Official eBay Bidding and Buying Thread!

Welcome to the Official eBay Bidding and Buying Thread. eBay can be both a fun and dangerous place for the Thinkpad fan. This thread is meant for both new and experienced eBayers. Use it for the following:

1) If you are thinking of bidding on an auction and want to know if its a good deal or not (or if it might be fraudulent), please post the auction number here to get a second opinion (and probably a third, a fourth, etc.,)!

2) If you want to warn others about a bad seller or a bad transaction experience, please post it here.

3) If you have a question about the bidding, buying, paying, shipping process in general, please post it here.

4) If you want to recommend a good parts/accessories seller (see rules below), please post it here.

Ground Rules:

1) In keeping with the forum rules, please don't post referrals for eBay sellers of brand new Thinkpads. Bill Morrow (bill@thinkpads.com) is the host and operator of this forum and sells brand new Thinkpads at discounted prices (http://www.thinkpads.com/start.htm). If you are selling a used Thinkpad yourself, please use the USER FOR SALE/Want to buy section instead (http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewforum.php?f=11).

2) Please try not to get into a bidding war with your fellow thinkpads.com forum members. Generally, the person that posts about an auction here should not have to worry that others on this forum will drive up the price.

Excellent idea! And not just for new users. It would be great to read first-hand accounts from this forum's posters of their experience with specific eBay vendors, both bad and good.

Your wish is my command gentlemen!

Here you go. Got a favorite eBay seller for all your Thinkpad bits and pieces? Share it here.

Know of a seller to be avoided at ALL costs? Warn us all!!

Just be prepared to substantiate either suggestion.

Regards,

James

I had an excellent experience with montana4me
http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V ... =3&rows=50

My cd burner (for the T21) also came from Montana4me however it pays to check around as I found they have strange pricing for things like the 2nd HD adaptor - much more expensive than direct from IBM! (Well, it was at the time I checked a few months ago...)

I bought a 770 CD from
Montan4Me,for $6.00 as-is,and it workd perfectly!!!!

Greg St.L

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 23587&rd=1

It looks very interesting to me. Especially the 2.5 years of remaining warranty. Is IBM's warranty fully transferable?

What do you think. Is it one of those offers that are to good to be true?

I have bought and mainly sold items on ebay for years, the beauty of ebay is people from all walks of life can play in this game.

I was scammed big time in March 2001. I avoided many scams up to that point, but because I am driven for bargains to buy and sell, I did send a CASHIERS Check via U.S. mail. I NEVER saw the item, my bank account was out $2300.00

Ebay said too bad, we can do nothing to help you.

I filed an FBI report on-line, with complete time-line documentation.

He scammed seven of us, was apprehended, and is serving nine years in Federal prison for using U.S. mail, convicted of MAIL Fraud.

Feedback is one of the most important things about Ebay. Also never wire money or send cashiers check to someone you aren't sure of especially not to Romania. Usually deals that look too good to be true are! That being said I did purchase a refurbished T41p for $1500 on Ebay a couple of months ago (after buying one from IBM direct for $2200 a few weeks earlier). That deal seemed too good to be true, but feedback was good on similar items.

Several years ago there was a guy scamming sellers of notebooks using fake cashiers checks for COD buys. I was lucky because FedEx already had a couple of claims because of this guy and his pack of thieves and wouldn't allow him to pick up the laptop I sold him. Secret service was actually involved... something to do with counterfeiting because cashiers checks are considered cash.

Also I heard recently from an Ebay buisness partner that Ebay was hacked and that buisness partners have 30 days to change their software for a more secure interface. So be careful you are not dealing with someones hacked account for the next 30 days.

Yes, the IBM warranty is fully transferable. At the selling price, this isn't really a "good" deal. The 237319U is the most basic wireless T40 you can buy. My opinion is that it's only worth about $1100-$1200.

So you did receive a refurb T41p for $1500?

Well the posts here could drive up the prices of one of my favorite seller montana4me. If that be the case I can always go to thinkpadsales (ooops) . One little note for montana4me: if you are an international buyer, the shipping charge can substantially change when they switch from USPS parcel post airmail to express mail service when the item cost exceeds $100. Other than that, i find montana4me folks have names and a pleasure to deal with.

If you ask one of the "folks [who] have names and [are] a pleasure to deal with" they'll use the shipping company of your choice (e.g. FedEx) and even bill the charge to your account if you have one.

Yes, it looked like it had been opened but other than that just like the one I got from IBM.

Yes, they would since the rationale behind their enforcing the upgrade in shipping service when the item cost is $100 or more is to avail of insurance and tracking. FedEx and DHL rates are even more premium because of their relatively impeccable service compared to USPS. What can ruffle some feathers for the unwary multiple return customer is the wide discrepancy in shipping quotes given him for similar items as the winning bids cross the $100 threshold. Most probably Roseanne & Christopher Flann (owners of Chrosmack Ventures) would have acted favorably on my predicament if it was brought to their attention, but because their people being nice and not named "He/She/It", it was better to be kind than right

Not planning to bid, but this auction looked interesting:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 65607&rd=1

A few observations. 1) It's advertised as a 15" UXGA model but the picture of the unit only says T42 (not T42p). 2) It's advertised as a 2ghz model. Aren't these not yet available? 3) The seller is registered in Canada but for this auction the item is supposedly located in New York (while all his other auction show an item location in Canada). 4) The photo of the actual box shows the IBM logo and "Thinkpad" plus a bunch of text below. The T42 boxes I've seen don't look like that. 5) Express shipping. 6) "Will ship worldwide"?!?!?!

Stolen account/fraud?

Update: Nevermind. Auction was cancelled by ebay.

There are quite a lot of easily spottable fake sellers/fraudsters on eBay at the moment, usually with a number of the same item such as T40/T41; all having zero feedback.

And anybody with zero feedback for me is a no no, even if it's for a £3 DVD.

I'll post about PM Distributors Inc. (pmnyc001 on eBay) in due course when I know the T41 has been shipped (still waiting for FedEx to return the cancelled shipment of the T40 they sent out without really asking me if thats what I wanted) and then when I actually get my hands on the item (26 days now ).

However despite the awful cock up (not sure it with was a Bait and Switch issue; as the feedback seems to indicate that people get what they have bought... but never be too naive, still getting a T41 to the same spec minus SXGA with a DVD writer module for the Ultrabay Slim and a Port Replicator II for free was hardly a bad deal when I paid $1549).

So overal pmnyc001, PM Distributors Inc. are incredibly friendly and helpful on the phone (We had a very nice chat yesterday, went off on a tangent about some film ) but the proof will be in the pudding, or rather the T41. then I will comment truly.

Vicky

If everyone did that then how would a newbie ever be able to sell anything on eBay?

I agree that one should be very leery of doing large deals with vendors who have new IDs and little feedback. But we've all got to start somewhere. I suspect we've all bought stuff worth more than £3 (US$5) via other means than eBay that also turned out badly.

They would have to buy a few things first, like I did.

But how does that make you a reputable vendor?

It doesn't. But it gets your feedback up there so people will bid. Everyone has to start somewhere.

You are bidding on an item and outbidded literally within the dying seconds of the auction.

It seemed till 5 seconds to the end for $811.00 I was going to get a top of the line T23, PIII 1.2GHz, 512MB, SXGA+, CDRW/DVD, 48Gig HD, Wireless 802.11b intergrated and all the rest.

The final price was $962 or so... max bid was $900.00

How *****Expletives removed by Moderator***** right annoying!

Anyway, I have now hopefully got my hands on an SXGA+ based T23, pretty much the same as my T23 bar the display for $900, it was there for Buy It Now and I couldn't take any more messing around, that said - I won't be holding my breath, when I see it, then I will believe it.

Still lets hope this was all worth it. (After the sagas with the T40, and the T22 advertised as SXGA+ but was XGA)

Vicky

Yep. Those snipers. If you can't beat them, join them! (http://www.auctionsentry.com)

So the one you bought for $900, same specs as the one you described above?

Pretty much, the only difference is:

PIII 1.13GHz - doubt I shall ever know the difference if I did get the 1.2GHz one - as I am using a 1.13GHz T23 now (XGA model, 2647-4MG)

128Meg of ram (bit sucky, but I can use my present T23's DIMMs to make it 1GB)

and no 802.11b - which I don't care for as I use wired networking anyway.

Sure, that $62 would have got me the top of the range T23, but I'm just happy to get something, pay for it, receive it, check it out to see if it's all OK and be done with it.

Had enough messing around to last me a lifetime in these past few months.

Vicky

As for auction sentry hmmmm

Though to add to this; $900 was my tops hence not placing a higher bid; so it makes it all OK really. Once I started getting close to the $1000 mark, with the prospect of it going over, that would have been a silly thing to do.

Now I just have to wait hmmm 9 days to get my hands on it (I arrive in te USA on the 7th July)

Vicky

For sniping you can go here as well....basic free version allows 3 snipes per week.....I've been using it now for about 8 months with no problems....

http://hammertap.com/powertool/DownloadPowerTool.html

Later....

Greg St.L

Or better still, I find where the person(s) who outbidded me in the last 5 seconds live and give them a *****Expletives removed by Moderator***** good whipping

lol

Only kidding....

I might have to use that in the future it seems. If nobody will play nicely with me, I'll play twice as nasty back

Vicky

Maybe I spoke to soon, seems like the seller has listed some new items, some four hours ago and not replied to my email yet - ok so maybe I am being hasty, and nervy but this whole mess has put me on tenderhooks. Again no money has been exchanged until I know it is a done deal.

I only say this because I emailed this seller before now, and never got a reply...

Guess that means I still have half an eye out for the T23 I want.

What's the seller's ebay id?

He's probably just scheduled the auctions to auto-start. Sadly, not all sellers sit in front of their computers waiting to email their buyer the moment the auction closes.