[spaqin]

Over time, eBay has become the middleman - with international shipping centres, basically escrow service with buyer protection, and rather high fees for promotion and of course, the actual sale. No middleman is something like Craigslist or FB Marketplace.

[TheGRS]

I interviewed at a place that had their own collectible card market, I think they partnered with eBay. But the whole service was that you would yield your valuable cards over to them and they would store them in a repurposed bank vault for safe keeping or to act as a seller. Cards that were like $1k or more.

They seemed to be doing really well esp with all the pokemon and MTG card crazes going on.

[jonlucc]

This is part of the value prop of TCGPlayer, which was bought by eBay. They're specifically a marketplace for trading cards. Like Amazon, sellers can keep their product and sell it through the site, they can ship their inventory to TCGPlayer to manage logistics, and TCGPlayer sells cards on their own.

[BizarroLand]

eBay has also started doing strongarm middleman things as well.

If you list an item, it strongly "suggests" a price. Sounds innocuous, right? However, when every seller knows they would be stupid to list a product for less than the suggested price, that means that eBay is enacting a collusion process on their sellers to regulate prices for products sold on their platform.

I don't think this is illegal in any way, but it is bad for the buyers as it decreases the chance that they will get lucky with a purchase and ensures that all purchasers on the platform spend as much as they can afford to spend.

Next, as a seller, eBay presents you with an option to "promote" your product, for a fairly significant percentage of eBay's suggested sell price. (Last time I tried to sell something, they wanted $9.99 to promote an item expected to sell for ~$150, for instance). If you do not "promote" your item, then it is thrown to the bottom of the listing and may be filtered out when purchasers sort by "price low to high" as they often do.

I chose not to promote my item as I was just getting rid of it, (brand new OEM toner for a printer that normally sells for $200) and it got almost no views and ended up selling for $40, of which ebay took $7.50 for their cut.

I checked the other solds for the same product and mine was the lowest sold by almost $100 all seemingly because I didn't pay the racketeer price upfront.

I didn't care about the money, I was just getting rid of it, and ebay punished me for not playing ball their way while also losing out on their profits just to make a point with me.

If you don't eBay the ebay way you will suffer for it.

Speaking of which, eBay has started changing the number of results based on your search filtering, preventing purchasers from finding the specific thing they are looking for in exchange for something that is often more expensive and not quite right.

Try it yourself. Search for something very specific and then change your filters and see the number of available items increases and decreases based on how you search. I honestly would not be surprised if they were hiding the unpromoted less expensive more accurate item you are searching for from you in the expectation of inducing you to buy the more expensive item in the process.

Why would eBay do this? They make more money. It's pure enshittification. They charge the sellers to promote. They set the prices. They charge an insane percentage, something like 15-20% of the final sell price to the sellers, and they have made the platform hostile to its original purpose of being a bazaar for ordinary people to sell their old stuff to people that might want them.

Of course, they are still seller hostile, they protect fraudsters who buy expensive items and claim they are fakes or broken and return bricks, and they have strongarmed their customers into arbitration agreements in an attempt to prevent anyone from suing them to stop their anti-consumer practices.

[cucumber3732842]

eBay doesn't want to deal with low volume hobbyists. They tend to make mistakes, cause support resources to be used, etc, etc. It wants to deal in people who are either professionals or for whom this is a serious side gig who will do the learning curve once and then make thousands of sales.

It's no different than how permitting departments hate homeowners trying to DIY because they make them work whereas the professionals submit stuff they can just rubber stamp.

[BizarroLand]

Well, in that case they are no longer the platform they claimed to be but are wearing an edgar suit shoddily masquerading as the original.

[FireBeyond]

Yeah, I got fucked over by eBay and will never sell on there again.

eBay let someone scam me out of $700.

I sold a Mavic 2 Pro drone with 5 batteries. The whole process was a mess. Scammer initially complained that it didn't come with a CrystalSky tablet that was in one picture (that was only added AFTER after he had bid already and asked to see Flight Logs, and was explicitly disclaimed as not being a part of the package, nor was it in the receipts I sent the buyer). After pointing out those details, silence.

Then, three weeks later:

"The batteries don't work. I want a refund."

"Batteries? Any of them? All of them?"

"All of them, none work. I want a refund."

Note that two of the batteries were less than 4 months old, still in warranty.

He then stated he wanted a refund of $800. For five brand-new batteries, that would only be $670.

No evidence was shown, despite multiple requests (like a video of a battery on a charger, or on the drone, failing to power up). I stated I'd like to get the original batteries back, as at least I'd be able to get them replaced under warranty or possibly repaired and recoup some of my money (I was skeptical there was -any- issue, but still, good faith). He "happily" agreed. I asked him to send me a message on eBay (so it was tracked and not avoiding their system) acknowledging that offering a partial refund was contingent on his sending me the batteries back and that he accepts me disputing the refund if not.

He sends a message indicating all of the above.

Refund is sent (for about $700, to include his return shipping costs).

Thirty-five minutes later, I get a message, "USPS says they don't ship damaged batteries, so I will not be returning them". (35 minutes? So what, you were just sitting around waiting for the refund, and then the very moment I sent the money, you jumped in your car, got to the post office, had this discussion, got home, and were able to send me this message? When your home address shows you about 15 minutes from the nearest post office?)

I then suggest we meet in person to exchange them (I live a few hours away, not convenient, but still, $700...). He umms and ahhs, "How will I be able to prove that I gave them to you in person?". I suggest we do it in a police station and point out that his local PD even welcomes people to use their lobby for CL, etc. on their website. More umms and ahhs. "I need to contact eBay support to see if they allow this." I point him to eBay's specific FAQ page describing exactly this and how they recommend doing in person sales, and refunds, documentation thereof, and how they support it. But he ignores that and says, "I never heard back from eBay support, so I'm not sure what to do". I point this page out again, and he goes silent.

I opened a dispute. No evidence was provided for damage or faulty goods, referenced the multiple requests for video, or of anything.) Multiple instances of the buyer trying to show something was problematic with the listing, not abiding by the agreement and refusing/avoiding any method of returning damaged items.

Overnight, no further inquiries.

"We have closed your dispute. Based on our review, the buyer is entitled to keep the partial refund for damage. He is also not required to return the damaged items".

So he ended up with a Mavic 2 Pro, with less than 20 hours flight time, 5 batteries, for in the order of $950, all told.

[dawnerd]

Should have filed a police report. eBay will side with you and refund you. Had similar happen a few times and every time just required filling out a form in whatever city the item was sent to and attaching it to the dispute.

[BizarroLand]

Yeah, $700 is worth a lawsuit. eBay knows who the buyer is and would be required to turn over the transcripts of the conversations to the court, and if you're suing the buyer eBay's arbitration system wouldn't protect them.

Then, after you win that, you can drag eBay into arbitration for the suffering. I bet you'd walk away with $5k or so after expenses if you have a decent lawyer.

[jcranmer]

The fee for filing a lawsuit by itself is $405. That's before any lawyer touches anything and you get to find out how high a lawyer's hourly rate is.

A simple, easy lawsuit will cost you in the same range as a house. Even if you win, thanks to the American rule of "each side pays their own attorneys' fees."

No, $700 is not worth a lawsuit.

[markdown]

Do you not have small claims court? They're usually free.

[59percentmore]

Had similar issues. eBay being a mediator for your money but not the actual items is maybe inherently a dysfunctional system. They don't make any representations as to the accuracy of a listing, but will happily pass judgment on whether to refund or not based on... the aacuracy of a listing.

Maybe not every sale needs a middleman, but in a lot of cases, seems like there would be a benefit to it.

[oneneptune]

anecdotally; this is why I now use fb marketplace exclusively to sell stuff. cash only. meet in person; feel free to test / inspect stuff. All sales are final and are as-is.

[TimMeade]

Yep and hate even that. Someone can make the next unicorn to fix this pain.

[fhn]

Yea, buy on ebay either. It's all a scam now.