I recently advertised a guitar on eBay as well as the Fretboard . . . I had an offer from a guy on eBay who included his phone number in the text . . . I told him that I wasn't interested but then found that eBay had frozen my account . . . I tried to get in touch with eBay but ended up having an onscreen conversation with one of eBay's staff that didn't resolve anything. So I was penalised because some space cadet sent me his phone number. My eBay auction was still active but off everyone's radar . . . I could edit or end it but no-one else could see it.
A day or so later my guitar sold so I took down the eBay Auction immediately . . .Today I got an invoice from eBay for £54.97 which is impossible as I had not sold anything on eBay for months . . .
eBay had included a Final Value Fee for the guitar I sold on the Fretboard . . . They believed that I had called the Space Cadet who sent his phone number and arranged a Private Sale with him which I hadn't . . . I've spent nearly an hour on the phone arguing my case with 3 x separate people, I even offered to send a transcription of my conversation on the Fretboard with the gentleman that bought my guitar . . .
Eventually after some very heated discussion I was informed by Clyde that I had justified my case and that my account would be credited . . . That's fucking good of them . . . I hadn't done anything wrong in the first place . . . ! !
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I have bought and sold on there for years, but I think once my current crop of stuff is gone (we have way too much stuff in our house and its more financially beneficial for us to use eBay than do a boot sale), i’m just gonna be a buyer. Their system has become too much of a pain in the arse and too many of the people are weird as fuck.
The end.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
with.
Now eBay is a business providing businesses with a platform to sell to individuals with little interest in individual sales.
Just avoid where possible really for selling.
I have 700+ transactions on eBay, roughly 50% buying/selling split. I've never been ripped off by buyers or by eBay. Bottom line is - stuff sells on eBay. If you wait for the £1 deals, treat your buyers decently and are careful it can work.
I also work for a mail-order company which sells on Ebay - the number of problem transactions and buyers is rare, probably no more than 1%, but they do happen - and if you can't afford to simply write off the goods and the money then you're in trouble. Easy enough for a mail-order business selling low-value items, you just refund or replace it... not for a private seller with a high-value item.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
As it was a collection only listing you’d have to be a complete fool to accept PayPal but apparently that’s their rules that you must accept it.
Happy to leave their sellers wide open to a PayPal claim once the item has been collected.
if I was to sell something off eBay I leave the auction running but with an inflated price berceuse of ebays rules stating they can unilaterally decide to charge you a final value fee.
As noted above proceed with caution. I only do collection sales for low value stuff these days. I don’t really buy there either because there’s so much fakery.
Was selling an amp a while back and ended up in a conversation with someone over a possible trade. Never exchanged mobile numbers and the other guy just stopped messaging me.
My ad was still live on eBay but I got the threatening messaging from them saying they suspected me of selling outside of eBay. Ridiculous!
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