Special orders on ebay?

[David]

Just a question about ebay in general - sellers can send users invoices on request (to add combined shipping and the like), is it possible for an ebay seller to sell or advertise an "unlisted" item to just one user. Basically a made to order/special order purchase, but within the structure of ebay's tracking system?

[qwertyaardvark]

ebay's official stance about made-to-order/special-order transactions is that it doesn't recommend doing them, if only because the transactions most likely will not be within the structure of ebay's tracking system and if something goes horribly wrong, you are on your own. if you really wanted to jump thru hoops, you could have the seller open an auction with a buy-it-now option and then you make sure you get to it before someone else does, but i doubt the seller is up for this b/c of the auction opening fees, hassel of making a new auction, etc.

 

my recommendation is buy from the seller from existing listed items first to make sure the seller does the typical good job of packaging/sending the item in an orderly time and fashion. upon completion at of least one or few  purchases, i would trust doing special-order transactions. though im sure 99.9% of the people on ebays aren't jerks, probability is thrown to the wind, and chances are you'll run across the .1%; its the reason why i would go through at least one or two purchases first.

 

i personally have done special-order transactions when i got my Kato 700T from a dealer in taiwan. the listed item was for only the starter set, but through asking him through email, he searched Taiwan train stores on my behalf to find the two add-on sets and another complete set. The starter set was the only transaction documented on ebay, and the rest was paid for directly through Paypal. the transaction went just fine and it would be something i would do again.

 

Hope this helps