Update! I got home tonight and found email from the seller saying she would refund me all of the money. She has asked that I ship the bedskirt to the next buyer (she is re-listing) and she will reimburse me for the cost to ship. I told her I would be happy to ship to another buyer and thanked her for finding a fair way to resolve the issue. The money was back in my account within minutes. I expect she will reimburse my shipping costs. All correspondence was within the eBay system so it is trackable. Lisa, as for the suggestion to ask for details, I hear ya, but that is a rabbit hole. I mean, where does it end? The dishes I got ripped off on were listed as "New." It never occurred to me that they were new but seconds. Yes, I should have asked, but it just didn't even cross my mind. I'd like to think that if someone says 18" in a listing, I don't have to ask if it is indeed 18". Roselvr, I did not wash the bedskirt, just ironed it. The Dish Witch would have accused me of having washed and shrunk it! Nicole, I am glad your PayPal experience was positive. In my case with the dishes, PayPal was not willing to refund me the return shipping costs. I would have been out $25 and even then the seller was threatening to notify the police that I was scamming her. I don't think she actually would have had a leg to stand on, but I just wanted it over with. Red, if I order something that shows up defective, I will often call the company and have them pick up the tab for return shipping. It's only fair. I am glad your sconce situation worked out. I do use my dishes from the Witch! And they were a lot cheaper than they would have been from Replacements. Yaya, I have a PayPal account. I have always used a credit card that I have registered with Paypal. Is a "buyer credit account" something different, something with more protection? Thanks everyone for the advice and commiseration. I'll let you know in a week if I get the shipping money refunded. I am optimistic that I will. The bedskirt is already re-listed. Stay tuned! :-)

There are some cautions to buying on eBay -- but there are also some real steals available on-line. Some of the tricks I use to tell them apart: -- The most popular name brands generally don't go for next to nothing on eBay. For example, you will not find a *genuine* Louis Vuitton anything on eBay for a 'steal' of a price -- but LOTS of knock-offs. Anything 'Tiffany' or 'Cartier' -- either super-expensive or fake. Name brands that are less popular, but perhaps of equally high quality, often sell for pennies on the dollar. For example, I bought several 'very lightly used' Mark Cross leather handbags for next to nothing. Just not a name brand that lots of people care about -- so great quality for the money. -- Look for 'wiggle words'. Silver-tone tells you it's fake; Sterling tells you it's not. Silver is a wiggle word. Imagine protesting that something isn't genuine silver, and the seller asking you "Well, what color IS IT then?"... It COULD be a careless error if the seller is inexperienced, but probably not. (Did you catch the Kitchen post about 'wood-grain' interior? -- Wiggle word!) -- Assume the quality of any non-name-brand product is no better than 'Wal-Mart'. It might be; but it might not be. A poor photo could be an inexperienced seller, but often, it's done to conceal defects. -- Look at the seller's other items. Do they sell second-hand stuff? Lots of similar items? Are they a retailer in disguise? Clearance house? Just cleaning out the closets? (Great deals from closet-cleaners.) -- Read their feedback -- especially the negatives and neutrals. Don't just look at the scores. Read the feedback critically for 'lukewarm' positives. Words like "good value" in a positive feedback note generally mean 'low quality, but low price.' Watch for "Feedback mutually withdrawn" -- that's a sign of a nasty seller who leaves retalliatory feedback for dissatisfied buyers. -- Look carefully for the shipping charges and factor them in. For lots of items, the auction price is almost a non-issue because all of the buyer's costs are in the shipping. If you're near a big city and restrict your search to items near you, you can eliminate many of the shipping charges and grab up some real bargains. -- Yes, the prices often go up dramatically in the last few seconds. The eBay pros often use 'Snipe' software to enter their bids during the last few seconds of an auction. eBay tries to tell you it doesn't matter and that there's no point in doing that because eBay's own systems don't bid more than necessary -- but really there can be a big advantage to sniping. (Sometimes there isn't.) Sniping software can keep you from acting impulsively. Also, it can keep the item from 'price-creeping' during the last few hours as several bidders outbid each-other 50 cents at a time. (You can't keep others from doing it without you, but you can avoid starting a bid-creep yourself.) Plus, you can often beat out inexperienced buyers who think a $2 increment during the last 30 seconds will win an item. Ooops - $1 more. Now $2 more -- oh no! You just enter your one real 'snipe' bid way ahead of time, and it only hits 5 seconds before close when it's too late for anyone else to try to top it. If you had entered your maximum bid on eBay days in advance, and someone else had done the same -- then they decided they were willing to go just $1 higher --- then you've lost it. -- Don't assume it's always cheaper on eBay than it is elsewhere. It *usually* is, but sometimes not. A good friend of mine asked me to help her buy 4-day multi-park Disney tickets on eBay. We were shocked at the consistently high prices! So we checked Disney's authorized site and found the prices to actually be lower. Seriously. So she bought 7-day tickets, then resold the unused 4-day portions, recouping 70% of her money. Can you tell I love eBay?

I didn't know that, Jenni. Do you just put the html code into your listing as you do on GardenWeb? I ususally just put in one picture which I have on my computer. Have never used a site like photobucket or whatever. Good luck selling. I have two things listed now and no interest yet. I never sell anything worth much and by the time I pay the fees, I don't make much either. It's basically just a way of recycling stuff and making a couple bucks.

I love to look at property on ebay. I actually inquired about one of them, too, although it was really a pipe dream and I had no business buying a beach cottage in Nova Scotia. I quickly came to my senses when realized how far Nova Scotia is from where I live now. I don't know how often serious, non-dreamer buyers look on ebay. I doubt anyone will buy your house on ebay. It's an advertising tool. Also, ebay's fees combined with Paypal have gotten pretty enormous and I think you would pay more in fees total to ebay than you would to a RE agent. But $150 for 30 days of advertising reaching a gazillion peeps...that might be worth trying, depending on what sort of property it was. I was looking at beach property, muppy had interested parties but was selling horse property...those are much more exotic than just a regular house in a regular area. I never ever look for those. I can see those walking out my front door. I have bought and sold a few homes and my opinion is that for your first sell, the professional help of a REA might be an excellent idea. Good luck with your sell with whatever you decide :-) Joanna