Buying Games on Ebay

[Ruki]

I'm thinking of buying some cheap games on Ebay for 360, but a few questions: Have you ever been scammed out of your money? How long does it usually take? Is paypal that safe? And does this look like a good deal: GH World Tour

[Magus978]

I've not had any issues buying games on eBay so far. I don't do it anymore, but I have not had any issues as far as buying goes.

[GhostMachine]

Check Amazon before you buy any games off eBay. You actually may be able to get a better deal on some of them there, if they're available for the free super saver shipping.

[Ruki]

So, I set my paypal account up with my credit card, but it still says it is unverified. Do I NEED to add my bank info?

[AJ]

No you don't. Some sellers require you to be verified but usually only when you're making big purchases like motorbikes and ridiculous things like that.

I bought a ton of my PS2 games off ebay and back in January I bought Rock Band (All instruments + game - new) off there and I've had no problems whatsoever.

As with any ebay purchase, just make sure you read the listing thoroughly twice and if possible use your credit card because then you're better covered than with a debit card.

[Ruki]

Awesome, thanks! I just placed a bid on the Lost game....6 cents

Edit: Apparently the other person bidding has something set up to place a bid RIGHT after I make mine....

Edited April 8, 2009 by Ruki Nagato

[alldaws1]

I've bought and sold 360 games on eBay before and never had any trouble. One piece of advice I would give, though, is to buy off people with decent feedback scores. It may seem obvious but don't bother with people who don't have much or any positive feedback, it probably won't be worth your time.

[AJ]

Awesome, thanks! I just placed a bid on the Lost game....6 cents

Edit: Apparently the other person bidding has something set up to place a bid RIGHT after I make mine....

If you set your minimum bid to something like $10. ebay will automatically outbid other people on your behalf up until that limit.

It's best just to wait until the auction has a few hours (or minutes) left rather than bumping the price when there's lots of time left. Always set yourself a limit in your head too of how much you're prepared to spend before you start bidding. Then you won't be upset about losing out if it's more than what you're willing to pay anyway.

[Ruki]

Awesome, thanks for all the help. Now, two more questions: Does it tell me when I get outbidded? And does it automatically come off my creditcard when I win?

[AJ]

You'll get e-mail notifications as well as the page itself displaying differently. When the auction ends if you've been successful you then go through the payment part with paypal or google checkout or whatever you're using. I'm not sure how the new feedback system works for buyers (I heard somewhere you now can't get negative feedback) but best to do it as soon as possible after the auction anyways.

[Toe]

eBay is incredibly safe, as long as you read the listing thoroughly and make sure it says you are getting what you want.

[Red Devil-Taker316]

I've bought tons of games off of E-Bay and never had a problem.

Ironically, my only online problem was on Amazon, and I just said fuck it to the $14 game.

[AnnIQ Edison]

I bought GHWT off Ebay and the game game to me cracked. The seller was real nice about it though and said it must have been damaged in the mail as it came from a different state so I mailed it back and he refunded it completely

Edited April 9, 2009 by The Inquisition

[Plubby]

I have a particular seller over east that I deal with and he's been fantastic - got me NHL 06 back in the day, and I bought the Mechwarrior 4 games from him more recently. I plan to shop there a lot more when I get my debit credit card I think if you trust in the feedback system (99.9% positive over 10K refs for example) you shouldn't go wrong.

[Ruki]

Won my first auction! Yay!

NBA Street Home Court for 16.46.

[Cactus Drags]

That game is sweet, I wish I hadn't gotten rid of my copy, I've seen like two of them since I started working at Gamestation last year.

[GhostMachine]

Won my first auction! Yay!

NBA Street Home Court for 16.46.

Congrats!

Check the Buy It Now options and see if you can find any deals. Even though those aren't auctions, you can sometimes find some good stuff that way.

And always ALWAYS check the shipping on anything before you bid on it. One trick sellers do to get around the eBay fees is to sell something cheap and then jack up the shipping, since eBay doesn't get a cut of that.

Edited April 9, 2009 by GhostMachine

[Ruki]

By the looks of it, in a few hours I will have won Lego Indiana Jones, Kung-Fu Panda, Nascar 08 and some other game

[Herr Matzat]

I have bought a shitloadd of stuff of ebay. Usualy i saved money and got the stuff i wanted... but i lost like two PS2 games in the last X years. (one never arived, one arived riped open)

But since buy protection via paypal is very high nowerdays it should be less of a risk to ever lose anything again.

[Docpepper]

I still buy games and dvds off ebay but not as much as I use too(I trade games and dvds and such on another site now) I always go for buy it now items. I hated bidding for an item only to get sniped at the end.

Check the seller's feedback and their rating if it's lower than 98% I don't do business. and check the shipping as mentioned before as well as read the item description completely.

if you have the patience you can get some good deals