How safe is Amazon's Marketplace?

[BamaTanya]

Would you purchase something from a seller with a 95% positive rating? Their price is substantially lower than the others for a new item. Hmmm.

[K-FL]

I've always had good experiences & do most of my Christmas shopping through them.:)

[Jennifer in MI]

I sell through them. Yours sounds like a good seller. I also tend to put my items at the lowest cost so they'll sell quickly. Also be sure to check condition - that may be the reason for the significance in price. Email the seller and ask!

[AmyP]

Check the actual feedback. I would be more worried if they have had a rash of bad feedback in the last 30 days, but not as much if they are from a while back.

[TheCoffeeChick]

I have bought a lot of items used from the amazon marketplace and have never had a problem. My rule of thumb when buying is to only look at people with 90% or better ratings. Then I look through the first 3 pages of ratings & comments left by others for the seller. If it looks like the people are complaining about something as trivial as "you said this book was in great shape and I think it should have said it was in good shape" then I don't even worry about it. (And there are a lot of reviews that say something to this fact :blink:) But if there is a consistant comment through out the ratings like, "very slow shipping" or "seller never shipped" or "my book was falling apart", then I steer clear. Also, I have only once bought from someone who was new, and it worked out great.

 

I think overall, Amazon Marketplace is a very safe place. Oh, and if you ever do have a problem or are unhappy, you are guaranteed a refund from amazon.

[Jackie in AR]

95% is too low for me to purchase from them.

 

I try for 98 - 100%, and I read the actual comments.

[Jenny in Atl]

I've never had a problem but I do check out the comments and % stats. I also find sellers I like and tend to try to use them if at all possible.

[siloam]

Would you purchase something from a seller with a 95% positive rating? Their price is substantially lower than the others for a new item. Hmmm.

With the bigger outfits they sometimes cancel the order because someone already bought the book off of Half, or some other site (in other words, they have it listed in multiple places). You will find a lot of negatives are just because the book was canceled not because the transaction was bad.

 

I have used Beterworldbooks, Owl-Books, Thriftbooks,

universalathenaeum and others who have mid 90 ratings. They have always treated my well, refunding for any lost books without question.

 

Heather

[earthmother]

I've sold 10 items on Amazon and had about 5 people write reviews. One person put a neutral and said "item took too long to arrive". I had actually sent the item out the day she bought it and she received it after 6 days (which is still in the 10 day window for book rate). anyway, my rating is now ruined and I can't sell anything even though I'm honest and sell good quality stuff. all my other ratings were excellent so check what people had to say. all in all 95% is pretty darn good.

[Deidre in GA]

i buy and sell on Amazon Marketplace and have never had a problem. if the seller rating isn't strong, you need to read the actual posts. a seller shouldn't be blamed if the post office is having a bad day.

[3 Blessings]

I have purchased at least 30 items from Amazon Marketplace and I have been very happy with each one so far. I did puchase from a 94% rated seller once because most of the feedback was actually rating the post office's slow delivery. The transaction was timely and exactly as described; but normally I try to buy from those with a 98% or better rating.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I had this happen to me just last month. I ordered the book, then two days later got a cancellation and a refund from Amazon. I just turned around and bought the book from someone else.