What the hell happened to Ebay?

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Originally Posted by east or bust

That is fucking hilarious, except the getting scammed part.

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Good news! I opened a buyer protection case after the guy wouldn't refund me. Ebay said there would be a decision in 48 hours. Then I got an email saying it would be 72 hours until a decision. So I waited...8 days! Finally called them and it said the wait time was...110 minutes!!! So I did there callback queue option. Got the callback in about an hour, told the guy my story and they refunded me right then and there. So I guess that's the procedure for future reference.

And the best part, the Engrish emailer, we'll call him Woo (as in Woo peed on my rug), got his just deserts. Score one for the little guy.

This deserves to be bumped.

Has eBay been trying to bribe anyone else back ("bid and we'll give you $10, sell something and we'll give you $20") into using their high-fee, low-service, festival of dubious Chinese made crap marketplace?

No one sells things on Ebay anymore because eBay/Paypal is a shit sandwich for sellers.

Buyers can claim any stupid bullshit they want and not pay you, and there's nothing you can do about it as a seller. You can't even leave negative feedback anymore. All it takes is to lose a $200+ item to a scammer once and you're going to say "never again". Then add Paypal deciding to randomly hold your money for 30 days even though you have a perfect 8-year record as a seller. Result: the only people who sell there are selling cheap Chinese crap in high volume because they can build the inevitable losses into their cost structure.

Oh yeah, add the fact that the USPS gives Chinese junk merchants a special postage rate. I can't send small packages to OTHER PEOPLE IN AMERICA as cheaply as Chinese junk merchants can send them to the USA. No joke, it's cheaper to send stuff to people in America from China than from within America.

^Agreed.... I had to sell some stuff recently. Paypal deciding to try to hold my money for weeks is pure bs. Called them out on it and they pretty much funded everything. Held 1 item in check for 3 days....said it was because they buyer didn't leave feedback yet... as if.

What are the alternatives right now for either buying or selling?

Nothing too great nationwide as far as I know- eBay/Amazon still.

Offerup is decent for local- never tried shipping but seems like if you use a credit card you won't lose your money in a scam. I still troll craigslist as well.

I hear there's lots of action on Facebook marketplace but again probably just local.

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Originally Posted by dunfree

What are the alternatives right now for either buying or selling?

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Facebook Marketplace- pretty much did not exist when this thread was first started as far as legitimately selling stuff the way FB allows today. Fees for Ebay have driven some away, plus the split of Ebay and Paypal as far as no longer one in the same companies. Craigslist was the alternative for deals that people wanted to do local meet up and now that is again sometimes Facebook Marketplace also. There are deals on Facebook Marketplace that will ship items, but rarely have pursued and tried that.

Fuck Fb marketplace, bunch of scammers and assholes. Offer Up is like a dead zone, I've had a few responses but no sales.

Are the golden days of unloading used shit to strangers gone for good?
I’m in a phase of life where I’d kind of rather leave it in the basement for a few years then eventually drop it off at Goodwill.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

I've had bad luck with CL lately. Not even scammers or low ballers are replying and that's with prices that are very low on stuff that is in good condition. Any lower and stuff gets into not worth bothering with territory. Right now I just have a box in the garage I put stuff in. I've been selling maybe one item a month. Just keep reposting and eventually the right person comes along. Might try FB marketplace but that would require signing up which I really don't want to do.

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Originally Posted by evdog

Might try FB marketplace but that would require signing up which I really don't want to do.

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That may be the problem- I'm not signing up either.

I've got lots of good stuff laying around that 20 year old me would love to get for a deep discount. But it will eventually go to goodwill since Offerup and CL are pretty lame. Too many scammers and morons to bother with eBay and the fees suck.

I feel like the options are very geographically dependent.

Up here in the metro PNW I've found Craigslist to be effectively dead. Occasionally I'll make a sale through it (maybe 1 in 10?) but it is great to pick up items on the cheap from people who, for one reason or another, only list their stuff there so it never moves. I tend to set search alerts for things I'm interested in and just forget about it until I get pinged.

FB Marketplace has decent movement and turnover but their search function is absolute garbage and pollutes the results to the point of unusability.

Great for mindless browsing in a general topic, terrible for finding something specific. Prime example of how garbage "user engagement" can be as a metric.

It isn't that they'll just continue listing marginally related items after they run out of what you're looking for, they'll interspace the actual results amongst garbage so you have to hunt for it. One has to find local buy & sell groups for crossposting to have any chance at selling, but that does work.

Offerup is the place to be up here though. Majority of my traffic is through that, both buying and selling. Search is still frustratingly non-specific but at least they don't fill it up with unrelated items like Facebook does.

Rules for selling are always the same though: no shipping, unretracteable digital payments in person for larger items, meeting place in a public spot a few bocks away from work/home. Give me an ETA and I'll arrive a few minutes before.

There's the obvious flakes and hagglers, but each individual transaction is such a low commitment it is no problem if someone ghosts or you need to walk away. Funny how that $20 they didn't have magically appears when they get a flat "nope" on a last minute attempt at a price reduction.

EBay's exclusively for trinkets from China when I want more buyer protections than with AliExpress and, strangely enough, clothes. Lots of sellers who flip thrifted items and new old stock and if you know the size, brand, and model you want, easy to set an alert to pick up stuff for pennies on the dollar.

The only good thing about eBay anymore is new car parts and accessories as long as you're not overly concerned that it's genuine OEM. I've just about given up on selling any of our old shit anywhere other than at flea markets, ski/bike swaps or to someone I know.

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Originally Posted by gravitylover

The only good thing about eBay anymore is new car parts and accessories as long as you're not overly concerned that it's genuine OEM. I've just about given up on selling any of our old shit anywhere other than at flea markets, ski/bike swaps or to someone I know.

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Yep. I don't think I've looked to buy or sold anything except for one time in the last 5 years. And that one time I got screwed with some weird fees on selling. Fuck eBay.

I use ebay quite a bit. Got a brand new in box garmin Fenix 5s plus watch for $180 shipped.
Sold a fancy Sony stereo tuner, sell some custom designed PCBs, buy bike parts sometimes. I like ebay.
I also use opera browser to crawl craigslist nationally, but it's not as good as it was 4 or 5 years ago. I mainly use this for searching for cars.

I browse Craigslist Daily. I’ve found tons of good deals on there. Skis, cars, snowblower, etc. I have sold 3 or 4 cars on there. Sold one car on ebay years ago, went okay but I wouldn’t use it again. As for selling/buying skis I always start on the Tgr, if that doesn’t work I make the rounds to the local resale shops. My entire ski quiver has come from TGR and resale shops.

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Originally Posted by Ørion

I tend to set search alerts for things I'm interested in and just forget about it until I get pinged.

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What are you using for that nowadays? I used to use IFTTT but it kept breaking and I gave up.

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Originally Posted by Garbowski

What are you using for that nowadays? I used to use IFTTT but it kept breaking and I gave up.

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Craigslist, in a rare nod to modernity, now has a mobile app which allows for notifications for new results for any saved searches. Response lag seems a little faster than their email notifications.

Offerup, same deal.

Facebook, I've never actually received a "search alert" I've set with them. No idea why.

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Originally Posted by easyrdr

I browse Craigslist Daily. I’ve found tons of good deals on there. Skis, cars, snowblower, etc. I have sold 3 or 4 cars on there. Sold one car on ebay years ago, went okay but I wouldn’t use it again. As for selling/buying skis I always start on the Tgr, if that doesn’t work I make the rounds to the local resale shops. My entire ski quiver has come from TGR and resale shops.

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I've had good luck selling skis locally on CL. No shipping is the best part. Listed a helmet on there this fall and forgot I even did so, and then out of the blue some guy gets ahold of me, says he wants it, and the next day I meet him by the ticket window at Big Sky and he buys it. I like Craigslist. It's easy to tell the bot texts and emails, and just immediately block them.

I just outfitted my granddaughter in Rossi skis, Roces boots, Bolle helmet and a tether pack - all in nice shape - for $160 off Facebook Marketplace. Plus about 50 miles of driving.

CL had nothing. Nor did this place. eBay is usually crap

What indeed?

https://youtu.be/yUf9ID2Gnfw

That was a rather crazy story tonight.

I just bought m3 sway bars off eBay. Low communication hassle, and lower price than i got in a forum. Stuff showed up from Friday nicely packaged and in good shape. I feel safer buying from eBay than forums often filled with scammers, and better than Facebook sellers.
I bought my Garmin Fenix watch new in box off eBay for a huge discount, cheaper than any of the local classifieds, Facebook, etc.... Works great. On my wrist now.
I'm a fan of ebay. Attachment 453356

Just sold something on Ebay, sent the seller an email to confirm the item he ordered was correct and got no response.

Now I'm all paranoid that hes a scammer and I don't want to lose my non-trinket item to some dumb scam. Is this going to happen, or am I being paranoid.

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Originally Posted by Yukonrider

Just sold something on Ebay, sent the seller an email to confirm the item he ordered was correct and got no response.

Now I'm all paranoid that hes a scammer and I don't want to lose my non-trinket item to some dumb scam. Is this going to happen, or am I being paranoid.

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Don’t you get paid first?

eBay is great for golf clubs. Picked up a lightly used PM Grind 60 wedge for 50