Pretty sure I'm getting scammed by an eBay seller.

[Geckolady]

Look at the eBay seller's feedback. If he's a scammer, other people will let you know. But so far, nothing you've said makes me think he is.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

It could also just be that he thinks you're overreacting and that it's not actually a big deal

 

[nuthatched]

Usps is in shambles right now, now is not the best time to ship any delicate or time sensitive items. It took 8 days for a package to get to me from hundred miles away, and it disappeared for 3 days during that time. Shipping delays are not the sellers fault, how the eggs are handled is not the sellers fault but good padding can really negate the stress eggs recieve.
Most egg sellers will gather the eggs after purchase or will ship once they have the amount they need to try to make sure the eggs are fresh.

 

[NatJ]

If they're stored at 65ish degrees until incubation, I believe 7 days is the absolute longest they should be considered viable.

I've read that hatchability goes down after 7 days, but some eggs certainly do hatch after longer storage than that. (Not as many hatch, but some still do.)

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Supposedly if kept around 65 or lower and rotated 2x daily, eggs could last up to 3 weeks. Not sure how well that's true or not though

 

[ladybrasa]

I will say that in general this year for me compared to last year, the two shipments of eggs have actually been in decent shape. Air cells only a little bit shifty but still attached. Last year, most shipments, no matter where from, contained at least a few detached or partially detached air cells.

 

[Tankueray]

That's actually quite cheap for those eggs

I've been observing auctions for almost a month. Depending on the end time, they've been averaging between $10-$12 an egg. $15 on the high side during peak hours. Buy it now prices are generally higher, but that's the premium for the guarantee of the purchase.

Usps is in shambles right now, now is not the best time to ship any delicate or time sensitive items. It took 8 days for a package to get to me from hundred miles away, and it disappeared for 3 days during that time. Shipping delays are not the sellers fault, how the eggs are handled is not the sellers fault but good padding can really negate the stress eggs recieve.
Most egg sellers will gather the eggs after purchase or will ship once they have the amount they need to try to make sure the eggs are fresh.

You and the seller have both said that, but I haven't encountered any issues. I sell online myself (not chicken related), and I've shipped about 30 packages out in the last 2 months, and only one had an issue because the buyer gave the wrong address to Amazon. In the 13 years I've been selling online, the only place I can say that I've ever encountered issues is to/through the Chicago area; well, and Canada, apparently all of the carriers except USPS extort the Canadians for extra fees.

However, It is the seller's fault that I asked them to hold them until Monday and they ignored me and shipped anyway. So they arrived in Lubbock yesterday (Saturday before noon), and will now sit there until they make the 2 hour drive to my sorting center on Monday, then arrive at my post office on Tuesday morning. Normally, a Friday ship day would arrive on Monday - anything that arrives in Lubbock before 5pm gets to my sorting center that night, and my P.O. around 6am the next morning.

It could also just be that he thinks you're overreacting and that it's not actually a big deal

I'm hoping that this is the case, although I would have at least acknowledged my buyer's concern instead of blatantly ignoring it.

Look at the eBay seller's feedback. If he's a scammer, other people will let you know. But so far, nothing you've said makes me think he is.

I did, but not close enough I guess. Only 2 negative ever regarding hatch rate. What I didn't do was look at feedback vs. number of sold auctions. Only 3 feedback was received from over 2 dozen auctions. But that didn't really concern me either because hardly anyone leaves feedback anymore unless they're unhappy.

But that's also the problem with eggs. Generally everyone understands the risks and leaves feedback related to the transaction and condition of arrival. So looking at feedback for egg sellers only tells you how well they pack and how fast they ship. Not whether they're passing off another species as a rare one or selling infertile eggs, knowing they can blame a no hatch rate on the USPS.

 

[ladybrasa]

It’s unfortunate they didn’t listen to your request, but don’t think it makes them a scammer, just not great business. I have seen a lot of eBay egg sellers specifically state they only ship out eggs in the early part of the week. I feel like these are the ones that have done it long enough to have learned and also have their egg sales planned through the week.

For the eggs you get (you might already know this, sorry), check out the air cells right away. If they are detached or partially detached, that’s probably from shipping. If the air cells are large, that could mean a porous egg or an older egg. Some hens just lay a too porous egg, but that could also indicate hen nutrition, too, which is a seller thing. If the air cells are small or at least reasonable sized (I can’t give you a specific measurement) then they are probably reasonably fresh and as good as you could get for shipped eggs for hatching.

I hope your eggs arrive in good shape!

 

[Tankueray]

They arrived yesterday morning and I picked them up at the post office (still 4 days instead of 2). There were 7 eggs cradled in paper towel squares inside an 18 egg carton that was wrapped in foil. The box had two 18 egg cartons on the bottom as padding, shredded newspaper in the middle with the foiled carton, and two 18 egg cartons on top. The box had five fragile stickers and one "do not x-ray" sticker.

They were an average of 75.57 degrees (range 74.6 - 76.2) and 42.51 grams (range 37.18 - 44.89). Two of the eggs were cracked, one had a spot that I'm not sure if it's a crack, one was porous, one was really porous, one did not transmit light (as in not clear inside at all, but not solid), one was fairly different than the others, and none had any discernible air cells. I was able to see a slight liquid bubble-like movement in two of them. I handled and candled them very carefully, let them sit for 8 hours, and placed them in the incubator upright with the turner off. (I disinfected the cracks with 3% H3O3 spray and waxed them.)

The incubator is a Farm Innovators 4250. It appears to be holding a constant temp and humidity well, however I can't tell you what those values are exactly. I have two additional digital temp/humidity gauges in there, one of which I'm sure is bad, the other matched the readout almost exactly when I had it in the upper left corner. After moving it to the lower left (and the bad one from lower right to upper), it no longer reads within range of the readout.

At 13 hours after setting, the humidity was reading above 65% on all devices. I measured the surface temperature of the eggs with a laser thermometer, the range was 100.0 - 101.8. Each egg was candled from the top while sitting in the turner, I saw nothing new, and gently twisted each one 180 degrees. This is also when I moved the digital thermometers. After about an hour, the thermometers were all in disagreement, so I placed one bi-metal probe thermometer and two mercury thermometers in. They're all reading about the same. The bi-metal and Hg thermometers suspended above the eggs through the vent holes, at approximately the same height as the incubator probe both read 100 degrees (incubator display reads 99.0/60%). The Hg thermometer inside the chamber next to the eggs reads 101.6.

I will continue to monitor the temps and humidity every few hours and twist the eggs every 12 hours until Thursday night. That's when I'm picking up some fresh eggs locally and when they go in, the egg turner will be turned on. (Not that I anticipate the shipped eggs to even develop let alone hatch, but I have a lockdown plan in place due to the different ages of the eggs.)

Seller interaction:
There was no additional response after "they won't be sitting in a warehouse, they'll be in transit" until I was on my way to the post office, and the message was only, "I believe your package is at the post office."

As soon as I had candled them and identified the potential issues, I notified the seller and sent pictures of the cracks. The response I received was, "Please leave positive feedback, and I'll do the same for you. Thank you very much."
I responded that I didn't feel comfortable with that because he's ignored everything I've said, he responded with "I'm sorry you feel that way" "I ship all the time" and more blaming USPS, deflecting, and again ignoring any of my actual concerns.

My last response was expressing my disappointment and questioning whether the eggs were intentionally shipped with the knowledge that they weren't viable. Honest people do not ignore, deflect, or place blame elsewhere; and they certainly don't say "I'm sorry you feel that way."

So I'm done, I will do my best to give the eggs a real chance, and I will not let this experience sour me on eBay sellers. I've spoken to a few that are here on BYC, and I know there are many more good than bad.

I'll try to remember to update this thread with the outcome of the incubation. Thanks for all the tips and wish those little guys luck.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

They arrived yesterday morning and I picked them up at the post office (still 4 days instead of 2). There were 7 eggs cradled in paper towel squares inside an 18 egg carton that was wrapped in foil. The box had two 18 egg cartons on the bottom as padding, shredded newspaper in the middle with the foiled carton, and two 18 egg cartons on top. The box had five fragile stickers and one "do not x-ray" sticker.

They were an average of 75.57 degrees (range 74.6 - 76.2) and 42.51 grams (range 37.18 - 44.89). Two of the eggs were cracked, one had a spot that I'm not sure if it's a crack, one was porous, one was really porous, one did not transmit light (as in not clear inside at all, but not solid), one was fairly different than the others, and none had any discernible air cells. I was able to see a slight liquid bubble-like movement in two of them. I handled and candled them very carefully, let them sit for 8 hours, and placed them in the incubator upright with the turner off. (I disinfected the cracks with 3% H3O3 spray and waxed them.)

The incubator is a Farm Innovators 4250. It appears to be holding a constant temp and humidity well, however I can't tell you what those values are exactly. I have two additional digital temp/humidity gauges in there, one of which I'm sure is bad, the other matched the readout almost exactly when I had it in the upper left corner. After moving it to the lower left (and the bad one from lower right to upper), it no longer reads within range of the readout.

At 13 hours after setting, the humidity was reading above 65% on all devices. I measured the surface temperature of the eggs with a laser thermometer, the range was 100.0 - 101.8. Each egg was candled from the top while sitting in the turner, I saw nothing new, and gently twisted each one 180 degrees. This is also when I moved the digital thermometers. After about an hour, the thermometers were all in disagreement, so I placed one bi-metal probe thermometer and two mercury thermometers in. They're all reading about the same. The bi-metal and Hg thermometers suspended above the eggs through the vent holes, at approximately the same height as the incubator probe both read 100 degrees (incubator display reads 99.0/60%). The Hg thermometer inside the chamber next to the eggs reads 101.6.

I will continue to monitor the temps and humidity every few hours and twist the eggs every 12 hours until Thursday night. That's when I'm picking up some fresh eggs locally and when they go in, the egg turner will be turned on. (Not that I anticipate the shipped eggs to even develop let alone hatch, but I have a lockdown plan in place due to the different ages of the eggs.)

Seller interaction:
There was no additional response after "they won't be sitting in a warehouse, they'll be in transit" until I was on my way to the post office, and the message was only, "I believe your package is at the post office."

As soon as I had candled them and identified the potential issues, I notified the seller and sent pictures of the cracks. The response I received was, "Please leave positive feedback, and I'll do the same for you. Thank you very much."
I responded that I didn't feel comfortable with that because he's ignored everything I've said, he responded with "I'm sorry you feel that way" "I ship all the time" and more blaming USPS, deflecting, and again ignoring any of my actual concerns.

My last response was expressing my disappointment and questioning whether the eggs were intentionally shipped with the knowledge that they weren't viable. Honest people do not ignore, deflect, or place blame elsewhere; and they certainly don't say "I'm sorry you feel that way."

So I'm done, I will do my best to give the eggs a real chance, and I will not let this experience sour me on eBay sellers. I've spoken to a few that are here on BYC, and I know there are many more good than bad.

I'll try to remember to update this thread with the outcome of the incubation. Thanks for all the tips and wish those little guys luck.

Hoping that they actually turn our well. I'm really wanting to get some myself and eggs are the only way I can unfortunately