The common reaction of friends when I tell them – “I bought this in eBay” is – “Is it safe?”, “How do you know – you’re not being duped?” – followed by “How do you do it?”.
I bought my first professional saxophone off eBay – it took 3 months to arrive because it was sent via sea freight to keep the total cost at a minimum. This saxophone is perhaps the most expensive item I ever bought in eBay. In that 3 months wait, there were times when I considered that it will never come.
After that, I bought and sold some 10 more music instrument, most of which are saxophones. The supplier started trusting me. When he had a problem with a client in Perth, he redirected the sax to me instead of returning it to China. Of course, I was also able to sell that unit locally.
Once I decided to sell one of my saxophone stands as I was already collecting quite a few. The lady who bought it from me is from a local community band. We arranged for me to take the stand to her band rehearsal. When I delivered it, I took my tenor sax with me on a chance that the conductor would let me play with the band. Sure enough – they let me sit in and play. I went back to their rehearsals a few more times until my schedule made it difficult to go on. But it was a very pleasant experience worth many more times than the $5 sax stand I delivered.
wow, you play sax! I also buy in ebay pero xempre di naman yung mga mamahalin hehe… pero there are times I thought di na darating rin espeshly kasi i dont have full trust na sa postal service sa pinas. Sorry pero twice na nangyari di dumating ang pinadala q abroad sa papadalhan thru post office…
Most of the time, I think I just have it – because I don’t really get to play it as often as I want to. You’re right e-bay in largely dependent on the reliability of the postal service. If you can’t trust – you won’t use it.