RIP Ebay (Sellers getting screwed)

[miokomioko]

I stopped using ebay for as much as possible after having to deal with all the shipping bullshit. I know that shipping can be expensive but fuck you if you say that a book that weighs barely over a pound is 12 dollars for shipping and when it does arrive its in a bubble envelope that has OBVIOUSLY been used 10+ times.

if ebay is adding extra fees for people who are being shady on shipping, I honestly applaud it, as a buyer its pissed me off to have a great deal fucked up because the shipping was a load of bullshit. But it sucks that people are still getting ripped off on this stuff. So there is no middle ground sadly.

This is how people think they are tricking people these days. My dad was constantly buying old NES and TurboGrafix games off ebay, which would sometimes cost like $1~$5 for the game. Then you would read down and the shipping would be $8. Sometimes he bit the bullet on shady sellers like that because the total would still come out to like $10 for a game he needed for his collection, so it was no big deal. Then, he gets it in the mail and the postage was written right on the box: $1.16.

People just get the sales because their product looks cheaper even though they are trying to make up for a low price with fake shipping... but eBay needs to stay on top of that trend by listing shipping fees along with the cost in the search results... or a combined total.

It's just that the current policies allow just about any buyer to back out and waste your time and money while you sit there hoping their little mini small claims team get around to dealing with you... and the 9000 other people in an identical situation.

[Ksandra]

Companies stopped thinking in the long term a decade+ ago. If it jacks up their stock price in the short run, it's a "good" decision. Average lifespan of an S&P 500 company has dropped about 80% since the index started.

I get what you're saying, it just feels completely weird. It's like all CEOs have dun gone retarded which surprises me that they got to be a CEO in the first place.

But then I guess they figure they've made so much damn money they no longer care if the company goes under since they're set for life or something.

[Melena]

I used to try to squeeze a bit more out of shipping, but that's mainly cause i knew the prices. If I knew it would cost me $3.95 for priority mail, i'd typically charge $5 bucks. There was one time I really screwed up (was international and failed at the online tools) and overcharged the guy by like ten bucks. Gave him a refund of 7 dollars to make up for it which surprised him, but I typically tried to treat people who bought from me how I wanted to be treated. With that said, fuck Ebay's pricing. They've raped me up the ass on the last two things I've sold. May need to check out the Amazon auctions.

[solanis]

your job as an investor/consumer is to pick with an eye to longevity, if that's your chosen metric. if ebay loses a few chinese trinket resellers from this, I'm sure they've priced it in. whole thing is a big w/e honestly, if you don't like it go to amazon. I'm surprised ebay is so active.

[dejet]

your job as an investor/consumer is to pick with an eye to longevity, if that's your chosen metric. if ebay loses a few chinese trinket resellers from this, I'm sure they've priced it in. whole thing is a big w/e honestly, if you don't like it go to amazon. I'm surprised ebay is so active.

They got their name out their early and for a long time their fees where great(in fact I think at the start there was no fee? )

They are just going to turn more people away. I hope so anyways, I want to use them again just not with their growing fees.

[solanis]

doesn't amazon offer private label technology in conjunction with their own listings? ebay sellers have always reeked of sketchiness to me. sketchiness and china.

[Gryffes]

Stopped selling on ebay years ago. Fees were too much then to make money on low margin items, this just fucks people further.
Seems like they want to stop servicing businesses and just be an online tat shop and scammer heaven.

[miokomioko]

I would be more than happy if all low-margin items disappeared from ebay. I miss the days when what you found on there was actual valuable/rare goods/treasures instead of shit people grabbed off the shelf from the local Goodwill or just couldn't bring themselves to slap a FREE sign on and set on the curb.

[dejet]

Iv never really heard peoples complaints(as a buyer anyways I mostly sold shit) but Im reading right it seems ebay screws over the average person. Whats new? lol

[Ksandra]

I would be more than happy if all low-margin items disappeared from ebay. I miss the days when what you found on there was actual valuable/rare goods/treasures instead of shit people grabbed off the shelf from the local Goodwill or just couldn't bring themselves to slap a FREE sign on and set on the curb.

I used to use ebay a lot of fabrics because I could find the most random patterns I wouldn't be able to find going to my local places. And ya I used to get a lot of random shit there.

But I think the internet got too big and even the "rare" stuff you can find in 10 different places. So ebay lost a lot of appeal.

Though they are still great for some things.

[Nevex]

I was about to post "People still use Ebay?" then I saw that people are indeed not using that POS anymore.
And yeah Amazon is the new Ebay, just like Facebook replaced Myspace.

[fantasticdan]

I also hate that they won't allow sellers to give negative feedback to buyers. That shit is absurd.

This is when I stopped selling on ebay, I think I even made a thread about it on BG at the time. There's no reason to put up with that considering how easy it is for buyers to scam sellers with ebay/paypals blessing in the first place.

EDIT: Buying on ebay is fine thou if you have any common sense.

[Drex]

I get what you're saying, it just feels completely weird. It's like all CEOs have dun gone retarded which surprises me that they got to be a CEO in the first place.

But then I guess they figure they've made so much damn money they no longer care if the company goes under since they're set for life or something.

In the speculative stock market, you can own and run a business for the long-haul and risk a competitor eventually pushing you out, but it's easier to enact short-term policy changes that temporarily jack up share prices and then cash in your options and ownership. Businesses can rise and fall so quickly in the information age that there's little incentive to do otherwise unless the gov's got your back.

[Silenka]

Is there any good alternative to eBay (besides Amazon)? I hesitated to use eBay before because of the fees I kept hearing about, and this pretty much clinches it for me. Amazon seems like an okay place to sell stuff, but I'm curious if anyone knows of any other options for selling used stuff.

[Brill Weave]

I'm actually clearing out the last little bit I have on eBay and moving onto Amazon at this point. The fees make it impossible to make any type of profit off lower priced items. You figure I'm wasting a dollar on a padded envelope from Staples. Now figure in shipping costs are generally 2.70 - 2.90 and the shipping price listed is four dollars I'm usually making a whopping 10 - 30 cents. With the final value fees I end up losing money. Off to Amazon I go.

[Lyn]

I use bookoo.com. Mostly random shit you'd find at yard/garage sales. I've noticed it's more popular for overseas military but I like finding cheap shit for the house.

[Boyiee]

Just sold a keyboard for $120 maybe 1-2 weeks ago on ebay. Charged 20$ for shipping, and it cost me 22$ to ship (I always get things insured adult signature etc). Ebay charging me 13$ now, not to mention paypal took a few bucks. Keyboard was $175 brand new to my door, and was in mint condition only 3 months old. If I was more patient and waited another week I could have sold it on geekhack for 150 shipped and collected almost the full amount.

Lessons learned.

[miokomioko]

3rd party sellers are ruining my Amazon with their shitty service and still over-charged shipping fees.

[solanis]

amazon prime or bust (I don't use marketplace often tbh)

[Plow]

I stopped using ebay for as much as possible after having to deal with all the shipping bullshit. I know that shipping can be expensive but fuck you if you say that a book that weighs barely over a pound is 12 dollars for shipping and when it does arrive its in a bubble envelope that has OBVIOUSLY been used 10+ times.

if ebay is adding extra fees for people who are being shady on shipping, I honestly applaud it, as a buyer its pissed me off to have a great deal fucked up because the shipping was a load of bullshit. But it sucks that people are still getting ripped off on this stuff. So there is no middle ground sadly.

What they've done here is basically say "we're assuming every seller is doing this with every single item, so we're just going to add a fee in to cover that amount, that way they can't do it or it'll be too expensive and nobody will buy."

Which is incredibly ironic because if nobody will buy it fucks ebay itself more than anyone.

It's also pretty spectacularly greedy because the reality of how it works out is that ebay is now doing that shit (charging ridiculous extra fees on shipping) themselves on every single transaction, in order to supposedly prevent it from happening on a few.