Ebay Sellers Beware

I recently got laid off and money has gotten tight, so I started selling some stuff on ebay. My wife had me list her silver spoon collection. Some of them were her grandmothers, i think. Anyway, her sister who lives in chicago, (we are in PA) saw the auction and bid, hoping to get the spoons and maybe return them to us, or keep them for sentimental reasons. Somehow, Ebay knew that the bidder was her sister, and banned me from auctioning for 14 days. Be careful that none of your relations bid on your items, Big Brother Knows!
Her sister has a different last name and lives over 400 miles away!

 

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It's getting bad on Ebay. I've stopped buying completely and have told them that I will eventually close my account, to never return, if they don't get their chit together and soon. They are dragging their feet on my Merchants Credit Card Account, to try to force me to accept PayPal instead but PayPal has burnt their last bridge with me, with the latest thing they did to me, so PayPal will never be an option.

Worst case scenario, I'm looking into doing it myself, since I have a website.

Ebay is going downhill and PayPal is taking them there faster, so I no longer would recommend either to anyone. :vanish:

Ribbit

 

Update - Ebay removed my listings that I posted yesterday. They kept the insertion fees. I paid them for a service that I did not receive. I got an e-mail saying i can only post buy it now items, and another e-mail 1 minute later saying all my listings were removed and listing fees were not refundable. looks like I had 50 seconds to remove them myself. I called tham and they said if I re-list the items, they will still keep the first insertion fee. Blank them . Blank them very much. Spockbob - ebay member since 1998, 1157 positive, no negs.

 

Does anyone know where else to go where its so easy to get everything setup. I'm in the same type of situation money wise. I've been selling off my repeat Morgans. It's just hard to find anywhere that has the same volume of potential buyers. I just don't know if there is a better answer at this time.

 

It seems as though the feeling is mutual throughout the country and possibly the world. The coin listings are down by about 70% on ebay in the last few months. Sounds like they did it to themselves. I know a number of people on Coin Talk dispise ebay, but it really used to be a decent and enjoyable place to buy coins if you knew what you were buying and checked seller feedback.

 

Yeah, imagine how devistating it will be to the counterfiet coin market in China when ebay pulls the plug completely on coins.:smile

 

Valid point, but the OP was about selling spoons and the paypal problems encompass all sales.

 

I also don't just sell coins, and I can sell now, but only if I take PayPal or that other ripoff, ProPay, so I have been contacting other revenues to see if they are feasible or not. I also asked CoinBug if they would think about adding a "Other" section to let us sell non-coin related stuffs. :thumb: If CoinBug will expand a tad bit, I think it can become a great alternative to Ebay but what makes Ebay so great is its diversity and too many sites specialize and that is keeping them from getting a stake in the market (IMO).

Ribbit

 

For coins, try CoinBug.com. :thumb:

Ribbit

 

I think eBay acts like it just wants to get out of the business of online auctions anyway and become a venue for major retailers to peddle their stuff off that they cannot unload in stores.

 

I believe that's where I'm going to start buying some of my coins also.

 

I think you somehow got caught in a Catch 22 situation with Ebay. I don't know how they figured out that this was a relative , however , since it is .. Ebay looks upon this as shill bidding which is illegal. There's no way you can prove them wrong even though there was no intent on your part ( I don't believe ) to have her try and bid up the price. Ebay certainly has enough stuff we all complain about however in this case I believe they acted as they felt they should. Sorry about the result and good luck in the future ... both with Ebay and your job status. Jim Z. from Maine

 

my main gripe is that they pulled my current auctions and kept the listing fee, without warning me.

 

CaptainKirk,

Herein lies your problem. Shill bidding is illegal and TRACEABLE so Ebay will go out of it's way to "prevent" it.
They can claim "ingnorance" on counterfeit items all day but not on shilling so they watch it tight. Bunch of money hungry "gasbirds" that they are.

Now I will ask this. Has your sister in law ever logged onto her ebay account while at your house? If she has they have tracked it through the ISP and made the connection there. Doesn't matter how far she lives from you.

I know this from work. We list items on ebay at the shop. At times the boss will have my coworker list an item that one of us is interested in. We're not shilling. It's a legit bid as we have actually seen the merchandise in person and actually want it.

Before I started there my coworker bid on an item by logging into HIS ebay account at work. The boss got a warning and my coworker was nearly banned. It took him a while to get it straightened out and he is NOT allowed to bid on stuff from the shop anymore because of it.

I live a scant two miles from the shop but I can still bid and do on occasion. If my coworker is intersted in something I bid for him.

Before I worked at ths shop I won the occasional auction from my current boss. Most times it was something I'd seen in the shop and he wanted too much money for it and I actually got it cheaper by bidding.

We have customers that bid as well and sometimes win. No shilling involved and it's rather presumptuous of ebay to assume that shilling is involved. Last I checked "innocent till proven guilty".

Ebay is doing nothing but covering their own greedy hineys. Doesn't matter if they're right or wrong. Hey they collected your fees.

"Gasbirds"!

 

Ahhhh, that explains it, she has logged in from my computer before. I was a bit worried about how they knew, thanks for the info. I'll get over this someday, but I will not forget their uncaring attitude towards a long-standing upright seller. On the phone I told them 'they might lose another seller, but I bet they were hearing that a lot lately'.

 

Join the crowd.

I heard someone is organizing a meeting of all the eBay users that think eBay really cares about them. The meeting will be held in the phone booth outside the San Jose bus station.

 

Lol

 

I'll be sure to put that on my calendar.

Ribbit

Ps: You forgot to mention the date of the meeting. :whistle:

 

I actually heard a radio report to that effect back at the end of December. According to the report, the emphasis is more on stores and less on auctions.

I think I heard this on WCBS-AM which reaches to here easily at night; if I weren't so lazy I'd try to validate this on their site...