Was ebay always this bad?

[JollyMisanthropeParticipant 3356]

I’ve been an ebayer since 2003 but I’m starting to loathe using the service because of the amount they take out of your profits for their services. Have they been jacking up their commission percentage lately or was it always this much?

I’ve started just selling everything either on craigslist or message board for sale/trade sub-forums.

The Children of Doom... Doom's Children. They told my lord the way to the Mountain of Power. They told him to throw down his sword and return to the Earth... Ha! Time enough for the Earth in the grave.

[RoyDalParticipant]

I have bought through eBay but never sold through them. Your tip has saved me from an expensive mistake.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[XSDBSParticipant 3598]

I buy on ebay several times a year, but only used it a few times times to sell.

I use it as a “last resort”, when I’m unable to sell something locally.

[JollyMisanthropeParticipant 3356]

What I usually do is list the item with the buy now option being the only one, and then I put a note in the description to contact me if they want a lower price. If a potential buyer contacts me I’m willing to sell it for a little less to avoid the ebay commission (only if it’s an expensive item that is). I just go straight through PayPal, or accept a money order.

The Children of Doom... Doom's Children. They told my lord the way to the Mountain of Power. They told him to throw down his sword and return to the Earth... Ha! Time enough for the Earth in the grave.

[Anonymous 5]

The worst part is the f~~~ing shipping. It is bulls~~~ for Canadians. I am bidding on the same $20 item against everyone in Canada and USA. The USA bidders get free shipping while I have to pay $11+. It sucks because I can never win any good deals.

There is rarely any good deals any more. Everyone is jacking up the prices. It is getting to the point where I might as well just buy it from my local store.

[Faust For ScienceParticipant 22525]

Anonymous wrote:

There is rarely any good deals any more. Everyone is jacking up the prices. It is getting to the point where I might as well just buy it from my local store.

I think that is the idea and the plan by those behind this. All so you pay taxes on the products you purchase.

[BeeParticipant 700]

Ebay is not what it used to be. It is too expensive now for too little exposure due to market saturation by people who have a different perception of profit (Chinese).

[TheroniusParticipant 975]

Ebay is a zoo, as a buyer or a seller. It’s also gotten expensive for most things. Anything over 5 years old is “vintage”, and new stuff often goes for more than high retail.
I do use it for buying new auto parts though, Better prices than shops, usually free shipping. Not everything though. Sometimes my local parts guy beats the ebay price.
I never “bid” on things anymore. I only get buy it now stuff. Bidding sucks ass, and it’s easy to get roped into paying more than stuff is worth. You don’t “win” anything. I used to bid on things once in a while, but one bid only, the max I wanted to pay. If it gets over that I didn’t buy it. If I got it for less, that was OK. The prices have now gotten too high, and you’re bidding against idiots and phony bidders who jack prices up on purpose, so deals are too rare to be worth the trouble and delay.

"I am is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that I do is the longest sentence?" - George Carlin

[RennieParticipant]

Been using ebay for about a year now. It’s a good place to find things you can’t otherwise get.

But there are many cons…

-Bidding can get expensive fast.

-You have to constantly watch for bid snipers – even into the last seconds of the bid.

-Ebay is segregated into geographic zones so you can’t see much of what’s offered in other places – which almost all have more interesting offers than the Canadian site.

-You often find people who live in the USA, who won’t even ship to Canada. Whereas most people in Europe and Asia will ship to Canada without being asked to. It’s like they can’t comprehend that there are civilized countries outside America.

– People who rip you off. I haven’t run into any dishonest people yet myself, but there are plenty of Youtube videos where people unbox and find a rock, or old batteries instead of what they bought. One guy got an Xbox 1 with a snarky note instead of the 360 he paid for.

– You have to examine the photos and descriptions carefully and know about what you’re buying. Some people don’t actually know about what they’re selling. Some people sell stuff as is and it’s missing all kinds of parts. I have not yet been disappointed with anything I’ve bought though.

[FrankOneParticipant 1418]

I use eBay at work — for purchase industrial components. Typical savings is 50%, but often, it’s 70-90%. A lot of it is new-in-box. I’ve done this for years. In general I’ve been very happy with return policies and other aspects, and most sellers are friendly. I’d say buying industrial equipment is a bit different than consumer items. Most of what I purchase is over $100 and sellers answer questions promptly, and most are businesspeople who I can call in the day. When it doesn’t work, they take it back, or just refund it, and let me keep it (usually they bought it for 1 cent on the dollar anyway from some closing factory or excess stock from storerooms).

I still like it for consumer items — e.g. I can buy Chinese cables for an iPhone for $2 ea, laptop batteries for $15-$20, a distribution amplifier for my TiVo, etc. I used to sell a lot of items on it, they kept raising commissions. I generally just use buy-it-now and offers, or I snipe with http://myibidder.com/ which is free. I generally don’t like auctions, though, as I find it too time-consuming. If I’m buying something like hazardous location rugged Motorola radios, I play the bidding game, sniping and making snipes conditional (if I lose one, it bids on the next) — I’m slowly accumulating them for when they break ; auctions do save you more money but require patience. I’ve been on eBay since 1999, I can’t remember the last time I bid on a ‘live’ auction, I’ve always sniped, first with bidnapper, then with myibidder in recent years because it’s free.

It is so convenient — less time than it takes to write a PO, and I save $70 for every $100 purchased. Makes for a hell of an expense report reconciliation at end of month, though, since I can’t use PO’s and everything is on a credit card… And purchasing larger items with a credit card is problematic… I’ve reached my $5,000 credit spending limit several months & had to use colleagues cards. I saved $800 today on an Allen Bradley input card. I had it ordered in 5 minutes and they e-mailed me they shipped it less than 30 minutes later. Where do you get that kind of service? And anytime I order anything moderately expensive, they ALWAYS ship it priority (granted, most of what I order is lightweight; though I have ordered items sent freight).

Selling is not what it used to be; last I checked they charge 10% final value fee PLUS PayPal fees… So Craigslist is better there BUT if it’s a less common item eBay can get you the exposure. I also dislike how I can’t see what people paid for items on the ‘best offer’ of past sold items anymore…

[нσтησσвParticipant 830]

Ebay is super s~~~ty for the sellers ( 4 years experience )

fees are high, but not as high as amazon. however, sellers get basically 0 protection from scammers.
the support for sellers is absolutely retarded as well, and none of them really have any authority to actually do anything… they are just there to waste people’s time.

also… their site is buggy as s~~~; they have bugs on their site that have been around for OVER A DECADE!

i’d also like to add that shipping rates in canada are f~~~ing retarded.
it costs less money to ship from every other freaking country in the world TO CANADA, then FROM CANADA.
a small parcel from say… Toronto to Toronto, would be at the minimum $7.50 – including a 25% discount.
a small parcel from say… China to Butt f~~~ in the middle of no where Nunavut would be under $1.
a small parcel from say… New York, to Toronto, would be $3.5

AND! if you say use Fedex or UPS… make that $20-40(depending on discount) instead of $7.5

My Goal: To Leave Society.

[RusskyParticipant 13503]

I made a s~~~load of money fixing cell phones and selling them off ebay in 2004. It worked for me. But that was a long time ago
Haven’t sold anything on ebay lately – mostly craigslist. But lately I had number of bad experiences even on a buying side – one time I bought a blu-ray drive and got a Canon camera pouch instead. Ordered a Skil-Saw charger – received nothing, and no response from seller. Ebay however paid me back my money for that one

proud carrier of the 'why?' chromosome

[Author]

Posts