I once had a friend who bought a glass vase online and it was broken on arrival. He filed for refund, and they asked for photos. He sent the photos of broken vase and got the reply "the item doesn't appear to be in its original condition, so refund is not accepted"
@@phs125 lol it's broken of course it's not in the original condition but that just means it's the shippers fault for breaking it in transit not the sellers fault
@@raven4k998 it was a amazon like website, and it didn't give any option to contact anyone other than the seller as far as I can remember. Ofcourse nobody uses it anymore...
Amazon is far better. Ebay was just scams and idiots and getting sniped on bidding. Only reason I had an Ebay account was because I was a teenager without a credit card and Paypal could just use my bank account. After an expensive set of DVDs got "lost in the mail," I said goodbye. Amazon has some scams, but they're usually easy to spot and not nearly as rampant. I think it's because setting up a seller profile is harder than on Scambay.
Dude i'm sorry for your lost DVD collection but you have a solution. Mine was a FF6 Advance mint and got lost in mail but I got refund in 3 days (and finally received it). Even when I was scammed with fake sale. Refunded lightspeed to bank account, not PP. Take care on the eMarkets.
@@encycl07pedia- (This is in praise of Amazon:) I once set up an Amazon seller account to sell some used books, but I didn't have my current email address associated with the account. So of course many many people tried to buy my books and didn't receive anything. Amazon shut down my account and never let me back on, and I consider that a good thing because I was totally unprepared to be a seller and it shows they don't tolerate poorly-run business.
Seriously, i don't even bother answering stupid questions. I found when i did in the past, it was extremely rare that someone asking a question would end up bidding. If they can't read a description, i don't want them as a customer. It's that simple.
The confusion about "will it run this program?" is just an echo of the confusion people had originally back in the early 1980s when these computers were new. Many people honestly did not understand that Apple II software would not run on an Atari. I remember friends of friends offering me pirated software that wouldn't even run on my machine.
Me too! I'd like a laptop for free, thank you! Please put a note on it that it marks it as "for free" before you send it off to Norway, or else I will have to bill you for cutoms tax! Thanks in advance! :D
You seem like a very honest and open seller. You provide good information and pictures. The effort put in to preparing these devices is very good and I think that there should be more sellers like you. Also you does not hide information and is very honest with the condition and if there are any issues. Plus using real pictures and non stock ones gives a good overview of the item. And you don't look like a shady seller like 50% of eBay or Craigslist sellers. Very good seller!
Even though this video is almost three years old, nothing has changed with eBay, PayPal, or even Craigslist aside from the eBay/PayPal split last month. You pretty much nailed every experience I had with all three.
I can't believe your number one question from Craigslist isn't "Is it still available?" .. and nothing else within the message. I get this ALL the time and just don't respond anymore, because when I DO respond "Yes", 100% of the time I never receive another email from these people anyway.
+kuhboom22 Actually, that WAS the number one question (I say "was" because I don't sell anymore) but that was always from automated scammers, not real people, so I didn't include it. Yes, I learned long ago to pretty much delete any email that was not specific to the item being sold. If it was very generic, for example, if they called it an "item" instead of a laptop, I knew it was a scammer.
Actually, I will ask that question to a seller, especially if I suspect he or she doesn't sell very often, or if the ad is older than, say, a week or two. I don't know how many times I wasted time writing to a seller asking for some info he/she didn't provide in the description and get the reply "I sold that days (or weeks) ago". They just don't care about removing the ad after they sell their product. If I sell something on Kijiji (or Craigslist), I will mention that if the ad is still there, it mean it's not sold yet.
+MusicalBox I've sold all kinds of stuff on craigslist for a good 10 years or so and those are the 3 most annoying wastes of time. Responding to emails immediately only to NEVER hear back again (probably at least 95% scammers just phishing for email addresses), answering questions I've already taken the time to very clearly explain or show on my listing to kids or cheapskate window shoppers who for some reason don't seem to bother reading the listing but they usually flake out ultimately anyway even if you accept the lowball offer they pitched to you, and the inconsiderate sellers who clutter the site up with listings for weeks after they've sold them and just never bothered to delete. The last one I can never understand. I always delete listings as soon as I can after they're sold. For one thing it's just the considerate thing to do, and it usually takes longer to deal with responses for sold items than the 20 seconds it takes to log in and delete the listing anyway. It just makes the site that much worse the more lazy sellers who don't bother.
tekdro These inconsiderate sellers are probably people who only use these sites once or twice in their life time. They are easy to spot. Almost no details whatsoever in the description, bad pics and bad grammar (btw, sorry if MY English grammar isn't perfect, I'm french). When someone sell more often, he or she learns to make better ads and will eventually start to delete them from the site as soon as the item is sold.
The guy who replied to you above me is one of them. They seem to be the most un objective, slanted-thinking people. Never taking considerations into stake and never (ever) considering they may be incorrect. Only throwing over the top generalized statements.
This guy has a solid head on his shoulders. Too bad so many consumers are so dumb. I would like to do business online but I just can't deal with the dumb idiot stupid head buyers.
+Doug Vandegrift Yeah, it's rough and my hat is off to this guy. I had my own computer business back in the late 90s/early 2000s where I did stuff similar to him--PC repair, rebuild and sell stuff on eBay. Back then, eBay was a LOT better because there wasn't this default judgement in favor of the buyer like he described. But even at that, you had to deal with non-payment issues, and such. The worst was when people would try to scam you--they would buy something, claim it didn't work, and then send it back with parts removed or with different components than what was originally installed--and, they would give you negative feedback on top of it! The biggest problem was eBay, itself. When you sell something on eBay, they charge a listing fee, they get a percentage of the sale amount, and they also get a second percentage for PayPal. I quickly realized that, on expensive items with narrow margins, eBay was making more money on my sales than I was! So, I say f&%* it, and went corporate. I specialized in cyber security and now I work for a large telecom company making a six-figure salary with great benefits, work from home, and have a lot more free time than I did when I was running my own business. I'll never forget a sign over the desk of one of my former clients (she owned a successful art gallery) that read: The Only Thing More Overrated than Natural Childbirth is the Joy of Owning Your Own Business.
after selling for years on eBay (and exactly describing the condition), I realized that questions like "what is the condition" or "is it still available", "does it work" is some kind of test. They want to check if you are a nice guy, If you answer quickly, if you are honest... because pics, descriptions can be stealed, they want to know if you are the "real" seller or writer. No matter how annoying, don't be rude, stay cool and answer as nice as you can. Then you will sell better. It took me years to realize... but that's the real answer, although people will not admit it, it's psychological
AnalogAudio1 agree, they just want to develop a connection with the seller, no more. It would be awkard to say "are you a nice guy? are you the seller?" so they just go for the obvious but nevertheless ridicolous questions
I generally only email sellers if I notice a discrepancy between the item description and images(TI-92 in the image, but a TI-92 Plus in the description), if there's a detail that I do not know, or if some other anomaly has occurred.
AnalogAudio1 When a buyer asks me a question that is clearly stated in the item description, I assume they have not read the listing. This means 1) they are not that interested in purchasing the item, or 2) they don’t want to spend time reading about what they are going to spend money on. Neither of these are people i want to do business with, so I don’t reply.
Twice now, I've bought an item on EBay, only to be told something like "there's a recall on this" (there wasn't - I checked) or just "this isn't in stock." "How can you not have it in stock? Ebay requires you to actually have the item in hand before listing it?" "Well, we drop-ship these from the manufacturer..." That's not what EBay is for.... But the "There's a recall on this device," was obviously a lie. I checked with the manufacturer, and there was no recall. I think the guy realized he had it listed at too low a price (it was about half what everyone else was asking) and wanted to get more money for it. Talk about frustrating. Finally, there's the time I had an actual problem fulfilling a sale. I went to factory reset a tablet computer, and it wouldn't boot after the reset. So I emailed the buyer and explained that it didn't work, and I was going to refund his money. He LIED on the feedback and said I canceled the sale "with no explanation." That's simply not true; I emailed him and gave the same reason in the refund. I hate dishonest people.
Watching this in 2018: It gives a mix of weird / nostalgic feelings seeing the iBook/8bit/keyguy in this 320p'ish resolution with this bare background.
I use to sell Laptops on Ebay and stopped because of all the problems this guy mentions. The customers hardly ever pay, they pretend it was broken when it arrives so ebay will force you to refund despite the fact they have never sent the laptop back, they will leave you poor feedback because they couldnt be bothered reading the description. Worst place to trade.
It is a very good video. I have had experiences like this too, I think that it comes down to: 1. People are lazy - ask you questions that are already in the text 2. People are looking for a bargain - they make silly offers because an email costs nothing and sometimes the seller will do it 3. People do not believe the "sticker price" is the actual price (hence the "how much is your $350 laptop") 4. Ebay stopped allowing sellers to leave negative feedback (crazy in my opinion) I have noticed the first situation actually gets worse with the more text you put in the description - i.e. you try to solve it by adding more detail, but the result is it becomes too large and then they ask you. One solution is a summary of key information, and "picture is a thousand words" is a good observation. I also think non-payment has become a much bigger issue since ebay stopped sellers leaving negative feedback. I dislike this "customer is always right" mentality, but I think as it has grown and there are many full businesses, consumer protection laws kick in and result in always taking the customers side.
Man, you nailed it on eBay as a seller- People are idiots who don't read the ads and PayPal always takes the side of the buyer. Craigslist= everyone wants to lowball and haggle and buyers are sketchy and totally unreliable.
***** On two occasions I was glad PayPal came to my rescue because one packaged a 55lbs server with packing peanuts and it came destroyed. I sent the seller the pictures and told him why did he pack it in peanuts?He wouldn't respond so I called Paypal and they froze his account until he sent me a new server and I sent the old one back. 2nd time was for a lamp that was destroyed when it arrived, again improper packing by the seller. The same thing occurred and he wanted me to file a claim against UPS. I told them UPS would not touch it because the first thing they would claim was improper packing.Again the seller went silent. Paypal came to my rescue. Remember the customer is king. It's the suckyest part of being in business. So in my book PayPal has worked out great for me.
@@johnwayne2103 So does the seller. I'll be out of business once the customers finish defrauding me. It goes BOTH ways. eBay is not balanced in this way, so I won't sell through them.
Communicating with a buyer on Ebay. Ebay Buyer: "So, what it do?" 8-Bit Guy: "Umm...please refer to the..." Ebay Buyer: "I saayed what it do dagnabit!"
Great video! I can definitely relate to the same issues you are having. I would recommend requiring immediate payment on ebay items. It completely eliminates all non paying buyers.
+Shabby DIY Only on buy-it-now items. If it is an auction, they can still not pay. But yes, the last year that I was selling on ebay I switched to buy-it-now on everything.
"Make Offer" is now an official part of eBay and it's even listed in the contact options for the seller... But it's meant for reasonable offers, it'll even warn you if it thinks it's too low!
I hear you about the no shows. I don't know how many times someone was suppose to come look at my car when I was trying to sell it, and they just didn't show up. People can be sorry.
My favourite encounter when selling a 2009 Unibody Macbook last year, were the parents who knew nothing about computers asking "my son / daughter is starting high school tomorrow, will this be a good computer?", despite the listing saying rather explicitly that it was a slow computer that needed a new battery, a new hard-drive, more RAM and OS X re-installed. I asked more than a few people "can you confirm that you've read the description?" Fortunately I ended up selling it to a guy who knew exactly what he was buying.
You should stop doing the money back deal. Take all the money the idiots want to pay. I see that all the time in Auctions here in NZ. Those over bidders cause others to miss out. They should just have to deal with their idiocy of over paying.
Totally agree and you're dead on there. Why the hell should a seller have to babysit a buyer with no self-control. I was raised that as an adult you take responsibility for your own actions and deal with the consequences., I guess they don't teach that any more.
When I sell stuff I absolutely do not offer refunds period. Every item I ship is well-packed and ensured and if they claim it comes damaged, they can take up the insurance claim. I do this because I once sold a phone and shipped it, the guy got it, claimed that it didn't work. I accepted the refund, he ships it back, and it was in perfect working order just like I sold it. I suspect he DID NOT READ the part where I said the phone could only be used on the Sprint network and probably took it to T-Mobile or AT&T or something.
@@MidagedgamerBlogspotter I completely agree, but like he said in the video: "They're going to get their money back anyway." That's the reality of eBay 'till this day. You honestly have very little to fear on eBay if you're a buyer and make sure not to violate any ToS.
I gave up on eBay and Craigslist. The level of stupidity is not something I have the patience for dealing with. The little bit of stuff that I sell, I do on a local Facebook page that is invite only.
14:15 That's the haggle mentality. Some people will never pay the asking price for a used item and think that everything can come down a bit. They know it says $350 for the laptop but are thinking that this is the pre-haggle price.
I absolutely hate hagglers. I realize in other countries haggling is commonplace, but in the USA the price on the product is the price you pay. They're a bunch of selfish pricks holding up other customers who aren't total sleazebags.
A rather entertaining video. Common experience when dealing with selling consumer products. When I was in computer sales many years ago, I quickly discovered 10% of all customers were the source of 90% of all sales\support problems. I suspect they were problems customers everywhere they did business. There were a few times talking with other people that worked at other businesses in the area we found that a common customers that got the label of "The customer from hell"; it almost appeared these customers spent their life buying and returning items, or demanding endless support. If they bought a $2 power cable for their computer, they felt entitled for support on everything related to their computer system and every device connected. Rarely did they ever buy any big ticket items, but they milked every purchase as if they just bought a new car at full retail.
This policy of "customer is always right" is also present on Aliexpress. This is really necessary because the sellers are really sloppy. Either the product is wrong, it's damaged, the properties aren't as specified or the properties weren't specified at all. And they don't reply to questions. Most sellers are the sloppiest people ever.
Person in the email: "writes an entire biography of the laptop from the beginning to end" 8-Bit Guy after 3 seconds of staring at it: "in the garbage it goes"
I'm 6 years late but enjoyed watching this. I ran a full time online reseller business from 2008 to 2012. You're spot on with the stupid customers. I certainly don't miss it after going back to a regular 9 to 5 job.
I work in retail and I can relate to pretty much everything you've spoken about. I personally think that technology is meant for above average IQ individuals but due to fashion/trends/apple you get oxygen wasters buying them and that's where everything goes wrong.
the worst people are the morons selling these , i think you might be the 1% of sellers that works at retail and has a clue because most are morons with no IQ that dont know what ram or the basics of what there selling , like 99% of the morons who worked at Bestbuy geek squad utter morons 99% of all them
I have a friend that is a SCHOOL TEACHER.. She is the biggest tech idiot I`ve ever met, In response to a question about charging a power bank on her PC, she actually asked me "What`s a USB"? This was about 3 years ago, and she still does not know!I volunteer in her class sometimes, where I end up typing a lot of her emails, and other computer based tasks. My favorite? Adding a reading program to the saved bookmarks in 15 Chromebooks, at really short notice, or having to download a program into 4 PCs( a freaking test!)...She had no idea how to find the program. Thankfully it was on the internet.
@@Godslayer1975 Yep. I felt betrayed when I realized the "Geek" Squad was just a bunch of salesmen that didn't have to know anything about electronics.
Here it is, almost 7 years later... I'm an eBay / Craigslist / Facebook Marketplace seller and all of these are STILL the case. And almost all of these are still just as annoying. I've gotten the "my kid bought it" excuse plenty of times. And when people don't show up to buy something they said they were coming for (Craigslist & Facebook), it's amazing how many times their excuse is "I was in a car wreck".
Great rant. I feel you are fair with how you handle these situations. In my opinion, some people are probably just being cautious and perhaps wanting some reasurance that the item and information are accurate. The same way you dont know them, they dont know you and they cant see the product in real life and therefore have to trust everything in the ad as being accurate.
I feel your pain. I run an eBay store for a golf shop, and I get several questions a day, asking about specifics that are stated in multiple areas of my listings. And also, at least three times a week someone will purchase a golf club from me that is left handed, when they are right handed, and they didn't realize what they had ordered. And yet again I state in the title, item specifics, and my detailed item description whether the item is left handed or not. It's a daily gauntlet.
Oh man! Stupidity reaches a new low! Thanks for sharing your hilarious stories. It makes me feel a little bit better to know I'm not the only one encountering mind-boggling stupidity on a regular basis.
What I really really hate, is when you've discussed a pickup time and place with a buyer and then either they don't show up or when you call them to let them know that you are almost at the pickup place they inform you that they have already sold the product. If finally figured out how to avoid this. I put together an excel sheet of these folk's craigslist emails and when I find something that I want to buy I cross-check the list. You'd be surprised how often they show up on products where there is more than one seller. I just go with the alternate and save myself a headache.
Question #1 - Some people are just stupid. Question #2 - Some people are very stupid. Question #3 - Some people are stupid and greedy. Question #4 - Some people are stupid and naive. Question #5 - Some people are stupid and lazy. Question #6 - Some people are stupid, greedy, lazy and sometimes naive.
I once sold a washing machine on eBay. The buyer turned up with no money 'I already paid'. Then 5 mins later it was 'my mum bought it and hasn't given me the money'. 30 mins later she was back with the cash and collected her washer. Amazing experience
Great video!To be fair, this is the reality of all business people. Running a business is easy until you start to deal with people! (whether employees or customers or suppliers)
Who's watching this is 2019? Just making sure I'm not the only one who likes the feeling of nostalgia from watching old videos from their favorite UA-camrs
Kudos to you being able to keep your cool with people like that. I wouldn't have the patience. Now that the internet is mainstream, it is like a growing cancer.
I buy and sell on Craigslist a lot, and interestingly my experience is a little different. I've found that the kind of people contacting me highly depends on the kind of items I'm selling. For instance, people who buy a Nintendo DS flash-cart are normally very unreliable, while people who buy something more serious (like a shortwave radio) are much more reliable. Also often it's easy to tell if a person is not serious just by the style of the message. However, I've seen a few exceptions when people who live in "assisted living" conditions and who write pretty weird emails, still show up and buy what they wanted (but they never pick it up - they always request a meeting in a public place, probably it's a part of rules they have to obey). Where I live, the most common question on Craigslist is "Is it still available?", and usually those people never contact you again.
I know this is an old video, but I must chime in. One time I was selling a dresser on ebay, and I put the dimensions of the item in the title of the listing and someone asked me what the dimensions of the product were. ON two occasions I tried to sell a 55 inch plasma tv that weighed 90 lbs, in the first ad I said, local pick up only (because it weighs 90 pounds!). Of course someone two states away won it and had no intention of driving out to get it. In the second listing for the same TV I put LOCAL PICK ONLY, and the zip code IN THE PICTURE of the product and again someone two states away won the auction and had no desire to come pick it up. So I sold it on craigs list locally.
People don't read. They don't want to read. Same kind of people who will NEVER EVER read an instruction manual and then complain the gizmo is shit when they unavoidably break it because of manhandling and not following instructions. They deserve hemorroids.
when selling something i alway ask for $20 more than i actually want, that way when i give them $10-$20 off the feel like the achieved something and i just laugh all the way to the bank :)
You are the bane or reasonable people selling on CL. The price should be the price and if you sell it for less that is just as dishonest as jacking up the price.
+kkknotcool No it's not. That there is literally what Craigslist is for - it's the classifieds section of the Internet, and haggling has been part of that process since time immemorial. You zealots of the 'one true price' are toxic to that ecosystem and good riddance if you go broke pushing your price-fixing doctrines.
Anson Mansfield biding and haggling belongs in the middle ages. If something is worth 50 dollars and you sell it for 45 than you are getting ripped off and if you list it for 60 and sell it for 55 than you are ripping off the buyer and making the customer think that he can expect a discount in the future, even from others who might just list things for what they think it is worth. Sell things for what you want it for and stop wasting peoples time and ripping people off.
+kkknotcool it's actually much more fair to do it this way, where we can settle on a price intermediate between the buyer's and seller's prices, so that the market surplus is split evenly - the buyer and the seller are on equal ground. Nobody wants to buy from a dealer on Craigslist anyway. If you're too stupid to use the system the way it is supposed to work, I have no sympathy for the problems you make for yourself with that attitude.
Remember one experience when I was younger, I was selling a guitar amplifier to a guy in another city. Those things are pretty heavy, and therefore costs a lot to ship. I payed upfront the amount to have it delivered to this guy, somewhere like 50-60$, and then he never picked it up and never heard from him again. Had to pay another 30$ or so to have it delivered back home to me. I was asking for 100$ for this item and spent almost the same amount to have it travel back and forth again. I was unaware of the fact that a lot of people say they are going to buy/do something then just ignore it. Infuriating indeed...
Colin Long I was offered a cedar cabinet for a hp laserjet 4300dtn. I was asking for cash only and that is how I replied. The individual still tried to talk me into a trade for something I was very much not interested in!
Going through your videos now old to new and like this one best, so far. I just started eBay'ing and very interesting to see others selling practices and this video helps a lot with the things I won't find out about till later. Thanks
I absolutely LOVE this! Imagine doing this 20 years ago with VCRs. Folks would OK repair estimates. I would do the approved work. They would show up two years later, after repeated attempts to contact them, wondering about their VCR I sold a year ago. Duh?
As of 12/09/2016 there's 120 dislikes on this video. Basically 120 of the idiots & bottom feeders he's referring to disliked being called out. -Great video amigo!
Yea it couldnt possibly be because the entire premise of this video is petty. Instead of making a video whining about this shit.... dont answer the question.
What's worse is throughout the last 5-6 years, eBay has strategically screwed sellers in every way possible. You can't functionally sell as-is products anymore, you can't leave negative feedback when warranted, and they will always side with the buyer.
No more eBay selling. Too many fees (even a free from shipping cost) and now they make you wait days to get your money. Husband has had people drive hours for a Craigslist item like a dirt bike, then they try to haggle, husband says no and they go right back home lol! One guy came from 2 states away to buy a $25k truck and only brought $20k, husband said no deal, so the dummy drove back home to get more money from a family member and come back. Unreal...
I think you're a great guy. This video is wonderful because all of this is current frustrations with both eBay and Craigslist. People don't understand the value of time and being charitable with it often gets overlooked. There is too much sense of entitlement with people.
The buyer, often young, inexperienced or short on funds is not being responsible to themselves if they don't ask question regarding a potential purchase..You are honest but some vendors are not.. The questions they ask may not be the right questions or redundant but it really doesn't call for criticism. They are your customers. What if you went into a store and the owner rolled his eyes at the customer's every stupid question.. I know a ton of e-mail to answer can be a burden but perhaps a a polite form letter re-stating your business practices with the product description pasted in might be helpful for general questions.. Also a tip for you.. along with all the CRT TV's ending up at the dump are dozens of orphaned computers with nothing wrong with them except fuck-up operating systems. I have never found one that was physically broken. A dry period without rain yields the best results. These can be put up for sale for people hard pressed for funds.
+Larkinchance This was said above, but if a seller would lie in a listing, why wouldn't they like in an email? If they provided all of the information about the product that you need and you are literally just making them repeat themselves, you won't get far.
I'm so tempted now to find all your eBay listings and ask "What condition is it in?" HAHA Thanks for your videos. I ended up on your video about restoring yellowed plastic, but since I learned programming on an Apple IIe I watched several of your videos. Good luck with your business and personal museum.
I was selling a broken freezer for cheap once and my description said that it was broken in the first sentence, but I still had a person call and ask me if the freezer was in good working condition.
+Marryann claritan The iBookGuy died and was secretly replaced by a look-alike that goes by the alias of The 8-Bit Guy. The channel is now run by the look-alike but he subtly drops clues to the original iBookGuy's death in the form of secret messages you can only hear by listening to his videos backwards.
you know, just a couple months ago i've had trouble with craigslist people. i tried to buy an air conditioner from various people, but when i went to go meet these people i got excuses like "i can't find a babysitter so i can not meet you" (mind you this was in a neighboring county and i was pretty much at the meeting point when i got that message) to "i already sold it" after i wasted my time going to the meeting point. finally my dad got me an ac unit from my uncle for free so it was their loss.
This is a really interesting video because it shows the difference between how a tech person thinks and how everyone else thinks. There are rational reasons for many of those seemingly insane questions but it isn't obvious to everyone. When someone asks you the price of something that is already posted, they're hoping to get a discount or be the first person to get the new price on a listing that you're about to mark down. If they ask you if it can do some obscure thing they need, they want to have an excuse to return it if it doesn't meet their need- they're trying to get the low price advantage of the second hand market AND the convenience of customer service of a retail market.
I recently bought a few peripherals for my Tandy 1000 RSX (monitor, power switching centre, and 9-pin dot-matrix printer, all Tandy brand name, and some sourced VRAM chips to upgrade the video RAM and a math co-processor). I spent $93 USD on the items themselves, but with shipping and conversion rate, it ended up being around $400 CAD. This is what I spent my tax returns on. Most people would have put it to a modern game system or big-screen TV, but like many of you, I like vintage machines. Anyways, the people I interacted with on E-Bay were friendly and went out of their way to provide any extra information and/or pictures that I required. However, as a buyer, I actually had to ask for that information because they did not provide it. Most of them were people who recognized that they had obtained a piece of "vintage" hardware, and wanted to put it out there for somebody who could use it for their collection, but did not know much about the item themselves or of the systems they might have been used on. So, I had to ask questions to tease out of them what I needed to know to determine if I wanted to spend the money (again, shipping and conversion cost more than the items themselves.) The flip side of that, is that their lack of knowledge may have contributed to the low (initial) price tag, compared to some of the competing items I was looking at. I ended up getting the sourced VRAM chips from an Israeli supplier and the math co-processor from China, because it was cheaper to ship them internationally than from the US. And not only do I play DOS and early windows games on it, I program with it. I installed a second parallel port so that I'd have a dedicated port for the parallel interface that I'm building and developing the code for (the on-board has the external 5.25" floppy, ZIP drive, and printer). So for practising first principles of electronics and programming, AND for retro gaming, I'd say I've gotten my money's worth. One does NOT retro on a modern LCD monitor. It ruins the experience. >:-(
I picked an interesting time to watch this video, I've got a product auction going on ebay right now and I've had two of the top 6 questions. Someone trying to lowball me an offer even though he's already placed a bid and there's not really much I can do even if I wanted to. And someone who asked me details on the product that were listed on the listing page. The worst part about the second guy is that he also asked for details on shipping costs to get the item shipped from the US to Kenya where he lives. I am Australian, I live in Australia and the product is listed as only being available in Australia because prices to ship such a heavy object outside of Australia would make buying a used version of it rather than just getting a brand new one completely pointless.
Is your free laptop program still going on? I'll send my address..
Trying hard to put my sick grandma through college
Jack1138 Same, I’m really REALLY need a laptop right now
8bit guy has a reverse program now, you can send him a free laptop.
@@tcm1976
That got shut down too.
@@AE86ofMtAkina Im doing that program now if you want send the computer you're using now(if you're on phone it's ok too)
He has a new program now: If you donate X amount of dollars to him, he'll send you back a free laptop gift of equivalent value ;)
Will it play Edison style phonograph cylinders?
BAGAHAHA! EBAY HAS OFFERS NOW THO TOO!
Let me check... Yes. It does
Yes but you have to buy an adapter.
XD
its amazing how this is completely relevant to this day. NOTHING has changed!
why would it have changed? people are hardly going to change
2021 still relevent 🤣 provide g online scamming via eBay is still their main purpose
This video needs an update, but titled "the reality of buying from eBay/Craigslist"!
nope it does not cause people never change so this videos still up to date for it's info 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I once had a friend who bought a glass vase online and it was broken on arrival.
He filed for refund, and they asked for photos.
He sent the photos of broken vase and got the reply "the item doesn't appear to be in its original condition, so refund is not accepted"
@@phs125 lol it's broken of course it's not in the original condition but that just means it's the shippers fault for breaking it in transit not the sellers fault
@@raven4k998 it was a amazon like website, and it didn't give any option to contact anyone other than the seller as far as I can remember.
Ofcourse nobody uses it anymore...
@@phs125 omg you are hopeless if you cannot read the package the shipping info is on the shipping label
All in all - eBay is wonderful but I truly miss the days when Sellers were permitted to leave Buyers Negative Feedback.
Amazon is far better. Ebay was just scams and idiots and getting sniped on bidding. Only reason I had an Ebay account was because I was a teenager without a credit card and Paypal could just use my bank account. After an expensive set of DVDs got "lost in the mail," I said goodbye.
Amazon has some scams, but they're usually easy to spot and not nearly as rampant. I think it's because setting up a seller profile is harder than on Scambay.
Dude i'm sorry for your lost DVD collection but you have a solution. Mine was a FF6 Advance mint and got lost in mail but I got refund in 3 days (and finally received it). Even when I was scammed with fake sale. Refunded lightspeed to bank account, not PP.
Take care on the eMarkets.
ATCRyderX© z
@@encycl07pedia- (This is in praise of Amazon:) I once set up an Amazon seller account to sell some used books, but I didn't have my current email address associated with the account. So of course many many people tried to buy my books and didn't receive anything. Amazon shut down my account and never let me back on, and I consider that a good thing because I was totally unprepared to be a seller and it shows they don't tolerate poorly-run business.
True, my solution is to provide positive feedback but with NEGATIVE COMMENT IN CAPITALS. Should be a better way for that though...
Seriously, i don't even bother answering stupid questions. I found when i did in the past, it was extremely rare that someone asking a question would end up bidding. If they can't read a description, i don't want them as a customer. It's that simple.
The confusion about "will it run this program?" is just an echo of the confusion people had originally back in the early 1980s when these computers were new. Many people honestly did not understand that Apple II software would not run on an Atari. I remember friends of friends offering me pirated software that wouldn't even run on my machine.
"Will you send me a laptop for free?" :P
Yeah! -The 8 Bit Guy
Will you buy a laptop for me and ship it to me for free? With a box of sweets.
Me too! I'd like a laptop for free, thank you! Please put a note on it that it marks it as "for free" before you send it off to Norway, or else I will have to bill you for cutoms tax! Thanks in advance! :D
REALLY !!!!! Stupid u . Go back to the dame video stupid dumb ass I hate u and the one that keep asking for it
ocar 10 it was a joke therefore making you the stupid one
ocar 10 ...k wot.
I've had that one a handful of times too.
The conditions is good!
You seem like a very honest and open seller. You provide good information and pictures. The effort put in to preparing these devices is very good and I think that there should be more sellers like you. Also you does not hide information and is very honest with the condition and if there are any issues. Plus using real pictures and non stock ones gives a good overview of the item. And you don't look like a shady seller like 50% of eBay or Craigslist sellers.
Very good seller!
Even though this video is almost three years old, nothing has changed with eBay, PayPal, or even Craigslist aside from the eBay/PayPal split last month. You pretty much nailed every experience I had with all three.
I can't believe your number one question from Craigslist isn't "Is it still available?" .. and nothing else within the message. I get this ALL the time and just don't respond anymore, because when I DO respond "Yes", 100% of the time I never receive another email from these people anyway.
+kuhboom22 Actually, that WAS the number one question (I say "was" because I don't sell anymore) but that was always from automated scammers, not real people, so I didn't include it. Yes, I learned long ago to pretty much delete any email that was not specific to the item being sold. If it was very generic, for example, if they called it an "item" instead of a laptop, I knew it was a scammer.
+The 8-Bit Guy How come you stopped selling laptops? By the way, your videos are awesome.
Actually, I will ask that question to a seller, especially if I suspect he or she doesn't sell very often, or if the ad is older than, say, a week or two. I don't know how many times I wasted time writing to a seller asking for some info he/she didn't provide in the description and get the reply "I sold that days (or weeks) ago". They just don't care about removing the ad after they sell their product.
If I sell something on Kijiji (or Craigslist), I will mention that if the ad is still there, it mean it's not sold yet.
+MusicalBox I've sold all kinds of stuff on craigslist for a good 10 years or so and those are the 3 most annoying wastes of time. Responding to emails immediately only to NEVER hear back again (probably at least 95% scammers just phishing for email addresses), answering questions I've already taken the time to very clearly explain or show on my listing to kids or cheapskate window shoppers who for some reason don't seem to bother reading the listing but they usually flake out ultimately anyway even if you accept the lowball offer they pitched to you, and the inconsiderate sellers who clutter the site up with listings for weeks after they've sold them and just never bothered to delete. The last one I can never understand. I always delete listings as soon as I can after they're sold. For one thing it's just the considerate thing to do, and it usually takes longer to deal with responses for sold items than the 20 seconds it takes to log in and delete the listing anyway. It just makes the site that much worse the more lazy sellers who don't bother.
tekdro These inconsiderate sellers are probably people who only use these sites once or twice in their life time. They are easy to spot. Almost no details whatsoever in the description, bad pics and bad grammar (btw, sorry if MY English grammar isn't perfect, I'm french). When someone sell more often, he or she learns to make better ads and will eventually start to delete them from the site as soon as the item is sold.
This video basically states that most people are morons. I could not agree more.
The guy who replied to you above me is one of them. They seem to be the most un objective, slanted-thinking people. Never taking considerations into stake and never (ever) considering they may be incorrect. Only throwing over the top generalized statements.
Not "most people", but enough to make a seller's day difficult.
This guy has a solid head on his shoulders. Too bad so many consumers are so dumb. I would like to do business online but I just can't deal with the dumb idiot stupid head buyers.
+Doug Vandegrift Yeah, it's rough and my hat is off to this guy. I had my own computer business back in the late 90s/early 2000s where I did stuff similar to him--PC repair, rebuild and sell stuff on eBay. Back then, eBay was a LOT better because there wasn't this default judgement in favor of the buyer like he described. But even at that, you had to deal with non-payment issues, and such. The worst was when people would try to scam you--they would buy something, claim it didn't work, and then send it back with parts removed or with different components than what was originally installed--and, they would give you negative feedback on top of it! The biggest problem was eBay, itself. When you sell something on eBay, they charge a listing fee, they get a percentage of the sale amount, and they also get a second percentage for PayPal. I quickly realized that, on expensive items with narrow margins, eBay was making more money on my sales than I was!
So, I say f&%* it, and went corporate. I specialized in cyber security and now I work for a large telecom company making a six-figure salary with great benefits, work from home, and have a lot more free time than I did when I was running my own business. I'll never forget a sign over the desk of one of my former clients (she owned a successful art gallery) that read: The Only Thing More Overrated than Natural Childbirth is the Joy of Owning Your Own Business.
+Doug Vandegrift consumers ? do you mean customers ?
+Larry Koopa see. this is the type of people that you will see on eBay. Consumers and customers is the same thing
i didnt know im not english .... i didnt know
what consumer ment at all ...
i used to be an online seller / buyer and I had to quit cuz of dumb ass idiots.
"thats how I stay in business, by giving away laptops for free"
I saw a question on amazon for hydrogen peroxide was where the nutritional info on it like that would be important for drinking purposes 🤣🤣🤣😂😂🤣🤣😂😂
after selling for years on eBay (and exactly describing the condition), I realized that questions like "what is the condition" or "is it still available", "does it work" is some kind of test. They want to check if you are a nice guy, If you answer quickly, if you are honest... because pics, descriptions can be stealed, they want to know if you are the "real" seller or writer. No matter how annoying, don't be rude, stay cool and answer as nice as you can. Then you will sell better. It took me years to realize... but that's the real answer, although people will not admit it, it's psychological
AnalogAudio1 agree, they just want to develop a connection with the seller, no more. It would be awkard to say "are you a nice guy? are you the seller?" so they just go for the obvious but nevertheless ridicolous questions
AnalogAudio1 exactly right!
I generally only email sellers if I notice a discrepancy between the item description and images(TI-92 in the image, but a TI-92 Plus in the description), if there's a detail that I do not know, or if some other anomaly has occurred.
AnalogAudio1 When a buyer asks me a question that is clearly stated in the item description, I assume they have not read the listing. This means 1) they are not that interested in purchasing the item, or 2) they don’t want to spend time reading about what they are going to spend money on. Neither of these are people i want to do business with, so I don’t reply.
Twice now, I've bought an item on EBay, only to be told something like "there's a recall on this" (there wasn't - I checked) or just "this isn't in stock."
"How can you not have it in stock? Ebay requires you to actually have the item in hand before listing it?"
"Well, we drop-ship these from the manufacturer..."
That's not what EBay is for....
But the "There's a recall on this device," was obviously a lie. I checked with the manufacturer, and there was no recall. I think the guy realized he had it listed at too low a price (it was about half what everyone else was asking) and wanted to get more money for it. Talk about frustrating.
Finally, there's the time I had an actual problem fulfilling a sale. I went to factory reset a tablet computer, and it wouldn't boot after the reset. So I emailed the buyer and explained that it didn't work, and I was going to refund his money. He LIED on the feedback and said I canceled the sale "with no explanation." That's simply not true; I emailed him and gave the same reason in the refund.
I hate dishonest people.
Watching this in 2018: It gives a mix of weird / nostalgic feelings seeing the iBook/8bit/keyguy in this 320p'ish resolution with this bare background.
I use to sell Laptops on Ebay and stopped because of all the problems this guy mentions. The customers hardly ever pay, they pretend it was broken when it arrives so ebay will force you to refund despite the fact they have never sent the laptop back, they will leave you poor feedback because they couldnt be bothered reading the description. Worst place to trade.
Great video and really enjoy your openness. I used to be in sales, dealing with the "general public". What an experience :D
It is a very good video. I have had experiences like this too, I think that it comes down to:
1. People are lazy - ask you questions that are already in the text
2. People are looking for a bargain - they make silly offers because an email costs nothing and sometimes the seller will do it
3. People do not believe the "sticker price" is the actual price (hence the "how much is your $350 laptop")
4. Ebay stopped allowing sellers to leave negative feedback (crazy in my opinion)
I have noticed the first situation actually gets worse with the more text you put in the description - i.e. you try to solve it by adding more detail, but the result is it becomes too large and then they ask you. One solution is a summary of key information, and "picture is a thousand words" is a good observation.
I also think non-payment has become a much bigger issue since ebay stopped sellers leaving negative feedback. I dislike this "customer is always right" mentality, but I think as it has grown and there are many full businesses, consumer protection laws kick in and result in always taking the customers side.
Man, you nailed it on eBay as a seller- People are idiots who don't read the ads and PayPal always takes the side of the buyer.
Craigslist= everyone wants to lowball and haggle and buyers are sketchy and totally unreliable.
***** On two occasions I was glad PayPal came to my rescue because one packaged a 55lbs server with packing peanuts and it came destroyed. I sent the seller the pictures and told him why did he pack it in peanuts?He wouldn't respond so I called Paypal and they froze his account until he sent me a new server and I sent the old one back.
2nd time was for a lamp that was destroyed when it arrived, again improper packing by the seller. The same thing occurred and he wanted me to file a claim against UPS. I told them UPS would not touch it because the first thing they would claim was improper packing.Again the seller went silent. Paypal came to my rescue.
Remember the customer is king. It's the suckyest part of being in business.
So in my book PayPal has worked out great for me.
@@johnwayne2103 It's fine if you're the buyer. That's why I stopped selling on eBay.
@@johnwayne2103 And I can be out of business if the customer commits fraud, as happens all too often. It happened to me, I was out.
@@johnwayne2103 So does the seller. I'll be out of business once the customers finish defrauding me. It goes BOTH ways. eBay is not balanced in this way, so I won't sell through them.
@@johnwayne2103 Who said I packaged improperly? There are lots of examples of customers committing fraud. eBay doesn't care, so I don't sell on eBay.
This is a very insightful look into human nature.
"People just don't read"
"Keep it short"
Words of wisdom from experience.
Communicating with a buyer on Ebay.
Ebay Buyer: "So, what it do?"
8-Bit Guy: "Umm...please refer to the..."
Ebay Buyer: "I saayed what it do dagnabit!"
I can not buy the computer anymore cause sadly I was in a car wreck and now am to badly injured to need it anymore lol
(NOTIFICATION SOUND) 20:50 "DOES IT PLAYS DVD SIR?"
Lol
Great video! I can definitely relate to the same issues you are having. I would recommend requiring immediate payment on ebay items. It completely eliminates all non paying buyers.
+Shabby DIY Only on buy-it-now items. If it is an auction, they can still not pay. But yes, the last year that I was selling on ebay I switched to buy-it-now on everything.
The 8-Bit Guy
Yeah, you're right sorry. I haven't done an auction listing in a long time.
I did a bit of a Gumtree rant myself and it's surprising how many of our complaints are the same
How did u get here
"Make Offer" is now an official part of eBay and it's even listed in the contact options for the seller... But it's meant for reasonable offers, it'll even warn you if it thinks it's too low!
I hear you about the no shows. I don't know how many times someone was suppose to come look at my car when I was trying to sell it, and they just didn't show up. People can be sorry.
@@RustyShackleford Damn, dude. At least he came back.
My favourite encounter when selling a 2009 Unibody Macbook last year, were the parents who knew nothing about computers asking "my son / daughter is starting high school tomorrow, will this be a good computer?", despite the listing saying rather explicitly that it was a slow computer that needed a new battery, a new hard-drive, more RAM and OS X re-installed. I asked more than a few people "can you confirm that you've read the description?"
Fortunately I ended up selling it to a guy who knew exactly what he was buying.
You should stop doing the money back deal. Take all the money the idiots want to pay. I see that all the time in Auctions here in NZ. Those over bidders cause others to miss out. They should just have to deal with their idiocy of over paying.
Totally agree and you're dead on there. Why the hell should a seller have to babysit a buyer with no self-control. I was raised that as an adult you take responsibility for your own actions and deal with the consequences., I guess they don't teach that any more.
When I sell stuff I absolutely do not offer refunds period. Every item I ship is well-packed and ensured and if they claim it comes damaged, they can take up the insurance claim. I do this because I once sold a phone and shipped it, the guy got it, claimed that it didn't work. I accepted the refund, he ships it back, and it was in perfect working order just like I sold it. I suspect he DID NOT READ the part where I said the phone could only be used on the Sprint network and probably took it to T-Mobile or AT&T or something.
Ugh Matt that happened to me in a similar fashion
@@MidagedgamerBlogspotter I completely agree, but like he said in the video: "They're going to get their money back anyway." That's the reality of eBay 'till this day. You honestly have very little to fear on eBay if you're a buyer and make sure not to violate any ToS.
I've done quite a few transactions on Craigslist (mostly cars), and it's amazing how many people you meet who have little to no regard for others.
I gave up on eBay and Craigslist. The level of stupidity is not something I have the patience for dealing with. The little bit of stuff that I sell, I do on a local Facebook page that is invite only.
"i need free laptop cuz my mom in hospital" That's gonna help her?
That kid would probably be better off buying morphine for her mother's operation
this man was ahead of his time, this entire video sums up facebook marketplace, offerup, craigslist and of course as mentioned in the video, ebay lol
14:15 That's the haggle mentality. Some people will never pay the asking price for a used item and think that everything can come down a bit. They know it says $350 for the laptop but are thinking that this is the pre-haggle price.
Welcome to India.
Yup. If it's a car or bike I usually bump the price a bit so they haggle down to the price I actually wanted.
I absolutely hate hagglers. I realize in other countries haggling is commonplace, but in the USA the price on the product is the price you pay. They're a bunch of selfish pricks holding up other customers who aren't total sleazebags.
This is amazing. I worked for an estate sale company and everything you've said so far (I'm half way through the video) is spot-on.
A rather entertaining video. Common experience when dealing with selling consumer products. When I was in computer sales many years ago, I quickly discovered 10% of all customers were the source of 90% of all sales\support problems. I suspect they were problems customers everywhere they did business. There were a few times talking with other people that worked at other businesses in the area we found that a common customers that got the label of "The customer from hell"; it almost appeared these customers spent their life buying and returning items, or demanding endless support. If they bought a $2 power cable for their computer, they felt entitled for support on everything related to their computer system and every device connected. Rarely did they ever buy any big ticket items, but they milked every purchase as if they just bought a new car at full retail.
This policy of "customer is always right" is also present on Aliexpress. This is really necessary because the sellers are really sloppy. Either the product is wrong, it's damaged, the properties aren't as specified or the properties weren't specified at all. And they don't reply to questions. Most sellers are the sloppiest people ever.
Hey, does your iBook G3 work? Is it free? If so, I'll buy it for 10 dollars! Also, does it run Storm3D, and does it play DVDs?!
"Is it free? If so, I'll buy it for $10!" :P
And whats the price on that $350 one?
Best comment ever.
+Micah Gabbard LOL
Sora Gasai I used to play it ALOT, but, I don't play it much anymore. I just can't think of another channel name xD
Person in the email: "writes an entire biography of the laptop from the beginning to end"
8-Bit Guy after 3 seconds of staring at it: "in the garbage it goes"
Watching this in 2016... I'm so glad you have a decent microphone these days haha
This is definitely evergreen content! 😂 these issues are exactly the same today as they were 7 years ago.
You can tell this video is old because he complains about people negotiating on eBay. This was clearly before the make offer option.
I'm 6 years late but enjoyed watching this. I ran a full time online reseller business from 2008 to 2012. You're spot on with the stupid customers. I certainly don't miss it after going back to a regular 9 to 5 job.
When the axiom “It doesn’t hurt to ask” is taken to an illogical extreme. :(
buyer pro tip: add the item to your watch list and wait a day, the seller will usually give you a "discount" for 10% off
I work in retail and I can relate to pretty much everything you've spoken about. I personally think that technology is meant for above average IQ individuals but due to fashion/trends/apple you get oxygen wasters buying them and that's where everything goes wrong.
Oxygen wasters... ROFL :)
the worst people are the morons selling these , i think you might be the 1% of sellers that works at retail and has a clue because most are morons with no IQ that dont know what ram or the basics of what there selling , like 99% of the morons who worked at Bestbuy geek squad utter morons 99% of all them
The parents of the people who go to my school buy them apple devices and now the children run around saying apple is the best.
I have a friend that is a SCHOOL TEACHER.. She is the biggest tech idiot I`ve ever met, In response to a question about charging a power bank on her PC, she actually asked me "What`s a USB"? This was about 3 years ago, and she still does not know!I volunteer in her class sometimes, where I end up typing a lot of her emails, and other computer based tasks. My favorite? Adding a reading program to the saved bookmarks in 15 Chromebooks, at really short notice, or having to download a program into 4 PCs( a freaking test!)...She had no idea how to find the program. Thankfully it was on the internet.
@@Godslayer1975 Yep. I felt betrayed when I realized the "Geek" Squad was just a bunch of salesmen that didn't have to know anything about electronics.
Here it is, almost 7 years later... I'm an eBay / Craigslist / Facebook Marketplace seller and all of these are STILL the case. And almost all of these are still just as annoying. I've gotten the "my kid bought it" excuse plenty of times. And when people don't show up to buy something they said they were coming for (Craigslist & Facebook), it's amazing how many times their excuse is "I was in a car wreck".
I was supposed to comment here earlier, but I was in a car wreck.
Hold on! Give me your address so I can send you a free laptop!
@@Nobody7720 here's mine
1 Fake Street
Faketown
Fake County
United States of Fakes
Now, where's my free laptop😅
@@astupidmidge here's mine it's 1234567890 on ave zero north in bumsville idaho
Great rant. I feel you are fair with how you handle these situations. In my opinion, some people are probably just being cautious and perhaps wanting some reasurance that the item and information are accurate. The same way you dont know them, they dont know you and they cant see the product in real life and therefore have to trust everything in the ad as being accurate.
had many things go "missing" in the post as a seller and have been forced to give a refund and get no item back, one costing around £100
I feel your pain. I run an eBay store for a golf shop, and I get several questions a day, asking about specifics that are stated in multiple areas of my listings. And also, at least three times a week someone will purchase a golf club from me that is left handed, when they are right handed, and they didn't realize what they had ordered. And yet again I state in the title, item specifics, and my detailed item description whether the item is left handed or not. It's a daily gauntlet.
Oh man! Stupidity reaches a new low! Thanks for sharing your hilarious stories. It makes me feel a little bit better to know I'm not the only one encountering mind-boggling stupidity on a regular basis.
What I really really hate, is when you've discussed a pickup time and place with a buyer and then either they don't show up or when you call them to let them know that you are almost at the pickup place they inform you that they have already sold the product. If finally figured out how to avoid this. I put together an excel sheet of these folk's craigslist emails and when I find something that I want to buy I cross-check the list. You'd be surprised how often they show up on products where there is more than one seller. I just go with the alternate and save myself a headache.
Question #1 - Some people are just stupid.
Question #2 - Some people are very stupid.
Question #3 - Some people are stupid and greedy.
Question #4 - Some people are stupid and naive.
Question #5 - Some people are stupid and lazy.
Question #6 - Some people are stupid, greedy, lazy and sometimes naive.
You deserve a medal. I really hope things will become better for you and your busyness. You deserve it. Keep the nice work!
This is the 8-bit guys version of "What grinds my Gears"
Spot on, David! I have had many of the same experiences selling on eBay and CL! Love your videos. Best wishes to you!
my laptop won't turn on, how do i fix it?
shove it up yur ass
He said it wont turn on
Marius no, i can only turn it off. it won't turn on :D
+Marius soooooooo original
how about, ah! try to charge it :D
I once sold a washing machine on eBay. The buyer turned up with no money 'I already paid'. Then 5 mins later it was 'my mum bought it and hasn't given me the money'. 30 mins later she was back with the cash and collected her washer. Amazing experience
My stuffed animals seems unhappy. Can you quickly send me 3 ipads, pretty please? :3
Only if you send him 6 iPads
Send me an RTX3090, I got stung by a bee.
Great video!To be fair, this is the reality of all business people. Running a business is easy until you start to deal with people! (whether employees or customers or suppliers)
When people try to haggle me I start putting the price above original price and go up from there.
Holy cow man, the difference in presentation between this and today (2013 to 2017) is immense. Congrats on finding your vibe on YT since back then.
Who's watching this is 2019? Just making sure I'm not the only one who likes the feeling of nostalgia from watching old videos from their favorite UA-camrs
Watching retro retro. It's awesome!
Yeh
Kudos to you being able to keep your cool with people like that. I wouldn't have the patience. Now that the internet is mainstream, it is like a growing cancer.
If a title says "genuine", I assume it is fake/scam.
If a title says fake/scam, then it's genuine?
Judging by this comment and your user name, I can tell that you are an intellectual.
And if it says LEGAL you know it's not.
Windows 10 Genuine Validated 100% Pirated Guaranteed!
I buy and sell on Craigslist a lot, and interestingly my experience is a little different.
I've found that the kind of people contacting me highly depends on the kind of items I'm selling.
For instance, people who buy a Nintendo DS flash-cart are normally very unreliable, while people who buy something more serious (like a shortwave radio) are much more reliable.
Also often it's easy to tell if a person is not serious just by the style of the message. However, I've seen a few exceptions when people who live in "assisted living" conditions and who write pretty weird emails, still show up and buy what they wanted (but they never pick it up - they always request a meeting in a public place, probably it's a part of rules they have to obey).
Where I live, the most common question on Craigslist is "Is it still available?", and usually those people never contact you again.
What is this video about? Will you let me watch it for free?
I know this is an old video, but I must chime in. One time I was selling a dresser on ebay, and I put the dimensions of the item in the title of the listing and someone asked me what the dimensions of the product were. ON two occasions I tried to sell a 55 inch plasma tv that weighed 90 lbs, in the first ad I said, local pick up only (because it weighs 90 pounds!). Of course someone two states away won it and had no intention of driving out to get it. In the second listing for the same TV I put LOCAL PICK ONLY, and the zip code IN THE PICTURE of the product and again someone two states away won the auction and had no desire to come pick it up. So I sold it on craigs list locally.
People don't read. They don't want to read. Same kind of people who will NEVER EVER read an instruction manual and then complain the gizmo is shit when they unavoidably break it because of manhandling and not following instructions. They deserve hemorroids.
Life's tough having to resort to old 8 Bit Guy videos while waiting for new ones.
when selling something i alway ask for $20 more than i actually want, that way when i give them $10-$20 off the feel like the achieved something and i just laugh all the way to the bank :)
Yep, that is the way to do it on craigslist.
You are the bane or reasonable people selling on CL. The price should be the price and if you sell it for less that is just as dishonest as jacking up the price.
+kkknotcool No it's not. That there is literally what Craigslist is for - it's the classifieds section of the Internet, and haggling has been part of that process since time immemorial. You zealots of the 'one true price' are toxic to that ecosystem and good riddance if you go broke pushing your price-fixing doctrines.
Anson Mansfield biding and haggling belongs in the middle ages. If something is worth 50 dollars and you sell it for 45 than you are getting ripped off and if you list it for 60 and sell it for 55 than you are ripping off the buyer and making the customer think that he can expect a discount in the future, even from others who might just list things for what they think it is worth. Sell things for what you want it for and stop wasting peoples time and ripping people off.
+kkknotcool it's actually much more fair to do it this way, where we can settle on a price intermediate between the buyer's and seller's prices, so that the market surplus is split evenly - the buyer and the seller are on equal ground. Nobody wants to buy from a dealer on Craigslist anyway. If you're too stupid to use the system the way it is supposed to work, I have no sympathy for the problems you make for yourself with that attitude.
I can't pay for that laptop. Godzilla ate my bank, and my work.
Hi how much is the $350 laptop I saw listed on Craigslist?
Remember one experience when I was younger, I was selling a guitar amplifier to a guy in another city. Those things are pretty heavy, and therefore costs a lot to ship. I payed upfront the amount to have it delivered to this guy, somewhere like 50-60$, and then he never picked it up and never heard from him again. Had to pay another 30$ or so to have it delivered back home to me. I was asking for 100$ for this item and spent almost the same amount to have it travel back and forth again. I was unaware of the fact that a lot of people say they are going to buy/do something then just ignore it. Infuriating indeed...
dont you love when they ask if you will trade for it ?? lol
Colin Long I was offered a cedar cabinet for a hp laserjet 4300dtn. I was asking for cash only and that is how I replied. The individual still tried to talk me into a trade for something I was very much not interested in!
Going through your videos now old to new and like this one best, so far. I just started eBay'ing and very interesting to see others selling practices and this video helps a lot with the things I won't find out about till later. Thanks
I was 1 year old in 2013
conglaturation
I absolutely LOVE this! Imagine doing this 20 years ago with VCRs. Folks would OK repair estimates. I would do the approved work. They would show up two years later, after repeated attempts to contact them, wondering about their VCR I sold a year ago. Duh?
As of 12/09/2016 there's 120 dislikes on this video. Basically 120 of the idiots & bottom feeders he's referring to disliked being called out. -Great video amigo!
Yea it couldnt possibly be because the entire premise of this video is petty. Instead of making a video whining about this shit.... dont answer the question.
@@PolygonalThoughts Yeah, part of "the reality of doing business" is the BS you go through as a buyer or seller.
What's worse is throughout the last 5-6 years, eBay has strategically screwed sellers in every way possible. You can't functionally sell as-is products anymore, you can't leave negative feedback when warranted, and they will always side with the buyer.
Welcome to the wonderful world of dealing with Humans.
No more eBay selling. Too many fees (even a free from shipping cost) and now they make you wait days to get your money. Husband has had people drive hours for a Craigslist item like a dirt bike, then they try to haggle, husband says no and they go right back home lol! One guy came from 2 states away to buy a $25k truck and only brought $20k, husband said no deal, so the dummy drove back home to get more money from a family member and come back. Unreal...
I quit selling on ebay when i couldn't use paypal to get paid, but i can buy ebay stuff with paypal? Makes no sense.
You are a very patient man. :-)
I think you're a great guy. This video is wonderful because all of this is current frustrations with both eBay and Craigslist. People don't understand the value of time and being charitable with it often gets overlooked. There is too much sense of entitlement with people.
Yep. 50% of Craig's List customers just do not show up.
Phenomena of human nature.
My number 1 issue with Ebay is that they get 10% on ANYTHING SOLD! The second issue is people breaking the device just to return it!
The buyer, often young, inexperienced or short on funds is not being responsible to themselves if they don't ask question regarding a potential purchase..You are honest but some vendors are not.. The questions they ask may not be the right questions or redundant but it really doesn't call for criticism. They are your customers.
What if you went into a store and the owner rolled his eyes at the customer's every stupid question..
I know a ton of e-mail to answer can be a burden but perhaps a a polite form letter re-stating your business practices with the product description pasted in might be helpful for general questions..
Also a tip for you.. along with all the CRT TV's ending up at the dump are dozens of orphaned computers with nothing wrong with them except fuck-up operating systems. I have never found one that was physically broken. A dry period without rain yields the best results. These can be put up for sale for people hard pressed for funds.
+Larkinchance i really want a crt monitor. well for free but ill have to do some hunting at the dump or something. i know this is irrelevant but yeah.
+Larkinchance This was said above, but if a seller would lie in a listing, why wouldn't they like in an email? If they provided all of the information about the product that you need and you are literally just making them repeat themselves, you won't get far.
I'm so tempted now to find all your eBay listings and ask "What condition is it in?"
HAHA
Thanks for your videos. I ended up on your video about restoring yellowed plastic, but since I learned programming on an Apple IIe I watched several of your videos.
Good luck with your business and personal museum.
What is your eBay account name.
+Bhargav Garre Venkata (not Cool iOS Tips) He stopped selling iBooks because they were getting too obsolete
I was selling a broken freezer for cheap once and my description said that it was broken in the first sentence, but I still had a person call and ask me if the freezer was in good working condition.
are you the 8 bit guy or are you the ibook guy?
He made a video on why he changed it... He changed it because he rarely made videos of iBooks anymore and 8-bit Guy fit the cut better
+Marryann claritan I'm definitely the 8-Bit guy... but I used to be the iBookGuy.
+Marryann claritan The iBookGuy died and was secretly replaced by a look-alike that goes by the alias of The 8-Bit Guy. The channel is now run by the look-alike but he subtly drops clues to the original iBookGuy's death in the form of secret messages you can only hear by listening to his videos backwards.
cool
+802.11boy Yep probably
you know, just a couple months ago i've had trouble with craigslist people. i tried to buy an air conditioner from various people, but when i went to go meet these people i got excuses like "i can't find a babysitter so i can not meet you" (mind you this was in a neighboring county and i was pretty much at the meeting point when i got that message) to "i already sold it" after i wasted my time going to the meeting point. finally my dad got me an ac unit from my uncle for free so it was their loss.
People are just dumb.
This is a really interesting video because it shows the difference between how a tech person thinks and how everyone else thinks. There are rational reasons for many of those seemingly insane questions but it isn't obvious to everyone. When someone asks you the price of something that is already posted, they're hoping to get a discount or be the first person to get the new price on a listing that you're about to mark down. If they ask you if it can do some obscure thing they need, they want to have an excuse to return it if it doesn't meet their need- they're trying to get the low price advantage of the second hand market AND the convenience of customer service of a retail market.
...without saying so.
But keep in mind : plain ineptitude is still likely.
Can you send me a laptop, my dog died
I recently bought a few peripherals for my Tandy 1000 RSX (monitor, power switching centre, and 9-pin dot-matrix printer, all Tandy brand name, and some sourced VRAM chips to upgrade the video RAM and a math co-processor). I spent $93 USD on the items themselves, but with shipping and conversion rate, it ended up being around $400 CAD. This is what I spent my tax returns on. Most people would have put it to a modern game system or big-screen TV, but like many of you, I like vintage machines.
Anyways, the people I interacted with on E-Bay were friendly and went out of their way to provide any extra information and/or pictures that I required. However, as a buyer, I actually had to ask for that information because they did not provide it. Most of them were people who recognized that they had obtained a piece of "vintage" hardware, and wanted to put it out there for somebody who could use it for their collection, but did not know much about the item themselves or of the systems they might have been used on. So, I had to ask questions to tease out of them what I needed to know to determine if I wanted to spend the money (again, shipping and conversion cost more than the items themselves.) The flip side of that, is that their lack of knowledge may have contributed to the low (initial) price tag, compared to some of the competing items I was looking at.
I ended up getting the sourced VRAM chips from an Israeli supplier and the math co-processor from China, because it was cheaper to ship them internationally than from the US.
And not only do I play DOS and early windows games on it, I program with it. I installed a second parallel port so that I'd have a dedicated port for the parallel interface that I'm building and developing the code for (the on-board has the external 5.25" floppy, ZIP drive, and printer). So for practising first principles of electronics and programming, AND for retro gaming, I'd say I've gotten my money's worth.
One does NOT retro on a modern LCD monitor. It ruins the experience. >:-(
Never underestimate how stupid people are.
I picked an interesting time to watch this video, I've got a product auction going on ebay right now and I've had two of the top 6 questions.
Someone trying to lowball me an offer even though he's already placed a bid and there's not really much I can do even if I wanted to.
And someone who asked me details on the product that were listed on the listing page.
The worst part about the second guy is that he also asked for details on shipping costs to get the item shipped from the US to Kenya where he lives.
I am Australian, I live in Australia and the product is listed as only being available in Australia because prices to ship such a heavy object outside of Australia would make buying a used version of it rather than just getting a brand new one completely pointless.