Why bother with ebay and salerooms when we have ALEX RENSHAW and all the good buyers and sellers on this site,there knowledge is second to none,too many to name you know who you are,,merry christmas all ,,,,

Merry Xmas Joe.  I absolutely agree with you one hundred percent, I'm getting more and more disillusioned with FEEBAY with every passing day.  2 bad experiences with sellers in Yankee Land have really got under my skin.  The first involved a Hudsons Soap clock enamel, one I've been wanting for years, but generally the price is out of my reach, and this one was in good condition, and very reasonable.  I was the only bidder on it too.

So I bid on it, and was successful.  I didn't hear anything from the seller until 2 days later when he/she I suspect it was a woman wanted to know when I was going to pay for it.  I tolld her it'd be within the next few days.  I get an email back in which she said that was unnacceptable, and if  didn't pay for it by the end of that day, she open an unpaid item case.

I told her that if she demanded such a quick payment she should have put it on the listing, there no mention of it on the auction page.  She was as good as her word, and filed a case against me.  I kept in touch with her the whole time while it was going on, I told her over and over again that I wanted the sgn and would be paying for it soon, but that wasn't good enough for her.  The unpaid item case closed and about 2 hours later I had the extra 50 quid I was short on to pay for it.  Too late though.  She was right piece of work - rude, unhelpful and umcommunicative.  I was really annoyed, and ended up telling her that she was one of the worst sellers I'd tried to deal with.  That set her off, she became ranting, irrational, and started accusing me of allsorts.  She's still trying to sell the sign now some 2 months later, and now will only send it within the US.  I think she's probably mentally unstable.

The secod one was a right article too.  He had a mint Dixons Mineral Water sign.  The problem was I didn't like the add ons due to the fact that he was using the Global Shipping Program, which is a right rip off.  Anyway, contacted him and asked if he'd be prepared to send it without using the GSP.  He said yes he would.  So I bid on it, and again got it for a very reasonable price, it was obviously too reasonable for him, as he never bothered to contact me, and I ended up contacting him after a week.  He wanted me to send him a money order, and he wanted it within a week.  I told him that wasn't possible, that it would take at least 10 days to get to the US by post.  He wasn't prepared to wait that long.  So I suggested that he send me a Paypal invoice, and managed through devious means to get my email address to him.  He said he'd send the invoice straightaway.  Days went by and he didn't do anything, and then he did the same thing.  The cheeky bastard filed an unpaid item case against me.  I'd had no contact from him for days before this, and I'd got the message that he didn't want to sell it at the price.   He gave me no warning he was going to do it either.  As far as I'm concerned ebay has become a sh*thole of a website.

Packaging or the lack of it, really winds me up with some sellers on the Bay. I always, kindly ask, if they can package the item well using cardboard on the corners and edges to avoid them being destroyed by the dreaded Courier. Most sellers are very good, but some really don’t care a dam. Had one sign come wrapped in thin brown paper! Luckily by an act of god it was not damaged. Had an old rare Siemens phone arrive rattling around in a box with a few token pieces of foam chips, unbelievable! Positive thing is anything I’ve purchased from the good people on this site is very well packaged with excellent due care and attention as everyone here understands its importance.

Worst packaging I had was a mint sign delivered in a black bin liner-it wasn`t mint when it arrived-unbelievable.

Personally i enjoy Ebay...Ive had a few bargains off there and been able to sell run of the mill signs for a good profit that no one wanted on Alz site..