Buying antiques on eBay – part 3 – is the seller reliable?

Here is the belated third part of my guide to buying antiques, vintage and collectables on eBay – checking out the seller .

Lets assume you’ve followed my advice on searching on eBay and have found a treasure you are thinking of buying. The next step is to check out the seller to see if they are reliable. eBay provides us with a number of guides towards this:

- date joined
- the total number of feedback
- the percent positive, feedback
- how buyers rate the accuracy of the descriptions by the seller
- how buyers rate the sellers communications
- how quick is the dispatch time
- how fair are the P&P charges

To access these click on the number in brackets next to the sellers name, now you will see a “Feedback profile”.
Personally I am wary of sellers with low feedback and recently registered – they might be ok but this could also be a new selling Id for someone who’s previous feedback was very bad.
Next, look at the percent positive – One bad feedback occasionally is to be expected but in general terms I would not want to see more than 0.5 % negative or at least 99.5% positive before I would trust a seller.

Now, look at the star rating – in my opinion the first line for accuracy of description is the most important for buying antiques, collectables and vintage – after all condition of the item makes so much difference to the thing we are purchasing. Expect a good seller to have a 4.5 or preferably higher star rating here.

Communications star rating is also important as it gives an indicator of how a seller will deal with you if things go wrong.
Dispatch time – here I can forgive a low star rating if all the other ratings are high – I can wait a few days if necessary for the perfect piece.

The star rating for P&P prices is also less important . I would check a listing in advance for the P&P cost and therefore would know if the cost was acceptable before I bid.

So – as long as the seller has 95.5% positive feedback or above, their accuracy of description and communication starts are above 4.5 – I say go ahead take a chance and trust this seller ( but cover yourself and always pay with paypal).