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View Full Version : eBay 1995: fun, new, buying/selling community. eBay 2007: cess pool.



ineedanewhobby
08-01-2007, 06:29 PM
My extraneous rant of the week.

From personal experience in buying and selling on eBay the past 3 or 4 months I have noticed that eBay just isn't the same as it was 4 or 5 years ago. Some people call eBay a community. I call it a ghetto. Scammers. Over priced junk. There aren't many good deals on eBay, in my opinion. I do most of my business on eBay Motors. I rarely come across anything I'm looking for and say to myself "Wow, that's a really good deal!" Here is one example, the shining turd in a collection of eBay losses. I tried selling my brand new Oldsmobile 455 engine (Edelbrock heads, forged pistons, etc) a couple weeks ago. I described it in detail and listed the prices of everything that went into it. I have well over $6000 into this thing. I was willing to let it go for $3500. I had at least a dozen people tell me how much they really wanted or really needed this engine. Then they offered me jack for it and made it sound like they were doing me a favor. I fully comprehend supply and demand. If people don't want it they aren't going to pay for it. If there are warehouses full of high performance 455 engines for sale, they would be as cheap as a used 350 that was yanked out of a work truck. But I had an inbox full of emails and I had one of 3 Olds 455 engines on eBay at the time. When I said I need at least $3500, "Mmmm, I don't know man, that's kinda steep. I was thinking more like, 1500?" Are you kidding me? Build this same engine for less than $3500 and I'll buy it off you. After much frustration I ended the auction and still owe eBay a considerable fee for trying to sell the engine TWICE.

eBay is a cess pool.

Raudermaster
08-01-2007, 06:35 PM
Yea I agree bigtime. You sell a car, before you know it you owe them $95 bucks. I'm like, "WTF, I had like nothing in the description to save money, e or 4 pictures and I owe you that?!" However, eBay has it's good sides, I have found many good parts for cheap on there.

ckadiddle
08-02-2007, 07:35 AM
I use ebay occaisionally for buying small items. Just got two nice MM keyfobs. :) Ebay is NOT full of great deals... but it does supply me with a source for those wierd hard to find items... I bought the wife a dead Sharp Wizard for ten bucks off ebay just to get the correct stylus to fit the one we bought retail that was opened and was missing the stylus. I couldn't find the correct replacement stylus anywhere else on the web. I also use ebay to price compare with regular retail store web sites. I can also find used or open box items that match the stuff I already own that is a couple years old and no longer available in retail stores.

Out of around forty transactions over the last few years, I only had trouble with one vendor, and he did eventually did refund me.