I remember when i first started on my first account back in 2005, it was so easy to sell things, it didn't really matter what it was, you could post it on auction and it would sell within a week or two maximum and you'd get quite a few bidders and a reasonable price, i remember when the fraud started in about 2008/09, i had a lot a lot of people buying things and saying they had never had them and you'd have to file a claim with the post office, especially people from mexico and UK buyers, i remember as i sold internationally then, i closed that down when we left the EU because i knew nobody would bid on anything due to the added customs fees, i stopped buying internationally for the same reasons, i remeber you had to start charging more for postage for things to get it tracked and signed for to reduce fraud and genunine lost parcels, everyone seemed to hate that, though i dispute most of them because everything gets a deliever confirmation these days and almost everything gets delivered, touch wood, idk when it started but it must have been in the 2010's 99p auctions became impossible as you'd be lucky to get that for a high value item, you're literally lucky to get 1 bid on an auction these days so i just ask for the price i think its worth now, what ensues is lots of waiting and dead air, then suddenly sometimes out of nowhere you get a bid, everyone says do buy it now only you do that pay fees and nobody ever buys it invariably, so i add nearest offer to my listings, it gives me a chance to check feedback of buyers and avoid the cranks, an example of this recently was some bloke offered me a pound for a £2 jigsaw, then when i checked his feedback he was buying them doing them and trying to return them constantly then opening a case saying they were incomplete and getting to keep them and selling them himself, i get so many clowns like this and i block them, then you get genuine people who offer for things then simply want them for literally nothing at that point it's like why am i even here at all, i had to end one auction for this reason and ebay charged me for it and not like 20p but like £3, when i called up about it the woman basically said it was my fault for cancelling his bid and ending the auction, despite him bidding, retracting it then bidding again, now i hear the government want ebay to report us to hmrc for selling stuff from around the house i don't want anymore, i got the distinct impression on the phone to ebay they didn't really care if you bothered selling as a small person, she was like go to a boot sale, last time i saw that near me was the 90's, ebay is my only way to sell the junk lying around my house or stuff i buy and decide not two use, now a few days ago i got a message from ebay saying we are now having to pay some new fee for everything we sell, it just feels like a huge waste of time, you put all the work in listing things only for it to sit there for months on end, I'm very lucky if i sell 3 things a week, usually nothing to 2 things, i just think everyone just buys off amazon unless its a niche item you can't get on there, ebay is a much smaller pond now, facebook marketplace is a joke in comparison, constant messages from cranky old people who say they'll come get it but never do or just dead air, i won't use it, i still prefer ebay to sell but at some point you have to ask why you even bother, i think you're better off just getting rid of what you have then being very careful what you buy because getting rid of stuff is a nightmare these days unless its a very popular item like a playstation that a lot of people want, i don't know what anyone else thinks probably the opposite based on my few posts on here over the years, almost like its full of ebay employees or something.
