I have two items I sold on eBay, one on the 6th and the other on the 10th, and not only haven't the buyers paid yet, they've completely ignored all my attempts to contact them.

 

Why do people do this? I mean shit, if I gotta wait till their payday that's fine. Just let me know for chrissakes. Send a nigga an email. Is it me, or is it not just good business to communicate with someone you're buying shit off of?

Somehow, with advances like Paypal and other things that make auctions easier, eBay has become significantly dumber in the last three years. I don't even have an itch to hop on anymore, considering that roughly two thirds of the buyers/sellers are either deadbeats or assholes, respectively.

It seems to go both ways, I ended up getting the Benoit DVD for free because the person I bought it off of never replied to me. I complained to eBay, and they refunded my money after the seller ignored THEM too.

 

Turned out the guy did ship it, and I received it the day my money got refunded. Then the guy has the nerve to be all indignant sending an email to eBay (cc'ed to me and like 3 weeks late) "ITEM WAS SHIPPED". Yeah, well next time take the .01 second to send an email.

 

If these current deadbeats don't send payment by the end of the week, then I'll just have to report it to eBay. I don't have "payment required within one week of auction end" for nothing, bitches.

Reasons like these are why I try to stay away from eBay as much as possible. Even when I see something I REALLY want, I hold back.

Selling can still be profitable on eBay, but it's become such a hassle, mainly because of the influx of members in the last several years. You have all of these infomericals and buzz generating about how you can become rich selling on eBay with little effort.

 

I can tell you firsthand that it ain't so. Even for the folks who do use it as their main source of income, it's as hard as a so-called real job, if not harder, since you're basically never off of the clock.

 

I still sell a lot, but my energy has been sapped because eBay has become less friendly towards the seller and the increase in immature bidders is almost unbearable. There are, however, some warning signs that can be helpful in pinning down a potentially non-paying bidder.

 

- Low feedback. Obviously, we all start somewhere, but be cautious of brand new eBayers, especially if they just registered. Again, don't stereotype, since everyone has to start at square one. I, myself, didn't register until the day I first bid on something.

 

- Large amount of bidding actitivity. This applies again to the newer users. For whatever reason, there's a huge number of people who think that even if you win an auction, you're not necessarily obligated to pay for it. You can avoid some possibly ugly situations by checking their bidding history for the past 30 days and see what's going on. If it's a brand new bidder and they're racking up thousands in merchandise, chances are they're trouble.

 

- No response to emails. If you're unsure about a bidder, you can always email them and if you don't get a response, that's a warning sign that they aren't reliable.

 

Still, there are so many hassles to eBay that I question if it's worth it anymore. I'm in the process of selling of a ton of stuff from our house, since we'll be putting it up for sale within the next year, so I'm sort of stuck for now.

 

I've been selling for nearly three years and in that time, the number of unreasonable buyers coupled with the non-paying ones have shot through the roof. I just chalk it up to eBay becoming bigger than it can handle and the fact that there are so many stupid people out there, most people own a computer and have a credit card, and thus, there are bound to be idiots around.

My girlfriend has an eBay account and the only thing she bought for me was WWE Raw for PC (stop laughing, please). That's the first (and last) time I'll have anything to do with eBay. Oh yeah, it still has to arrive, so we'll see if that happens.