What's happened to eBay?

[jeffinsgf]

Hey guys. Been a long time since I posted on here. I've taken a new job and my tractor days are sadly limited. A few years ago when I was using my tractor on a nearly daily basis, you could buy and sell used tractors and implements routinely on eBay and feel you were getting a fair deal as either buyer or seller. I've had a John Deere MX-5 brush cutter on eBay for 3 weeks with barely a nibble and so few "looks" that I am thinking no one even goes there for equipment any more. Did I miss something while I was asleep?

 

[marchanna]

Yeah, eBay has turned into a junk site. I used to buy of there on a regular basis but it’s a pretty rare occurrence now. The sellers are hard to trust and they often put outrageous shipping fees on things to compensate for the cheap sale price. A lot of direct from China sales with fake North America item locations. The worst is the roadblock ads; ten pages of the same thing so that it makes it difficult to search for what you really want.

 

[smstonypoint]

My guess is competition from other sites. My online shopping is limited, so I don't have a clue as to what those sites may be.

Steve

 

[shaeff]

Yeah, eBay has turned into a junk site. I used to buy of there on a regular basis but it痴 a pretty rare occurrence now. The sellers are hard to trust and they often put outrageous shipping fees on things to compensate for the cheap sale price. A lot of direct from China sales with fake North America item locations. The worst is the roadblock ads; ten pages of the same thing so that it makes it difficult to search for what you really want.

Craigslist is the same way. I see the same ad 20+ times in a row. If I'm feeling froggy I'll report all except one. I thought there used to be limits on how often ads could be posted on CL.

 

[newbury]

Craigslist is the same way. I see the same ad 20+ times in a row. If I'm feeling froggy I'll report all except one. I thought there used to be limits on how often ads could be posted on CL.

At least on CL you can limit duplicates. Although some spammers tend to add in a list of random character at the end of the description.
So you get:
"Tractor - $10,000 vgrede"
and
"Tractor - $10,000 xdwert"
as 2 different, but otherwise identical ads.

 

[RNeumann]

Sorry to say, politics played a roll- they limited sales of items they deem bad. Then PayPal provides the worst service of any banking institution. Between those two things I’ve done everything I can to avoid them.

 

[kthompson]

And I thought it was me. Makes me feel better. But where is items being sold on internet if there are other sites?

 

[fried1765]

And I thought it was me. Makes me feel better. But where is items being sold on internet if there are other sites?

I have been using E-Bay for years.
Mostly all good.
Recently bought an HP laptop, that the seller listed as NEW, at what seemed to be a great price.
The seller had less than 5 feedback, so I was concerned.
Seller shipped me a REFURBISHED HP laptop.
I complained to E-Bay, and they very promptly refunded my $323.
I did not pay for shipping either way.
Overall,.... a disappointment,.... but not a catastrophe.
Bought a NEW computer from Best Buy instead.

 

[Dadnatron]

Honestly... I used to use eBay quite a lot. Now... I never even think about it unless someone specifically points out something.

I agree with all the above... My frustration is that I cannot find a 'used' something because of all the spam crap straight from China.

 

[TractorGuy]

I too have mostly good luck with ebay but I have only purchased one piece of equipment from there.

The guy I bought my backhoe from was a lying SOB. He had a decent feedback rating when I bought but went to zero within a year after.

On some smaller stuff you occasionally run into dishonest sellers but those are easy to deal with. When you wire thousands of dollars to someone and get something that wasn't as advertised two months later it ain't so easy.