let's roll the ebay roulette!

[6814f8b66c4c2JosiahJack]

Unless it's obvious fraud or scam, they'll likely juat reply back with a "Since we didn't find anything unusual in how you've made your purchase we are closing this request."

[6814f8b66c6e6icemann]

Toilet paper is going for absolutely CRAZY prices on Ebay over here currently:
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=toilet+paper&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&LH_PrefLoc=1&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1&_sop=16

It's all due to Corona virus scares.

[6814f8b66c87eJosiahJack]

lol...."Corana virus", haha....I see what you did there.  Meanwhile beer sales are down....

it's "coronavirus", one word, because it's in the family https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronaviridae and has a crown-shape (corona = crown)

Anyways, I swear I'm so sick of hearing about that dang beer virus.




On topic: bought a knock-off Lego sticker on eBay so I can resell a complete set only to realize later that it's on a slow boat from China.  IFF it comes, I might be able to grow a beard by then (I have a baby face so might be a good 10yrs)

[6814f8b66c9caicemann]

Well anything going overseas has massive wait times imposed, due to the above reason.

I sent a NES game to a guy in England back in early Feb and it's been on hold at their airport since 2 weeks later of that.

[6814f8b66cf0bJosiahJack]

It doesn't help that anything shipping by boat takes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHrCI9eSJGQ

[6814f8b66d377JML]

[...]
On topic: bought a knock-off Lego sticker on eBay so I can resell a complete set only to realize later that it's on a slow boat from China.  IFF it comes, I might be able to grow a beard by then (I have a baby face so might be a good 10yrs)

So did you get it yet? And how's the beard coming?
Edit: That Timelapse Video was some good shit on my beamer.

[6814f8b66d590voodoo47]

I think the longest I've waited for an item was about 3 months - I do request a refund after two, and this case has been no different, so I felt quite guilty when it actually arrived, but that went away real soon as it turned out to be faulty.

all's right with the world, I suppose.


speaking of roulettes, grabbed one of those dirt cheap ebay Office365 licenses (not for myself, I've moved to LibreOffice ages ago), and yeah, that one is dodgy as hell, and I expect it to be rendered inoperable within months, if not sooner - would recommend avoiding. looking at what the real ones cost, I'm guessing one would save (a lot of) money anyway (mostly because there is no type of 365 license that would last longer than 365 days, as far as I can tell), but still. also, flood of emails from the seller, offering more deals on dodgy software. no thanks.

I think I'll stick with cheapo ebay win10 keys, those seem to work flawlessly.

[6814f8b66d858Olfred]

I believe the student and university licenses run for 4 years. If they even still exist.
I'm kinda frustrated that they moved to a limited time license. I want the time back when you could just buy the software and use it for however long you like. I usally don't need or want the updates for these kind of products anyway.

[6814f8b66da26voodoo47]

yeah, can't say I'm a big fan of expiring licences either. maybe I would consider if they were dirt cheap (think some ten bucks a year), but they aren't (cheapest 365 is about 70 here), you'll end up paying much more in the long run.

no thanks, I'm good with just the necessary evil (the os), and free alternatives for the rest.


to stay on topic, seems like the win10 licences on ebay have different shades of grey - you have the cheapest one buck PRO licences being sold by people who obviously just quickly registered to sell as many as they can before ebay kicks them out, and more expensive five buck HOME licenses sold by regular users (long time members, selling other wares as well). the latter are much safer, I reckon.

the first cheap license I've used is about 2 years old now, and still works fine, btw.

[6814f8b66dbcevoodoo47]

so, any experience with aliexpress, anyone? was thinking maybe ordering something cheap to test the waters, but things look really dodgy, weird verifications (had to provide a phone number to receive an account activation code, not too fond of that), strange popups asking to log from other device to check security, paypal showing up as an option only until a full shipping address has been provided when trying to make a purchase.

still willing to try, as some stuff is way, way cheaper than on ebay, but seems like the only payment options available for me are a direct card payment (yeah, not happening), and WebMoney, which seems to be a russian web wallet (also asking for my phone number even before I create an account, I don't know whether I want to provide both my phone number AND bank account number to them) - any experience with that service?

burner phone time maybe?

[6814f8b66dd06Olfred]

A company I'm currently working for ordered from aliexpress several times. So far they had luck that everything arrived after a couple months. Usually accompanied by some  hassle with customs. And be warned, doing the customs thing as a company is easier than doing it private. In one case they put in my home address (I work from home a lot) and customs didn't want to deliver it. So the package was sent back and then send to company first and then my home address.
Because cheap slave labour is okay if  you are a company, but don't you dare do it privately.

[6814f8b66de16voodoo47]

they don't care about the small cheap stuff over here, and if I need to get something expensive in, well, a customs official is a corrupt official - never seen one that wouldn't be willing to trade a bit of blue for a handful of green. *looks at a couple of katanas propped in the corner*

that WebMoney thing is what interest me the most at the moment.

[6814f8b66defbOlfred]

I believe the either paid with paypal or credit card. If that is any help for you.

[6814f8b66dfe9voodoo47]

a bit - thanks.

I think I'll pass on this for the time being. maybe I'm too paranoid about direct credit card use, but I really prefer to have some sort of security layer in between if possible - better safe than sorry..

[6814f8b66e107voodoo47]

also, before I forget again - yeah, if someone buys some of your stuff, and then you agree to mutually cancel the transaction, ebay still grabs the final fees.

charming.

[6814f8b66e277voodoo47]

while buying the rest of the Hitman games on GOG, I've noticed they actually support the WebMoney service, so it can't be that dodgy.

lets get this party started, I guess.


//ok, no - the main point of all these shenanigans was to be able to send money from my bank account to the webmoney account using a regular bank transfer (Skrill works this way, been using it to pay for my Neocron account a million years ago), but to be able to do that, they want you to upload a scan of your passport. lol comrades, of all the things not happening, this one isn't happening the most.

or you can just use a card, but that kind of defeats the purpose, as I can do the same thing directly on aliexpress. not happening either.

seems like you can use another even more dodgy service to transfer money from paypal to the webmoney wallet, but no way I'm trying that either.


to make it short - stay away from webmoney unless you are a drug dealer or gunrunner.

[6814f8b66e40bvoodoo47]

managed to find a service that provides a charge type mastercard in my area (10 bucks a year, 3-4% charge from each transaction). not too thrilled about having to provide a scan of my id and a photo, but there is no way around this, it seems - in the end, you will have to give them to someone if you want a proper card of any sort as far as I can tell, and they definitely look a few thousand percent less dodgy than webmoney.

was kind of hoping the card will be provided instantly in a virtual form, but no luck, will have to wait a week or two until it gets delivered. too bad the aliexpress newcomer coupon will be long expired by then, so yaay, another new account it is. third time's a charm, I guess.


to make it short, safe, anonymous, accepted everywhere, pick two.

[6814f8b66e5a0voodoo47]

..nice little trick they've figured out - basically, the seller will set the expected delivery date to some 91 days, and provide a fake tracking number. this means you cannot raise a refund request with ebay, as the system will not let you unless the tracking has ended. and once it does, you can't log anything anymore, as it's been more than 90 days.

will try to log this directly with paypal, but I think I'll be looking at my first time getting scammed proper. 7 bucks down the drain.

[6814f8b67058bNameless Voice]

Voodoo, you're in the EU, right?  You should be able to get Revolut anywhere in the EU.
If you don't mind that they're a little bit evil, they're a really feature-rich bank, no fees, proper debit card you can use anywhere, including the ability to create temporary burner virtual cards (I believe that's also free).
You can also set spend limits, lock your card at will, and get instant notifications of anything spent on your phone.

You might want to look into it for your maybe-dodgy transactions if it's available to you.

Note that it's not a credit card, so it's not as safe from fraud / for refunds, but if you're going with weird dodgy payment processors, you won't have that anyway, but at least you can only spend what you actually have in the account.
This is probably the deal-breaker, but I thought I'd at least mention it.

Note that it is, of course, a bank, so again you'll need to provide them with a passport and photograph.

[6814f8b670700voodoo47]

yep - so I may check it out, but I don't think I do this often enough to require such a robust solution, and I'm perfectly fine with losing a few bucks here and there when scavenging for cheap electronic junk.

but thanks anyway.

[6814f8b670963Nameless Voice]

Yeah, might not be worth it.

They also have a very good foreign exchange rate, used to be the best of any bank in Europe, though I think they raised their prices slightly since then.  I personally use it for anything I buy in UK£ because of that.

[6814f8b671170voodoo47]

so I went with the ebay contact seller option first and asked for a refund, and strangely enough, this seems to have logged a proper ebay refund request ticket (if-the-seller-does-not-resolve-we-will-refund-in-48-hours) automatically. so I guess I'm good.

seems like I just keep failing at getting scammed properly.

[6814f8b671717icemann]

I got scammed recently as well. Purchased a N64 game, on getting it, something seemed a bit off as it looked a little too new. New labels used.

Tell tale sign attached to post. All genuine cartridges have a number printed in the top right corner of the label on the back, that's printed into label itself (underneath where it says EUR-1). This one did not. So yup, it's a repro. Immediately gave the seller negative feedback for selling a counterfeit item (which is illegal on ebay), and put in a return request.

Seller did not respond directly to my message about it, but did approve the return. However he did not provide a return label, meaning that I'd be paying for return costs. Contacted ebay (via in the return request) and they advised that if the seller does not provide a return label within a few business days that I'll get a full refund. And that my friends is where ebay is great. When you pay via Paypal anyway.

So that was a positive experience. A month ago however, got scammed far worse. We have over here another selling site called Gumtree (like Craigslist in the US). I'd put up a wanted ad for retro games and consoles. Person gets in contact, provided heaps of photos of a selection of games and consoles. As I'm in the process of purchasing a new house to move into, money is not something I have a lot of, but offered $500 for some the stuff he was selling. Seller agreed, but oh his Paypal account is on hold due his ex-wife putting a hold on it. So only bank transfer wanted. Big red flag there. He sends through a drivers license as proof of identity. Thought ok no'ones done that before, and he sounded genuine so transferred the cash. Then nothing. Stops responding.

Few days later he messages to ask if I still want the games and consoles. I say yes, then nothing and didn't hear from him again. Reported him to Gumtree (which got his account banned, which he'd had active since 2013) and contacted my bank to try and get the transfer reversed. Unlikely to get that cash back however. The one other time I did a bank transfer years ago, a similar thing happened and didn't get that cash back. Take that as a warning to never do a bank transfer. Very likely a scam.

[6814f8b671fcavoodoo47]

yeah, no paypal, no deal, that is the rule one should never break.