Buying a machine on Ebay?

Try asking on the Brother lists. They will probably know the machine and possibly the seller is one of the members of the list. Its always good to check with the machine specific yahoo lists. Lots of dialogue with the seller is one way to find out, ask for more pictures or better ones. Ask to see something that has been sewn on the machine.

Over the past few years I have purchased more than 2 dozen machines from eBay. Most have been excellent purchases, some I paid too much for but that is the other side of collecting. When you want it you pay for it. I have also purchased other things on eBay like fabric, and vintage notions. About the only thing I got stiffed on was a set of vintage Westinghouse Roaster Oven dishes and a Palm pilot. The dishes arrived broken, but I got my money back and the Palm never arrived although the seller seeno1 did cash the money order. So in all this time only one real disaster. Make sure that the machine is packed properly and NOT by a professional packer.....they DO NOT know how to pack, same goes for the UPS store. There is a web page

that tells exactly how to packa sewing machine or better yet see if you can pick up if that ispossible. DO NOT let them tell you they know how to pack it ----theydo not!!!! I cannot stress this enough!!!!!!!!! There is only ONE wayto pack a machine for shipment and that is show in the site above. Every machine I have had to have shipped I have paid extra for theabove packing and everyone has arrived safely. I am sure there are acouple dozen horror stories here though about the use of'professional' packers, peanuts, bubble wrap and all the other stuffthat does not work. This is without a doubt the most important thingabout the sale--will they follow your directions for packing, if notdo not even bid.

How 'bout actually asking the seller a few questions?? After all, your problem is the reason they have that feature. Ask them just about anything concerning what they're selling, and if they are worth buying from, they will answer honestly and fully. Ask them about the machine, how they pack and send, and possibly even payment options. If you know you like the machine already, then not much to worry about there. Tell the seller you are hesitant about buying from eBay, and discuss about payment options. Mayhaps you could draw up some sort of contract (for legal reasons. wayyyyy uncool to send a product and then never recieve payment! lol!), and send a little now, get the machine, and then send the rest later.... I dunno, but can you see the pattern I am sending? You must ask questions to recieve answers!

I have bought a number of machines on eBay, and have had satisfactory luck, with one exception.. I once purchased a machine from an estate thru eBay (the daughter of the deceased was selling all of her mother's sewing things to settle the estate). The daughter knew nothing about sewing, and maintained in the ad that anything her mother kept had to be excellent mechanically... This turned out to be false, the machine in question was junk (literally), and the daughter did refund my money in full (less postage)..

So, I would have to agree with most of what is being stated on this thread.. You can buy machines on eBay, but use common sense and caution. Do not buy from people with little/no feedback, nor from people with *significant* negative feedback.

me

PLEASE check with them as to how they will ship it. Machines should be doubled boxed. I've had too many experiences with sewing machines coming to me broken....even from sellers with 100% feedback. =20 Insurance is of course a given, but appropriate packing is just as important...insurance doesn't replace the machine you had your heart set on.

All sewing machine sellers should read this and follow through....

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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"Cookie" wrote in news:g4Q7g.36235$ snipped-for-privacy@read1.cgocable.net:

I wanted a particular serger and waited until I found it on eBay. I watched it and didn't buy it. Another one came along, and another, and finally, one came along that was the right price, had the attachments, etc., and I bought it. I've never been sorry. But, like I said, I knew what I wanted.

Donna

G'day Cookie

I've bought three machines online, one of them via eBay and this lady wrapped the 'whole' machine in gooey, sticky packing tape.......her reason??? Her husband told her to do this!! It took me a whole week to get all the gooey, yucky mess off the machine before I could even test that it worked, and then I found a couple of the feet were missing but they were replaced later. The machine hadn't been serviced since it left the Janome factory I'm sure, but when I took off all the covers and cleaned off all the old, rockhard, black grease and replaced it with fresh grease, that machine ticks over like an old swiss clock.

Moral of this story.....ask the seller to pack in the original box and if that's not available go to their local sewing machine dealer and beg/borrow/steal/buy a machine box that has the correct polystyrene packing.

The second machine I bought was delivered in person by a friend of the seller, so no problems there.

While I asked the seller of the third machine to get a proper box from the sewing machine shop, she chose not to and naturally I wasn't aware of this until it arrived in a 'very' lightweight cardboard box and it was a miracle it didn't fall through the bottom of that box.

The three machines I've sold (all on eBay) were packed in their original boxes complete with polystyrene packing and they just don't move in those boxes. An overlocker (serger) that I'd had for some years and didn't keep the box, was packed in a 'very' strong cardboard box with air-packaging and styrene around it to keep it stable. The buyer was thrilled that I'd taken all this care to package the machine.

I wouldn't have any hesitation buying a machine on eBay if the feedback was OK, but try and impress on the seller how well the machine needs to be packed...even relate some of these stories to her. Ask if she/he will provide a refund if the machine is not as described....I feel if they will do this they are genuine. I've just bought a camera lens that had this offer in the listing, so it gave me a good feeling. When it arrived I was most surprised because it was much better than I was expecting and if I didn't know it's age, I could have easily thought it was brand new. It was perfect!! So there are good sellers on eBay, unfortunately there are a few who aren't and these are the ones who get eBay a bad name.

Let us know what you decide......and the results if you buy the machine? Bronwyn ;-)

Cookie wrote:

Thanks for the heads-up on this. I don't know how you can possibly tell if a machine would be packed properly unless you know the seller personally or have a recommendation from someone else who knows. This must making buying sewing machines over the internet extremely difficult.

A dealer recently shipped one of my machines to an out of state technician since the dealer's technician is incompetent and was unable to repair my machine properly and even damaged things that worked. They did this w/o my permission and w/o even notifying me. They even accidentally shipped it to the wrong place! My machine has surface damage in the form of a big black mark on the bed that won't come off and two gouges in the metal on the face of the machine. Heaven only knows if the innards suffered. I am very worried. But I know they packed the machine in styrofoam because there was residue all over it. My machine is a Bernina with a hard case. Needless to say, that dealer will never touch my machine again. It's been a total nightmare.

Phae

This type of packaging is only good if the machine is NOT being shipped singly, via a courier service or the post office. The original boxes are not made to be shipped separately.....only with about 49 others on a pallet. Shipping in original containers is not recommended unless your dealing with a transport service that uses pallets. If you want to use the original packaging then remember that you have to then line another heavy duty box (original containers are not heavy enough) with Styrofoam insulation and then put the first one in the second one. Cases should always be shipped separately in their own boxes packed much the same as the machine. Even when I had the original container I would never ship a machine back without using an second box the boxes are just not strong enough on their own.

Thes boxes used by Janome Australia are strong enough to be shipped separately. I would have thought Janome worldwide would use the same boxes. Maybe other manufacturers use lighter weight boxes.

Br> >

Janome dealer here uses 2 boxes to return a machine for repair. Inner one has the shaped Styrofoam and the outer one has a set of 3/4" foam sheets on all sides with one top and bottom too. Everything that goes to the repair depot is in 2 boxes. The cartons are pretty standard weight.

Thank you to all you ladies for sharing this info. I had absolutely no idea that shipping was a big issue. And now I'm going to look at machines on Ebay....

Pora

Once I start writing the seller and describing to them in eloquent manner the devastation of getting the perfect machine at the perfect price, only to have it arrive shattered in pieces, then sending them the links to the "how to pack a machine" sites and asking them if I won the auction could they please pack it this way, and I would pay them extra for packing it well to make sure that it arrived intact, I had no problems with the sellers who were willing to do this, and then I made sure I put on the feedback that the machine was packed excellently. Works like a charm.

It's too bad you can't get some compensation for that damage. How awful!!!!!!!

There's only one way to pay - Use Paypal and pay with a credit card. That gives you two layers of protection - well, actually three. It's really foolish to do it any other way.

Thanks. It says the machine is in the original box (which is in the photograph) with the manufacturer's packaging.

difficult.

Simple. Ask the seller how they plan to pack the machine. If they don't specify a way that satisfies you, politely ask them if they will consider doing it the RIGHT way, send them the link to proper machine packing, and even offer to add an extra $5 or so to pay for better packing.

If they never answer your questions, look for another seller.

-Irene

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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I did ask several questions and got friendly and informative answers. I will be paying by PayPal so I am protected if I don't receive it in 30 days or receive it broken.

I think I'm going to bid! Oooooh.......

Thanks so much for all the advice! I didn't realize what an important seller feature it was that they had the original box and packing.

Now all I have to do is win the auction. I'll let everyone know how its turns out.

Cookie

That's for sure. And watch for the Paypal sellers that require instant bank transfers and will not accept credit card payments. I pass them by like they were poison. I don't care what they're selling.

Phae

I bought a singer serger on ebay but it was new and came in original carton unopened. It then was shipped in another box that protected the inner carton but no additional packing.

I would suggest a bidding strategy of not bidding immediately but waiting toward the end of the bidding time. I have learned from experience that there are lurkers there who after seeing other bids wait till the closing moments and then put in an automatically increasing bid to their ceiling that electronically responds for you if some one inputs a bid. you can find info about that on ebay.

I had bid on several sergers only to lose the bid that way at the last moment. In this case, the bid ended in the evening on a weekend, sat, i think, and people were doing other things and so i got mine for a very good price, $125. and it sold at walmart for $219.

Now the real outcome of this story is that as the proud new (guy) owner of a serger which would do 3 and 4 thread overlock which was enough to close the edges of my weaving to make stoles for priests, i went to the annual quilting and sewing expo here in northern virginia and took a couple of classes which used the husqvarna viking 936 and i learned what i could do with the coverstirch feature to make other things. i came home home with a viking 936 and my capable, inexpensive but satisfactory singer went back in the box and i sold it to another weaver who uses it for the same purpose.

just make sure the packaging will be good from the seller and you have purchase protection, credit card or paypal.

klh >Thanks so much for all the advice! I didn't realize what an important