So much for ebay I guess

xcel730 wrote in post #11370721
I still shop at eBay, though now much less frequent. Mainly because everything I want to buy is no longer being "auctioned" like eBay was meant to be. Everything is "buy it now" and the prices is basically the same or higher than any major retailer. I remember when they had the bing cashback where you get 20% back from eBay purchases, the retailers/individual would jack up the price of their items by 20%.

When I'm actually watching auctions, I see that the final price is higher or equal to retail price. I'm confused. Recently, I saw an auction for a 5-year old AlienBees B800 that got sold for $300??? Why not buy it from a brand new one from AlienBees directly for less?

Because some people get caught up in the auction and lose all sense of pricing if they want it...I to have seen it many times

eBay has some definite uses. It's still a good place to look for old things that are difficult to find, such as accessories for those old medium format film cameras people are looking for these days. That has always been what eBay has been best for.

And there are various brick-and-mortar ma-and-pa shops that are gaining Internet business through eBay storefronts.

I get all my regular-stock frames from a Missouri ma-and-pa frame shop that does business through eBay. Basically, I do a "Buy it now" on a frame style, include a note on exactly what I want, they send me back the price, and the deal is done. Prices are super low--lower than the local made-in-China frame shops even with shipping--and the service is outstanding. They sent me incorrect frames once; when I emailed them about it, they rushed out the correct frames and told me to just keep the others.

Otherwise, though, I would not use eBay to buy current camera equipment and certainly not to buy or sell art.

I've sold about $2k worth of lenses on eBay within the last year, and apart from one guy who never sent payment (fees were all refunded) haven't had any issues, and have gotten good prices from all.

I also buy from them, some lenses/cameras re-sell for larger price drops than others. Such as the 180mm f/3.5 Macro lenses, which sell on Amazon for twice what you can get one on eBay for. I'm now looking at picking up a EOS 1D Mark II too, they're going for about $800ish on eBay currently.

Anyway, I agree eBay ain't what it used to be, but I still find it valuable.

I have more bidders failing to pay then successful transactions now.
I still have some listings there but not for long.

Can somebody please tell me what the deal is with ebay waiving fees for the rest of the year? My dh sells coins on ebay & hasn't heard anything & we were both just searching & couldn't find anything about this. If someone could point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it.

woos wrote in post #11372611
Yeah, Paypal is a bunch of thieves, which is why I do this:
1. Set paypal up to be attatched to a savings account that otherwise isn't used.
2. When I receive money via paypal, I immediately transfer it to the savings account. Then it immediately gets transferred out to another account on my bank's website.

That way if anyone ever complains and paypal tries to process a refund for the person, it won't go through.

Just because the money is not in the account anymore does not mean you cannot be held liable for it. If you think paypal is not going to get their money one way or another, your sorely mistaken.

Jeffro250 wrote in post #11383216
Just because the money is not in the account anymore does not mean you cannot be held liable for it. If you think paypal is not going to get their money one way or another, your sorely mistaken.

No doubt, but at least you aren't out your house payment and grocery money without warning.

Mike22487 wrote in post #11368867
I couldn't even tell you the last time I looked at something on ebay, I believe it went the way of AOL. I have been buying my stuff off of amazon, they have better customer service and you don't have to worry about scams as much.

I wouldn't really agree with this. I think Ebay is very much alive in the consumer market. I use it for almost everything. However, I DID just get Amazon Prime so it makes things easier to buy with one click and free shipping.

Sometimes you can find a nice deal on eBay. I purchased my Tamron 28-75 for $290

EBay is a hit and miss site, IMO