Amazon-lite...NOT

Now ebay won't do a damned thing when you have a real asshole you're dealing with. Someone who lies like hell and tries to get a discount just gets away with it.

However, I got a message that they sure felt free to take away over $100 worth of bids because someone they considered a no no was bidding. Where are they when you get a real asshole after a sale? *crickets*

Now I gotta ask, if this asshole wasn't registered, how did they even bid in the first place, and how do they have a user ID?

I also like that nice touch where they say don't complete the sale - UNLESS you get payment. Then they want a piece of that ass. lol. And then they will generously "credit all fees except final value". That's nice. You removed the bids, but I am still being made to pay? Special. Why not put it in the "unsold" section if you're going to pull shit like this? Why the hell should I pay for the actions of
A. An unregistered buyer
B. You?

Then to "help" avoid this situation use a buy it now with immediate payment. This fucking doll sells anywhere from the $100-$400. I don't want to scare buyers away by asking for $400 right out of the gate, some won't bother to offer. However, I don't want to leave money on the table. I figure with an auction, they set the price they want to pay, and I get what's fair. Fixed price is a no go for a lot of things I sell.

I am tired of ebay trying to become Amazon. Amazon already exists. You cannot compete or be them, so quit trying. Go back to the Collectibles market and auctions. It's what made you.

Each month I get a message from them suggesting I sell some sort of electronic thing such as an iPhone. Have you heard about the fraud that goes on with electronics? Buyers sending back the same model, but broken, buyers taking parts off and then sending it back, buyers claiming they cannot activate, but want their money back, and they keep the thing. NO THANK YOU. Don't even get me started on the clothing market there. "It didn't fit" (even though you included all the measurements). And you get it back smelling like this:

Ugh. I understand evolution, but they are doing it all wrong. I have been using that site for 20 years and in that time I have gained an understanding of the way things work with the antiques and collectibles market there. You will sell yourself short with BIN. An example of this, was me buying a misidentified Francie doll the other day for $24.00. If she had been auctioned, even with the title wrong, other buyers would have found her, I would have been in a fight, and the price would have been double or triple in the end. The seller left money on the table by using BIN.  Am I happy I got a deal? Yes. But I feel a little bad for the seller, being one myself.

Here is the message I got:

Hello _______

We had to cancel bids for the buyer, ___________, because they aren't registered on eBay:
 Auction 1 
 Auction 2


We've also made it easy to relist your item if it was removed. Although the item is no longer available in search listings, you will find it in the Sold section of My eBay. For more information, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/relist.html

To help you avoid this situation in the future, consider setting a Buy It Now price and requiring buyers to make an immediate payment. For more information on immediate payments, visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/require-immediate-payment.html

We recommend you take the following actions if this buyer won the item:
- If you haven't received payment, don't complete the sale or send the item to the buyer.
- Don't communicate with the buyer directly.
- Verify any payments you've been notified of by logging into your PayPal account (or other online payment service).
- If the buyer requests a refund or additional payments, don't send any money without contacting eBay first.
- If you've already sent the item, try contacting the shipping carrier to find out if you can stop shipment.

In these types of situations, we may, at our sole discretion, decide whether to credit the fees for removed listings.
- We have credited all associated fees except for the final value fee for your listing(s).

If you have any concerns or questions, click "Help & Contact" at the top of most eBay pages.

Mr. Grupie

I belong to a group. The group is chuck full of Ebay cheerleaders. I joined it because I thought it was about something else, but I stayed to read the bullshit.

It has been painful for me to hold my tongue as they kiss buyer butt and dole out refunds like candy.

It's almost like they are proud to pay someone off to shut them up when they've screwed up.

If anybody even has the slightest tone while talking about a pampered buyer in the group, they go apeshit and the offender is then schooled not to assume anything bad about a buyer even if there are a million red flags. They also advise people not to block anyone and assume "Ebay will take care of it"

Uh guys, 99 times out of 100, they don't. Ebay provides the block feature so you can take out the trash yourself.

I am sorry, but sometimes you get yourself an asshole.

These people brush off refunds as if they are rolling in cash. Oh well, I will just sell more.

Is it really "selling" though when basically you are just shipping shit out and paying people to take it?

In my world, sometimes a buyer needs to be held accountable.

Sometimes they should pay return shipping, and sometimes you don't want that asshole as a repeat buyer.

Even though I am so clearly rogue, I hold the exalted Top Rated Seller status they all seem to want. I toe that middle line so hard I should wear a tutu. I feel like if I clearly screwed up, then sure, I refund. However, if the buyer is just being an asshat, they get treated as such, and BLOCKED.

I always roll my eyes as someone in the group posts a self-congratulatory "I refunded my buyer immediately, now I will have a repeat customer!"

Uhhh, is someone who complains and returns shit really what you want for a repeat buyer? SMH

You Don't Work So...

Just got done scrubbing 6 antique fans. We drove an hour to get to some auction in Vermont, and sat through hours of crap and repro cast iron banks to get to a huge lot of clocks the auctioneer had. When I got home I spent all night babysitting my rogue furnace, and so woke up late - 8:30. As soon as I got up, I went out to the trunk and grabbed last night's haul.

After lugging in about 11 clocks and the 6 fans, I set about testing things. I wound one clock...ticked for a few minutes, promising. Then I grabbed a wipe, wiped everything down, and tested each and every fan and 2 clocks. To my amazement, each of the fans worked perfectly. The clocks, however, not so much. One Westclox wall clock just about lit me up like Vegas, lol. A nice GE Westminster chime clock hummed and that was it.

I sighed and looked at the bedraggled pile of fans and went to work...2 of the fans had blades painted white. They looked rusty so that was kind of discouraging. I took the worst one and stuck it on a rack in my sink. I sprayed the bastard with Awesome and scrubbed it with a toothbrush. I could not get around the cage to the blades. I took the cage off. I spray more Awesome and the "rust" comes right off the blades - it was nicotine tar. I stood at my sink for about 2 1/2 hours straight until each fan was presentably clean, then I took the cords, bound them up nicely with a brand new twist tie. Later today I will oil 4 clocks and rewire 2 more. Yet, people think I just buy shit cheap, take a picture and list it.

I get the "You should go here for work" or "You don't work so..." bullshit from people all the time. I indeed work. It is hard work sometimes, and it sure as hell is time-consuming. Make no mistake, Just because I work from home, does not mean I have all this free time to do people's bidding. Things don't clean and repair themselves, nor do they pack and mail themselves. They do not research themselves, do write-ups on themselves, or appease customers when something is not up to par. That in itself is work and a skillset. 

Clock Blocked

Got me a couple of live ones. One wanted me to send pics of hallmarks on a watch I am selling. 

 

I already photographed them and they are in the listing. He also wanted to know how much the watch weighed, I already wrote it in the description. I tell him these things and that I know it is 18 karat because I acid tested it, then block him.

Then I check my bidder list, and he is not there, but my high bidder at over $600 has private feedback.

Now, if you are a buyer on ebay, you can have nothing but positive feedback, but people can leave warnings, hence, if there are any warnings, or feedback left for others I should know about, I am blocked from seeing them due to private feedback. 

 

So I block his ass too. lol. If he gets outbid he's gone. When an item goes over a few hundred bucks, my paranoia meter goes off the charts. I am sure before the auction ends there will be several angry messages from blocked bidders, lol, but I gotta look out for #1.

Entitlement

This week has shown me that if anything, entitlement has gotten more out of control than it was. I list a sewing machine. I have a start bid of about 1/4 of what they usually sell for and I get this:

Item advertises free shipping, but when bidding it says shipping is over $50.00.
??

I double check the listing. Nowhere does it say anything about free shipping. Not on the title. Not in the description. I do offer free local pickup and I say this to him.

Yeah no free shipping is advertised on either of my sewing machines in either title or description. They are 30 pounds each. At the price I have them listed, if I offered free shipping I would lose money. I do offer free local pick up.

The reply:

Vintage 1950's Singer Sewing Machine ...$25.001 bidFree shipping

My answer to this:

I don't do the programming for ebay. I cannot control what the page says before you click the auction link. I don't offer free shipping. Not going to happen at 30 pounds.

 This butt sucking moron just won't take no free shipping for an answer, so I finally block him.

This morning, I get this one about a very expensive antique clock.

hi
i was wondering if you would take any less for the clock as there are parts missing
thank you

 I have put $50 and 3 days of work into it. All someone has to do is buy about $20 in parts and spend 10 minutes putting them on (a hand, a bell, and a pendulum!) to make it perfect. if it doesn't sell for my start price, I will buy said parts and double the price. These kinds of clock normally get $400-$500. I am asking under $100. Do these people ever fucking think before they ask a stupid question? Do they realize that these things they want to bid on cost the seller money and time and the seller simply wants to recoup it and maybe a few dollars pittance on top? I have 13 watchers on it. I just say "No." I may look at his feedback and block him for good measure, because that is the type who bids and then "found something wrong it, so give me my discount" later on.

Cumin Atcha Live

Got me another live one. Asshole buys a mixer. Asshole pays with echeck. Echeck clears on Wednesday afternoon. I get notification from ebay that must ship by Friday. I print out shipping label. Thursday morning I contact FedEx to pick up on Friday.

Friday morning I am contacted by asshole buyer:

 Has this actually shipped? The tracking has not updated. Thank you.

I reply:

You paid with an e-check which did not clear until Wednesday afternoon. Since it is shipping via FedEx, I needed to schedule a pick up which is today. It should be picked up any minute now.

Maybe I was a little passive aggessive, but the stupid bitch made me wait almost a week for payment. Y'all cannot expect me to be shipping IMMEDIATELY after being jerked around for a week. Sorry.

She replies with this:

I understand the echeck processing. My concern was that it said it was shipping on Wednesday and hadn t updated since. I am well aware of how the shipping process works. Thank you.

No, bitch. You don't  understand how the shipping process works or you would have realized that I printed out the label on Wednesday and am now waiting for FedEx pick-up. The label simply hasn't been scanned yet because pick-up is a thing that takes time. 

She's going to be a live-wire asshole. I can smell it coming down the pike.

Honda Holiday

A Honda is a car that is great on gas mileage and you can beat the hell out of them with almost no adverse affects. One would think this would make one with fairly low mileage and very little to be done an easy sell. Nope.

I bought a Monte Carlo SS a few months back with money I got from $140 worth of dishes I sold. I love love love the car, but it needs some minor things done (new wires, 2 tires, and rear trailing arm) that total about $200.

Since it is the time of the summer sales slump, I have yet to get ahead $200. It doesn't help when the part time gig keeps taking hiatuses - we take an $80-$90 hit (depending on my tips) each time this happens. I had to sell one of my rare pony things to pay the water bill.

I think "Well, I've got the Honda" The bastard books for $1500, just needs an exhaust patch and a minor bushing thing in the transmission. It's kinda ugly, but it's fairly reliable and gets 35 miles to the gallon. I ask $1100 on craigslist. No dice. One bitch offers me $500. I don't even reply.

I get repeated offers of a bank check and pickup (well known scam). And one with actual interest lowballing me a bit. Looking back, I should have taken the $900 - lol. I get sick of this, and list it on Cars. Repeated inquiries but no response once I answer them.

Get pissed about that.

List it on ebay. Bitch who won lives 4 hours away and says she has no way to pick it up and how would she pay for it?  Uh, weren't you supposed to figure that out BEFORE YOU FUCKING BID? So now I am stuck with an inflated ebay bill ($60! for a car that is STILL HERE) and am going to have to fucking call them and get it taken off since I cancelled the sale and they've been painfully slow about crediting me for it.

I have been trying to get rid of this fucking car for almost a month now! I had two texts today, but I ain't holding my breath.

Update 3/7/2018: One of the two texts turned out to be a guy from 2 towns away who wanted a reliable beater and I got $800. The Monte Carlo is still kicking :)