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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gboulton, post: 1249125, member: 27043&quot;]EBay has more than its fair share of reasons to avoid it, imo...including, but not limited to:</p><p><br /></p><p>1) &quot;Tilted&quot; playing field.&nbsp; The only way a fair exchange of ANYTHING is EVER going to occur is if both parties are uncoerced, unencumbered, and mutually agreeable.&nbsp; By definition, E-Bay makes this impossible.&nbsp; They place the encumbrance of feedback on the seller, but the buyer has no such concern.&nbsp; A buyer may leave any sort of feedback (s)he wishes for the seller, but the seller is unable to leave anything but positive feedback for the buyer.</p><p><br /></p><p>The playing field is not level.</p><p><br /></p><p>2) A market can only be truly reflective of item value...and thus, a truly objective opportunity for both seller and buyer...if the market does not artificially limit or enhance value.&nbsp; E-Bay does not meet this standard.</p><p><br /></p><p>E-Bay&#039;s fees are frequently &quot;final value&quot; based...that is to say, the fee is based upon the final sales price of the item.&nbsp; While this mirror&#039;s &quot;real life&quot; auctions, there are significant differences that make this an artificial limit on item price and availability.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>In &quot;real life&quot; auctions, the value of the item dictates, at least in part, the services provided by the auction company, and their overhead.&nbsp; Higher priced items require different marketing, more aggressive security, or more expensive accommodations and amenities for potential buyers.&nbsp; In short, it is more expensive for an auction house to sell a high priced item than a low priced one.</p><p><br /></p><p>Online, however, E-Bay&#039;s services are identical.&nbsp; The software, bandwidth, and hardware necessary to list a $1 item are identical to that necessary to list a $10,000 item.&nbsp; Only services like escrow or enhanced marketing differ, and these can be (and have been) commoditized in and of themselves.</p><p><br /></p><p>The result, then, is that prices are held artificially low by sellers, to avoid high fees, and non-commoditized services, like shipping, become artificially inflated.&nbsp; Ebay, then, is no longer truly reflective of market value of an item, and the onus to &quot;work around&quot; this disparity falls on the seller.</p><p><br /></p><p>3) E-Bay/PayPal&#039;s <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/t190238/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/t190238/">data integrity must now be called into question</a>. If it is possible for one non-existant item to be sold, and the buyer charged for the sale, then it is possible for ANY non-existant item to be sold, multiple copies of the SAME item to be sold, or completely random charges to be placed. </p><p><br /></p><p>Further, E-Bay&#039;s inability or unwillingness to even acknowledge this issue leaves the COMPANY&#039;S integrity open to question as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>==============</p><p><br /></p><p>The market is not equally open to both buyer and seller, the market is not truly reflective of item values, and the integrity of the market data is questionable at best.</p><p><br /></p><p>What other reasons do you need?&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Pretty much, yeah.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve dealt with CL for everything from announcing yardsales, to selling random &quot;clean out the garage&quot; stuff, to finding models for photo shoots, to buying and selling coins, to tracking down the owner of the contents of a storage shed.</p><p><br /></p><p>By and large, I&#039;ve had exceptionally good luck with CL by following one fairly simple principle:</p><p><br /></p><p>Don&#039;t</p><p>Be</p><p>An</p><p>Idiot</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>As an example...when I&#039;m soliciting models for photography work, I&#039;m frequently looking for female models willing to work TFP.&nbsp; (Time for Prints)&nbsp; In the modeling world, this sort of thing can often be translated to &quot;Creepy fat old married dude wants to take sexy pictures of young hotties without paying.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>This kinda makes it difficult to get legitimate shoots set up.&nbsp; :too-funny:</p><p><br /></p><p>Some of the things I&#039;ve found that make it clear I&#039;m NOT that &quot;creepy fat old married dude&quot;&nbsp; (I&#039;m only middle aged) are things like:</p><p><br /></p><p>I insist that the model bring an escort of her choice.&nbsp; I WILL NOT shoot a model without an escort, EVEN models I&#039;ve worked with multiple times.</p><p><br /></p><p>I insist, as well, that <b>I</b> will have an escort.&nbsp; if a model&#039;s not willing to have my assistant there as part of the shoot, then I won&#039;t shoot her.&nbsp; Period.&nbsp; Further more, at LEAST the first time I work with a model, my escort/assistant will be my wife.</p><p><br /></p><p>At a MINIMUM, the first 3 times I work with a model, we&#039;ll shoot outside, in a public place, like a park, greenway, or the like.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ok..I know...this isn&#039;t a modeling or photography forum.&nbsp; My point here, however, is that the situation above has an extremely high potential creep-factor, and yet there are still ways to work around it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Just use common sense.&nbsp; Highly visible public places to meet, have a separate pre-paid cheap phone, take along a friend, etc.&nbsp; Oh...and don&#039;t be a fat old creep. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Add some canine security.&nbsp; They not only enhance your safety level, but they also leave floors spotless!&nbsp; :too-funny:[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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