That's it, I'm done with e-bay

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Originally Posted by chris vickery

Ebay is BS and I quit many years ago. They have artificially inflated the values on almost everything and have soured the collector market. Nowadays people think everything they have for sale is gold, merely because of precedences set by overzealous bidders who are out of touch with reality.
Add in the fact of Pitney Bowes and USPS raping Customers and thats enough for me.

Have you noticed the shipping charges from the USA are almost always double the price of the item. Then you throw in a jr.trudeau $.70 Canadian dollar. You'd have to want the item pretty bad to deal with that markup.

[kevin powles]

Bruce, if you ever buy anything from the UK, get it shipped to me, I can then get it to you at the best price I can find.

Kevin

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

I had bookmarked an ebay item just to see what happened to it and when I went back I got this message in a banner at the bottom of the screen:


"By clicking on an item or other link on the website or Accept, you agree to the use of cookies and other technologies to process your personal data to enhance and personalise your experience across the eBay portfolio of brands, including eBay or third-party advertising tailored to you, on and off our sites. Additionally, third-party companies, who we partner with, may store cookies on your device and use similar technologies to collect and use certain information for advertising personalisation, measurement and analytics"

Well holy crap. Just what the hell are you agreeing to, and with whom and for what purpose??? Granting unknown third parties the right to put things on your computer?? They really want you to allow all that just to view an ebay item??? There is no 'decline'. If you want to go further you have to agree or quit. So...I quit.

[Tim Bell]

I use a re-shipper for stuff from the USA... so pay local rate shipping to them... and for heavy stuff in the UK, I pay the courier to collect from the seller... rather than let the seller charge me to have it shipped.

That said - it is rare I buy anything from epay.

Tim

[Jim White]

Has anyone received the Siskens law firm letter re: the class action suit against
UPS? I have, anyone who was ever raped for brokerage fees is apparently a part of the class. A bit off topic, but we Canadians have been severely bent over by UPS.

[Darrell Zinck]

Hi

Kindly bear in mind that it's not always the sellers.

I sell on ebay. I'm an infrequent seller but have been at it for 11 years now. Some of you have bought from me so I can honestly say this. First off, I sell in order to make money to buy and keep things that I like to have. Stuff in my "theme". I certainly am not an expert on everything that I buy to sell but try to learn enough to be dangerous (to myself) and usually get things cheap enough to sell on for a bit of profit. Sometimes I'm lucky and there more profit to be made. I have my own set limits; I don't deal in MVs, large bits or weapons, and try to stay with Commonwealth uniform and "accessory" Militaria. Antenna's to Force Z patches. That sort of thing. I do not make my living this way but also do not use my household income to fund my hobby.

Everything that I sell, I clearly and honestly describe, list a starting price usually not far above what I paid for it and most often well below retail/market (if I know) and offer a winner shipping costs. These are based on experience over time. I do not subscribe to their Global Shipping Program. I put a Domestic, US and "everywhere else" shipping price in the sale details. Tracked and insured in almost every case. Domestic and US Letter (so a cloth badge or something flat like a document) I usually send for free. Airmail letter abroad only if the value is negligible. Even then I don't allow sales/shipping to some countries. In fact I use the exclusion lists and do not ship to many parts of the world. Italy, Russia, China and S. Africa among them. Too many burned me in the past saying it never arrived. Packages or Parcels go Tracked and Insured. Anything listed for or likely to make more than $75 goes tracked and insured anywhere.

Very labour intensive and requiring a certain amount of familiarity with shipping options based on package sizes and weights. Lots of communication with Buyers. I also do not live next door to a Post Office. If I overcharge, I refund to the half dollar. If I undercharge, I eat it. May as well; my fault and I probably did just make money from the person.

I don't think that I'm like the sellers you all are talking about and believe me, I'm almost giving up on ebay too but as a seller. Fees (ebay, Paypal, Shipping, GSP etc etc) aside, dis-honest buyers was always my biggest turn off. I'd like to help out my buyers with cheap shipping but too often that is recipe for failure. One guy paid me in stamps, once long ago, because I never specified that I would not take stamps!! Many begged for cheap un-tracked shipping and then "it never arrived" and I send back all the money cuz Ebay says so. Even when I show them the begging emails!! I learned that unless I know you, you get squat for consideration.

IMHO, ebay always favoured the buyer but now, due to seller "protections", it's the sellers that are forced to not offer in-expensive shipping. Sure many overcharge and eBay's GSP it a cash-grab but I guess that's the beauty of a free market economy; you don't have to buy it. Ebay is not a mom and pop operation anymore and little guy sellers like me have a hard time dishing out 17+ % of any profit back to fees as much as these buyer complaints above but at least I sleep well at night know that I go out of my way, as a seller, to not screw over a buyer.

regards
Darrell

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Darrell, I have no issue whatever with the vendors (well, some are hose bags) but most bend over backwards to accommodate the purchaser. The villain here is ebay that ups the cost to the point where the seller can't sell an item because of the 'mandatory' doubling due to shipping, and the purchaser walks away, not willing to be 'all in' double what an item is worth. One item that's being talked about on another threads is Corbin padlocks. At any given time there are a half dozen listed on ebay for less than $10 US each. But the glo-bull shipping adds another $26 US or so (!!!??!!?) to the price and with our 70 cent Trudeau dollar it makes it a $50 CDN item.

Originally Posted by Darrell Zinck

Hi

Kindly bear in mind that it's not always the sellers.

I sell on ebay. I'm an infrequent seller but have been at it for 11 years now. Some of you have bought from me so I can honestly say this. First off, I sell in order to make money to buy and keep things that I like to have. Stuff in my "theme". I certainly am not an expert on everything that I buy to sell but try to learn enough to be dangerous (to myself) and usually get things cheap enough to sell on for a bit of profit. Sometimes I'm lucky and there more profit to be made. I have my own set limits; I don't deal in MVs, large bits or weapons, and try to stay with Commonwealth uniform and "accessory" Militaria. Antenna's to Force Z patches. That sort of thing. I do not make my living this way but also do not use my household income to fund my hobby.

Everything that I sell, I clearly and honestly describe, list a starting price usually not far above what I paid for it and most often well below retail/market (if I know) and offer a winner shipping costs. These are based on experience over time. I do not subscribe to their Global Shipping Program. I put a Domestic, US and "everywhere else" shipping price in the sale details. Tracked and insured in almost every case. Domestic and US Letter (so a cloth badge or something flat like a document) I usually send for free. Airmail letter abroad only if the value is negligible. Even then I don't allow sales/shipping to some countries. In fact I use the exclusion lists and do not ship to many parts of the world. Italy, Russia, China and S. Africa among them. Too many burned me in the past saying it never arrived. Packages or Parcels go Tracked and Insured. Anything listed for or likely to make more than $75 goes tracked and insured anywhere.

Very labour intensive and requiring a certain amount of familiarity with shipping options based on package sizes and weights. Lots of communication with Buyers. I also do not live next door to a Post Office. If I overcharge, I refund to the half dollar. If I undercharge, I eat it. May as well; my fault and I probably did just make money from the person.

I don't think that I'm like the sellers you all are talking about and believe me, I'm almost giving up on ebay too but as a seller. Fees (ebay, Paypal, Shipping, GSP etc etc) aside, dis-honest buyers was always my biggest turn off. I'd like to help out my buyers with cheap shipping but too often that is recipe for failure. One guy paid me in stamps, once long ago, because I never specified that I would not take stamps!! Many begged for cheap un-tracked shipping and then "it never arrived" and I send back all the money cuz Ebay says so. Even when I show them the begging emails!! I learned that unless I know you, you get squat for consideration.

IMHO, ebay always favoured the buyer but now, due to seller "protections", it's the sellers that are forced to not offer in-expensive shipping. Sure many overcharge and eBay's GSP it a cash-grab but I guess that's the beauty of a free market economy; you don't have to buy it. Ebay is not a mom and pop operation anymore and little guy sellers like me have a hard time dishing out 17+ % of any profit back to fees as much as these buyer complaints above but at least I sleep well at night know that I go out of my way, as a seller, to not screw over a buyer.

regards
Darrell

[rob love]

Back to ebay/global shipping: I recently bought a WW2 panoramic sight from ebay for the top of the priest here at the museum. Buyer ships through global shipping, and I got notice the other day that they consider it a restricted item, so it is "seized', and they refunded all my money. I suppose that technically a 75 year old panoramic sight would fall under ITAR as fire control systems/components, but really?

On one hand I can understand ebay not wanting to be party to international trade restrictions. The fines can be quite harsh. But a 75 year old optic?

I'm pissed!!.

[Marc Montgomery]

Originally Posted by Jim White

Has anyone received the Siskens law firm letter re: the class action suit against
UPS? I have, anyone who was ever raped for brokerage fees is apparently a part of the class. A bit off topic, but we Canadians have been severely bent over by UPS.

Hmmm, just bought a smallish item from a US vendor as it seems unavailable in Canada......but shipping doubled the price-

Still, I need it, so ok pay up...
UPS finally came to the door, (when Im at work of course) and left a note saying i owe another big amount...unexplained. but possibly customs???
anyway, the small item -when i finally get it-- will be triple the actual cost.

Im not enthusiastic about buying anything from the US anymore...with the Trudeau buck doing badly, excess customs costs, excess shipping...its getting to be worth it to get an ugly, inaccurate, but inexpensive Cdn Tyre item,


(PS i wanted to buy an item on ebay earlier this year, but seller only does paypal... which i dont and won't and had said so prior to actual purchase....couple emails back and forth, wouldn't accept mastercard...bit of a tiff,..ebay got involved...finally resolved..but PITA....so end of epay for me too.)

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Marc

I suppose I should ignore the email asking for money to pay for your ransom....?

did not send any anyways!!!!!!

Bob C.