What's up with Dan Sitter?

What about the "will not allow me" line? Is he under some sort of ebay discipline?
I understand that people can choose to sell or not to sell overseas, but that's not what he's stating. Most people are reasonable, but others just seem to make every excuse they can think of. Others state they don't charge a handling fee, but their shipping price is hugely inflated. They're too dumb to realize that I can get on the USPS website and figure out the real cost myself. I may be an Aussie, but I can figure that much out.

Rod.

I am sure it is his choice, not ebay. If he won't, then deal with other people who will. I hope he doesn't have the market cornered on a certain selection of things.

Phil

I purchased a couple of engines last year, and he did ship to Malaysia. He also told me that someone hacked and used his username a couple of times and his ebay account had been suspended for a while.

Oldenginerod wrote:What about the "will not allow me" line?  Is he under some sort of ebay discipline?
I understand that people can choose to sell or not to sell overseas, but that's not what he's stating.  Most people are reasonable, but others just seem to make every excuse they can think of.  Others state they don't charge a handling fee, but their shipping price is hugely inflated.  They're too dumb to realize that I can get on the USPS website and figure out the real cost myself.  I may be an Aussie, but I can figure that much out.

Rod.

I respect the guy for his COX engines handbook...and respect him less for not even bothering to answer me thru ebay when I wanted to buy 010 parts from him some time ago..must be a morose, hermit type of a man...

Depending on correspondence through Ebay is really dodgey. About the only time it really works for me is when I am actually in a deal.

Ebay blocks you at every turn from trying to list or use real email. I wouldn't judge people based on Ebay correspondence.

Fleabay is a dodgy medium for communication and all emails are filtered. I have purchased quite a few things from Dan (including some very hard to get non- Cox engine spares) and they have always made it to the UK.

I don't blame sellers for being over cautious. Feedback has become one sided in favour of the buyer and overseas postage is now extortionate.

I have modest collection of engines and only 10% of these were through Ebay. If I find a good seller, I usually establish contact outside of Ebay and introduce them to the "Engine Collectors Club" .

Ebay is not the medium it was and I cannot judge people through it any longer and don't do it.

You may be right in saying ebay in general is not the right communication platform.

My issue with Dan Sitter was very simple though at the end of which I kinda felt myself guilty because I am not a US buyer...it was some 2 years ago and unlike many ebay sellers who by default restrict shipping to the US, but are responding if questioned whether they will to revise their shipping policy, Dan did not even bother answering. I do not think it was any technicality of ebay messaging that kept him non-responsive.

I've sold many items on eBay, this is what I have to do for international shipping.
My PO is always very busy and they don't leave the customs form where I can just grab one so i have to wait in a long line just to get the form.
Fill out the form and get back in line again, when I get service they always act like they never seen anything like this before, take like ten minutes
of them punching the computer to get the job done. Even the cheapest international shipping is costly. Just not worth it to me.
 Dan most likely got hosed by eBay on his international sales, a lot of sellers just flat won't ship to Italy because of getting burned by eBay.
 On a side note, The dollar has been strengthening the last few months approx. 25% against the Euro and Canadian dollar. Should make things more costly to export and
much cheaper to import.

As the OP, I'm a little regretful that this has gone on as it has. I was lookng for some answers but didn't intend it to be a Dan-bashing session. Everyone has their reasons for behaving in certain ways. No, I don't believe that this is an ebay-created communication problem. Messages get through and some people simply choose to ignore them. That's their prerogative, regardless of how rude it seems. Some people choose to not fully tell the truth. If the seller is not permitted to ship one particular unrestricted item overseas by ebay, they why would other items from the same seller be listed for overseas shipping? That is the case here. The blame has been shifted to ebay, which I don't accept. All I ask is that people be honest and polite. It's simply good business practice and the right thing to do.

Rod.

No hard feelings on Dan..I got my parts he sold through another eBayer who resold them to me without Dan being aware..This latter seller obviously managed to export what Dan did/could? not.

crankbndr wrote:Dan most likely got hosed by eBay on his international sales, a lot of sellers just flat won't ship to Italy because of getting burned by eBay.

Not saying this applies to Dan. I've been burned a couple times by less than honest E-Bay sellers. If I don't get a favorable response or I see for example, a used muffler without showing all details like the muffler opening side of the engine, I won't bid on the item. If I see a listing that seems to reflect less than the truth, I won't bid. If I find a number of negative feedback responses indicating dishonesty, I won't bid. Sometimes I see apparently unfair feedback posted, in that case I don't consider those.

Personally except for extremely rare items, I find that if I am patient, another seller will have the item I am looking for in the condition I expected and at a price I will accept.

GallopingGhostler wrote:

crankbndr wrote:Dan most likely got hosed by eBay on his international sales, a lot of sellers just flat won't ship to Italy because of getting burned by eBay.

Not saying this applies to Dan. I've been burned a couple times by less than honest E-Bay sellers. If I don't get a favorable response or I see for example, a used muffler without showing all details like the muffler opening side of the engine, I won't bid on the item. If I see a listing that seems to reflect less than the truth, I won't bid. If I find a number of negative feedback responses indicating dishonesty, I won't bid. Sometimes I see apparently unfair feedback posted, in that case I don't consider those.

Personally except for extremely rare items, I find that if I am patient, another seller will have the item I am looking for in the condition I expected and at a price I will accept.

All very wise things to do for a buyer, for me good photos are key also. I can tell most everything I need to know from good macro shots.

Dan Sitter sells on ebay and ships to several countries around the world. My country Hungary is not excluded based on the exception list posted on his ebay item, still I cannot complete a Buy it now transaction with ebay saying the seller does not accept bids from me..should I feel discriminated? .strange.

balogh wrote:Dan Sitter sells on ebay and ships to several countries around the world. My country Hungary is not excluded based on the exception list posted on his ebay item, still I cannot complete a Buy it now transaction with ebay saying the seller does not accept bids from me..should I feel discriminated? .strange.

Balogh: let me know what you want? If you will pay shipping fees I will purchase and ship to you. Dan is in LA still, I think, and shipping should me a minimum from him to me.  

What is his seller name on eBay? It isn’t dansitter, or Dan sitter.

California-Dan. So balogh, what do you wan, car engine, .020, PT-19 engine? Say the word, I will buy. Then we talk about shipping to Hungary. I just went thru this with robot797. Ask him for a reference. Shipping weight over 8ounces is $24.50, under $14.50. At least to Holland.

Happydad. I am out for the rest of the night. Wife is very angry. It is almost 1a.m PST

Thanks a lot, Happydad, your help is appreciated.. Of course I will pay the overall shipping cost as well (from the seller to you, then from you to me).

Pm sent to you.

I remember a few years ago Dan Sitter's son John started handling his affairs. I don't know if that also included his eBay store. I'm pretty sure Dan is well into his senior years.  Dan was trying to sell off engines so he could purchase more engines for his collection.
P.S. I was banned from purchasing anything from his eBay store after I opened dispute for non-shipment of an item.  eBay sided in my favor and had my payment refunded.  eBay monitored our correspondence and that alone settled the dispute. This happened to me twice, a seller claimed he shipped the item out but had no proof.
 I'm not dissing Dan because it was an honest mistake. I actually purchased several surestart engines from him as it was the cheapest at that time on eBay. Why I was banned I will never know. but I've purchased many similar items from other sellers.

Glad ya;ll brought this up i ordered a GB / props on the 10th and all i got so far is a tracking # I just contacted him , we will see .

balogh wrote:You may be right in saying ebay in general is not the right communication platform.

My issue with Dan Sitter was very simple though at the end of which I kinda felt myself guilty because I am not a US buyer...it was some 2 years ago and unlike many ebay sellers who by default restrict shipping to the US, but are responding if questioned whether they will to revise their shipping policy, Dan did not even bother answering. I do not think it was any technicality of ebay messaging that kept him non-responsive.

There are settings in eBay that block coms from outside your shipping area, I use it cause I got nastygrams from outside US for not shipping there. Also you can block usernames from buying or coms, I have more than one on permaban.

Got a reply ,
New message from: california-dan (9,975Green Star)
I do not know what happened. I will issue a refund My reply >> Just told him i still wanted the engine if possible if not a refund is OK !?! ??

Thanks Eric. Lets hope for the best in our transactions with this ebayer.

The following won't help your situation, so it is only what I've learned.
For stuff I tend to repeat-buy, I look to eBay to make "first-contaxt, first-sale." Those sellers sometimes (more often than not) include external contact information in the package.
I assume they do this to establish rapport via eBay, and probably at a loss.

This grants me direct access to those vendors, so that I can inquire about other products/services,and allows them a stronger profit on those items.

So my pattern goes "buy once on eBay, and any follow-on sales are done outside of eBay." The first sale is eBay-protected, and PayPal-protected. If it goes well, I then I feel a lot more comfortable doing deals with that vendor directly.
I'm sure a small pile of my brethren here do the same.

Sorry to hear of your problem.  I got my motor and props ( from Dan Sitter) rather quickly from USPS. Ordered Friday night, Sent out Monday, received on Saturday.  

Boy, I sure hope this new postal guy doesn’t really screw up the Post Office!

Although, Amazon Prime does pound the pavement.
My youngest son ordered my wife some Bluetooth ear-buds for listening to Books thru her phone.  ( she used to use “books on tape, then books on CD)  but was having a hard time with breaking the player or ripping out the Earphone cords). He ordered them Tuesday on his “Prime” account, they were delivered the next day...haven’t heard a word from her since!  Huh? You talking to me?  No.   Hey!! I can answer my phone thru these earphones!
Yeah, welcome to the 21st century!!  I”ll call ya if I wanna talk, OK?

MEANWHILE
My oldest son works for UPS. All the overtime he can handle, double shifts even. He says it’s like Black Friday thru Christmas, but just hasn’t stopped. Blaming it on the pandemic, nobody is shopping the stores, buying everything online for nextday or two day delivery.
So, the Post Office starts removing sorting machines??  Somethings fishy!

Marleysky wrote:Sorry to hear of your problem.  I got my motor and props ( from Dan Sitter) rather quickly from USPS. Ordered Friday night, Sent out Monday, received on Saturday.  

Boy, I sure hope this new postal guy doesn’t really screw up the Post Office!

Although, Amazon Prime does pound the pavement.
My youngest son ordered my wife some Bluetooth ear-buds for listening to Books thru her phone.  ( she used to use “books on tape, then books on CD)  but was having a hard time with breaking the player or ripping out the Earphone cords). He ordered them Tuesday on his “Prime” account, they were delivered the next day...haven’t heard a word from her since!  Huh? You talking to me?  No.   Hey!! I can answer my phone thru these earphones!
Yeah, welcome to the 21st century!!  I”ll call ya if I wanna talk, OK?

MEANWHILE
My oldest son works for UPS. All the overtime he can handle, double shifts even. He says it’s like Black Friday thru Christmas, but just hasn’t stopped. Blaming it on the pandemic, nobody is shopping the stores, buying everything online for nextday or two day delivery.
So, the Post Office starts removing sorting machines??  Somethings fishy!

All: the Andras problem is taken care of. No other comments at this time. Happydad