Should I buy shoes from Ebay? – 3 Reasons why I use Ebay and 3 Reasons why people don’t use Ebay
Published by Tom on
It’s always exciting to buy new shoes or boots. It’s a bonus if they are discounted and delivered promptly. Ebay or any other second handed markets are popular for people searching for budget shoes. Often you will find amazing products with amazing sellers but other times it’s not always great. Here are three reasons why I still use Ebay and three reasons why people don’t.
1 Cheap Products on Ebay
The products are cheap! You will be able to find great products and they will be cheaper than buying from the store. People will post anything on the second hand market, and if you are looking at those sites at a correct time, you will be able to buy great products at a good price.
For example, I picked up my Carmina cordovan boots from Ebay less than half the price and thy are in a great condition. I could tell that the boots were just tried on because there were less creases and the soles were almost brand new. If there is a great pick up with an amazing product, why wouldn’t you use Ebay.
2 Rare products on Ebay
Since it’s a marketplace where everyone can join to sell whatever they have. It’s a great place to look for rare products. You will be able to find products that are currently not selling in the stores and also some limited edition collectables. Now, the matter of the product being legit or not is something that we need to consider before buying them. But generally speaking, there are not many counterfeit boots and shoes. Also it’s very easy to tell.
If you are trying to buy something else and if you are not able to tell if the product is counterfeit or not, I would be more cautious.
3 Ask Ebay seller for help
Good thing about a second hand market like Ebay is that you can contact the sellers. You can contact them for a cheaper price for the product. You can ask the seller to provide better photos. You can ask the seller for many things as long as it’s reasonable. They have to be reasonable or the seller will refuse to sell the product and also, it’s not nice to have an unreasonable buyer.
So those are the top 3 reasons why I still use Ebay or other second handed market to buy shoes or boots. There are 4 things that I use every time to look out for bad sellers when I am using Ebay, which I will write about in the next article.
Here are three most likely reasons why people are not using Ebay anymore.
1 Scammers on Ebay
As much as we hate scammers, they are literally everywhere. Even in Ebay, there are scammers and they are not very fun to encounter. You need to look very careful if the seller is a scammer by checking their reviews and the product.
If someone is scammed once while buying products from Ebay, they will lose their faith and interest completely, and stop using Ebay. I know a lot of people never even go into Ebay, because they were scammed so badly, and sadly, Ebay was not very helpful.
2 Delayed delivery
This is very understandable in a way, because the sellers are real people and often they do not have enough time to deliver the products in time. Maybe they had a rough week, or maybe they ran out of wrapping papers.
However, delayed delivery can make the buyers more anxious and start to doubt if the seller is a scammer. For anyone who is wondering because their Ebay seller did not send the product, I would say wait until the promised delivery date. Usually, they try to keep that timing. If not, then you need to contact Ebay and ask them to step in. It’s important to pay with paypal if you can, because it’ll help to protect you from these incidents.
3 Delayed response
Just like Delayed delivery, it’s frustrating if your seller does not answer very quickly, and when you are waiting for the seller to respond, the product gets sold to another seller and you will be disappointed. Some people think this is a waste of time and won’t engage with the site at all.
There are clear pros and cons while using Ebay or other second hand marketplaces. I still use Ebay very often and still pick up great products. Luckily I was never scammed, I will share what I do to prevent Ebay scammers.
I would really recommend everyone to use Ebay if they can to search for products that are amazing and cheap. Believe me, it’s out there.