Selling/buying hatching eggs on ebay

[myfinefeatheredfriends]

So I've been with ebay about 4 years now. Through over 600 transactions I've had mixed experiences. The majority are pleasant and a lot of people will even contact about their hatching success (the ones that don't I assume that no news is good news). However there are a few iffy people I've dealt with. By "iffy" I mean you can't tell whether they are legitimate or trying to scam you. As hatching egg sellers, we are constantly on our guard, as it is an easy category to get ripped off and ebay loves to throw in our faces - even now it is on every ad - about their buyer protection. "If you're not 100% satisfied, 'sue' the seller through our mini court system and you will get your money back AND be able to keep the item". Ebay is just too degrading to sellers anymore.

On the contrary I don't know how some sellers get away with the things they sell. For example I bought a 45 Coturnix quail egg auction and received 6 turkey eggs instead. They were wrapped simply in insulation, not bubblewrap, and three arrived crushed - probably due to USPS error. I decided to avoid hassle and just set the turkey eggs anyway. One failed to incubate due to a misplaced air cell and another died during incubation. That left me with one. It hatched 3 days early than it was supposed to but that isn't too uncommon on shipped eggs. The point was that it hatched. Turned out to be a female Royal Palm with a crooked toe, probably from the rough trip as an embryo. It is amazing she lived at all!

Here is a pic of her with my baby, Chloe:

Selling and buying on ebay is a gamble. What are your experiences with ebay?

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

I bought one set of eggs on eBay, 10+ D'Anver eggs for my broody. They were individually wrapped but not in bubble wrap, something else and placed in an egg carton with padding around that. None broke enroute but not one hatched. I pulled out a half crushed stinker day 9 and removed the rest day 10 after candling. None had developed and all were getting the rotten egg smell. Not sure if the post office let them cook in the truck or if I was sent duds. I saw some reviews on here about the seller after the fact and she doesn't seem to have many happy customers.

eBay will be my method of last resort for hatching eggs from now on. First, local. Second, BYC. Third, eBay.

 

[Gotmearooster]

I looked into the whole ebay egg buying deal. I looked hig and low for local gamefowl however it seems anyone with gamey birds dont trust anyone to easily. I found a few farms but was unable to get in touch with anyone so i had to resort to ebay. I looked for three weeks. Researching each seller and looking to see if they had a facebook page about their farm. I found a farm in michigan that had some really nice looking gamefowl. So i sent them a message throug ebay asking them if i won the auction they had for ten grey gamefowl eggs if it was possible to order another ten eggs on top of the eggs i won. They got right back to me and told me that wouldnt be a problem. So i bid on the eggs and i happen to win. After i won i asked the seller a question i had about her fowl. The ad stated the birds you see in the ad are the birds you will receive eggs from. ow here is the problem. They also put on their ad the eggs will not be older than three days old when shipped. Now the picture on the ebay auction only shows two hens and one rooster. Hens lay eggs once every 26 hours or so. So when the firstnset of ten eggs were ready to be shipped they werenallready five days old. So that was the first problem with the auction. Second problem. I asked if i could buy another ten eggs and was told yes. I asked them twice if they only had two hens and they would nit anser that question. So my eggs were sent out three day priority mail. They sent them off on a thursday. Second problem. Why would someone ship a time sensitive three day priority shipment on a thursday. I understand they want the items to get shipped asap but wouldnt it be a better idea to contact buyer and explain the eggs could sit fornsunday and get ruined in a hot warehouse. But if they were shipped out on monday and the oldest eggs replaced with fresh eggs would have been a safer bet. Now its wednesday. Two days past the day they should have been here and still no eggs. So yesterday i contacted seller and they told me to start a case with usps. Here is the problem with that. I dont have the receipt for the usps item so i cant start a case for a refund. Also when i won the auction i instantly within three minutes of winning sent them an email asking for an invoice with the amount for the extra eggs added to the total. They didnt do it so twenty four hours later i went ahead and made the payment for the original amount. Now that the item has not come i started an ebay case against the seller to get my money back. I understand the risk of ordering eggs on ebay but i really think they were scamming me. I looked into their facebook to find out they had bought a trio of gamefowl at poultry show in michigan a year earlier and then posted pics on their facebook asking everyone if they knew what breed the gamefowl were. i asked them several times for pics of the chicks fro their gamefowl and after two weeks of asking i finally got them to post one pic of two chicks. This all is making me very skeptical about the legitimacy of these gamefowl egg sellers. Most people who breed and sell eggs of these breeds on ebay have several brooding pens with ten or more hens in each pen. Their ad makes you think you are looking at the same birds your getting eggs from but you dont realize thats the only three gamefowl these people have
I ordered twenty eggs from them thinkng they wouldnt be more then three to six days old when they shipped the eggs to me. After i researched them. I found out the oldest eggs when they shipped them had to be at least ten days old when they were shipped to me. So that plus the six days its taken them to come in the mail. Im not going to except them from the mail man. I think im gonna tell him to return the package to sender. Im gonna start a claim throug ebay to get my money back. I truely beleive these people aremtrying to scamm buyers. The eggs will not hatch whn i get hem anyways. They are way too old allready. Shoot they should be five days from hatching allready. Lol so tell me what you guys think about my experience? i really think i deserve my money back.

 

[Gotmearooster]

I really think ebay isnt a bad option for hatching eggs as long as you research the farm or person you are getting the eggs from prior to bidding and know the quality as well as the amount of hens onthe farm. Most advertise they have several brooding pens with at least ten to fifteen hens and one rooster in each pen so you can order a lot of eggs and know they will be fresh. Another thing to take into consideration is the weather. These eggs often sit in hot trucks for hours at a time while the truck is in the direct sunlight. they also can sit in a hot warehouse for several hours and get cooked before you even get them. The last thing i take into consideration is the shipping. I would go with someone that advertises they shi only monday thru wednesday so when they ship your eggs
Three day priority shipping and insure it the eggs will be at your door on the third or fourth day at the latest. These are all good seller ethics according to the item being sold. If the seller is selling and or advertising anything less than what i have stated here i would seriously consider not buying from whomever youve decided isnt following all of these guidelines. These are all basic practices of great ebay sellers of hatching eggs. They wont let their product get ruined if they can possibly help it in any way and that is what every hatching egg seller should go by. Ive gathered these things right off of ebay. I got these directly from the hatching egg sellers themselves and even they often told me to beware of people just trying to make a quick buck. Make sure the farm had a npip cert. This means the fowl have been tested and cleared of any and all diseases that the hen can transfer to the egg. another good thing to look for but wont always be there is a NGFA member. Sometimes the seller will also put on their ad they are a member of NGFA or NGBA which is national game fowl association or national gane bird association. The game bird association is more for pheasent, chukar, quail and so on. Both are good things to see on a sellers ad. So this is all info i have gathered and put together to help anyone looking to buy eggs on ebay. Hopefully this will help weed out the sellers selling quality gamefowl from the ones trying to make a quick dollar and dont care if your eggs even survive. As long as they got your money.

 

[Gotmearooster]

As for my ebay experience with hatching eggs. I am going to try to contact a local gamefowl farm again and see if i can go to the farm and hand pick my eggs. If this fails i will probably buy eggs from ebay again however this time i am going to find a reputable seller that has no bad feedback on their egg sales and a good shipping history. The folks i bought from last time had all this but still screwed me in my eyes. I think ebay is not a bad option if you dont have any other way. Its luck of the draw. You might get a good batch and you might not.

 

[mymilliefleur]

I have only bought hatching eggs on ebay once, and in the whole, it was a very good experience. I purchased 24 mille fleur d'Uccle hatching eggs for $40. The eggs (along with 9 extras) arrived quickly, and all were well packaged and in good shape. When I candled the eggs a couple weeks later there were only 2 clears and all the others showed development. I ended up with 21 chicks out of 31 eggs (an excellent hatch rate considering I had power outage and several temp spikes). I've looked a few times but I haven't seen them advertise since than. Too bad, since I'd love to get eggs from them again.