all those losers on the piss again

i like the idea of ebay, i just don’t like dealing with it. i sell a lot of dvds and cds on half.com because it removes the stupidity from the ebay model. you list an item for your price, someone buys, and you ship. easy. trouble sometimes comes when someone tries to scam you, but it’s fairly rare, especially if you use delivery confirmation.

well, ebay is a beast of another sort. my first ebay selling experience was with my friend “la goat.” we had the idea that we’d buy a playstation 2 and sell it on ebay. this was when the ps2 just came out and was very popular. we got one through our special contact and listed it online. before we knew it, we were seeing green because the thing was up to $1200 when it closed. when we sent a message to the buyer to pay, he said that his wife wouldn’t allow him to spend that much on a video game system and that he wasn’t going to pay. since we knew nothing, we were just like, “ok.” i know better now. when you win an ebay auction, you are contractually obligated to purchase that item. the worst part was that i paid the ebay listing and closing fees out of my own pocket and ended up paying for the playstation 2 as well. whatever.

but that experience left me pretty jaded. it kept me in the mindset that ebay was a crappy commerce site. well, last week, i decided to try it again. this time, i had a playstation 2 network adapter to sell. it is a good item, because apparently they are in somewhat high demand. so i listed and waited. the item sold for the amount i wanted. then we go into the payment process, which shouldn’t be such a pain in the ass, but i guess it is. in the auction i said that the item needed to be paid for within 5 days. now, i’m not a smart man, but does that mean “please pay on the fifth day?” someone explain this to me. and to make matters even better, the buyer was very non-communicative. as in, “i’ll respond only when it’s convenient for me and i will then give excuses for my lack of communication.”

the whole thing is over and done with and i really want to leave the buyer some nasty feedback, but i feel like it just isn’t worth it. and now i don’t want to deal with ebay anymore, even though i have more stuff to sell.