Buying from Ebay

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ilovelacus
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Buying from Ebay

Post by ilovelacus » Thu Jul 15, 2010 6:54 am

Anybody has bought LEGO from ebay?
Is it safe to do it?

And about the custom import/duties, If I buy from a US seller, will I be charged any import fee?
Am I just paying the shipping only?

MAny thanks!

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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by hatcher » Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:03 pm

Here's the thing about ebay. If the person you are buying from has a good feedback score of close to 100 percent positive AND a lot of feedback (like over 100 sales) then you are probably safe to buy from them. Unfortunately, I have found that over the last couple of years, there are no deals on ebay. The minimum bids are usually really high, or they make the shipping ridiculous. You might find better prices on bricklink. But that's just me, as I have a real problem paying over 10 cents a piece for a set, regardless of how rare it is.

As for your second question. If you buy from someone not in your county, then you could very likely be expected to pay import duties. Now, it has never happened to me personally, as almost everyone I ever bought from in the USA anyway, marked all my packages as "gift". But you can not count on that happening, so you could end up being hit for duties. You should be able to check on line what the duty rates are for importing items bought online into the country before you bid.

Good luck!
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by beethead » Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:24 pm

I've made a few purchases in the past on eBay and it's relatively safe if the seller has a decent feedback rating. As hatcher mentioned, there really aren't that many good deals on eBay for Lego. Some prices seem low at first but after you factor in the shipping and import taxes it's really not worth it. The best deals are the ones you can locally pickup (saves on the shipping and import fees, if any).

Personally, buying on BrickLink is a much better in terms of choice and price. Where else can you buy 3000+ pieces and pay less than $150 CDN?! (My best deal was $215 CDN for a ~9000 pieces in 300 lots).

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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by willybgood » Thu Jul 15, 2010 1:14 pm

Buying from eBay is pretty safe. The only problem that i have ever encountered is that some sellers don't know their legos all to well and just buy and sell for profit so they will sell incomplete sets.

For example, my girlfriend ordered 6 older harry potter sets from 5 different people on eBay and of the 6 only 2 were complete. 3 had missing pieces (even tried to sneak a few mega blocks in, haha) and one had the wrong harry potter (gave one with school clothes instead of muggle clothes).

The thing with all of the sets with a problem though is that we contacted each seller with our problem and they either sent us the correct parts or refunded us some money back for the inconvenience.

As others have said, just look at their feedback and see if they have other sets to sell, that will show a reputable person. Happy Bidding! :mrgreen:

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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by brickman300 » Wed Jul 28, 2010 2:26 pm

When you buy from ebay it is pretty safe but you have to make sure the seller has a good feedback rating like above 95 % and make sure its complete or the seller tells exactly how many pieces are missing in the description.
If you keep checking ebay for one set everyday eventually you will find a great deal on new and old sets.
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by tong » Thu Sep 02, 2010 8:29 am

I would agree with what everyone else is saying about looking at the feedback. But, I would also add the way I have been able to get good deals on ebay is by buying more than one set from the same person.

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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by locutis » Tue Nov 02, 2010 5:38 am

I know this is an older post, but I thought I would include my experience here.

I found bricklink a year ago, and thought it would be a very nice, friendly, safe place to buy Lego, because it was more of a community of Lego buyers and sellers. I purchased a Cafe Corner on bricklink after it was discontinued from Lego (I didn't realize that Lego did that, and was stalling purchasing, and missed buying it by like a month). The set arrived and I started putting it together, and it was missing LOTS of pieces. I emailed the seller, and they couldn't believe it. They sent what they could find, and refunded me for the pieces they couldn't find that were missing. Overall I was very discouraged buying a used set because of the pieces missing, and the ones that never got replaced I never properly replaced either, so my rare expensive Cafe Corner is not 100%.

Next, in September of this year, my son wanted a Death Star. I found a seller who was selling one on bricklink that was used, 100% complete, in display only condition, for $150 off the new Lego price. I purchased it and sent payment (he didn't want PayPal, I hate PayPal [at the time]) and never got the set! I was ripped for $480 in total from the seller for the Death Star and a Millennium Falcon set. He also scammed at least 15 other buyers, whose feedback didn't start to appear until a week after I sent the seller money. He is currently under investigation by the Police.

All I can say is be very careful where you buy from, as there are scammers EVERYWHERE. Safest is local pickup, but don't fall for paying for it by PayPal, because that's what the scammer did on bricklink for people he bought from. He would buy Lego locally and have people who bought from him send the PayPal payments to the local people he was buying from. Then he would go and pickup the stuff (after they received what they thought was a good funds payment) and leave. A month later, these people would file a NSS and get their PayPal payments back, all the while the local sellers were like "what's the problem, you got your set, you came and picked it up?". If you buy locally, pay cash. If you buy online, be vary careful.

After discussing the problem with numerous other people who also got scammed, we all came to a good idea: When you want to buy something that's rare, expensive, or you are suspicious, ask the seller to send you a digital photo or two of the set, along with something in the picture that you request (could be your name, the front page of today's newspaper, or something so you know the photo wasn't stolen online). That way you can be assured at least the seller HAS the item they are selling you.

My son was devastated at the loss, and I managed to buy him a new Death Star on Lego S@H and take the loss myself (family is more important). I found two Millennium Falcons on eBay from two different sellers, so I bought both and paid with PayPal (so that I could chargeback if necessary), and received both sets. One was missing a few (non-crucial, common) pieces. No big deal. After reading some other forum messages I have found that many people have actually been scammed on bricklink buying expensive sets, thinking it was safer than eBay. It seems that's what the predators look for.

Another scam to be wary of is new sets. Apparently people sell new sets they don't even have, on eBay, bricklink, etc., and when they get your money, they order from Lego S@H using a STOLEN credit card. They ship directly to you, and when you get a set, you say, wow, new from Lego and everything. That's where the fun BEGINS. See, then the stuff you get isn't yours, it belongs to Lego, because the owner of the stolen credit card cancels the charge, and Lego is out the money. Now, they aren't really going to go to your house and get it back, but what they will do is blacklist your name and address, so that you can NEVER order from Lego S@H again!

Since losing nearly $500 to a scammer, I have decided that there really isn't anything from the past issues that I want, and I will only buy new from Lego. I have found a package service in the USA that will receive packages for me for $5, and hold them indefinitely for me. So now I order from Lego USA (I'm in Canada), which is about 20-40% cheaper than Lego Canada, plus saving on the taxes, and I go down to the USA every now and then and pickup my stuff. Cheaper, safer, and you get brand new.

Sorry for the long post, I just had to put my experience here for others to read so they don't get scammed either.
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by Edmond Dantes » Tue Nov 02, 2010 6:52 am

This is why I always use my credit card through Paypal to buy things from Bricklink and Ebay. If I get ripped off, I simply do a charge back and the seller gets to deal with the credit card company. It usually isn't very fun for them. I am out nothing.

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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by legitimatealex » Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:17 am

Don't apologize for your post. That's vital information people should have. My older brother got scammed on Bricklink once but it was only for about $10 and the person's shop got deleted from Bricklink and he flipped the transaction of Pay Pal.

If you want to avoid these problems pretty much 100% of the time, order from LEGO, buy from brick and mortar stores or purchase only from major retail outlets. I'm also going to plug here that you can always look to trade or buy from one of the members on Toys n Bricks :)
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by ncbarrett » Tue Nov 02, 2010 8:29 am

legitimatealex wrote:... I'm also going to plug here that you can always look to trade or buy from one of the members on Toys n Bricks :)
Still need to be careful, even here.
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by Asterios » Tue Nov 02, 2010 10:28 am

In my experiance I've been scammed and/or robbed on eBay but never on BrickLink, and screwed up part on eBay I got scammed out of both buyers and sellers, thru PayPal.

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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by possum » Wed Nov 03, 2010 12:15 pm

I've been collecting things other than, and more expensive than, Lego for a long time. With any type of item worth money, you have to Do Your Homework. On the item and the seller. We've all jumped into a transaction too fast...I got burned on a Home One off of eBay earlier in the year. The seller had a good reputation with one recent negative. I figured it was just a one time failed transaction, they can happen to anyone every once in a while. Turns out that was followed by about 12 failed transactions including mine. Paypal refunded my account, and I was only out a couple of bucks after the fees. While I completely sympathize with you, Locutis, to be honest if you got taken that many times in a year you can only blame yourself. I think it sucks you won't be able to get older sets because of prior experiences. My suggestion is to communicate a few times with the seller before you pull the trigger. Get a phone number and call them. If they're reputable, they shouldn't have a problem with that. Lastly, exercise good judgment...a Death Star that's marked down that far sounds too good to be true, and you know what they say...

All the best in your future purchases.
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by locutis » Wed Nov 03, 2010 4:04 pm

possum wrote:I've been collecting things other than, and more expensive than, Lego for a long time. With any type of item worth money, you have to Do Your Homework. On the item and the seller. We've all jumped into a transaction too fast...I got burned on a Home One off of eBay earlier in the year. The seller had a good reputation with one recent negative. I figured it was just a one time failed transaction, they can happen to anyone every once in a while. Turns out that was followed by about 12 failed transactions including mine. Paypal refunded my account, and I was only out a couple of bucks after the fees. While I completely sympathize with you, Locutis, to be honest if you got taken that many times in a year you can only blame yourself. I think it sucks you won't be able to get older sets because of prior experiences. My suggestion is to communicate a few times with the seller before you pull the trigger. Get a phone number and call them. If they're reputable, they shouldn't have a problem with that. Lastly, exercise good judgment...a Death Star that's marked down that far sounds too good to be true, and you know what they say...

All the best in your future purchases.
I understand what you're saying, but just to clarify I was only "robbed" on one transaction. The others were ones where I got merchandise, but with the Cafe Corner there were pieces missing and the seller couldn't believe it. They didn't have them, either.

The Death Star was $50 US less than the US brand new retail price, so I thought it was in-line with what should be charged. I didn't think it was too good to be true at the time. Since then I have discovered there are LOTS of people selling Lego Death Stars from the province of Quebec, which seems to indicate this particular item has been targeted for fraud, at least in my books! How in the world could there be 10x more Lego Death Stars out of Quebec than ANY other province in Canada? I should have looked into that first, like you say, so I learned a lesson there. I think I'll stick to brand new, just to be safe from now on.
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by koromo » Thu Nov 11, 2010 7:17 pm

This was a very good read. I've been wary of eBay for a while and only just recently thought of getting into it to find uncommon piece and off load some of my other collectables. I much prefer local listings.
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by autobrick » Thu Nov 11, 2010 10:26 pm

locutis wrote:I have found a package service in the USA that will receive packages for me for $5, and hold them indefinitely for me. So now I order from Lego USA (I'm in Canada), which is about 20-40% cheaper than Lego Canada, plus saving on the taxes, and I go down to the USA every now and then and pickup my stuff. Cheaper, safer, and you get brand new.
Hey locutis, would you mind telling us the name of the package service that you found? I could definitely use this in the future. (Wouldn't you get dinged by taxes when crossing the border? Of course, you would still be saving money).

As for the actual topic, I have never bought any Lego on eBay, but that is because the prices always end up higher than Bricklink. Also, due to the enthusiast-diven nature of Bricklink, you are more likely to not have missing pieces, damaged pieces, etc.

However, I have read of some people getting ridiculously good deals on eBay by buying from those who don't know the value of what they are selling.

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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by locutis » Sat Nov 13, 2010 11:29 am

Hey autobrick,

The problems I have had WERE due to items bought on Bricklink. I've bought about an equal amount on eBay, and believe it or not the ones from Bricklink had missing pieces, and I was defrauded there. I'm not saying any particular site is immune or more prone to problems or fraud (you need to be careful regardless of where you buy from), but it almost seems that there are more problems popping up on Bricklink than before. Just look in problem orders on their forum, and you will see lots of both buyers and sellers reporting being scammed.

I really don't like the way our society is progressing, that you need to treat each person you meet or deal with as being a scammer until proven otherwise.

Anyway, the name of the package service is Pembina Parcel Service, run by Hetty Walker. They also have a website. It's in Pembina North Dakota. There are probably similar services across the United States. Basically, they charge me $5 per package to be receive there, it's a real address (not a PO box) so you can have Fed-EX and UPS deliveries, too. Then, when I have a chance, I go down and get my stuff. They can receive ANYTHING for you, even cars!

Yes, you do have to pay taxes when you bring it back, BUT if you work it into going away anyway, then it can be factored into your tax-free amounts when you come back. For example, go on a trip, order some stuff before you leave so that it gets there beforehand, pick it up on the way back from your trip, and bring it back tax free because of the lengthy trip. Or just go down and bring it back and pay the taxes, because we pay taxes here anyway! Lego from the USA side of Lego.com is on average 30% cheaper than within Canada, so if you want to save yourself some dough, go through there.

I picked up a bunch of sets that way that I want to resell in Canada, and make a few bucks.

Good luck!
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by BobaFett2 » Sun Nov 14, 2010 1:44 pm

I will give a few reasons why I usually don't consider buying from ebay:
1st off: Bidding-It's deceptive. You bid, but people outbid. Unless you are one of those people who wait right until the end and place a high bid, you get dissapointed. You can also end up in a bidding war bidding much higher than you originally intended in a frenzy to get the item. There are also "bid reserves", which tend to be high-making it seem like you MIGHT JUST get it but you don't because you aren't willing to bid a large amount.
2ndly: Shipping-I can send a small set first class for a few dollars. Many of these people charge tons of money for shipping. A lot of those people also send it ground shipping, earning money off of it. Shipping can take a long time, and it gets annoying when all things are a lot more money because of it.
3rd: Price. Ebay can be good for lucky deals, but it is not the best place to buy LEGO. If anything, try buying lots of random bricks-you might find something good in there, and there are hundreds of them online.
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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by Asterios » Sun Nov 14, 2010 3:34 pm

One of the main reasons BrickLink is much better then eBay is the simple fact you can communicate with the community there, if there is a bad seller or buyer it is usually mentioned in the forums, not so with eBay, eBay are usually comprised of people who have no clue what LEGO is and will call just about anything LEGO to get more views unlike BL where it has to be LEGO or associated with LEGO to be sold there (IE: no MegaBlocks or Tyco or so on).

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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by montego » Mon Nov 15, 2010 2:16 pm

My wife and I have been buying an selling LEGO on eBAY for going on 10 years. Between the two of us we have close to 500 transactions and have 100% positive feedback. In all those transactions we have been defrauded only once and it was from a BUYER who claimed they did not receive the set we shipped to them what ended up being a total of 3 times so fraud can go both ways. The first time I chalked it up to luck and the cost of doing business that way and sent a 2nd set. When they claimed the 2nd set did not arrive as well I was a bit smarter this time and sent a 3rd that included a tracking number to proove delivery. up to that point I had not had a situation like that occur, but you can bet every single transaction after that was only shipped with a tracking number. Having a tracking number can add to the cost of shipping.

Now...it may not always be good, but that does not mean it's always bad either. I have bought and sold plenty of sets all over the world. For a time I was even cruising the German eBAY site looking for specific Technic sets that were only available in Germany. I've not had problems when shipping/receiving international.

Using eBAY and BrickBay...ooops I mean BrickLink can be a good experience but protect yourself by only using payment methods that offer buyer protection and only dealing with sellers that have a good reputation. Any good seller worth his salt is going to be horrified at the prospect you will rate them negatively so make sure the both of you (buyer and seller) have the same expectations in terms of what is being sent and what is expected to arrive.

By the way we only have sold "new in box" sets to avoid the problems involved with missing pieces or differences of opinion in terms of what mint vs. fair vs. good condition means.

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Re: Buying from Ebay

Post by slimninj4 » Fri Nov 26, 2010 6:37 am

I have bought and sold lego long time on cl and ebay. Only one issue where a tire was dog eaten and was not happy about that.

I always paypal and/ credit card for safety.

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