Anyone use online auction/trade sites?

benchaz · 23-01-2009, 12:50 AM

Hey guys, do any of you use auction sites to buy second hand items?

In USA, ebay is really popular. But shipping to hong kong is expensive and rare.

I recently found a site, http://www.taobao.com/, which is a consumer-to-consumer trading site. I'm wondering if it's good, and if anyone on geoexpat used it, or known people who used it.

Of if there's any other second hand site that you'd like to recommend.

Thanks!

hk.com · 23-01-2009, 02:01 PM

I trade a lot of used hardware and I've used auction sitees about 5 times in 8 years, overall it has been pretty bad both Ebay and china sites.

Us being in HK the guys in china don't care what they ship to you. I've had products which looked like they had been dropped though two flights of stairs, I've been shipped stuff that was dead, items in huge boxes for which Fedex charged me in volume. If I buy in china it is through someone in china that I know for a long time.

It is like investing, if items are cheap just beware, if you benefit too much beware. The professional con-men think it is perfectly find to rip off greddy people (who go after bargains).

benchaz · 23-01-2009, 03:25 PM

In other words, you don't recommend buying anything from auction/trade sites because they don't care about HK, and it's just a bunch of scams.

So are there any good second hand electronic stores in Hong Kong?

Veetmarg · 23-01-2009, 03:47 PM

I've used eBay both here and while I was living elsewhere. I haven't had a negative experience. Vice versa. Having said that, I would typically buy new stuff on eBay rather than second-hand items. By the way, the HK eBay isn't very good, there are hardly any products listed there. I use the US one.

I can't comment on Taobao, but Yahoo Auctions is supposed to be fairly popular in HK. I don't have a personal experience as I speak hardly any Chinese and the site doesn't have an English version, but some of my friends use it.

imparanoic · 23-01-2009, 03:54 PM

yahoo auctions is good, however, their are a few anomolies which allow a seller ( with no set min price) to re list an item even though the auction has been won, which has happened to me, and the seller won't honor this

benchaz · 23-01-2009, 05:51 PM

How common are snipers? People who snatch the auction during the last seconds (literally)?

shri · 23-01-2009, 06:25 PM

If you know the stores well there are several reliable suppliers specially for IT gear who will cut you some serious deals. Rexenlt bought six quad cores, 10gb ram and a couple of quad port cards for 50% less that the cheapest deal in HK... and this is after shipping.

Key is finding one or two good dealers and working with them.

revanche · 23-01-2009, 08:35 PM

well i've done at 5 deals using this site and asiaxpat.com, and all of them are pretty good. the thing is i just do pick-ups so i can actually see the item and if possible test it.

benchaz · 24-01-2009, 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by shri:

Key is finding one or two good dealers and working with them.

How? By dealers, you mean the people who posts the ads?

mr_dimsum · 24-01-2009, 03:55 AM

As an eBay seller myself, with 100% feedback and 627 feedback, I feel that online marketplaces are rather safe. And yes, finding a truly good deal will be hard, after all, why would a seller want to undercut a competitor by THAT much when they know they can profit by just a slight undercut?

That being said however, there are tons of deals online, and you CAN get lucky.. I've never used taobao.com, but have been aware of it's existence. Yahoo Auctions (Hong Kong) still exists, and I have seen some WICKED deals for graphic tablets there I wanted to purchase before - which was about 30% lower than what I had seen for that particular model on eBay.

My online experience has been good. I've only been scammed once - when digital cameras were in its infancy, I had purchased a vertically-oriented camera (don't remember which make it was), and got scammed about $500 USD at that time. Learned my lesson after that, and know the tricks of the trade now I suppose.

But it certainly is true.. We're rather close to China. If you are seriously committed to getting a deal done - heck, just go to China.. I'm sure any serious money you commit may actually warrant the little one day trip if it's not too far out that is.

We all hear the horror stories of buying online (just check out Alibaba boards) - but I mean, it comes with the territory I suppose.. You do get what you pay for.