But many of those "beware" threads are also done by people who dont research, dont ask the perhaps obvious but needed questions, or just dont use common sense.. In other words they assume too much, and then spew shit over the seller when they get disappointed when he wont cover their own mistakes. Not saying this was the case for you either way, but in general that is often what it is.
If i run into a beware-thread i take it into account, but i dont base everything off it. It also depends heavily on how many actually share their own bad experiences with that person. Some people have bad experiences where others dont. You had a bad experience, i did not. Sure, my order was less than $55 all in all so i didnt put as much though into it as if it had been a $550 purchase, but thats still quite a lot of money to me, especially since im unemployed. Its not money i wish to lose or take for granted, thats like food for a week for me.
I didnt see this thread before i purchased from him, and judging by his feedback on ebay, he seems pretty fair to trade from to me, especially based on my experience once the deal is done and i have my goods. 3620 positive, 9 neutral and 4 negative in the past 12 months isnt bad. And if you check the two negatives he's had one is yours, and the other can be speculated the buyer didnt ask questions to protect his interest.. Im not saying he didnt, as i have no way of knowing. But i can easily imagine him seeing "box shows wear" as something minor, whilst another person might consider 3 big rips (if they were 3 big rips) as "wear". Ive been in too many discussions on how differently people grade items to even do it anymore. If its described as that, i would ask to see pics of the "wear", and if he didnt want to picture it for me, i look elsewhere. So again, not saying its the case as i have no way of knowing, but this could be one of those buyers who disagreed on what wear is, which is his right, and therefor left negative feedback hastily out of anger and disappointment. I would not neglect his experience, but compared to the 3600+ of positive feedback, i couldnt judge the seller as bad over his (or your) experience alone.
I find it best to take other people's experience into account and let them guide you, rather then let them dictate what you should or should not do. Regardless of if its a purchase or something else.
Im not defending this seller, nor saying everyone should or shouldnt buy from him really, im just arguing a point, that if you do your research, ask anal questions you stand a much better chance of not being disapointed. For example, i ALWAYS ask if the item will ship in a box, and how it will be protected during shipping, if im buying something that can easily be damaged in transit. Loose carts are fine in a bubble envelope for example, but a Sega CD case, standard cd case, cardboard box games etc i ALWAYS make sure they package it well, and have rarely seen a poor job as a result. So ask all these things, be thourough even if you shouldnt have to, because people are people and most people are fairly lazy and stupid, especially on ebay or internet-shopping as a whole. I purchased that new PC Engine RPG that was released not long ago, and forgot to ask how it was being shipped. It was shipped in a plastic envelope with NO bubble-wrap or other protection what so ever. Of course the case was crushed once it arrived with me here in sweden. Couldve been avoided with a simple question of upgraded shipping..
As for general ebay selling, the people i find to be bad sellers in general are those where i have recieved overly filthy items, or tobacco smoke infested items that are hard or impossible to get the smoke out of, where the condition has not been described. But again, if you ASK about that in particular, you have that covered if it goes to a dispute. I generally try to ask about tobacco smoke, but i forgot when i finally found a decently priced Mutant League Hockey boxed with manual. It arrived, and the manual itself stinks of tobacco smoke, so right now its in a plastic bag with kitty litter as that is said to help bring that out, if that doesnt work ill try baking soda. But i cant really go and complain as an afterthought. The seller should have described this yes, but again you, the buyer, has all the tools to avoid things like that by simply asking these types of questions. Therefor i didnt give him a bad or neutral feedback, but if i end up buying from him again, ill make sure to ask these things that should be obviously described to begin with.
Again, i want to clarify that i am not judging you, or telling you what you should or shouldnt have done to avoid this bad experience you had. I am simply sharing my thoughts and reasoning when it comes to buying items online, especially from abroad since thats usually the case for me, and therefor requires more forethought since issues will get expensive quickly as ebay do nor re-imburse international shipping yet requires expensive trackable shipping which may sometimes end up more expensive than the product itself, as was the case when i got scammed with a counterfeit DS3 controller from a Hong Kong vendor. It was simply not worth returning it.
