There’s one thing everybody needs to understand about this thread,
and that is that E-Bay does not involve itself in the buyer/seller
business until if and when someone files a legitimate complaint.
Legitimate meaning fraud, theft, and other things of that nature. “I
paid too much for shipping” is between you/us and the seller. Don’t
blame E-Bay - they are no different from the land owners who permit
people to have flea markets every Sunday. Not only do they not
pretend to be more than that, they actually state it outright, if you
care to read it, in their pages about themselves and their policies.
It’s simply not E-bay’s fault that some people turn a profit on
shipping - Caveat Emptor.
The owner of the store I work from also buys lots of stones on Ebay
(lives and breathes Ebay, for that matter). He is a consummate ‘deal
hunter’. Most of the stones he buys are unusual items, fancy names
I’ve never heard of, nice colors. Always come with a ‘Certificate of
Authenticity’ stating what it is and how much it is worth (of course
much more than he paid). Some of the weird name things I can’t find
in any gemological or mineralogical reference. The latest ‘find’ is a
bright blue Iolite. I’ve never seen one this shade of blue, and I am
fairly familiar with that stone. To me, it looks just like the
imitation September birthstone sold by Stuller and every other
supplier out there. Who knows?
Amusing until it happens to you, I suppose.
You can get a badly cut CZ for .50. 
Ebay is a virtual flea market… The sellers are getting rid of stuff
they don’t want, or is basically something they wouldn’t be able to
sell to someone in person if they saw the item. Remember, pictures
can be enhanced and edited so basing a purchase on that (on Ebay) is
not a great idea.
I feel bad for customers if they are getting ebay marked up jewelry.
Craig
www.creativecutgems.com
Gemstones on ebay are about the same quality as those you get from
places like ‘jewelry television’. Piece work done at bad angles, with
bad polish, etc.
If you’re using that stuff in your ‘high end’ jewelry then I have to
wonder about ‘high end’ jewelry.
I have an article on this on my website -
http://www.creativecutgems.com/comcut.asp
Craig
www.creativecutgems.com
It's simply not E-bay's fault that some people turn a profit on shipping
Yes, but overcharging for shipping more than a “reasonable amount”
(those are ebay’s words) is against the rules, as is forcing a
person to pay an unreasonable amount for insurance, like $1 for each
thing you buy on a multiple auction.
Since I can’t put in an ebay link, here is the text from the ebay
website (I hope that is OK):
Here is the specific wording:
Unreasonable shipping or handling costs - The seller may add
a reasonable shipping and handling fee to the final price of
the item, but may not charge excessive shipping and handling
fees, excessive required insurance fees, or excessive (or not
applicable) taxes in an effort to make the item appear
artificially inexpensive, to avoid eBay fees, or for any other
purposes. A shipping and handling fee may cover the seller's
reasonable costs for mailing, packaging, and handling the item.
Shipping and handling fees may not be listed as a percentage of
the final sale price.
Please see the complete
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-shipping.html
Excessive Shipping and Handling policy for more details.
Laura
Hmmmm…I looked up Laura’s bad seller on E-Bay. Their site is
concise, their appears accurate, their gems look like
the written description and the seller has minimal bad feedback
compared to their large number of sales. So…I have to eat my own
words. I can’t figure out how one could know that this seller was a
rat, even with careful reading. Except of course for the usual:
too-good-to-be- true caveat.
I look forward to others on Orchid who have promised toasting this
seller like a marshmallow over a fire in order to expose them.
Please do report what you find as I am perplexed. I have had some
great experiences with e-bay, and very few bad ones. This shows me
that i have been lucky I suppose.
Lisa, (Today I bought these cool battery powered paper lanterns at
Target in preparation for summer. Can’t wait for the warm weather to
begin!) Topanga, CA USA
A less obvious (But can be more extreme if you buy a lot of cheap
lots) is when buyers have postage of say $8 plus $1.50 per extra lot
purchased". Gemstone dealers can of course ship one lot or 100 at
that same $8 cost. The extra lots dont add extra postage costs.
You can easily see dealers going through extremes saying “If you
dont like my postage charges dont bid” which means that you dont have
any right to complain if you buy something.
However, ebay does have a rule called “fee avoidance” which
specifically talks about excessive postage charges. However, ebay
does not enforce this rule which in practise de facto means that ebay
does do not have a rule against postage gougings.
You can easily find bidders, particularly in asia (Especially the
guys selling synthetic stones as genuine but sellers selling genuine
stones to) adding $2 extra per lot purchased.
My opinion is that you should consider the integrity of anybody
doing this. If somebody will pull one scam you have to think they
wouldent think twice about pulling a second oen at the same time.
These sellers pulling this scam clearly state their postage rules in
their auctions so in a way its not really fair to complain when the
seller asks you to pay the postage that is stated in the auction
description.Usually the hi postage costs shouldent be a surprise if
you read the lot description. On another note somebody said that it
was against ebay rules to post ebay user id’s here on this list? How
does ebay influence this list to the point that members must abide by
that rule?
It is true that you have to be careful on ebay. But it is probably
your cheapest potential source of material also so I wouldent
overlook ebay.
Sincerely
DEAN
He doesn't have formal training in identifying stones but he claims he is getting amazing deals. "Amazing deals" like multi-thousand dollar stones for a couple hundred. I wonder if it's all "too good to be true".
Oh for goodness sakes! If it walks like a duck, quacks like a
duck… it is a duck.
Of course it is too good to be true; let alone to have it happen
multiple times. If he is so pleased with his amazing deals, have him
take some of they money he has saved on them and have the stones
appraised by a GIA certified gemologist.
$10 says the “amazing” part falls into the seller’s ability to get
people to pay the hundreds.
Cameron
p.s., Do not get me wrong, I happen to like Ebay but I stay within
the realm of things I know about: American 1800’s sterling; some
antiques and some vintage jewelry. I operate under Caveat Emptor at
all times; as I would at any live auction house; flea market, etc.,
etc.
I buy stones on eBay frequently. You do not get “amazing deals”, i.e.
multi-thousand dollar stones for a few hundred. If you deal with the
right people (and I only deal with three) you can get very good to
excellent stones at a bargain price. But people are catching on to
that fact, and prices are rising accordingly.
Of course, the postage & insurance costs are ridiculous for
quantities of cheap items, and the postage instructions don’t
specifically state that the costs are PER PIECE in the Dutch auction,
but there is something I am not clear on. This seller doesn’t sell
any diamonds at all, everything states that it is a diamond SIMULANT,
CZ in this case. Did you realize that these were not really synthetic
diamonds, just cubic zirconia, and that CZ’s are in no way related to
diamonds? Pretty, yes - Diamonds, no. I hope you haven’t sold any
pieces using these types of gems where you represented them as
diamonds of any kind. That could open you up to the legal
responsibility to replace the pieces with REAL synthetic diamonds,
which could cost you thousands of dollars. If you haven’t sold any,
then just make sure if you do progress to sales, that simulated gems
are not confused with synthetic gems. Synthetic diamonds are
laboratory grown real diamonds, not CZ’s.
Lee Cornelius
Vegas Jewelers
eBay doesn’t enforce much of anything anymore. At one time their
’Safe Harbor’ team did a pretty good job of keeping things on an
even keel, but they are powerless now. Frankly, I don’t see what all
of the fuss is about eBay. Do your homework, find a few good dealers
(they exist) and establish a relationship. It can work if you’re
prudent and protect yourself.
Brian Corll
Vassar Gems
Overgeneralization, Craig. There are some legitimate gem dealers on
eBay who have some very nice material, one in particular who has
excellent material. If you’d like, I’ll tell you who two or three of
them are.
Brian Corll
Vassar Gems
I purchased some small red spinels, just to see what a seller had -
they were absolutely, without question, lab grown, even though they
were represented as natural, and he insisted they were natural. Wavy
growth lines and lack of inclusions are a give-away. They weren’t
even a steal price. If you can’t determine what you’ve got for
yourself, you need a reputable seller.
Leslie
I’ll say one last thing on this thread - I hope -. I am a big user
of EBay - got 50th feedback lately, all from buying. The latest
bargain I got was about $1200 worth of cutting tools for $80
w/shipping - yes, I’m serious. But you have to pay attention to get
those. I often don’t even look at the auctions, I just hit the “Show
Buy it Now” button, and pay for items, like a store. In fact I mostly
go to Ebay stores for most everything. And I ALWAYS look at the
feedback, and actually read through it, for anybody new - also those
bidding on things I want. That, to me, is what makes Ebay stand
apart, is the feedback - people gain a reputation, good or bad.
Finally, a story: for whatever reason I was searching for something,
and there in front of me, believe it or not, was an enigma machine -
the reserve price was $1 million. Where on earth besides Ebay are you
going to find that? (Enigma Machine Incredibly complex German WW2
code machine of which there are about 5 or 10 in the world and yes
they all belong in museums…)
Laura,
I checked the seller’s site. The only Russian “diamonds” I could find
were listed as Russian SIMULATED diamonds. Could it be, Laura that
you overlooked the word "simulated? The seller clearly stated his
shipping prices as well. That is obviously where he makes his profit.
After all, you can’t expect him to sell a 7/8 ct. stone for 59 cents
(that’s an actual “buy it now” example from his ebay store listing)
and ship it to you at actual shipping cost, do you? That stone will
cost you $4.59 by the time you get it. That’s $3.00 shipping, $1.00
insurance and.59 for the stone. For a RETAIL price, that sounds
reasonable to me. If you were to buy the same thing from Rio Grande
however you could get a package of 10 for $7.80 (plus shipping of
course). The upshot of the whole thing is he didn’t rip you off, you
just weren’t a careful shopper. :’(
Jerry in Kodiak
laura -
you can cancel your bid and give the true reason; it should not go
against you. if the seller posts a bad feedback for canceling, you
can state “outrageous unlisted s&h & insur. charges [# of miles
away]”
it’s worth a try and might draw ‘that company’s’ attention to an
unscrupulous seller. it grows at about 25% every year and at some
point has to stop expending all its effort on pleasing stockholders
and start policing itself on behalf of the people who earn all those
profits for it: small sellers and buyers.
ive
who wonders just why so many companies listed as "located in usa"
require shipping fees high enough to reach across the pacific. hmmm?
The upshot of the whole thing is he didn't rip you off, you just weren't a careful shopper
Well, this is true if you were going to buy only one item, but when
you buy 42 items and he won’t combine shipping and insurance,
although he will combine them in one package, it gets out of hand.
Remember, I was to pay $42 for insurance and $96 for shipping from
Utah to Arizona by first class mail.
No matter how you look at it, this is not right. It was around
$200.00 for a total and as everyone has said, these are probably CZ,
certainly not what you would get from Rio. I should have just looked
in the Rio catalog and gone from there. Rio DOES combine shipping,
which is the problem with this scam artist. He doesn’t, even though
he ships the items all together in one package. (And btw, I never
thought they were diamonds, did you think I did?)
Anyway, ebay has pulled his auctions and I don’t have to complete
the transaction, which I wouldn’t have anyway. Yes, I was careless
and I am usually not. However, I would not want anyone else to be
sucked into this scam, which is what it is.
Laura
Hi Lee,
No, I don’t sell my jewelry based on the quality of the gemstones I
use. I would describe these as yellow CZ’s. I was just looking for a
nice looking stone, not a quality stone. My jewelry is sold based on
its artistic quality and quality of workmanship. I would never over
state my materials. I do like good quality, but I do not work with
real diamonds, etc. This is not my focus.
Thanks,
Laura
Laura H. Hastings
Eclectica Jewelry
Tucson, Arizona
USA
http://www.rubylane.com/shops/eclectica
I second Brian’s comments. There are some very good merchants to be
found on Ebay. I have my favorites and would love to sing their
praises. Just search watermelon tourmaline beads and you’ll see what
I mean. There’s a ‘carver’ there who makes cabs that amaze me every
week; I never miss his show. Even if you don’t know the merchant and
are concerned with their honesty, read their feedback, find their
negatives and see how they dealt with them. Read the positives and
see how many repeat happy people they have. Click to the right and
see what they bought. I wouldn’t buy eye clean stones from a new
merchant and expect no concerns, but inclusions and patterns you’re
familiar with, absolutely. If you can’t resist buying eye clean or
flawless, use good judgement in determining what kind of lighting
and background the stone was presented in. Also, when concidering a
new merchant, ask questions, anything, to see how they communicate.
That’s what we do in the real world, right?
I can’t cancel my bids (I tried!) because it was Buy it Now.
I have reported him over and over for breaking the rule of
circumventing ebay fees by charging outrageous shipping, but ebay
only pulled one of the auctions and has not responded on the others.
I am just not going to pay, no matter what. What will happen in all
likelihood is the guy will file for non-paying bidder alert, which I
will then contest and maybe that way, ebay will see what he is doing.
They seem to be ignoring me now. I have wasted horrid amounts of
time, that I really don’t have right now (busy, busy!).
I will let you know what happens. I appreciate your help.
Laura