Why do I even bother searching eBay for phones?

[Rob_B]

I'm trying to get a reasonably priced (no sniggering in the back) iPhone 4. In no rush as I won't have it by New Year at this rate anyway but I'm scouring eBay for general prices and the amount of rubbish you have to now sift through is unreal!

I know it's always been 'iffy' but I have always tried to avoid it where possible & am VERY careful when buying but there are so many auctions for 'blocked' phones that ebay seems to do nothing about!

I'm reporting any that say 'blocked in UK' as it appears against the T&Cs & also indicates its a nicked/scammed phone but ebay seem to be doing sod all about them, I've reported loads recently, some even with the balls to put it in the title but ebay dont seem to have removed any at all. They really don't care do they? I wonder what black hole these reports go into?

Funnily enough I once tried to sell a Viz lighter on ebay & it got pulled as I'd written 'Viz Zippo style lighter' in the title (what else would you call it?!) - seems that required far more intervention than stolen property, arses!

Rant over, not sure where that came from!!

Rob

[jimbouk]

Reporting is a black hole, I assume they only trigger any response if there's a very large number of individual complaints or a company has complained about trademark issues etc. Power to the people...

[joshwa]

Don't do it... chances are that even decent ones may be reported as stolen for insurance purposes after you've paid for it... and there'd be little or nothing you can do about it. Buy it new and try topcashback or any other special offers you can find (credit card cashback? AMEX 5% etc)...

[Biscuit]

i avoid ebay pretty much all the time, its almost totally useless. Its like shopping at TK max except rather than sifting through bad 3 seasons ago clothes your sifting through people who will scam you in any way you possibly can.

[joshwa]

iPhones and particularly iPhone4s are obvious targets for scams/etc

But I've bought a number (a lot) of second hand Nokia phones (and sold as well) and had pretty much no problem at all. (But we're talking £60-£130 phones here).

[jimborae]

AVforums from a seller with lot's of feedback is what I would do if not buying new from a recogized outlet.

[Behemoth]

Or buy a decent phone thats not Apple

I've bought and sold loads of phones on ebay, but I have noticed its getting very hard to do so these days, which is why I don't bother anymore.

[Rob_B]

Or buy a decent phone thats not Apple

I've bought and sold loads of phones on ebay, but I have noticed its getting very hard to do so these days, which is why I don't bother anymore.

Like my Desire which is now boring me to tears!?

I didn't think I'd ever buy from there, just wanted an idea of prices but I'm always amazed by the amount of crap on there!

[BEANFro Elite]

Yeah, I find that eBay is a decent place to buy phones that aren't the iPhone, I haven't had the pleasure of selling anything on eBay before, so I can't comment on that, but as with anything else, you have to be on the ball for scammers, as even when buying my Nokia N900 last year, there were a few obvious scams and a couple not obvious ones.

But generally speaking, eBay can be a decent enough place to shop providing you're not buying anything Apple and you keep your wits about you

[2smoothbooth]

In my experience buying any electronics off Ebay is a bad idea unless you buy from a registered business seller. I have known people who have accidentally bought blocked phones on there and in one case, known someone selling a blocked phone and not mentioning it in the auction details! So be a bit weary and Paypal's protection policy normally saves all...if you pay through Paypal obviously

[danroyle]

I got my acer stream from there for £200 a short whle back brand new was a bit worried they might report it stolen as i got it very cheap but the seller was fine and the phone is awesome. Would never buy iphone from there though so many scams.

[DannyM]

I just did an eBay search and the top results I had seemed fairly legit.

This was the first to return

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-APPLE-iPHO...ht_3163wt_1060