That happened to me. I posted a negative on a bidder who decided he didn't want to pay, and he hit me with a negative feedback.>

True, the feedback system is flawed, but it does give some insight. I find that although individuals may not wish to give a negative feedback entry, they WILL NOT give a false positive entry. I look to see what the feedback actually is, and the numeric number. Someone who has a feedback of 50 or 100 or more has a good probability of being a good seller.... yes there are exceptions as there are in brick and mortar type stores.

My Advise:
1- look at the rating number not the percentage- 100% positive with a feedback of 12 isn't necessarily as good as a 99.2% with a feedback of 1135
2-Read the feedback, if there is negative feedback read the comment, and the reply if offered.... use your head and make up your own mind.
3-Remember in this world there are honest and dishonest individuals. May they be stores, door to door sales, catalogs,internet sites and Ebay sellers.
4-Remember the old sayings. "If it looks to good to be true, it probaby is", "The buyer be warned" , "The educated consumer is the smart consumer" etc etc
5-When in doubt ask questions, ask for more pictures

2 cents from an ebayer with nearly a 200 rating
Jay

Bart ,, I've seen were you can post a reply to your feedback ,If not past the 90 days were link disapears , IE explain in your own,, the guy didnt pay !!!

side note

Ebay wise , I've bought a few trees ,, using feedback i look @ closed auctions to see the quality of trees the seller has sold and what the price brings ,,

Ebay user with perfect 380 feedback

Did that. Still counts as a negative. That's why I agree with Jay about reading the feedback.

User: heckler4ever( 0 ) Not a registered user Date: Jul-16-00 19:04:19 PST Item: 374789615
Complaint: Agreed to mutual cancellation. Then he files neg with NO warning. I feel screwed

Response by bart-thomas - Bidder failed to respond to emails then said he wanted out of purchase.

(BTW, I was selling a computer.) That's my only negative out of 255, it's 3 years old, and still gripes me!
>

That does stink,,, his user name makes one think he was playing games


on a side note ,, i notice were in each others feedback

I have been buying and selling material on ebay since 2003.
Weekly I can be found sifting through the 1100 or so listings.. just to see what's there. You can find tons of rare seedlings and advanced rare stuff as well. I purchased a Cork Bark Japanese Maple this Spring for 50.00. It has a 1.5 inch trunk and was exceptionally healthy. I'm going to strike cuttings off of that one for years and develop a ton of nice material. The ones that I want to keep, I'll keep, the rest I'll give away o other Bonsai addicts or sell on ebay with a starting bid of 1.00!

I Just sold one of my Shimpaku Junipers that I had for about 10 years. After 10 years, I really had lost interest in the tree. I had done what I wanted to do with it and it was moving me no further. I popped it up on ebay, and now there's a really happy fella somewhere thinking he got a great, well trained and cared for tree. He's going to do his thing with it and carry on some kind of legacy... I hope.

Spring 2004 will see me entering about 200 azalea pre-bonsai and about 100 Maple pre-bonsai I have trained in bulk so I can pick the ones I really want for myself. The rest I'll pass on to people who will appreciate them and they will be well trained starters for cheap!


I guess what I'm saying is.. I wouldn't have gone about this propagating frenzy to inprove my chances of creating a good tree if it weren't for ebay providing an easy forum for me to sell the excess.

Oh yeah and buy a cool looking tree every now and then!

Interesting, John. I don't have any objections to the idea of selling on ebay myself, but I've always considered the shipping part of the equation to be rather daunting for live plant material. Any comments/hints/suggestions on how you deal with that?

Best regards,
Carl

I've tested the waters and they're tepid at best as far as shipping goes.
The small plants I plan to ship are lightweight and will be easy to keep moist by wateringthem before packing and then wrapping them in a plastic bag.

I had a Willow get lost for 8 days in Brooklyn, The buyer eventually went to the post office and made a ruckus and found it was there all along.

It was perfectly fine and healthy as well!

I'm not gonna go haywire with this ebay sellingthing.. I justfigure it's a great way to spread the love!