ebay=vulture club

had an auction with 11 watchers and 2 bidders. ebay really sucks now.

It's been a bottom-feeder's haven for a while now, that's why I stay away unless I have some really rare stuff. I was just updating my disposal lists (post to follow) and I usually search eBay just to see what things are going for. The amount of items that either sit unsold week after week or have only a (bare) minimum bid is pitiful.

M. J. Rudy

Hi there.

I've been trying to send an email from your site but keep getting this error message and I can't figure out what character is the problem:

You cannot have a special character (,) in Item(s) (required)

Cheers from Peter

AH it was the # sign on your listing that was the problem.

Cheers from Peter

Exactly. My wife is trying to sell an old book

sorry for the plug...) to see what happens, and if we get any bites we have a bunch of others. But with the current economy, I'm not expecting to get rich. I gave up on trying to sell my old models there, I only made my money back on a single item.

shit. i just don't need the bagage any more.

I haven't even gone to Ebay in months. I cancelled my account I think it was last summer when a lot of changes happened. I was never a seller, just a buyer. Bought a lot of model and 1:1 car stuff over the years, but I just didn't like how Ebay seemed to be trying to get rid of the small time sellers. From what I hear about how things are working there now I am really glad I left. One problem I have is lots of other places will only take Paypal for payments, so now those don't get my money either. I remember there being a lot of talk about boycotting Ebay back then, maybe more than me left. russ

Sorry about that, just tested it myself and it's apparently the # AND the comma. Any more problems just email me direct at mjrudy AT hotmail DOT com

I quit selling on Ebay in late 2007 the new CEO in waiting began taking the wrecking ball to the place with the testing of a new search algorithm. My stuff quit showing up in search almost overnight. Counter hits went from dozens to 1 or in most cases ZERO hits. I didn't know why but I could tell enough to know that Ebay had moved the sand under my toes.

Being that it's pretty silly to list stuff for sale that no one is seeing I pulled my listings and took some time off (16 months now and counting). A few months later the other shoe dropped and my pain suddenly had a name - Best Search.

Ebay's new search algorithm euphemistically called Best Search. Basically, Best Search leverages a seller's exposure in Ebay's core listings based on whatever factors Ebay decided are important to Ebay (i.e., bigger $$$ from bigger people than me). They call it Best Search or BS. BS is a term that is dangerously close to being accurate to the current situation on Ebay.

Anyway, for Joe Blow cleaning out his closet or garage Ebay is quickly becoming a lost cause. Unfortunately the next Ebay is nowhere to be seen.

WmB

I kept my eBay account for about a year only because they would not remove it. From the first day I had it, there was phishing and spam. Also, nothing on which I bid was ever sold. I will never go back.

Indeed. Likewise experience. One would think printer cartridges at quarter price, including shipping, would sell like hot cakes---but the stupid system has no way to state the information correctly with regard to what shipping is for what country, etc. Stupid beyond belief. I much prefer the Yahoo Auctions and Rakuten auction sites here in Japan.

Paypal has become the latest Internet scourge - it's everywhere. I recently did someone a favour by tracking down a difficult-to-find reference book, bought it, took it to the post office to be weighed to determine postage costs for him, told him the total, and *then* almost had him back out of the deal because he didn't like the price of buying a postal money order to pay me. It was either accept payment by Paypal, or keep the bloody book. And then *I* get nailed with a 5.9% service fee from Paypal! Definitely tends to crimp one's willingness to do favours for strangers... :-(

John

I think that's totally fair: the customer gets to decide if he likes the total deal from his side, and the seller from his side. The fact that postage and banking costs can be exhorbitant is unfortunate, but it's something both buyer and seller simply have to factor in. It's disingenious of the buyer to complain about the price of an item when it includes postage, but also disingenious of a seller to complain when postage and other costs make the deal unpalatable to the buyer.

I think the service fee is 0.35% plus a flat fee of 0.3 USD or something like that.

i used to buy builtups but ebay sellers either can't figure out how to pack a builtup model or just don't give a damn. i'm not talking about a package which was treated roughly and loosely glued parts come loose from the G forces, i mean things like just packing the model naked in styrofoam peanuts so every thing on the surface gets broken off, or just packing in what seems to be their recycling for the previous week; wadded up newspapers and plastic bags, complete with little garbagey stuff. Even the unbuilt open box kits, with boxes that had gaping gaps so that all the little parts fell out in transit. Jeez, just let me know if they haven't invented plastic bags where you live, I'll send you some by mail to use when you ship.

another nail in the coffin of decency and civility.

i feel your pain. i got a box of parts from a friend that was supposed to be a ju86. from the pics before, it was awesome. i didn't loose money but i cried for his lost work. thay can be shipped safely.

You haven't lived until you've dealt with DHL out of Germany. The stuff that they deliver (if you get it at all) looks like someone shipped you a hand grenade and it went off in transit.....

Be glad it was packed at all. Several times I've had models come that just had brown paper taped around the kit box. Usually I was lucky, but I have had some come totally mashed.

I disagree - this wasn't an ebay transaction involving something I had sitting in the basement and wanted to get rid of - this was something I was ASKED to buy, and which I went to quite a lot of trouble to obtain. I didn't ask for gas mileage, either, nor did I even think of it, until now. "Disingenuous"? I don't think so!

That's all YOU know - from my transaction record, the gross amount was $36.60. The "Fee" (deducted from the amount deposited to my account) was $2.16 - YOU do the math. Works out to 5.9% on MY calculator. PLUS deducting the $0.30, to add insult to injury.

John