What's your experience buying PDA stuff from eBay?

[townsendtribe]

Just out of curiosity, what is your experience buying PDA stuff from eBay. I have bout a few things, and have had great success, but I am wondering if I am normal or an exception to the rule.

[rhmorrison]

So far I have bought two Jornada 548's, one Jornada 565 and one Jornada 568 plus various accessories over EBay with no problems.

[townsendtribe]

I have bought my Dell Axim, an iPAQ 3850 for the wife, a couple cases, my D-Link CF WiFi card, and a few other minor things... I have had great sucess, but you know how it is when people get into telling their war stories.

[JustinGTP]

My mum won't let me buy anything on eBay, she claims that there is a chance for it being stolen goods. I mean, why would someone go down to FutureShop, buy an HP iPAQ 2215 for 600 CAD, and then sell it on eBay when they know it will go for less.
It doesnt make much sense.

Anyways, she eBayed a while back, buying lots of antique furniture and stuff, and you get to know who sells the best stuff and who are the nicest people to deal with.

-Justin.

[maximus]

Just out of curiosity, what is your experience buying PDA stuff from eBay. I have bout a few things, and have had great success, but I am wondering if I am normal or an exception to the rule.

From what I learned, sometimes sellers can get away selling something that is not exactly as described. I once read a thread on someone buying a toshiba e740, but he got the stripped-down no-wifi e740. I don't know, perhaps that is the inherent risk of the online auction process.

[naraku]

so far i've had a good experience with ebay. i got my hp jornada 565 for $200 with a free 256mb cf card and free shipping last march/april. i just recently got a hp jornada accessories package (hp brand, and they were all brand new) for only $25. so yeah, so far i've had a good experience.

[dean_shan]

I have never bought a pda from ebay but I have bought a lot of other stuff. I have bought a lot a retro games and video game systems from it. eBay is awsome, the only problem I have had is the some sellers will not tell you the shipping total so I give them a week to tell me before I cancel the order.

Fun Fact I once sold a pair of crutches that I had traded pants for. (I had found the pants in the woods).

[Stephen Beesley]

Well I have both bought and sold stuff on ebay Australia and ebay UK and had no problems at all.

That said I think you do have to be careful and be sure that you know exactly what it is that you are bidding on. Often sellers use generic photos of the item they are selling (particularly with PDAs) so it can be hard to get a real feel for the items condition.

Goldtee

[SlimDady]

ive made many purchases on ebay. none for my axim yet.. but i do have plans on getting a wifi cd card soon..


Just read the feedback, avoid the people with very little, or many negatives.. a few are ok.


But ive had no problems yet.. I had a friend who won a lamp thing on there.. his money got taken and he never got his item.. he could have complained to ebay and his credit card company to remedy the situation, but he never did


I have had nothin but success. Although living in canada i have to usually pay more and wait longer for my shipping.. but i can live with that

[Steven Cedrone]

I have bought a few things from Ebay, never had any problems...

Steve

Although this DID NOT happen on Ebay, here is an interesting read (http://www.jasonsego.com/fraud/index.html) about someone who had problems with an online auction... :wink:

[Thinkingmandavid]

I have bought from ebay and have had a good experience. I bought an IBM 3c and a Revo PLus. I also bought 4 pda cases from franklin covey, and something else that i dont remember about:) Everything went great for me. I do have a good friend that had one bad expereience, but ebay reimbursed him.

[townsendtribe]

I guess I am a little closer to normal than I thought (at least as far as eBay is concerned) :D

One thing I have noticed, and you can learn this reading comments about other bidders and sellers, is that you need to read the description very carefully. Sometimes the descriptions are misleading and you think you are getting something that you are not, and more often than not, people are selling things that they are not entirely farmilure with and may put buzzwords in that they think are acurate, but are not.

Like the iPAQ I bought.... the person selling it was just someon that decided that they didn't really use the one they had and decided to sell it. He claimed it was an iPAQ 3850 with Bluetooth. Well, the 3850 doesn't come with bluetooth that I am aware of, but I wasn't too concerned with that. Also, when the iPAQ arived, I learned it was a 3835, not a 3850. I would have been upset, but it was for my wife and she was fine with it so, I said nothing. And I felt that the $170 was a fair price for it.

My advice, just read carefully, and email the seller if you have questions.

[dean_shan]

I have never bought a pda from ebay but I have bought a lot of other stuff.

I take that back. I have bought a Newton on eBay.

[townsendtribe]

Believe it or not, I still have my old Newton MP-2000 as well ;-)