I'm done with eBay.

[snorkel]

After doing a round of hearty selling this past week, I today glanced at my "Account Status" page -- their euphemism for "unpaid charges." For around 8 auctions and about $400 in total sales (not gross income), I've apparently netted $60 in unpaid eBay fees so far.

I've always known eBay fucks you over on Final Value Fees while advertising low listing fees, so I went to see what their latest ridiculous rates are. Apparently for Fixed Price listings they charge 12% of the first $50 (why don't they just say $6), plus a smaller percentage of the rest. And that was only for "all other categories" -- Books, DVDs, Video Games suffers a 15% rate.

Maybe if that was all I had to put up with, it would be okay. But besides that, there's eBay's other half, PayPal, who from $400 took around $15. Already I'm up to $75 in fees, for selling less than 10 items.

This is ridiculous. How much money do they need? What the fuck am I paying for, their design staff that moves the UI around every three weeks? The shitty coding that refuses to load 100% of the time on even the best connection?

eBay used to be nice. It used to be what's it supposed to be -- a "garage sale" type venue for people to off random goods. Presently, it's bloated with foreign wholesalers and stores selling the same thing I could get for the same price (or better) a million other places online. I can't search for any generic consumer good like a torx screwdriver or SD card without getting 5,000 results from Hong Kong, and can't find a used book without sifting through pages of results for Half.com supersellers.

I'm done with it. I disagree with everything eBay has done -- they've fairly monopolized their online market, bought out previously worthwhile sites, completely disregarded customer service and user experience, and thrown aside any notion of dedication to retail principles. What I mean by this is that eBay has become the same as any giant retail outlet, except they expect sellers to keep powering them, no matter what it costs (which they probably will -- the supersellers and wholesalers, at least). Amazon could get rid of Super Saver Shipping and charge everyone a flat rate of $10 for shipping and make millions, and their sales would hardly decline, but they don't. Google could start charging for Gmail and other services, just because it would make them money, but they don't.

eBay, frankly, has become evil, and as long as they continue to rape individual sellers and steal their profits, I won't use it (for selling, at least).

[Cookie]

And this is why I now use Craigslist instead of ebay or amazon.

[snorkel]

And this is why I now use Craigslist instead of ebay or amazon.

Craigslist is nice for expensive stuff, but when I have to resell 10 warhammer items for a profit that I got at 42% off retail, Craigslist doesn't cut it because it's not meant for new retail goods.

I know I said I don't like the infestation of bland retail shit on eBay, but I think as long as it's individuals and not supersellers with 400,000 feedback, it's okay.

[The artist formally known]

I hate how everyone thinks that eBay is so cheap and awesome, while it's sometimes more expensive.

[Feynman]

I hate how everyone thinks that eBay is so cheap and awesome, while it's sometimes more expensive.

And how so many adults believe you can sell anything on eBay for a profit.

[Lex Luthor]

I do not Trust Ebay. 

[The artist formally known]

And how so many adults believe you can sell anything on eBay for a profit.

This, same with Craig's list. My dad wanted to buy a shit stereo for $80. That thing was a piece of junk.

[snorkel]

The opposite is true on CL -- you can almost never sell for a profit, but you can <I>always find a deal. Smaller markets and less-informed people make this possible. eBay's popularity ensures that no one really lets anyone else get a spectacular deal.

[strongbad]

All I use eBay for is half.com since it has the best prices on vidya and books. I used to love the auctions when I was trying to expand my snes collection, and buy random shit for my room, but I agree 100% with what snorkel said. They are turning into more of a store than an auction site and not only does it take a lot of the charm away, it seems to take away the wide variety of products that the site once had.