Well, that's good but it's probably because so many sellers left for other avenues.

The blame shouldn't lie with most sellers: It's on the buyers that are scammers.

Yeah, Ebay hasn't been doing well lately. I think they have finally realized you can't continue to screw over sellers, the ones that actually pay Ebay. That said, they will always lean in favor of the buyers

Buyers that file too many complaints eventually get banned..or are supposed to anyway

It's really a shame. It really used to be such a great marketplace but for many reasons, it changed and it's just not worth the hassle any longer.

As another aside, some of the bigger online coin dealers will actually videotape themselves packing your box, sealing, addressing, and putting a unique stamp on the box that if disturbed, would indicate tampering. They send you a clip of it.
Not a foolproof method, but it surely cuts down on people saying there was nothing in the box or it was empty on arrival.

Yeah, I've been doing that lately, too, even on Reverb.com sales.

Fortunately, I haven't had any issues but it just seems like that as a seller, it's best to protect yourself as best as possible.

I feel for those that make a living from sales on eBay. What a nightmare.

I'm seldom on there anymore, but occasionally I'll click around for stuff. It seems like the auction model is nearly dead. It is mostly Buy it Now or Best Offers. Which is ok, I guess. If I want something, I'd rather not wait a week to see if I get it. I'm sure there are some categories where an auction is more standard though.

This goes back a ways, but I recall first getting really pissed at them when they started essentially requiring Paypal and then also charging a seller fee for shipping charges. It was generally a relatively small amount, but the principle...shipping isn't profit to me. Why should ebay get another buck because it is $10 to ship? I guess it is to kill the deals that were $1 for the item and then "$100" for shipping. Still, it's BS.

I sold $6k worth of gear in 2014 and eBay/PayPal took 13% before shipping.

To me, that's insane.

And if you don't offer free shipping, it's extremely difficult to make a sale, IME.

Yeah thats exactly why they did it. You would think there would be a better solution, but this solution puts more money in ebays bank so...

I ****ing hate ebay. it's basically turned into an on-line store, instead of bid site for the most part.
virtually everything I search for is a 'buy it now' that's the same, or higher, than anywhere else you can get it on the internet. I haven't bought from Ebay in probably 3-4 years.

any savings I "might" have in an auction, is far outweighed by the PITA factor. So I'll just buy whatever I need new from a legit site./ retailer.

Yeah their fees are crazy as are some of their policies if you are a seller. I did spring cleanup every year and dumped a bunch of stuff at one point in time. Between the high fees and not being able to leave a buyer negative feedback anymore when they screw you over, it's not often I use ebay for much.

Most of the time anymore I just use Craigslist . I know every scam there is on there with buyers at this point. I just love the out of state text scam artists that say "I'll send you PayPal and have someone come over and pick the item up." Once you weed through those lowlifes, it's a good way to sell stuff and there are no fees.

I buy a lot of stuff through Amazon Prime, but once in awhile I will still find a better deal on ebay, it's probably 60/1. You can still get jerked around on Amazon as well, but they will always take care of you. I had an old blender kick the bucket three weeks ago. This thing was probably 15 years old, I don't use a blender very often. I "found a deal" on a new Ninja and figured what the hell, this thing will last me another 20 years.

Fast forward, I don't hear anything from the seller, and emailed it for a tracking number. It sends me a tracking number and the item is headed for NY, I'm in MT. It turns out the seller did this about 60 times to people in 48 hours. I called Amazon and got the money refunded. At this point, an item either has to come directly from Amazon, or the seller has to have a lot of positive transactions, or I won't buy.

he won't lose a claim for an item like this if he ships it signature required and they sign for it. It's not like they can claim it was broken.

Craigslist was awesome when in debuted in Los Angeles back in 2000. I sold bedroom furnitures, desks, pro audio gear, computers and more until about 2004, when the scammers and thieves began ruining it. I've sold 2 items on Craigslist since but fully vetted the people coming to my home.

I had a perfectly new bass cabinet that cost more to ship than the asking price, so I really had no other choice. The purchaser was a 61 year old AT&T tech who proved his identity via email and over the phone, so I was okay with it.

These days, I'd rather donate. Just last night, I replace two older but still working 24" LCD monitors with ultra thin Samsung LED's. The old monitors are power consumption hogs and have a gigantic footprint on the desk. But instead of trying to get $50 bucks each or whatever, I'll just drop them off at Out of the Closet and take the deduction. It's not worth putting them on Craigslist because inevitably, someone will say "Can I try it out?" and want to come into the house. No thanks.

I wish I could find the exact email but in 2004, my wife decided to sell this really cool looking (but not very functional) glass desk that she had in her office. I posted a Craigslist ad and got a response from a really hot 24 year old Asian chick that was a "BDSM Mistress". She offered a 2 hour session in exchange for the desk (supposedly, no sex involved).

Had I been single...:D

Sadly, I don't trust anyone these days. The buyers could say "The tickets weren't in the envelope!" or "The tickets were bogus!". Ebay and Paypal would refund the buyer his money, suspend the seller's account and totally screw him over.

I've seen and heard it far too many times to trust anyone anymore.