For all its flaws, I can't say I've ever regarded Ebay as a race to the bottom in terms of selling price.
It's interesting - IMHO! - to compare the comments that come up when people compare pricing of used items on Ebay to prices on forums like this one. The unwritten rule seems to be that selling prices on forums should be absolutely rock bottom, always a good deal for the buyer at the expense of the seller.
Open a discussion on the topic and responses are along the lines of "Ebay prices are crazy, your <item> isn't worth that" - conveniently ignoring the fact that if something will sell at the higher price on another platform, it is worth that higher price, by definition.
Ebay takes a significant cut, and their system is strongly slanted in favor of the buyer. /--/
if I'm at a hamfest I'm looking for bargains, if I wanted to pay ebay prices I could do that without leaving my house.
It seems that they do favor buyers, and maybe unscrupulous buyers as well - or maybe they are just open to such exploitation. But not always. In the earliest days of the pandemic, I was certain that it was going to get worse and quickly and I sent relatives packs of face masks.
One pack of something else was sent, and to make matters worse, it was sent to the oldest relative. Instead of masks, some kind of cut letters, like you might use to make a sign, were sent. Being of a different generation, she was adamant that I get my money back and she schlepped the package to PO and sent it back to me (I couldn't convince her otherwise and could not lie to her - I was tempted to because the last thing I wanted was for her to go to the PO).
I get it, I photograph it, including a tracking # and I write the seller. Look, I am fine with language barriers and they work both ways, but if you are selling on an English speaking site, you need enough English to communicate. All he would say is that 'I sent the package and here is the tracking number'...this is like 3-4 messages with pictures. I knew he sent me a package, it just didn't have what I bought - not even close (and the same seller had successfully sent the right items to several people, for me). I got nowhere and went to $bay, writing a long appeal or dispute or whatever it is called, including all the info and also said I was fine returning the item as soon as the buyer sent me the address and funds (I knew he was not going to do that). - Shortly afterwards, I get a robo email saying it was denied because 'he sent the package'.
Then on to $ay$al. Sent in the complaint, pictures, all the info. While they were more attentive, they said that it would take something like 6 weeks (I don't remember exactly, but it was a long time) and they give the seller a long time to respond. I was like wtf? Why am I messing around with this crap?
I contacted the CC card, sent them the info and within 24 h they issued me a temp credit which turned into a permanent credit within a couple of days.
Get this - 1-2 days after the permanent credit, the buyer writes me (with vastly improved English) and asks if I want a refund.
So, not always favoring buyers.
As for hamfests, which also included computerfests, back in the day - do they even exist anymore? Apart from pandemic issues, I thought they were long gone and had given way to flea markets where everyone thinks they have 'valuable antiques' because they watch TV.
I should get out more and see what is out there (maybe in not too long we can).
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