Overall, my bowling ball transactions on eBay have gone pretty smoothly. I've had a couple of questionable experiences but overall, not bad.
If you want a horror story, I've sold three cars on eBay and the first one I sold, I actually "sold" it three times and in all three cases, was defaulted upon by the buyer. The last time, the car sold for around $11,000. The winning bidder then sends me an email to tell me he's "ready to deal on the price." I said I'm ready to deal, too -- you give me a cashier's check for $11k and I'll give you a car.
He then said the car wasn't worth that, and that he only bid so he could have "negotiating leverage." I told him he must not understand the concept of leverage, because he was now in a contract with me for $11k. Then, out of left field, he claimed I was "discriminating" against him because he was gay and was buying the car for his boyfriend -- neither fact he had ever brought up before, nor does sexual orientation figure into a contract to buy a car -- and that he'd sue me if the car wasn't 100 percent as described, or unless I sold it to him for about 3/4 the auction price.
I finally asked where he was from, so my attorney could mail him the papers, and he starts laughing and says, "I'm in Canada, so come get me, m*****f*****." I filed with eBay and found out, yes, that he was from Canada. At that point, there was nothing to do but cut my losses, report him to eBay and sell the car elsewhere. I ended up trading the car for another collector car locally and eBay suspended the guy's account.
Jess
