If you buy or have bought cards through eBay, I'm interested in your opinion. Once you've selected your TOP reason here, feel free to expound on your explanation. The poll only registers 1 response, but I hope collectors will also explain their other choices, rank them, and discuss which 5 (or less) important criteria you consider when buying cards on eBay.

Question:
in order of importance, what are your 5 MOST significant criteria when deciding whether to purchase a card or set from an eBay seller? Here, you will ONLY be able to choose your number 1 reason. Feel free to discuss your other choices below.

Choices:
How Long the Seller Has Been a Member of eBay?
Free Shipping?
Shipping Time?
Shipping cost?
Buy it Now versus Auction?
Condition of the Card/Set?
Whether they Ship Internationally but NOT through eBay's Global Shipping Program?
Whether they ship Through eBay's Global Shipping Program?
Price of the item?
The seller's Total Star Rating?
The Seller's Positive Ratings?
the seller's Negative/Neutral Feedback?
Where the Seller Resides?
Other?

 

This message has been edited. Last edited by: promoking,

It's a loaded question. Price, condition, item location, shipping and seller reputation would be my top 5.

I chose condition as my top reason for buying a card/set but that needs to be explained. At any given time, I might be considering the purchase of 3 or 4 cards/sets. I've bought slightly/somewhat beat-up cards if they hardly ever come up for sale but they also have to be cheap as in under $20. I might pay more for a rare card but it would have to be something I've wanted for a while. I am willing to pay more for a high quality card.

Other variables I consider are how long the seller has been on Ebay. I don't care if the seller has a couple of negatives if the number of positives far outnumber the negatives. I've seen bad buyers give negative feedback to good sellers in retaliation for a legitimate negative (failure to pay after a long wait after the buyer says he's going to pay more than once and then doesn't).

I don't buy from sellers with ridiculous shipping charges like $20 for a card. I don't want any card that bad. I might make an exception for an extraordinarily good deal on the card itself.

Only once did I buy something that didn't show up (happened years ago) and I've been on Ebay over 20 years.

I know stuff can take longer from other countries so I don't care about shipping time. Sometimes, stuff from within the US takes a while. One time, an item took two weeks to arrive from Utah (only two states away). Media Mail can be fast or slow.

I hardly purchase anything now .
Living in New Zealand evrything I want has to be purchased internationally .
So now E bay shipping wich 99% use is too expensive
I have asked a couple of sellers if they will use PWE for a cheap sale but they are now too scared of missing out and if anything happens the rigmarol of sorting it
E bay shipping gives them an out dont blame them.
But $20 $30 shipping for a dollar card is ridiculous as E Bay are collecting at least %80 of it for their E Bay shipping rip off
Otherwise I am easy with the other options

The number one thing for me is availability. There just aren't many sources of cards anymore -- especially for single cards. The number 1 reason I buy from eBay is because that is where all the cards are.

Here are some thoughts on the options listed:

Price of the item? Free Shipping? Shipping cost?

Of course price is a factor. I look at total cost for an item including shipping.

How Long the Seller Has Been a Member of eBay? The seller's Total Star Rating? The Seller's Positive Ratings? the seller's Negative/Neutral Feedback?

I don't pay a whole lot of attention to this as long as the ratings are out of line with what 'normal' ratings are. I feel like in general there isn't a lot of risk for a buyer so I don't put as much on the ratings as I once did.

Shipping Time?

I don't pay much attention to this, although I probably should.

Buy it Now versus Auction?

This of course influences how I interact with a sale. I am more likely to bid on an item in an auction, and possibly would pay more than a BIN for an item I am only moderately interested in.

Condition of the Card/Set?

As long as the card is in normal condition for what it is I don't may much attention here.

Where the Seller Resides?

All other things being equal I don't care -- except I have seen a TON of Marvel Studios cards coming out of China. The vast majority of the auctions are from Chinese sellers. I'm curious how that happens and am wondering if they are legit. They look legit, I don't see anything that makes me think they aren't legit, except how did so much of this product wind up overseas?

On caveat to this -- for some reason sellers from some countries seem to ship with signature required, which is a HUGE pain in my backside and I try to avoid those.

The main reason I buy on ebay is availability. There are no other on line sources for general card buying. Although I buy Star Wars cards occasionally on ebay, there are SW specific sites.

I still occasionally buy on ebay for the odd card I look for, particularly from older sets, but I do have a couple of dealers I buy from away from ebay, now, for most other cards. The shipping cost is the main reason I don't buy as much on ebay. But I don't blame the sellers, as ebay is geared to the buyer(in terms of winning disputed cases, anyway) and they need to protect themselves.

The overseas dealer I use is still high shipping as it usually incurs a Customs charge once here, but international shipping is high everywhere now. However, I get discounts because the dealers aren't having to pay the ebay business seller fees. I'm also able to sell my items back to one or two dealers, and avoid the ebay problems, while still getting fair prices.