Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Opinion about an Ebay Seller

HgDinis25 - 10-11-2014 at 12:51

Hey everyone!

I've been searching ebay trying to find good deals on glassware, mostly ground glass joints. A few days ago I found this seller, from China:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/ben0315?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

He has lots of inexpensive glassware like this addition funnel:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250ml-Addition-Pressure-Equalizing...

He also only charges for shipping once, the shipping from other items in the same order beeing free.

What I wanted to know is if this seems legit to you. His prices just seem a little bit too good. As anyone dealed with this seller? Or bought equally priced glassware that doesn't break just by looking at it?

Ah, and I'm from Europe, if this helps in anything...

[Edited on 10-11-2014 by HgDinis25]

Little_Ghost_again - 10-11-2014 at 13:02

In the UK you now have to add 20% vat on orders over £30 (inc the post), plus £10 admin fee and £4 customs fee. Go over £45 and the charges can ramp up, most postal services are taking the piss charging £8-£10 in admin charges, the best deals now are to choose the sellers who charge for customs upfront, that way you avoid the admin fees etc and get the goods faster, I learnt this the hard way earlier this year.

DrMario - 10-11-2014 at 13:45

I'm from the EU and I've purchased a ton of glassware from Chinese eBay sellers. I was _never_ disappointed. I can't claim the same thing for reagents, where I did have a slightly disappointing experience, but never with glassware.

I have not done any business with ben0315 specifically, but his glassware prices seem pretty standard. Which means cheap and still you get really good borosilicate glassware.

Also... I'll probably get one of his smaller Buchner funnels and a few thermometers. And maybe a couple of those 250 ml glass-stopper reagent bottles. I really shouldn't go impulse buying this month, though...

woelen - 11-11-2014 at 00:02

Many chinese sellers offer free shipping or shipping at low cost. I am careful not to have the total value in a single order exceed EUR 22 (excl. shipping), which is the limit for foreign orders in the Netherlands. If you go above EUR 22, then you have to pay EUR 17 plus a certain percentage over the value of the order. Especially for orders just over EUR 22, the fixed part of EUR 17 is very high. If you order from the same seller with free shipping, then you must also assure that there is sufficient time between orders, otherwise the seller combines them in a single parcel and you go over EUR 22 total value.

The above strategy works fine for relatively cheap items (e.g. certain reagents, electronics parts, small pieces of glassware).

Oxirane - 11-11-2014 at 02:12

What kind of reagents have you ordered outside EU and have you had any customs intervention?

diddi - 11-11-2014 at 02:58

I made a big order with this seller and he elected to send me a sample first before we negotiated the shipping. as it turned out the product did not suit my needs and he refunded me all my money including the price for the sample, so I can vouch for his honesty at least in my case. he does offer a lot of stuff and includes free shipping if you order a lot. I will be looking back to buy some different glassware in the future.

aga - 11-11-2014 at 10:31

I've had some stuff from ben0315, and it's arrived pretty fast, been good quality (not that i'm an expert on glass perfection).

I've ordered several items on several occasions with no problems.

Little_Ghost_again - 12-11-2014 at 12:43

Quote: Originally posted by woelen  
Many chinese sellers offer free shipping or shipping at low cost. I am careful not to have the total value in a single order exceed EUR 22 (excl. shipping), which is the limit for foreign orders in the Netherlands. If you go above EUR 22, then you have to pay EUR 17 plus a certain percentage over the value of the order. Especially for orders just over EUR 22, the fixed part of EUR 17 is very high. If you order from the same seller with free shipping, then you must also assure that there is sufficient time between orders, otherwise the seller combines them in a single parcel and you go over EUR 22 total value.

The above strategy works fine for relatively cheap items (e.g. certain reagents, electronics parts, small pieces of glassware).



Thanks Woelen, that kind of ties in with the UK, I have resorted to asking some sellers to split larger orders and send separately and at a few days apart, the worse part in the UK isnt the actual tax its the admin fee charged by the courier

HgDinis25 - 12-11-2014 at 17:51

Yeah, I'm a bit worried about customs fees. In my country they are kind of random but if they choose my package and it costed 100€ then I would have to pay ~30€ more, wich I simply can't.