Is using ebay a good idea?

Buying a used computer on ebay?

• I really want to purchase a MacBook, but buying one brand new seems outrageous. I've been looking at some on eBay. I am familiar with eBay, and have purchased several things on eBay using PayPal, but never a purchase as big as a computer. Is it a bad idea to buy a used MacBook on eBay? What would happen if I received the computer and it didn't work?

• Answer:

  If you received it and it didn't work, and it said in the description that it worked fine, then you would send a message to the seller telling them that it did not work, and that you want a refund. Read the description very carefully before buying or bidding on eBay. I have made no returns policy whenever I sell something. Which, if the item is not as described, then I do not think the no return policy would hold up, I think eBay would expect me to get a refund. If you did buy one and it did not work, the cost of return shipping could be an issue. The seller probably would expect you to pay it. Also, if I bought something that did not work and it was supposed to, I would expect the seller to also cover the shipping cost for the item to be sent to me in the first place. I've never had to deal with returning an item however, as all of my eBay purchases have been okay. Anyway, most likely you would have no problem. Just check out the feedback of the seller to see if previous buyers have had any trouble with any of the seller's items not being as described. I imagine the packing used for a computer would be important, and an experienced seller would know how to pack it properly. If you do decide to go the eBay route, a couple of buying/saving ideas: If you send the seller a question about an item, find another of their listings, and send the question from that item page, rather than from the one that you actually want. This will add a bit of work for the seller, if they want to add the q/a to the item page that you're interested in. Maybe they won't bother, and maybe any potential bidders/buyers would not bother to send the seller the question themselves, rather just looking for another one. If you see an item that you want listed in auction format, send the seller a message asking if they will accept $x to end the auction early and sell the item to you. If that does not work, use a sniping service such as Bidball.com to bid for you. It'll bid in the last few seconds, helping you to save money and avoid shill bidding. If there is a particular item that you are looking for, and especially if it is relatively rare on eBay, use a site like Ebuyersedge.com to set up saved searches. You'd get an e-mail whenever a match is listed. Great for "Buy It Now"s priced right. You can use the price, category, exclude Word, etc. filters to narrow down the list of results that you receive in the e-mails. If the item that you are looking for is difficult to spell, try a misspelling search site like Typojoe.com to hopefully find some deals with items that have main keywords misspelled in the title. Other interested buyers might never see them.