Ebay is trash but it's where the buyers are.
I've been buying and selling on eBay since they came to the UK but I have to hold my nose every time I visit the site.
Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
61–70 of 144 posts
Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a writer I will jump through linguistic hoops to move uncapitalised proper names away from the start of a sentence - for example, a medical device called "i-gel" which I wrote a paper on. Starting a sentence without a capital is just too jarring in formal writing I find.
Yep. For hundreds of years English has had a rule that proper nouns are capitalised; it is pretentious to imagine that "myThingy is soooo cool that you can't even use the rules of English on it." Now in some fields, like computer documentation, there's practical reason to change. It would be confusing to capitalise command-names if they are lower-case in their (case sensitive) native language. But newspapers aren't b…
Actually, look in any book printed 18th/early 19th century and you'll see that the rules were quite different then: all nouns were capitalised, as in modern German, and the 'long s' was frequently used in the middle of words. Mass literacy, almost-universal schooling along with physical punishments for children not doing exactly what the textbook said have given us moderns the idea that the 'proper' English of our grandparents remained the same for centuries, but really the language has always been in flux and the rate of change just got significantly slowed by cultural pressures between approximately 1850s to 1950s.
Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
#63I use eBay frequently. I have only bought things, but I want to sell things, however I'm terrified of getting scammed. And eBay does nothing to ameliorate those fears. I got as close as taking pictures, writing a description, and stopped at the last step before putting my item for sale. Everything I've read suggests that it's simply not worth it to try to sell things because you have no protection from scammers. As a…
It’s not that bad. I sell a lot of stuff and have had no problems with scammers other than a couple of people doing a buy it now and then wanting stuff shipped to Lagos etc and payment via money order. You just cancel the sale and relist then. The real risks are couriers in my experience. eBay success: 1. Avoid GSP 2. Sell only inside your region 3. Mark and photograph everything sold and keep the serial numbers. 4.…
> If there’s any risk of something packing up, sell it spares or repair. Doesn’t affect the final value.
This is rather surprising, as I'd expect this to halve the prices of items.
Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a writer I will jump through linguistic hoops to move uncapitalised proper names away from the start of a sentence - for example, a medical device called "i-gel" which I wrote a paper on. Starting a sentence without a capital is just too jarring in formal writing I find.
Yep. For hundreds of years English has had a rule that proper nouns are capitalised; it is pretentious to imagine that "myThingy is soooo cool that you can't even use the rules of English on it." Now in some fields, like computer documentation, there's practical reason to change. It would be confusing to capitalise command-names if they are lower-case in their (case sensitive) native language. But newspapers aren't b…
Even then, I don't think anybody would be outraged if I wrote 'Rsync' or 'Grep'.
Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never written anything popular enough to really get pull requests, but I can definitely understand not merging a pull request due to not being able to maintain that code or it taking the project in a different direction to what you want.
It's one thing to say "no", it's another thing to say "later" forever.
That comes back to having a defined plan for where you want the project to go.
Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not that bad. I sell a lot of stuff and have had no problems with scammers other than a couple of people doing a buy it now and then wanting stuff shipped to Lagos etc and payment via money order. You just cancel the sale and relist then. The real risks are couriers in my experience. eBay success: 1. Avoid GSP 2. Sell only inside your region 3. Mark and photograph everything sold and keep the serial numbers. 4.…
If someone picks up from you take a signature. Why? It offers you no seller protection whatsoever. Even a photo of the person picking it up wouldn't qualify. If you do a buy it now, tick the immediate payment box If it's ship-only, yes.
ebay seller protection is pointless either way as the decisions are arbitrary. The receipt offers you protection as in if you have to take the buyer to small claims court or defend yourself then you are covered for transfer of goods. If you're a private seller, selling items under $20/£25 it's not worth arguing. Unless you're selling volume, don't even sell the items just throw them away or give them to someone.
Also run a mule bank account. All money in and out goes through an empty account which you transfer in and out of paypal. Never link a card to it. No arbitrary charges or refunds can be taken then.
If ebay have a problem with you they can come to your door and do it via official legal paths. They usually hire a debt collector here in the UK who will fuck off instantly if you file an SAR with them and ask for court documents (I had a run in with them a few years back after they didn't receive a fees payment I made due to a system problem)
But honestly there are so few problems out there really.
Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not that bad. I sell a lot of stuff and have had no problems with scammers other than a couple of people doing a buy it now and then wanting stuff shipped to Lagos etc and payment via money order. You just cancel the sale and relist then. The real risks are couriers in my experience. eBay success: 1. Avoid GSP 2. Sell only inside your region 3. Mark and photograph everything sold and keep the serial numbers. 4.…
> If there’s any risk of something packing up, sell it spares or repair. Doesn’t affect the final value. This is rather surprising, as I'd expect this to halve the prices of items.
I was too. If you list it as "spares/repair only because no returns on XYZ" then it doesn't affect final value. I use this when selling vintage equipment because while fit for purpose at the point of sale it could blow up a week down the line with a new issue (as any second hand goods) or the buyer could meddle with it neither of which is my problem.
Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree with all of your points plus the UI is massively inconsistent, not just in term of format, but different pages will give you different message count or items sold count, or one page will tell you you received a message and the message page will show nothing, it looks like something quickly hacked together in php in the old days. And I am not even talking about consistency between browser and iOS UI in term of i…
...revealing everyone’s max bid limit, then cancelling the bid It's deliberate and common. This is why I, as most sellers, do only fixed-price listings anymore.
> This is why I, as most sellers, do only fixed-price listings anymore.
This.
I regularly buy on eBay and decided to sell a number of old hand tools. I have sold before, but not for a while. I put the the first tool as an auction to get the hang again, then waited 10 days for something to happen. During that time I purchased several items using buy it now and realised that I now AVOID auctions unless the items is particularly rare or special.
The BIN selling options interface seems to vary significantly depending on how you crate the listing: starting on somebody else's items and clicking "sell one like this" or creating a new listing from scratch, for instance.
But, yeah, I'm converted to Buy It Now as a buyer and a seller.
Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
#69I use eBay frequently. I have only bought things, but I want to sell things, however I'm terrified of getting scammed. And eBay does nothing to ameliorate those fears. I got as close as taking pictures, writing a description, and stopped at the last step before putting my item for sale. Everything I've read suggests that it's simply not worth it to try to sell things because you have no protection from scammers. As a…
I sell quite a lot, but only on a Buyer collect basis and I always make it clear that the buyer can inspect and then pay cash if satisfied.
Re: Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay
#70I use eBay frequently. I have only bought things, but I want to sell things, however I'm terrified of getting scammed. And eBay does nothing to ameliorate those fears. I got as close as taking pictures, writing a description, and stopped at the last step before putting my item for sale. Everything I've read suggests that it's simply not worth it to try to sell things because you have no protection from scammers. As a…
Interesting that the public perception of trust has degraded so much as a seller. I've been a member since 2003 and buy small bits and bobs on there most weeks and go through phases of occasionally selling things maybe a couple of times a year when I need space / money - most recently an old computer and some guitar pedals.
I've only ever had a problem as a seller twice in all those years - one scammer insisting the cheque was in the post and demanding that I send the item immediately (and leaving bad feedback when I didn't) and another reporting the items being faulty despite being (incredibly cheap) untested vintage electronics for spares.
Neither time was I left out of pocket and I'd more than happily sell stuff on there again. But I have heard the horror stories and appreciate that I may have just been incredibly lucky.
That said, a few years back I did trip some kind of threshold and was automatically upgraded to a business account, which means that my "business" (aka home) address now appears prominently on all my listings. Apparently ebay have no way to downgrade it again and have asked me to just create a new account - throwing away 15 years' worth of positive feedback in the process...