I love ebay

My DD got a fabulous large dining room table and six chairs for £1 from eBay. Her DH had to go and collect them but they were only a few miles away. Unfortunately, when she moved house the dining room set was too big for her new house, so she had to leave it. The new tenant was very grateful though.

This thread has reminded me that I haven't looked on ebay for ages. I've bought several things, some big, some small The biggest was a piano - we had to go with someone in a big van to pick it up obviously, and I'd already been once to Bordeaux to try it. We live in France and I use ebay.fr.
We also have Leboncoin, which is good too, got a sewing machine from there from someone in the next village. But you have to look out for scammers.
Friends here nearly got scammed out of a lot of money - looking for a camper van and the "seller" wanted money in advance of viewing via Western Union - beware!

I have purchased well over 700 items over the past ten years through ebay, and have only had problems perhaps half a dozen times, so I think that is pretty good going. I think it's a better success rate than buying from an actual shop! When I think of all the times I have got home and the item in a box has been different, wrong colour, broken, had to take it back for some reason - I think it's excellent on the whole.

I won an auction for Next heavy weight cardigan trimmed with a fake fur collar which arrived yesterday and it must must be my best ever bargain from e-bay I won it at £5.70 and low postage I didn't notice it was still tagged with the full price of £79.99 but apart from the good price it is really beautiful.

Well done Glamma. I hope that has cheered you up and you can soon get your arm in it.
Am I the only one who has never even looked at e-bay, never mind purchase anything?

glammamama glad to see your keyboard fingers are working nicely.... hope thinsg are improving for you...

I'm watching a lovely leather biker jacket at the moment! Glamma your new cardi sounds lovely!

I`ve sold a few things on ebay, but can only buy through other people, as I don`t have a PayPal account. We`ve sold 2 caravans on there, plus a mobility scooter and a couple of other things. I quite like Preloved as well, sold a rise and recline chair on there. I`ve often wondered what it`s like, the excitement of bidding in the auctions?

At first it's probably a bit like a gambling addiction - or was. Now I know there will be another one along, it's not such a buzz or a worry if I don't get something. Being able to save a search and get notifications is a huge bonus. The only thing is, I do have several older friends who are not all that computer literate, so do end up with a huge pile of emails to plough my way through and then try to remember to bid for, as well as my own. People used to hire people like me at first, maybe they still do. I don't know what you would call them, but for a percentage or fee they would put in bids on your behalf and track down things you wanted. Very enterprising.

I have just had another strange incident.

I have to leave for choir in a minute and so went to bid for a little yellow cardigan, it was due to end at around 8.30 so I wouldn't be able to do my usual last-minute bid. As I was just entering my bid - it vanished! And the 'this item is no longer available' notice came up.

I have sent a message asking what on earth happened, but I'm not holding my breath for a reply...

JaneR How infuriating Perhaps it was also offered for sale elsewhere, though I think sellers are supposed to state that in the listing. Or the seller withdrew it because it was faulty? I've been lucky lately and bought two brand new pairs of Footglove sandals at half price - just in time for a wedding we're going to

That's good! I wore some lovely footglove 'nude' patent ballet pumps (from ebay) to a funeral on Monday, they were so comfortable.

No, I made a classic beginner's error - I forgot to look at her seller rating. It was only 96%, and when I read the buyer comments, all the people she had sold to who won her items for low bids, found that they never arrived - and then saw that she put them back on again later at a higher price.

I think, because she got bad reviews for doing that, she decided to withdraw items before the sale if she thought they weren't going to sell at a high price, thus denying me a chance to give her a bad review.

Why she couldn't just stick it on for £5 minimum rather than 99p, if that is how she feels, is beyond me.

I 'won' the leather jacket that I was watching! I was going out so I put quite a high maximum bid on it. Just after I'd done that, I had another look at the description of the jacket and saw that although it was described as leather, there was a footnote saying that it was actually imitation leather. I retracted the bid (I'd never done that before) and put a lower bid in. I was so pleased that I won it, as it's a Top Shop one!

They are very realistic now, too! I have a beautiful leather bag, I thought it was real leather but it's not. It was only the low price that made me realise it couldn't be, but it looks and feels like leather.

Just bought a wall mounted shower seat (for when I get old) for £10. Brand new in the box. My most embarrassing was 2 Edwardian ceiling lights for £2. I just wanted to die as I gave him the money. He obviously had know idea how much they were worth. But, is is an auction, and he accepted my bid.

About a month ago I bought a nice silk top in TK Maxx for £16. Really liked it and wore it out one evening. Catching a glimpse of myself whilst out..... hmmmm.... the colour wasn't doing a lot for me. So later I phoned my friend that I'd been out with saying, you know that top etc. Tell me honestly what you think.
Her reply was that it was ok but made me look bigger than I already am !!
So, it went onto eBay at £10 and sold tonight for £18.50.
I'm happy for eBay to ease the folly of a poor choice especially when I don't lose out.