flea bay rant

I have never sold on ebay but I certainly have bought some high end items including a Leica M6, some great lenses, a Rolex for my wife, and a HD28 for myself. I quit after the paypal mandate. A couple of weeks ago I saw a beautiful OM28 Marquis that I had to have. I approached the seller about accepting a cashiers check. He agreed and we both are living happily ever after. I'm sure others won't go for it but I absolutely refuse to use paypal.

 

Strange.....I would argue that paypal does an OK job but eBay is pricing themselves out of being friendly.

- I had over 200 positive feedbacks before they started the rule about holding back money untill you get good feedback. This practice seems criminal to me. If they can hold a couple million dollars in their accounts for 10 extra days thinjk of the interest income. They make money on the money. The business that I work for has over one million dollars in recievables on any given day. Recievables wash into a bank account and our banker makes money off our money; in turn we get a very low rate for short term borrowing. One hand washes the other. It's old school business.

Paypal keeps your money longer....paypal makes a fortune in added interest.....the seller sits and waits for his/her income. That is sh*tty. That really frosts me. If a buyer has not posted negative feedback in two or three days after taking delivery of something the seller should get paid. Pay the damed seller.

- The ebay fee for buy-it-now sales is now 10% on some items.....that's way too high. I just sold an Epiphone Acoutsic on eBay and I did not include a buy-it-now for the first time ever. There is no way that I'm going to give away $20 on a $200 sale plus the listing fees.



I think that the eBay folks deserve a fair return for the use of their system but it's getting silly. eBay is speeding (making too much money).

I've had good luck with paypal. Paypal has protected me twice when I bought something and it didn't show up. I've never had trouble getting money or giving money or doing anything with paypal.

If I were starting from scratch I don't think that I would use eBay. I would get very angry if they just kept my money in their interest bearing account because a sleepy person refused to finish the feedback circle.

eBay can't keep the money forever can they? What happens if someone refuses to complete the feedback loop. What's the endgame if feedback never happens?

John

 

FEE BAY!

 

I've had nothing but good luck selling stuff on Craigslist;even met my girlfriend on there. Would never deal with Ebay--everything I sell, I state "Local pickup,cash only,no checks of any kind;don't even ask". I would NEVER EVER buy anything like a guitar or a vehicle without seeing it first. Hell, I won't even buy a guitar unless the owner, or store, lets me do a full setup on it right then & there, including new strings, that I pay for. Then I gotta play it for awhile,and only then will I fork over the kablingy.

 

Anyone tried "U pillar" yet? No affiliation, but looks like it might be a bit less hassle.

 

Had been listing on CL a mint 66 Deluxe reverb with a PRICE IS NON-NEGOTAIBLE; FIRM, DO NOT EMAIL UNLESS YOUR BUYING!!!!! etc.... and get emails for a million pics and promised they wil buy it at the price and then after all the calls and emails: "Would you drop the price $500" .... Geez; that gets tired fast. EBAY with the new almost 10% of the sale policy yikes what a rip off; they aint Sothebys. Glad to join the rant; take care!

 

Personally, have done better buying on CL that selling, way better. I can tell immediately form a seller if I will continue.

I will only sell stuff on eBay I got for nothing anymore, where it is zero sum for me. Conn organ parts for example... If I was to loose my eBay login tomorrow I would care less. PayPal we use with success for a mirror debit cards with no chance of OD fees for kids in college...


YMMV