First let me asterisk everything I'm saying with this: I loved eBay. I made a lot of money off eBay and put a lot of money into it, and had a great time doing so. 5-6 years ago eBay was an incredibly easy and fun way to buy ANYTHING you wanted and sell just the same. But that's changed. Now it's a barren, desolate wasteland akin to the boarded up strip malls you see in Anytown, USA. Now it's no longer a person just like you buying or selling their wares, it's faceless cyber-walmart megastores that have no interest in answering a question about a product or giving you a tracking number, or even posting a picture of the actual item for sale. It's three-word product descriptions followed by 5 paragraphs of who can bid and who can't, where they won't ship to, their right to cancel winning bidders who don't pay within 24 hours, and their admitted lack of actual "facts" about the item for sale. Back in the day sellers were excited to get questions and more than happy to give you their phone number so could call and talk about the item for sale. Sure, that was a different time and a different world, but surely there is a median between these two extremes that could be reached.
Evidently, not.
Who's to say the precise reason why eBay has fallen so far, but you know they are sensing their own self-demise just as well. The buyers just aren't there like they were. The items aren't getting the bids they once did. Sure, people have less money to spend on things these days, so eBay's traffic is going to reflect that. But eBay's problems go way beyond that. Take their method of payment, for example. Along with a handful of e-pay options that NOBODY has heard of, eBay ONLY takes Paypal now. That means on everything you buy or sell, save for an extremely few exceptions, Paypal is going to get its taste. This, of course, is the Paypal eBay owns and operates and charges sellers for the "luxury" of using. I am no lawyer, but I smell an antitrust lawsuit in there somewhere. Oh, and if you use Paypal as a seller, expect a ridiculously long hold on any money you do get over $100--to the point where you are at the mercy of whenever the buyer feels like giving you positive feedback before the money is released to you. It's the equivalent of me walking into Best Buy, walking out with a TV and Best Buy not getting a dime until I feel like going back in and telling them they did a "good job." No where else in the world of commerce would this happen. Their search engine is a joke as well. Type any number of items in and the search results you get are nothing more than a list of who's paid the most to eBay to push their products on you. And with those results you get the aforementioned stock pictures, stock generic descriptions, and general warnings about how your lack of feedback is going to get your bid cancelled. EBay loves to tout that the majority of the changes it makes is at the request of the buyer, to protect the consumer. But eBay is a business and like every other business, the only reason changes are ever made is for money. Make no mistake about it, the sellers are who make eBay its money and thus the ones eBay truly need. Yet every change they make seem to drive more sellers away.
So what now? You get out of your house and support your local economy is what. You don't need a feedback rating and you don't have to wait 10 days for it to show up at your door. Sure, I know we don't all live in the big city and there are things you need that the shops and stores in your little town doesn't have. But really, how far is the closest town that does? 20 miles? Grab a friend and make a trip of it. Gas is cheaper than shipping right now. Oh, but what about time, who has the time to go searching for a store that carries 100% cashmere yarn in the saffron color you're looking for? It's impossible! Yes, because no one ever knitted a cashmere scarf before eBay came around.
So get out there and look for what it is you want, you'll find it. It's not like you're looking for the phone number to Paypal or anything.
