eBay tightens the noose a little further

[rogerzilla]

I've just noticed that eBay now prohibit wording like "item is listed elsewhere, I reserve the right to end the auction at any time". I can see that this avoids disappointing buyers, but it's mainly because eBay realise they're losing revenue, I expect.

Something to watch if you're listing stuff on RFF at a lower price than fleaBay, which is normal as the costs are so much lower (eBay and PayPal fees, combined, are rapacious). You have to try it here and only then, if it doesn't sell, on eBay.

 

[Bill58]

I agree--the RFF classifieds is the best for many reasons.

 

[johannielscom]

I agree--the RFF classifieds is the best for many reasons.

To paraphrase that, eBay is a lot worse for many reasons! 😀


Thanks for the HU, rogerzilla

 

[Mr_Toad]

+1

...one of the reasons being the greater ethical standards of RFF buyers and sellers!

I wish Google would step into the online auction business, and give the world an alternative to fleaBay.

Robt.

 

[tunalegs]

One of the more curious things is that ebay now seeks out auctions that use phrases like "do not bid unless" - because they believe that making potential buyers aware of the terms of sale could hurt final sale prices...

Yeesh - don't they make enough money already? I've been listing less and less on ebay. Pray for the day Yahoo Auctions comes back... (as an aside, I find it really odd that only a month or two after Yahoo Auctions closed, ebay hijacked their color scheme and basic page layouts. They did of course not adopt any of the generous terms Yahoo gave their customers).

 

[Traut]

I've experienced sellers backing out of deals, buyers promising to buy and then flaking out costing others the chance to buy, and many other acts of disingenuousness here on RFF. This is a friendly and responsible community for the most part but without a contractual relationship such as eBay has established one is at the mercy of a responsible second part which is unfortunately not always the case. I love it here and have bought and sold numerous items.. But it's the bad egg that ruins it once in a while.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I had a couple of sellers end the auction early, calceling all bids simply because they were not happy with the current price. In over 10 years, I've never backed out of a deal either here or on Ebay.

I have not sold on Ebay in years. I'd rather donate it to charity and take the write-off.

 

[Steve M.]

eBay pretty much is the pits isn't it? All their chicken s*** rules, their snooping, their control obsessions, their iron fisted policies, their inability and/or complete uninterest in doing the right things ethically. Sigh. But that's where the buyers/sellers are usually at.

I'm not buying hardly anything these days and often go to Etsy and if I need something, or here of course. I'm in the process of listing a lot of mostly smaller items to get down to a smaller gear collection (3 inexpensive cameras when I'm done), and I put some of it here to sell, some of it on eBay. Right now, eBay is a necessary evil, but it won't be for long. Pretty happy about getting out of their ever widening grasp. One other thing I do whilst on their site is look to see of the sellers have a separate store online by googling them. If they do, I buy there, not on eBay. I would recommend that trick because it has worked really well. I've even found some classic gear on Amazon.com, of all places, by simply googling what I'm looking for and seeing what pops up.

Brian seems to have figured out a fool proof way to mitigate eBay's issues. Don't deal w/ them at all. I'll be there soon too. By the way, I nearly always list things on multiple sites to reach more people. It's easy to end an auction if the item is no longer available, so these new changes don't mean anything to me really. eBay's reach isn't that long, yet. I can sell anything, or buy anything, from anyone in the world. eBay has no control over that.

 

[Gid]

This isn't new. I had an ad pulled when someone complained that I had said I had the item listed elsewhere and reserved the right to end if no bids had been received - that is probably more than 3 years ago ( and I was telling the truth). Now if it sells elsewhere I just end the ebay sale. Some of their terms do p*** me off, but if you want to reach a large audience what other choices are there (at least in the UK)? I also just use BIN - fed up with auctions.

 

[Teuthida]

I absolutely will NOT sell anything on Ebay again, ever. Up until a month ago I had 350+ transactions without a hitch. Then I decided to sell 3 lenses on Ebay: a 50mm Summicron, a Pelang 8mm and a 90mm Emarit-C.

The Summicron was bought by some huckster in Taiwan who wrote me after receipt claiming the lens had scratches and insisted I refund him some money. I told him I would not give him a partial refund but was happy to give him his money back in full if he returned the lens as i knew the lens had no scratches and I had taken pictures to prove it. He refused this offer but then claimed the lens had "dust" and he would make a claim with Ebay if I didn't refund some of his money. I refused and reiterated I would refund the full price if he would send it back to me. Havent heard from him since.

The Pelang was sold with a Nikon Adaptor. The guy who bought it emailed me and said the adaptor wouldnt work on his 4/3rds camera. i kindly noted to him that the auction was clear he would need another adaptor for use with something other than a Nikon. A few days later I heard back from him that he wanted to return the lens because the "focusing didnt work." At that point I just refunded his money and told him to reurn the lens. When I got it back the focusing did NOT work, even though when it left my hands it worked fine. i suspect he tried jimmyrigging the adaptors to fit in camera and somehow damaged the lens in the process.

Guy who bought the Elmarit 90 was in Russia. It cost me $41 to send him the lens insured. It took 36 days to reach him and he left me negative feedback because of the time it took to get to him and claimed I overcharged him for shipping. Of course, as a Seller I can't leave negative feedback for him or explain my side of the story.

All of this aggravation cost me $121 in Ebay fee.[shakes head]

I've since listed a nice Canon P here on RFF. It was purchased without hassle by a forum member. He has no complaints about the camera and the transaction went fine with no hitches. It cost me $10

 

[colyn]

I would love to buy here on RFF. However in all of the inquiries I have made in an attempt to buy listed items only 1 person (David Murphy) ever responded. I'll send both a email and private message with no response back.

To those people if you post an ad in the classifieds even if you have already sold you should respond..

 

[dreilly]

Colyn, if you respond to one of my ads, I promise I will respond! 🙂

i've been on ebay since 2001 and, knock on wood, only one problem of note and I think once or twice i had to go through their dispute system and it worked okay. On the big problem, ebay was not a help but paypal took care of it. I can't complain. I did have a lens I sent to Russia disappear for a few months, but it got there in the end. That wasn't ebay's fault.

100% great experience here on RFF and also on astromart. I do like the smaller communities....people are usually great.

 

[Gid]

When I visit an auction platform I expect that an item is only listed there and nowhere else. Imagine you are on a real auction, there are already some bids on an item and then someone comes and takes the item away "Sorry guys I just bought it for a fixed price from the item owner".
The real problems these platforms have are persons ending an auction before the official end or using some fake bidders to push up the price. This is fraud. eBay does what they can to prevent this but they can't be successful in all cases.

I agree that using fake bidders to push up the price is fraudulent but I don't see why ending an auction early is - sellers prerogative IMO.

 

[sevo]

I agree that using fake bidders to push up the price is fraudulent but I don't see why ending an auction early is - sellers prerogative IMO.

From a buyer perspective auctions that inevitably cannot be won (no matter because the seller is pulling unless the offers meet a hidden reserve, has sold elsewhere or is only running a test balloon to determine future pricing) merely tie up cash. As that will prevent part of the potential buyers from bidding on other (earlier ending, higher start price) competing items, it is not in the interest of other sellers or ebay either...

 

[Paul T.]

Yeah, eBay can be a pain. But I still like it. I've been buying (insane) wargame items for the nipper and have found sellers hugely helpful, sending items an hour or so after I bid, in order to make his birthday. This afternoon I will list an old 1/32 Mosquito kit and will take please in seeing what random price it fetches. WHere the heck would I have sold something like that on eBay?

similalry, I will enjoy listing an Olympus OM-1 on RFF this PM because generally people here are a pleasure to deal with. I simply remember the ones I enjoyed (Ferider, Kully I think, David Murphy, darkavenger) and forget the ones who don't reply, send peremptory notes, and then don't acknowledge replies to their incredibly complicated or maddeningly vague shipping questions.

remembering the good bits and forgetting the bad bits makes life generally more bearable...

 

[cosmonaut]

There is also a level of trust among members here that eBay can never have.

 

[Gid]

From a buyer perspective auctions that inevitably cannot be won (no matter because the seller is pulling unless the offers meet a hidden reserve, has sold elsewhere or is only running a test balloon to determine future pricing) merely tie up cash. As that will prevent part of the potential buyers from bidding on other (earlier ending, higher start price) competing items, it is not in the interest of other sellers or ebay either...

In theory, but in practice, how much of a problem is it? I only use BIN or occasionally BIN with offers, so no cash tied up for anyone. Ebay is just a means of selling and I still say it is the sellers prerogative to sell or not - there is no right to buy.

 

[sevo]

In theory, but in practice, how much of a problem is it? I only use BIN or occasionally BIN with offers, so no cash tied up for anyone. Ebay is just a means of selling and I still say it is the sellers prerogative to sell or not - there is no right to buy.

For one, using ebay as a place for direct purchases is another matter. For the other, several sellers on ebay Germany have lost in court over pulling out of auctions, were forced to sell or to compensate the potential buyer for his potential loss - short of a genuine mistake or impossibility (not due any fault of the seller) there is a right to buy at least hereabouts, and similar regulations will probably go for all the EU.

 

[Gid]

I'm sure this depends on the law in your country. In Germany there were already some court decisions regarding early endings of auctions. Even if the auction is not officially ended, the highest bidder has a contract with the seller. When the seller ends the auction, the highest bidder can demand the fulfillment of the contract and can get compensation if the seller does not want to do this. I remember the case where the seller ended the auction for some rims worth 3500 EUR when one seller was bidding 1 EUR. The case went to court and the seller had to pay compensation.

In the forum I sell my stuff we communicate over private messages. When someone writes "I want this item" and I answer "You can have it" then we have a legal contract. If I change my mind after that the seller can sue me. If the buyer changes his mind I could sue him too. In theory. I don't know if it happens often that someone goes to court for that.

I don't know if that applies to the UK or elsewhere. Ebay currently allows a seller to end an auction early and cancel all bids, so it would appear that ebay's rules are less stringent that the laws in Germany.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

eBay has a clear strategy now: Make buyers comfortable. The eBay buyer protection really does sound good from a buyers point of view, and exposes sellers to that small fraction of buyers who are scoundrels. If you sell on eBay, you just have to be ready to accept this risk. The upside for sellers should be more buyers willing to pay more (and therefore cover eBay's high costs).

Looking at all the pluses and minuses, at eBay there is a thriving market for used photo gear. That's a big difference from pre-internet.