial number.  I withdrew my bid and reported it to freebay,  Come to fing out, he was doing it with cameras too.

It is buyer beware over there.

[aromakr]

Don:
this is happening in the broadheads being sold on that same site.
Bob

[wadde]

Amazing how you get a second chance offer on an item when you were outbid on that site. That tells you something right there.

[d. ward]

Yes guy's it's true,there are some low life's that are willing to infect or love of the sport..Just to make a few bucks off a shadey deal..Bob you are so right about the broadheads too man,I know you know I backed off about 2 years ago...Between getting screwed out of the Art Young and Pomac items by a guy name gbone over in Idaho,who never settled up..actually has never spoken to me since then...That was about it for me in the broadhead buying selling and collecting.I got wacked for 1,200.00 by he and two of his collecting buddy's in Idaho and that was the last straw.Sad...but true....bowdoc

[d. ward]

Hey Wadde you too are so right.....Not long ago,I got a second chance offer to purchase a Bear take down bow...I really did not have the dough or I may have went for it as it was a pretty good deal...But good luck was on my side cause I was broke as a joke that week.3 other buyers I know of..... fell for it and sent the money to a P.O.Box in Canada....Yap your right....buyer asked for money orders only...All 3 sent the M.O.'s within 3 days..and all 3 never got back no bear take down...fact is they never got nothing back....750.00 seemed a little to good of a deal to me on a second chance......man I was so happy I did not get involed,but still felt bad for the other 3 buyers.$2,250.00 ai'nt bad for a weekend of scaming huh??? ask all the ???????? you can think of......bowdoc

[Dan Worden]

Don't expect any help from fleabag if you get screwed either.  Oh, sure they'll let you email and jump through all their hoops but the line of hoops never ends and they never do more than ask you to keep jumping.

[d. ward]

Again Dan,you nailed it...There really is no legal way for you to recover your money and XXXy will do just as you mentioned....do this do this do this....and the bottom line is...they do nothing for you,but they do make sure they have charged your credit card for thier money.....Also if you are planing on selling anything on any auction sights or classif.adds..you may not want to accept pay pal in some cases....if the buyer is not happy with the bow,although it's mint...lets say the guy is an idiot and could not hit a bull in the butt if he was standing on the bulls tail with a recurve...He can return the bow via pay pal stopping payment...I got hammered for 1,400.00 (man please never ever tell Mrs.Ward how to get onto tradgang,if she really knew)this jerk,called me and said there was something wrong with the bow as it did not shoot good for him or his son.He said a local bowyer checked the tiller for him and said it was fine,but they could not figure out why these carbon arrows of some type would not fly from the 1959 Kodiak.Of course you know I exploded on him at that point...but it ended up taking 4 months to get my bow back and he stop payment why back in the begaining...so no dough and no bow for 4 months....man you could fry eggs on my bald head I was so pee'd...I finally crossed the line and kinda told the guy something to the affect of driveing to his house in N.Y.and shoveing the bow up his nose,or something like that.Which also probley is not one of the things you want to do...That was the end of PP or credit card sales at bowdocs...

[TRAP]

interesting thread.  My question then is how should you pay?  If you send a MO there is no protection and Paypal is not foolproof either I suppose.  

For me, I'm not going to buy anything very pricey on that site anyway. I'd like to add a 60 Kodiak to my collection and will someday, but I'll buy it from one of you guys or someone you know that's willing to sell one.  Forking out that kind of money to someone I dont know scares the crap out of me.  Especially for something that old, and that expensive, that I have no real experience with.  

I'm definately a novice but have seen the things talked about take place on the auction.  They are pretty obvious sometimes.

Pretty Sad,  Trap

[TonyW]

Don -
Use PayPal's Echecks, then you can control how the money flows from your local bank. If you transfer the PayPal funds as soon as they clear, they will be in your bank account before any PayPal stop payment. (PayPal didn't refund the jerk who stopped your payment immediately, they make their money by holding onto his money for a week or more!) The seller is better protected than the buyer, because the seller can wait to ship AFTER THE PAYPAL CLEARS and transfer PayPal funds to a local bank. Do this, and you won't be burned. My PayPal account is always 0.0, because I use Echecks, and the minute I have a positive PayPal balance, I transfer every penny back to my bank. Then go ahead and ship your stuff, Don, and let the jerk argue with PayPal.

[d. ward]

Thanks TW I will check it out,it really is a hassle not takeing it as I have plenty of customers that want to pay that way...but after the sour grapes from a few years back I was a little gun shy....or I mean bow shy...but I will check into the echeck.thanks Tony..bowdoc

[TonyW]

If you really want to put a "belt and suspenders" on your money, open a secondary checking account that is reserved just for Echecks. Then you can transfer money from your household bank account when you need to pay by Echecks, and transfer money to your household bank account when your secondary account gets deposits.

[alaskabowhunter]

I have the same set up as Tony, a separate checking account tied to my PayPal account. I transfer funds in as needed only. I have filed disputes thru PayPal and though it is a tedious process it seems to get the seller's attention and response. I don't know if I would make a major purchase, say over $500, on E8ay, without using PayPal. Unless I knew the seller  of course.

When you are thinking about bidding on a bow, you can look and see the sellers history of completed auctions over the last 30 days. But also I would recommend looking at the seller's bidding history as well. You may find the seller has recently bought the item, found it flawed, damaged, undesirable, whatever and it trying to get rid of it and recoup the money. It goes without saying that you would go through the seller's feedback and ask specific questions, especially regarding a return option. For bows I always want to know about holes drilled, filled and unfilled, limb twist, cracks, repairs, stamps (22,star,etc), shootability and like I said, I want to know if I can return it in the first 3 days. I have no problem paying for shipping to return an item as long as the seller is working with me.

   Bowdoc and Droptine have both helped me out over the years when I have acquired pieces that needed serious repairs and refinishing, thanks again guys.

[bswear]

I have been lucky so far on ****.  What kills me is the last minute sniping.  I really wish they would fix that because you may have an item for a week and lose it in the last 30 seconds.

[TonyW]

This is unfixable now that people actually have created sniping web services where a third party will actually put in a snipe bid in the last seconds. The only deals seem to be poorly listed items missed by search engines or fair priced buy it now items.
I am amazed at the prices people get for green futurewood kodiak hunters. Is there a green futurewood fetish?

[Mike Shaw]

The guy with the Id of Troutbear gets me every time
in the last 6 sec. He has some kind of sinper softwear.. Pisses me off to no end! The only thing in Bear Archery I win is something He has already,
or I get a bid in when he's taking a dump or something...   .... Mike

[Mike Shaw]

TW.. I know what yer saying. What gives with these
Bear Bows. I just sold a 1973 grizzly to a fellow in
Norway for $430.00. Dont get me wrong I love it ...
But Man a grizzly!  Maybe Fred's wife shot it or something ? LOL...
           Mike