So after a little over 8 years, I think I'm going to say goodbye to my longtime friend, eBay. We had some good times together, I made a decent amount of money and I made them a fine chunk while doing so, but now it's evident eBay is a major a-hole of a friend that really doesn't understand how business works.
Here's my eBay background...
I've been a member since the beginning of 2000. Over 1500 positive feedback and a total of 3 negative (2 were from buyers who were quick to jump the gun and one from a seller who never contacted me about payment). I'm a powerseller (not by choice, it just happened because I sell some fairly high dollar items and maintain excellent feedback), I've had a total of two claims filed against me in 8+ years, both were damage caused during shipment and both were dealt with in less than 24 hours by my refunding of all or nearly all the payment and taking a loss to keep the customer happy (both were $100+ losses by me). On eBay's stupid new 'star rating' system, all my stars are at 4.8 or above (out of 5). I've had 100% positive feedback for the past 3 years.
Now, here's where they infuriated me tonight...
Over the past year, I've amassed quite a collection of pens (fountain, BP, etc. etc). Head-Fi got me hooked somehow. Anyway, I decided that it's time to go a different route. I've got a bunch of money wrapped up in them and they sit on a shelf. Anyway, I sat down and made detailed writeups for each one, took tons of pictures and prepared to list them with Garagesale. The process took me about 5 hours and I intentionally did it tonight so I could list them 10 day and have them end on Sunday. I was listing a total of 12 hoping that someone would maybe want a couple and I could save them on shipping and save some time myself. Everything is going as planned through the first 5 then, bam! no more, eBay says I'm not trustworthy. I read over the page I was sent to and eBay only trusts me to list 5 pens per month. If everything turns out alright, they'll be kind enough to let me list 5 next month and may even raise my limit if I'm extra nice with sugar on top! What??? Over the past two years I've sold around $25,000 worth of stuff. 3 years ago I sold a $10,000 motorcycle and a $5500 Jeep. No problems, no complaints and eBay/Paypal has probably made around $6000 from my efforts these past few years, but now they don't trust me to sell around $1400 worth of pens?
I understand the big blowup about the designer bags or whatever recently, but I don't think it's a good business practice to ostracize your best sellers. Not to sound egotistical, but sellers like me are the only thing keeping eBay afloat (I'm sure most all Head-fiers that sell on eBay are doing the same thing as well with their good and fair business practices). When you let a few crooks determine your business model that "no one is to be trusted," you really undermine the whole idea that eBay was originally built around.
Oh well, it was good while it lasted and I honestly thought I could squeeze a few more years out of the sinking Titanic that is eBay, but I think they holes are getting far to big for it to stay above water for much longer.
Here's my eBay background...
I've been a member since the beginning of 2000. Over 1500 positive feedback and a total of 3 negative (2 were from buyers who were quick to jump the gun and one from a seller who never contacted me about payment). I'm a powerseller (not by choice, it just happened because I sell some fairly high dollar items and maintain excellent feedback), I've had a total of two claims filed against me in 8+ years, both were damage caused during shipment and both were dealt with in less than 24 hours by my refunding of all or nearly all the payment and taking a loss to keep the customer happy (both were $100+ losses by me). On eBay's stupid new 'star rating' system, all my stars are at 4.8 or above (out of 5). I've had 100% positive feedback for the past 3 years.
Now, here's where they infuriated me tonight...
Over the past year, I've amassed quite a collection of pens (fountain, BP, etc. etc). Head-Fi got me hooked somehow. Anyway, I decided that it's time to go a different route. I've got a bunch of money wrapped up in them and they sit on a shelf. Anyway, I sat down and made detailed writeups for each one, took tons of pictures and prepared to list them with Garagesale. The process took me about 5 hours and I intentionally did it tonight so I could list them 10 day and have them end on Sunday. I was listing a total of 12 hoping that someone would maybe want a couple and I could save them on shipping and save some time myself. Everything is going as planned through the first 5 then, bam! no more, eBay says I'm not trustworthy. I read over the page I was sent to and eBay only trusts me to list 5 pens per month. If everything turns out alright, they'll be kind enough to let me list 5 next month and may even raise my limit if I'm extra nice with sugar on top! What??? Over the past two years I've sold around $25,000 worth of stuff. 3 years ago I sold a $10,000 motorcycle and a $5500 Jeep. No problems, no complaints and eBay/Paypal has probably made around $6000 from my efforts these past few years, but now they don't trust me to sell around $1400 worth of pens?
I understand the big blowup about the designer bags or whatever recently, but I don't think it's a good business practice to ostracize your best sellers. Not to sound egotistical, but sellers like me are the only thing keeping eBay afloat (I'm sure most all Head-fiers that sell on eBay are doing the same thing as well with their good and fair business practices). When you let a few crooks determine your business model that "no one is to be trusted," you really undermine the whole idea that eBay was originally built around.
Oh well, it was good while it lasted and I honestly thought I could squeeze a few more years out of the sinking Titanic that is eBay, but I think they holes are getting far to big for it to stay above water for much longer.