WC and Ebay

Rowejob

Spaceman
Has anyone had the problem with people selling copies of the original. I am thinking about buying it on Ebay but I am afraid of getting copies or ripped off. Could people tell me there experiences?
 
Just look at people's feedback rating and you shouldn't have a problem. That goes for just about everything on eBay. If you're concerned about it, bid on items where the seller has photographed their own disks/discs. Don't bid on items put up by sellers with negative feedback. It's not really worth people's time to cheat you on the cheap items you should be looking for at this point.
 
I have been ripped of on ebay once, but when I recieved the stuff it was always as described and never a copy. In any case make sure that the seller has plenty of positive transactions, and make sure that those aren't 1 cent E-Books.
 
I have used ebay around a dozen times and the majority of what I got was Wing Commander stuff as its the best place for me to find the original games. I have never had any trouble with it. Just follow Chris's advice and stick to sellers with good feedback and you shouldn't have any trouble.
 
I usually use amazon. Sometimes it is more expensive but I trust it more than e-bay.
 
Dran said:
I usually use amazon. Sometimes it is more expensive but I trust it more than e-bay.

What about it makes you think it's more trustworthy? eBay has developed what they do to such a point that if you have a problem, I'd think you'd have at least as much recourse with eBay to fix it. I don't distrust Amazon, but I'd probably go wherever the prices are better.
 
ChrisReid said:
What about it makes you think it's more trustworthy? eBay has developed what they do to such a point that if you have a problem, I'd think you'd have at least as much recourse with eBay to fix it. I don't distrust Amazon, but I'd probably go wherever the prices are better.


Well for one I have never had any issues with Amazon. I have however, heard, seen news reports, and read even in this topic about people having issues with the sellers on ebay. Besides that, I don't really like autions. It is also personal preference, and I think I am entitled to that, as you are to yours.
 
Dran said:
Well for one I have never had any issues with Amazon. I have however, heard, seen news reports, and read even in this topic about people having issues with the sellers on ebay.

That's only because eBay does a thousand times as many person to person transactions as Amazon.

Dran said:
Besides that, I don't really like autions.

Auctions are only part of eBay. They have a separate "Stores" area for instant purchases (there are actually a lot more Wing Commander items available in this area than in the auctions portion) and they also run Half.com, which operates almost exactly like Amazon.

Dran said:
It is also personal preference, and I think I am entitled to that, as you are to yours.

Obviously.
 
I've bought all my WC games from Ebay. In fact, I got about 80% of my collection in a single Buy It Now auction some time back. Ebay is always the first place I look when I'm looking for pretty much anything, new or old.

Ebay also runs Half.com - which sometimes doesn't cross post items from one to the other, so you'd do well to check there as well.
 
I would buy a lot more on eBay if the local customs guys didn't fuck up my orders.
I have 4 packages "missing" since july. probably rotting in some warehouse. MAYBE I'll get them within the next months. Who knows.

Of course, that's not eBay's fault, and shouldn't be a problem for US, CA and EU people.
 
Edfilho said:
Of course, that's not eBay's fault, and shouldn't be a problem for US, CA and EU people.
I've had that happen before. The trick is to have the guy write down $25 or whatever amount is free from import tax. They usually don't bother checking.
 
The thing is, theoretically, all amounts are subject to taxation. There is an unofficial 50 dollar "line", but I had to pay taxes for a 14 dollar game, once.

It's really a lottery.
 
When the exchange rate was very favorable, I once got a USD 200,00 shipment from the US free of taxes. But sometimes they make you pay for some cheap, used USD 15,00 game. Seems completely random.
 
Here they include the price for shipping into the taxable ammount. So it is next to impossible to stay below the free value when shipping from the USA...
 
We buy & sell on e-bay quite a lot. Only been done once and we would have avoided that if we'd been smarter (buying a box of assorted games & finding we had 40 copies of a win 95 space invader clone in German).
What Chris says is sound advice. Look for the sellers feedback rating and don't buy from anyone who keeps their feedback private. Also look for the cost of postage, and the sellers return policy.
If you're still looking for games we've just posted WC1 & WC2 for sale on e-bay. Had the cd a while and joined this forum to get advice on how get them to run under xp. Your Tech Support has excellent instructions.
 
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