SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!, Ebay so ROCKS!!! Options

[BookWyrm]

I just scored a copy of Street Magic from Ebay for $11 less than cover price. :D

[Kagetenshi]

Heathen.

~J

[BookWyrm]

Yeah? Hey, if I can save the cash, it just goes to the rest of the books. Now I have to snag the GM's Screen.

[Slithery D]

Misprint.

[Dranem]

Never trust any deal on eBay until you have the item in your hands...

[Kagetenshi]

[BookWyrm]

LOL, thanks, Kagetenshi. I think.

Dranem, I know what you mean. If I'm dissatisfied, I'll send it back & give the guy a negative rating. To date, the items I gained from Ebay (my Tim The Enchanter hat, Talking Holy Grail, plush Holy Hand Grenade & a copy of Killer!) & those my father gets (lots of IBM laptop parts....he repairs them as a hobby/business), everything has been perfect. Maybe 3 items he's gotten out of 20 had to go back, but were swiftly replaced & exactly what was ordered.

[Jrayjoker]

If it was the one with some cover damage, that seller is great. I have bought from them before with good results.

[Chrome Shadow]

I bought all 40 Shadowrun original novels plus the 4th ed book on ebay too, at great pricess...

[fistandantilus4....]

I should be getting mine and Runner Havens from my FLGS pretty son. Stoked.
And keeping my FLGS in business!

[BookWyrm]

My FLGS is also my fave comic shop, so there's no problem there.

[eidolon]

Bah. I roll my eyes every time someone tries to imply that any time you buy something on the internet, you're going down to the FLGS and putting a brick throught the front window.

[Turtle]

[BookWyrm]

This is quite true. When I can't spare the full price on a book I order, my FLGS lets me put it on hold & pay off a little at a time until I cover it, or it's on hold until the Holidays, then it's part of my gift from all the members in my family (saves time & frustration searching for it all). Still, I prefer going each week to my FLGS & checking out what's in, even if there's nothing in for me.

[Zolhex]

My FLGS sells on e-bay so how would you rate that?

[SpasticTeapot]

[BookWyrm]

Then you're going to the wrong gaming store, Teapot. You can usually tell if the proprietors are in it for the money by the way they treat their customers. Even if you;re trustworthy, the ones looking for the quick buck will try to screw you any way they can ("Sure, I can hold that stuff for ya, just gotta put half down first...."). My FLCS (Friendly Local Comic Shop) gave me my own membership to their prefered customers almost a year after I started with them (putting my ordered comics & such aside from the begining) & I reciprocate by sending as much business as I can their way. True, the owner is a bit eccentric, but he's an OK guy.
Some of the other comic shops in my area are just in it for the cash, which is why they close up so quickly.

[Adam]

I find it hard to believe that putting a deposit down on a product that you want held is in any way "trying to make a quick buck" and a precursor to "screwing you any way that they can."

If you ask anyone to put a product on hold, they cannot sell that copy of the product to anyone else. They've already spent 60% [roughly] of the cover price buying that book, and so they need at least that much money in order to order another copy to sit on the shelf so someone else can buy it.

Anything longer than "Hey, I gotta hit an ATM and check my balance before I pick this up -- can you hold it until the end of the day? If I don't come in and pick it up, I'll grab it next week if you still have it." should be accompanied by a deposit, as should pre-orders. That's not "in it for the money" -- that's smart business sense, and that's the real failing of most small businesses, not "being in it for the money."

[BookWyrm]

That's probably true, Adam. But it's been in my experience that some comic/hobby shop will do almost anything for an immediate payoff. One comic shop that was not far from me in Hempstead tried to sell off an extra run of The Punisher as "collector's items" by having them shot up & the bullet casings left in the semi-intact issues. Then, shortly after a particularly nasty rainstorm, they hosed down the entire stock to claim water damages from the insurance company.

Yes, that's just bad business practice by those schmucks, but there are a LOT more of them than the honest ones.

Also, as best as I can explain it, it's a feeling you get when you walk into the place.

[Adam]

And none of that has anything to do with requiring a deposit on held items. Random examples of shitty game stores doing shifty things doesn't make a good business practice into a bad one.

[Critias]

Right, Adam. But if 100% of the companies that have wanted deposits from him have been shitty companies, too, then it's fair to say that in his experience, 100% of deposit-seeking companies do shitty stuff to their customers (or anyone else) to make a quick buck.

It's an opinion. I think he's allowed one.

[Adam]

Well, except that he said that he puts items on hold at his current game/comic store -- which he speaks of quite highly, frequently -- and pays them incrementally. So 100% of them can't be shitty. :)

[BookWyrm]

I wasn't saying that 100% of deposit-seeking companies are sh*tty, just the few that I've had experience with. Some proprietors come off like sleazy b*stards, some don't.

I appologise to all that this thread went so far off....well, thread.

[eidolon]

[fistandantilus4....]

I buy plenty of stuff from used book stores an online, and I know I don't have much cash to throw around. It's just that there's been a very high tunr over rate of game stores in my area, so I try to do waht I can for the one that I like. It's got a great owner that loves SR, and is an all around good guy in my opinion, so I try to do what I can. I wasn't trying to be snarky, 'pologize if it came off that way.