Buying on Aquabid?

[Jawjagrrl]

Moderators please remove if this violates TOS, but as I understand it, AB is an ok topic since the Coop doesn't ship live fish.

I used to lurk on aquabid in the very early days, dreaming of exotic WC african cichlids that weren't in my budget in those days. I also had an excellent LFS. These days I have more discretionary income, but NO LFS or Club option, so it's online for me or 2+ hours in the car with a cooler and fingers crossed.

I've had success with aquahuna when they have what I am looking for, and all good experiences so far on ebay. Cory and Dean still talk about Aquabid all the time and I started lurking again. It feels a bit wild west compared to some of the big auction sites that have a lot of protections in place for buyers and sellers. 

Any pointers on best practices for AB? Handling payments? I'm sure it would be helpful to others like me that don't have local resources for live aquaria.

[H.K.Luterman]

I've bought blue wag platies (all the way from Hawaii!), mystery snails and neocaridina shrimp off of Aquabid, and my experience has been very positive. The only problem I did have was my shrimp shipment all arrived DOA, but the seller sent a replacement shipment with absolutely no hassle (I provided photos of the unopened bag). Definitely look at the seller's reviews before buying, both the positive and the negative. I've done all of my payments through Paypal with no trouble. 

[Jawjagrrl]

On 3/31/2022 at 1:53 PM, H.K.Luterman said:

I've bought blue wag platies (all the way from Hawaii!), mystery snails and neocaridina shrimp off of Aquabid, and my experience has been very positive. The only problem I did have was my shrimp shipment all arrived DOA, but the seller sent a replacement shipment with absolutely no hassle (I provided photos of the unopened bag). Definitely look at the seller's reviews before buying, both the positive and the negative. I've done all of my payments through Paypal with no trouble. 

Thank you - a seller has some plants I'm interested in, all good reviews though not a lot of them. Have you paid the seller right after the auction, after ship, or something else?

I am always amazed when I see people get things from Hawaii (like rare shrimp) and they arrive from so far away, but then transhippers bring in bettas from Asia, Dean's ricefish eggs from Japan, etc. 🙂 

BTW, I first saw your catfish signature in a thread about sigs, have always admired it!

Edited March 31, 2022 by Jawjagrrl

[H.K.Luterman]

On 3/31/2022 at 12:57 PM, Jawjagrrl said:

 

BTW, I first saw your catfish signature in a thread about sigs, have always admired it!

Aww, thanks. My featherfin catfish is my baby, and I had to have her in my sig. 🙂

But yeah! The blue wags came from a guy in Hawaii who breeds a ton of livebearers. They arrived fast and completely healthy!

After you buy something off Aquabid, it gives you the option to pay immediately, and I recommend just doing that. I then will email or message the seller just letting them know I bought their listing and paid. They usually will get back to you pretty quick.

[tolstoy21]

I sell on aquabid a lot and use PayPal invoicing linked to a PayPal business account so that the buyers have some confidence in terms of protections for their purchases and a place to go for dispute resolution.
 

Obviously every seller is different, but this is where reading seller reviews comes in handy.  Before buying, just contact a seller who has something you’re interested in, inquire about their shipping practices, prices and options, and what their policy looks like should you be dissatisfied with your purchase. Then gage your confidence based on that.  You can get a good feeling about a transaction before hand by having a basic email conversation with a seller and seeing how responsive they are, and how willing they are to accommodate a customer’s reasonable requests or concerns. 
 

I’ve used aquabid quite a bit over the past two years with all good experiences as both a buyer and seller.  In my experience, the sellers with a decent history of good reviews under their belts are a decent group of people. 

Edited March 31, 2022 by tolstoy21

[Jawjagrrl]

On 3/31/2022 at 4:18 PM, tolstoy21 said:

I’ve used aquabid quite a bit over the past two years with all good experiences as both a buyer and seller.  In my experience, the sellers with a decent history of good reviews under their belts are a decent group of people. 

That's reassuring to hear. A year ago the idea of getting fish or inverts mailed to me wasn't something I would consider, although a fishy friend at work back in the 90s was getting killifish mailed to him at work all the time. But I've had neutral to excellent experiences since I started up again with online orders. I have noticed one or two cases when I've looked at closed auctions with no bids, I've seen the same sellers and took that as a sign to be wary. 

[PineSong]

I've purchased from Aquabid (Florida sellers) and from eBay and had very positive experiences, all fish arrived alive and well, packages tracked so I knew when they would arrive. Every fish I've bought from Aquabid or eBay has made it through QT without a hitch and is still alive today--something I cannot say for fish from the LFS.

One thing I liked about buying from Aquabid or eBay is that you can contact the seller about getting  a different number of fish than they have listed--so they may be listing six unsexed platies and you can ask them to just sell you two adult males. Whereas if you are buying from Aquahuna you might be limited to getting a set of six or a trio, etc. 

 

 

[Jawjagrrl]

On 3/31/2022 at 8:33 PM, PineSong said:

I've purchased from Aquabid (Florida sellers) and from eBay and had very positive experiences, all fish arrived alive and well, packages tracked so I knew when they would arrive. Every fish I've bought from Aquabid or eBay has made it through QT without a hitch and is still alive today--something I cannot say for fish from the LFS.

One thing I liked about buying from Aquabid or eBay is that you can contact the seller about getting  a different number of fish than they have listed--so they may be listing six unsexed platies and you can ask them to just sell you two adult males. Whereas if you are buying from Aquahuna you might be limited to getting a set of six or a trio, etc. 

 

 

That's a good point about customization - I need to consider that more often. Already wishing I had gotten more green neons in a recent order. It's like having fish with tiny neon tubes down the middle - when I see them.