I Still Hate eBay

ebay logoFor long time readers of this site, you probably know that I have sold some stuff on eBay over the years. Hell, I probably complained about it a few times. I have not been on there in awhile though, opting instead to sell stuff through the Facebook yard sale groups in this area. They are a bit more convenient since there is no shipping costs. This was how I ended up selling my car.

Before I go into my newest eBay rant though, allow me to say that those yard sale groups have their problems too. I was supposed to meet some girl at Sheetz in Johnstown, she was going to buy some wedding stuff and she never ended up showing up. Or my favorite, you list something for $5, someone will comment “would you be willing to take $4.50?” Seriously?

And yet, sometimes those sites are just not good enough. There is not a big market for collectibles, books, comics, etc. So for that stuff, I have to turn back to eBay. Within a few minutes though, I remember why I hate it. Not the site. The site is great, hell they even added more features from when I was using it a few years ago to make it simpler. They now figure out the shipping costs for you, which was always my downfall. I think on a few things I actually lost money.

No, the site is not the problem. The people are the problem. Maybe this is a theme. Here is a message I received from a guy who bought something recently:

Ebay Comment

It takes everything I have not to respond with a “go fuck yourself. I will pack it however I want, to the best of the $10.95 shipping/handling you paid.” You may think that is a good bit of money for S/H, but it really is not. Have you shipped a package lately? Shit is expensive.

Unfortunately, eBay is set up so that the buyer has all of the power. If I say “hey man, you want that much padding, you need to pay extra shipping.” He will respond with “I will give you a negative feedback score.” I have been threatened multiple times by people about that stuff. I sold a Star Wars toy once and I clearly said that it had been opened and the box had some damage. The guy paid like $10 for it. Then he responds that the box was damaged and if I did not refund him, get this, $3 then he would be forced to give me a negative score. And I had to give in, negative feedback can really hurt a seller.

I completely understand if something is damaged in shipping or something. In fact, I learned this the hard way. A guy bought my collection of Red Sonja comics for like $50. I thought I packaged them well enough, but here the box ended up being damaged during shipping and a bunch of the comics were ruined. I offered the guy $20 back and he was cool with it. I also learned to get the insurance on anything expensive after that one.

Another time had to deal with a book. The lady sent me a message saying not to ship it media mail because she would not get it soon enough. She needed it in under a week (it was my copy of the Iliad). I responded to her that I clearly marked on the shipping part that it would be sent media mail since it was free (this was back when I always marked Free Shipping). I said if she wanted faster shipping, she would have to pay extra. Guess what happened? She threatened me with negative feedback. I thought about forwarding everything to eBay, but since the envelope the book was in was small, the shipping amount was not much more, so I dropped it.

I am sure this will not be my last rant about eBay and it’s users.

Author: Ngewo