# eBay, once wonderful, now, not so much **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294 "2019-05-01T01:22:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/41 "2019-05-03T17:23:09Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Too much inferior Chinese crap. This is my only eBay complaint, and it applies to outright fraudulent sellers not only from China, but from certain other places (Russia, former Soviet republics etc.) offering gardening/plant-related materials. By “fraudulent” I mean “selling plants with claimed characteristics not found on Earth or even elsewhere in the galaxy”. eBay doesn’t care about complaints that such sellers are committing fraud. It makes money so no problemo. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/42 "2019-05-03T17:43:29Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > **ASGuy** is a buyer though, not a seller, so it’s not any more difficult for him. I can see the complaint if you’re selling and it’s extra steps to transfer and you get fees but, from the purchaser’s perspective those shouldn’t apply. > [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > _Someone_ has to process credit card transactions, and that someone always charges a fee. For most eBay transactions currently, that someone is PayPal. That is in the process of changing, but there will still be a middleman between buyer and seller, just like there is whenever a seller isn’t large enough to deal with the credit card companies (including at most brick-and-mortar retail stores). I, too am a buyer. To use PayPal, at a minimum I have to sign up,set a password and link a payment method. Those are extra steps and expose my payment information to one more level of risk. Simply using my credit card accomplishes the same thing with no additional steps and no additional risk. I just don’t see the benefit of PayPal. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/43 "2019-05-03T17:49:02Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I, too am a buyer. To use PayPal, at a minimum I have to sign up,set a password and link a payment method. Those are extra steps and expose my payment information to one more level of risk. Simply using my credit card accomplishes the same thing with no additional steps and no additional risk. I just don’t see the benefit of PayPal. Small sellers have no way to charge your credit card. PayPal is a popular card service that has no monthly fees. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/44 "2019-05-03T18:12:47Z")
I buy and sell on ebay a small amount. I have no issue with it; it’s only gotten better for me. Buy it nows are definitely the way to go. I still go on at least once a year to find my favorite shoes and buy another pair, 10+ years after they’ve stopped being manufactured. I thought that Paypal these days understood that they are just as much a credit card processor as a banking middleman, because on my (personal website’s) online store, you can check out by paying with your credit card through paypal and never signing up for account. If that’s not also the case on ebay, I’m a bit surprised. I thought I remembered a direct credit card option to pay last time I bought my shoes, but maybe I am mistaken. My paypal account never contains any of my outgoing money, anyway, because I have it set up to always charge through to my credit card as the default source of payment. The only time it has money in it is when someone purchases something from me. Also, anyone who still wants to pay or receive payment for things with money orders is hilariously behind the times. When it comes to money orders + internet, the only result in that equation is SCAM in big huge neon letters. And expecting to do money transactions online without any fee at all is also rather, “do you even know how the world works?”-esque. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/45 "2019-05-03T18:23:13Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I, too am a buyer. To use PayPal, at a minimum I have to sign up,set a password and link a payment method. Those are extra steps and expose my payment information to one more level of risk. Simply using my credit card accomplishes the same thing with no additional steps and no additional risk. I just don’t see the benefit of PayPal. PayPal is accepted on a million sites. Instead of having to input a credit card individually on each of those sites - and having to remember to change data if I want to use a different card or hit an expiration date, I can just click on PayPal and do nothing else. That is its huge advantage. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/46 "2019-05-03T19:39:56Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > PayPal is accepted on a million sites. Instead of having to input a credit card individually on each of those sites - and having to remember to change data if I want to use a different card or hit an expiration date, I can just click on PayPal and do nothing else. That is its huge advantage. Exactly. I find it hard to think that entering my stuff into Paypal once is less secure than entering it into a hundred rinkydink websites across the internet over the course of a couple years. I mean, it’s possible that one day Paypal will have some big data breech but it’s more likely that one of the umpteen stores using some “web store” package out of the box will have one first and turn out to have the data sitting unencrypted. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/47 "2019-05-03T21:02:53Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I, too am a buyer. To use PayPal, at a minimum I have to sign up,set a password and link a payment method. Those are extra steps and expose my payment information to one more level of risk. Simply using my credit card accomplishes the same thing with no additional steps and no additional risk. I just don’t see the benefit of PayPal. Scenario 1) You’re a crook. You setup as an ebay seller in a foreign country, sell a bunch of cheap stuff, get lots of credit card info & then make cloned cards & make fraudulent purchases. Scenario 2) You’re an honest but small merchant. You’re a businessman, not an IT guy. You don’t apply all of the latest security patches to your system in a timely manner because you don’t understand that ‘computer stuff’ & it costs money every time you bring that consultant in to do it for you. You get hacked & all of the credit card info gets stolen. With PayPal, a large company who has an entire IT staff that will be less likely to happen. Their whole reason for being is security. If they get hacked & can’t be trusted they pretty much don’t have a business anymore. I only give my CC info out once, to them & they just pay you to complete my purchase. You never know my payment info. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/48 "2019-05-04T01:08:59Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I, too am a buyer. To use PayPal, at a minimum I have to sign up,set a password and link a payment method. Those are extra steps and expose my payment information to one more level of risk. Simply using my credit card accomplishes the same thing with no additional steps and no additional risk. I just don’t see the benefit of PayPal. Simply using your credit card on eBay means you’re using PayPal, unless you happen upon a seller who has switched to eBay’s own payment processor. ---
**Author:** ![Carryon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/49 "2019-05-06T00:50:38Z")
I used to love it at first, I recall Rosie O’Donnell promoting it heavily on her daytime talk show as “the world’s biggest garage sale.” But by 1999 it was already in decline, that is when I started getting ripped off left and right by sellers. (I laugh now when sellers complain because, as a group, this is why it is like it is today, because sellers got to be so bad, so early on) Paypal solved a lot of those take the money and run, problems I had, then big companies started to make accounts and the whole concept of individual sellers fell apart. I don’t trust eBay over Amazon, because I’ve always have gotten nothing but stellar service on Amazon, (though others, I’ve heard have not), compared to eBay. I also don’t think eBay is well organized as I couldn’t get into my old eBay account (I just buy) and I couldn’t contact them because you can only use their form with a valid account. Finally I got a phone number and the CSR told me they couldn’t help me and make a new account. From my personal experience, it was great for the first two or three years, then it declined very quickly. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/50 "2019-05-06T04:09:44Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I, too am a buyer. To use PayPal, at a minimum I have to sign up,set a password and link a payment method. Those are extra steps and expose my payment information to one more level of risk. Simply using my credit card accomplishes the same thing with no additional steps and no additional risk. I just don’t see the benefit of PayPal. > [@Spiderman](#): > > Scenario 1) You’re a crook. You setup as an ebay seller in a foreign country, sell a bunch of cheap stuff, get lots of credit card info & then make cloned cards & make fraudulent purchases. > > Scenario 2) You’re an honest but small merchant. You’re a businessman, not an IT guy. You don’t apply all of the latest security patches to your system in a timely manner because you don’t understand that ‘computer stuff’ & it costs money every time you bring that consultant in to do it for you. You get hacked & all of the credit card info gets stolen. > > With PayPal, a large company who has an entire IT staff that will be less likely to happen. Their whole reason for being is security. If they get hacked & can’t be trusted they pretty much don’t have a business anymore. I only give my CC info out once, to them & they just pay you to complete my purchase. You never know my payment info. this. I used to worry about giving my credit card number to small companies. Yes, I’m protected against they, thanks to the excellent credit-card customer protections in the US. But it’s a nuisance if your number is stolen and you need to get a new card. I’m much happier trusting PayPal. > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Small sellers have no way to charge your credit card. PayPal is a popular card service that has no monthly fees. Also this, although new services like Square also help small vendors. But credit card companies used to charge small merchants truly exhorbitant fees, and PayPal was a terrific deal. It’s still a good enough deal that lots of people can take my credit card who I used to need to pay cash. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/51 "2019-05-06T15:04:08Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Small sellers have no way to charge your credit card. Yes, they do. Square, for instance, is used by many small retailers around here and on line. If a small vendor doesn’t want to pay CC fees, that’s OK. I’ll shop elsewhere, just as if a local brick and mortar vendor decided to not accept CC’s. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > PayPal is accepted on a million sites. Instead of having to input a credit card individually on each of those sites - and having to remember to change data if I want to use a different card or hit an expiration date, I can just click on PayPal and do nothing else. That is its huge advantage. I put in my CC info once and Samsung Pay remembers it. I don’t have to ever key it again or pay for the privilege. > [@Spiderman](#): > > Scenario 1) You’re a crook. You setup as an ebay seller in a foreign country, sell a bunch of cheap stuff, get lots of credit card info & then make cloned cards & make fraudulent purchases. > > Scenario 2) You’re an honest but small merchant. You’re a businessman, not an IT guy. You don’t apply all of the latest security patches to your system in a timely manner because you don’t understand that ‘computer stuff’ & it costs money every time you bring that consultant in to do it for you. You get hacked & all of the credit card info gets stolen. > > With PayPal, a large company who has an entire IT staff that will be less likely to happen. Their whole reason for being is security. If they get hacked & can’t be trusted they pretty much don’t have a business anymore. I only give my CC info out once, to them & they just pay you to complete my purchase. You never know my payment info. Hmm. Pay Pal is not a risk. Opinion noted, but not agreed. The exact same can be said of my CC company. They cover this precise situation. > [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Simply using your credit card on eBay means you’re using PayPal, unless you happen upon a seller who has switched to eBay’s own payment processor. How Ebay processes my CC is irrelevant to me. I have not, and will not, sign up for PayPal. Personal preference, you are welcome to make your own decision. The fact remains that it is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/52 "2019-05-06T16:47:08Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > (snipped) > > How Ebay processes my CC is irrelevant to me. I have not, and will not, sign up for PayPal. Personal preference, you are welcome to make your own decision. The fact remains that it is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. I disagree. At the very least, it streamlines operations for eBay sellers. I know I can get access to my money immediately, whether through my Paypal debit card or transfer to my bank. Without a central processing system, it would be much more difficult for eBay sellers to accept credit or debit cards. I remember buying from the holdouts by going through complicated processes on their websites. Besides the risk, what a PITA. I’ve visited the Paypal complex in San Jose a couple of times. Pretty fancy digs for a company with no purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/53 "2019-05-06T17:00:21Z")
I have a question about eBay being “good”. Since the format seems to be bidding for items, aren’t you actually going to end up paying the HIGHEST price they can possibly get instead of getting, in what would be in economic terms, a “good deal”? I’ve never understand that. Of course, I’ve never used it, either. LOL ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/54 "2019-05-06T17:37:24Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > I have a question about eBay being “good”. Since the format seems to be bidding for items, aren’t you actually going to end up paying the HIGHEST price they can possibly get instead of getting, in what would be in economic terms, a “good deal”? I’ve never understand that. Of course, I’ve never used it, either. LOL Well, crudely the idea was you’d get access to an item at the price you could accept, and the buyer would sell the item at a price they would accept. Else, no deal. Someone who wanted it more would out bid you, as can happen at any auction. There have been lots of words written about the various strategies even on this board, but I haven’t seem much lately. Anyway the prospective buyer do their research, and should know their limits, and the seller should check for the average sale prices for COMPLETED sales to get an idea of the true worth before placing the item on auction. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/55 "2019-05-07T14:33:33Z")
> [@Helena330](#): > > I disagree. At the very least, it streamlines operations for eBay sellers. I know I can get access to my money immediately, whether through my Paypal debit card or transfer to my bank. Without a central processing system, it would be much more difficult for eBay sellers to accept credit or debit cards. I remember buying from the holdouts by going through complicated processes on their websites. Besides the risk, what a PITA. > > I’ve visited the Paypal complex in San Jose a couple of times. Pretty fancy digs for a company with no purpose. You missed my point. I am going to use a credit card, period. If Ebay wants to process that through PayPal, more power to them. I am not going to open a PayPal account to deal with an Ebay seller (or anyone else) because the methods I have available to me are sufficient for my needs. A lot of companies have “no purpose” except to be middlemen. I could, in theory, buy a new car directly from the manufacturer. A third party dealership offers no real value and inflates the price. If I were to buy a new car (unlikely!) I would use a dealership because I have no choice. I have choices around payments, and I will use those. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/56 "2019-05-07T18:18:16Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > You missed my point. I am going to use a credit card, period. If Ebay wants to process that through PayPal, more power to them. I am not going to open a PayPal account to deal with an Ebay seller (or anyone else) because the methods I have available to me are sufficient for my needs. > > A lot of companies have “no purpose” except to be middlemen. I could, in theory, buy a new car directly from the manufacturer. A third party dealership offers no real value and inflates the price. If I were to buy a new car (unlikely!) I would use a dealership because I have no choice. I have choices around payments, and I will use those. What you said is, “The fact remains that it is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.” You forgot to tack “for me” at the end of that. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/57 "2019-05-08T12:51:51Z")
Well, the forum name is In My Humble Opinion… ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/58 "2019-05-08T13:28:35Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Again, that’s my point. EBay is no longer full of people selling things because they want to get rid of them. Now most people on eBay are selling things because they want to make a good profit. So the era of finding lots of bargains on eBay is over. As I pointed out in a thread while back, that’s because the costs are so high you need to pass that on to the buyer and it effectually locks out any new casual sellers from the market. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/59 "2019-05-08T20:49:39Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I put in my CC info once and Samsung Pay remembers it. I don’t have to ever key it again or pay for the privilege. How long has Samsung Pay been around? What did you do before then? And it’s something that lives on a phone and only some people will take it? Boy, talk about a solution to something that’s not a problem. And what do you mean by “pay for the privilege”? There are no fees for a buyer to use PayPal. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2019, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294/60 "2019-05-08T21:35:31Z")
I’ve been using eBay from the beginning. I still use it, and my usage ebbs and flows. As others have said, if you’re looking for something you can’t find anywhere else online, you can almost always find it on eBay. For some collectibles, I’ve gotten real steals; for some, I’ve paid a bit more than I planned to, but on average, I’ve found the prices reasonable. If you collect vintage items, there often isn’t anywhere else that you can find the items you’re looking for, and I’ll sometimes browse and find cool OOK stuff. I avoid sellers from China. Once burnt; twice shy. I also like BIN because I can get caught up in buyer frenzy, and I prefer to avoid the temptation. I often MAO, and most sellers are reasonable. I try not to be insulting, but I can save a few to many bucks very easily. I also don’t mind PayPal. As a buyer there’s no hit on fees, and it’s so easy and quick. Gaaah, I _hate_ money orders. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebay-once-wonderful-now-not-so-much/833294.md?page=4)