Do You Buy From A New Ebay Seller?

Maybe it is time to change mine.

Mike is it easy to do?

I do buy from new sellers but only low value items. Once they prove themselves to me then hopefully a long and happy relationship exists.

Having been defrauded once by a seller with over 600 feedback
I pay more attention to analysis
E-temptations that defrauded me had one warning I now heed
He sold silver eagles by the tube and the box and was accused of delivering late several times
I thought he was lazy ; in fact he sold silver he did not have and then acquired the silver whence the late deliveries
So I made my mayor rules

1) Never buy from somebody you cannot drive to and go to the local police to start legal procedures
2) Avoid people having umpteenth feedbacks on postcards and suddenly selling thousands worth of gold
3) Avoid people below 99.6 % feedback unless analysis show the feedback can be explained
http://www.toolhaus.org
4) Check if pictures are real this proves the coin is in possession and the pic is not stolen
If a request for a better pic to the personal email adress is answered by the same pic this can just mean laziness or whatever
Half the vendors have send us the same louzy pic as in the auction
5) If in doubt ask any question and analyse the answer
6) Look for too much emphasis on honesty
Like E-temptations had a personnal page saying he valued honesty and family values and was putting two daughters through college and then went and defrauded more then a dozen people
I think Shakespeare said "methinks the lady protests too much"

And allways remember Murphy
The same coin in better condition for less money will probably show the week after you bought yours

So in short I never bought from somebody with less then 10
feedbacks on articles of at least the same price as the one for sale

While I've bought a few things from new sellers or those with very low feedback numbers, I don't do it unless I've analyzed the whole auction to death: seller's feedback (all of it), his/her previous auctions (comparison of the subject sale with previous sales), where s/he is located (just "United States" isn't enough), how well or poorly the description is written (I mistrust sellers with bad grammar, bad spelling, and short descriptions), quality of the image(s), return policy (there better be one), his/her other selling policies, overall presentation (anything which could be construed as misleading?), and everything else about the auction. If I still want to bid on the item and the seller has passed my little tests so far, I'll send him/her an inquiry; the quality of response will make my final determination. If the response is vague, unresponsive, poorly written, s/he is out. If the response is erudite, friendly, and with no attempt to deceive, I'll take a chance.

Fred

Sounds pretty safe, I would do the same in your shoes.

Lets us know how it goes.