I used to sell items on Ebay. Then they brought in the new forced payment system/bias towards [scamming] buyers etc so I gave up. Now I find that I only buy on Ebay if I absolutely have to, may be 5% or less of what I used to.
In truth, I wasn't really making money on Ebay ... my "profit" was just getting rid of old stuff I didn't want. All I was doing was converting the time it took to process sales into pocketmoney, which I'd then spend on other stuff on Ebay. It was more like circular swopping (A gives to B, B gives to C, C gives to A). Then, when it went mass market, all you needed was one scamming 4hole to blow a week or more's worth of selling.
My guess is that there are a lot of other buyers like me who also gave up.
That and all the cheap, Chinese cr4p that floods search results.
If you've never heard of the term before, google "en*bleep*ification". It's a proper concept, and Ebay is deep into the process.
What made Ebay in the beginning was all the small independents, often passionate about what they were into, selling unusual, rare or interesting stuff. They stuffed us, treating us like unpaid workers, and treating our "business" as if it was their business, like Ebay was a store that owned all of our stock, while they chased the mass market. The marketing made us all look like Ebay was a massive store which the mass market treated like a big business, including feeling entitled to steal from, or throw massive Karen's at.
Some of the changes, like removing sellers name and contact details from payment transactions, and putting theirs (Ebay) instead, make things even worse.
Like I say, I only buy when I am forced to.
I'm guessing that this recent "free to sell" marketing push is an effort to get us back on the platform but I doubt it will work.
Meanwhile, if I've got less money, I'll spend less money, and I'd rather just give stuff away or go do something else instead.
