Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Having been burn a couple of times. (Recently on a lotus sump) I thought this may be a good place to have a section that identifies the crooks and the genuine sellers.
Maybe a new section that may keep some of us safe.
Thoughts.

Dont tell me about it! A chap on ebay yesterday did two listings for 2 original column mounts, both listings have ended, apparently a guy bought both and is apparently not willing to part with one! See original listing . Just wondered whether it anyone on here? Needed for a Sprint Resto project that arrived in boxes.

I avoid ebay for the most due to dodgy sellers. A few years back I won, paid for and waited for a shortened jackshaft to arrive.
Emailed the chap after a couple of weeks and he disappeared.
I guess if someone has bought both those parts it is up to them if they want to keep both though. Not much anyone can do about that.

I still use eBay regularly, but you have to be very careful. In many years of using the service, I have only had one problem, and that was with a buyer.

Check feedback, collect the item and pay cash if you can.

how can you be careful, please explain. If a buyer decides it is not satisfactory or other, are you not stuck paying return shipping. Also it seems, there is no way to know the buyer, is there a way to reject purchase if you figure the buyer is a dud?
I believe amazon is similar, friend who sells books will not sell on amazon now ( abe ).

h20hamelan wrote:how can you be careful, please explain. If a buyer decides it is not satisfactory or other, are you not stuck paying return shipping. Also it seems, there is no way to know the buyer, is there a way to reject purchase if you figure the buyer is a dud?
I believe amazon is similar, friend who sells books will not sell on amazon now ( abe ).

I have bought dozens of items from Amazon, have returned quite a few of them for a variety of reasons and never had an issue with being refunded.

Read the customer reviews etc and go from there.

As for eBay, given up on that years ago, chock full of bogus sellers.

I've had generally good luck on ebay, but am careful to buy from folks with lots of history and good feedback. The only time I've been burned was when I broke my own rules and attempted to buy a mount at a huge discount from a less "experienced" seller (filed complaint with ebay and that seller is no longer on ebay, to the best I can tell). I also avoid buying anything from a Chinese address, having had several friends burned by bogus sellers with such addresses.

Happy to share a list of sellers that served me well and that I've found responsive and with quality bits:
gauges4classics
oldbuickparts (graphtite rope seal)
alpha1750 (weber bits)
oringsandmore (viton orings)
nosimport (various nos bits, including bearings, brushes, etc.)
melville4663 (valves and main and rod bearings)
vintageimportsincforeigncarparts (nos AP clutch pressure plate)
mr-retro-leads-plugs (bespoke ignition leads)

Slowtus wrote:

h20hamelan wrote:how can you be careful, please explain. If a buyer decides it is not satisfactory or other, are you not stuck paying return shipping. Also it seems, there is no way to know the buyer, is there a way to reject purchase if you figure the buyer is a dud?
I believe amazon is similar, friend who sells books will not sell on amazon now ( abe ).

I have bought dozens of items from Amazon, have returned quite a few of them for a variety of reasons and never had an issue with being refunded.

Read the customer reviews etc and go from there.

As for eBay, given up on that years ago, chock full of bogus sellers.

Ive been burned 2x now on amazon. Sellers description does not include all. 80% restocking fee, and buyer pays return shipping. Further TD is partner with amazon, so if your on TD cc, TD wont back you…

My Ebay number of items bought currently stands at 1,500. That's all kinds of items: Car parts, electronic parts, household items, tools, gifts, new item, old items, items for repair from all over the world.

Dodgy sellers, bad experiences are only a very small percentage (less than 5% I reckon). If it's a high value item in particular you need to ask questions before you buy in order to get a feel for the seller and what they are offering - eg. request more pictures, etc.

Horror of horror I've also used Alliexpress - especially for electronic items and parts. That's not too bad either.
I haven't really used Amazon much. Although I've bought a few items they just don't have the range (at least for the kind of weird obscure stuff that I like) and lead times are quite long.

Bricks and Mortar places can be just as bad or worse since there's no independent referee available. If that Bricks and Mortar place is overseas the situation is the same since they are practically unreachable.