members experiences with eBay purchases

[quetsweyo]

i was wondering if any of y'all had bought eggs or chicks or full grown birds on eBay and what kind of experience you had with your acquisitons. I just got totally reamed on some goatskins and wondered if their sellers of all things bird were anymore trustworthy

saw some "rare Shamo Asils" on there earllier today.. Also, I have been interested in Malay chickens even though i am a greenhorn. i like their stance and tallness and that dinosaur look in their eye, and then i read how friendly they are towards their people. didnt sound like theyd enjoy our indiana winters though. and i am serious about this, does anyone put little coats on their chickens like thay do little, shivery dogs? I could make that. they could get their exercise in our lovely snow/ice/sleet climate and then get undresse and put back into secure coop with lights for heat. or even ceramic heaters like i used to use with reptiles. thank you , quetsweyo

 

[aprophet]

I do not deal on ebay these days I quit about some of their idiotic policies I have met / dealt with some wonderful folks here on BYC however

 

[BawGock]

All my BYCer egg purchases have been very positive and I recommend shopping here

I've only purchased from an eBayer once and the eggs did not produce the quality of birds that they showed as their brood stock.

Carolyn

 

[Ceinwyn]

I've had both really positive and really negative experiences on Ebay.
Haven't bought from anyone here to give an opinion.
Your best bet is to try to find someone local so you can see what your buying and how they treat their birds.

 

[quetsweyo]

thanks for your replies, they were what i was expecting pretty much. 4 of the 8 items i have "won!" on ebay were not as described and the sellers seem to have their A,s covered. feel pretty foolish, won't be going back. from what i've seen on BYC I would much rather do business here. I need to find out more about the malays and asils and thats not gonna happen on ebay. quetsweyo

 

[Whiskey Bay]

I have had good and bad,just like everyone else.I purchased some BO eggs from a seller.Supposed to be off show quality birds ,brown egglayers of course. When I received them,quite a few were broken.Packaged in shavings inside of a carton.The eggs were small cream to almost white eggs!!! I had also gotten some from Nancy (Bargain on here) that arrived the day before and were setting waiting to be put in the bator.Her eggs were beautiful LARGE BROWN eggs.Also received some from Cathy and was pretty much the same,only knew the diff cause I had them marked.Beautiful dark eggs,wonderfulpacking.of 24 total eggs from them I hatched out 18.FRom 24 of the ebay eggs I hatched 2,and they were MUCH smaller and lighter in color than Nancy and Cathy's.Quieter too. However,if I hadnt bought from Ebay before,I would have never met CAthy!! So I guess it goes both ways....I've had mostly good experiences here,however I did have a couple of not so good ones too.

 

[Oofies]

Last week was my second hatch from e-bay eggs. My first hatch was a bust (2/24) because I had a temp drop the last 3 days...
This bator: 30+ year old with fan and auto turner. We have fixed this sucker (simple wear and tear things, and me breaking the turner arm off in the trunk of my car) many times- but it is a GREAT bator...

This Hatch:
12 Silver Spangled Hamburgs
12 Pumpkin Hulsey
12 Speckled Sussex
24 coronation or coronation split
12 Blue/splash maran
24 ducks
I think 10 silkie and splash eggs

at 16 days 14 eggs were tossed out after candling

Results:
33 chicks hatched, most at 20 days one died at 3 days (just found him dead, very small chick to start with - I wonder if he was stomped)

11 white/light chicks- I think almost all are cs or cs split and a couple hamburgs
4 PH (YAY!!)
5 SS
3 Marans (2 blue, one is darker)
6 Black looking chicks with yellow bellies, I think three are from the splash group and I am not sure what the other 3 are..
4 splash looking chicks

One black duck hatched out of the styrobator at 26 days, he is doing ok and now in a separate bin with the small black chicks.

1 malformed chick hatch with assistance at 25 days- I don't have the guts to cull so he is sitting in the duck bator until he passes on his own or I get some guts...

Overall not a bad hatch. I think the duck eggs may have been a bit old when I got them, they had the roughest ship and had 3 broken eggs in the batch. The others were shipped fine.
I did not let the eggs sit before sticking them in the bator. I used dry incubation with a 50% humidity at the end (that was as high as I could get it with sponges and a dropper...)

Now what to do with them while I go out of town this weekend? I am sticking them and their tubs in the car and taking them with me!

 

[nuts4chickens]

I have bought quite a lot of eggs off eBay. I have had mixed results. I did, however, have a 100% hatch rate off my last set of eggs. My advice to you would be to not spend a great deal of $$ because you never know what you might really end up with, make sure you read over their feedback, and try to buy from npip breeders. Also try to bid on eggs that are less than 500 miles away. If there is a breed you are set on, I would try to locate a local breeder through byc. IMO, eBay isn't all that bad as long as you go into it knowing hatching eggs are a gamble,'and you might end up with mutts or something far from the breed standard. In my case, i bid on a dozen Easter eggers and recieved 18. They all hatched and they ended up being the prettiest bunch of chicks I have ever had. Good luck!

 

[Fritatta]

the traders on eBay live and die by their feedback. I only deal with those that have 99 or 100% positive feedback. If the person has sold 12000 items, and has 99% positive feedback, they are a good seller. Other wise, they would die a slow death on ebay.

I started my business on ebay and kept a 100% feedback score with over 12,000 sales. Many other dealers are just as concerned about customer satisfaction also. The LAST thing they want is a dissatisfied customer.

In addition, my family has bought AND sold probably 15-20 vehicle through ebay. Some to and from other states. Never had a problem.

eBay is terrific when you deal with experienced sellers with outstanding feedback.

Since you are buying living things, I would want to see pictures of their setup. cleanliness, crowding, etc. They may send you 6 chicks that look healthy but they may have picked them out of a batch of 50 sickly ones.