Tag: eBay

GreedBay boycott continues to grow

I’ve been watching the GreedBay boycott with great interest. Sellers are furious (and rightly so) at eBay’s outrageous behavior – they’ve implemented a new “fee” structure that essentially puts small sellers out of business, their management has acted with great idiocy – apparently, their CEO made an assinine comment that FeeBay wants to lose it’s “Internet flea-market” image (now if that isn’t a stupid comment, I don’t know what is), and sellers are flocking to other Internet auction sites.

In addition, GreedBay has implemented a new “Detailed Seller Review” program where buyers can nail sellers on such things as “shipping speed” and “shipping costs.” I, like many others, have already been burned for that even though I have ALWAYS shipped my for-sale items IMMEDIATELY and I’ve only charged actual postage: not a cent more.

Not surprisingly,  GreedBay’s traffic rank on Alexa is also plunging: here’s the current chart that shows what’s happened over the past year.

GreedBay Site Hits Plunge

eBay Boycott

Well, it looks like there’s another very hot and nasty consumer boycott going on. (Isn’t it too bad that people don’t get riled up about other corrupt businesses too?) I’ve been buying and selling on eBay for a few years now although I stopped selling much about two years ago – right after eBay raised their sellers’ fees. Of course, the moment I start selling again, eBay starts up with their antics. Well, this time they’ve done it and people aren’t going to take it sitting down. While I sold something last week (I wasn’t aware of the boycott when I listed my item), the boycott by sellers appears to have been rather successful. People are pissed (and rightly so) because eBay “lowered” some of their listing fees but, at the same time, really jacked up their take on the final sales price of everything that’s sold – what a crock! Of course, this latest vile action was sugar coated by eBay’s PR machine (which sellers quickly saw through) and they’ve been rightfully blasted since then.

Another one of eBay’s STUPID actions against sellers is that it will now be impossible for them to leave negative feedback against buyers (what a joke). While I have always maintained a very good relationship with my buyers, as well as with sellers; this latest nonsense not only leaves sellers open to blackmail (literally) but eBay has also made their feedback against sellers far more complex: they’re even going to allow buyers to rate the SPEED of delivery. That, of course, is absurd. I recently had a transaction (as a buyer) that was botched because good ‘ole corrupt UPS lied about their delivery time. While I didn’t blame the seller for this (he had good ratings and it really wasn’t his fault), I can just see some buyers coming unglued because of UPS’ incompetence.

Interestingly, sellers seem to be flocking to other auction sites and are planning on additional boycotts. I found one site that I’ve just listed on: eBid.net. Currently, their fees are almost non-existent. Only time will tell for this one. By the way, here’s my current eBay rating:

As of today, I had a 100% positive on 115 transactions. It’s really sad that big business always screws the little guy. Like so many other businesses (and countless government agencies), the bigger they are, the more corrupt they become.

Tiffany & Gaylord Express & Exhibition Belt Plates: Exposed!

Hmm. . .somehow, I managed to get wind of yet another book that will soon be for sale on Amazon.com – “Tiffany & Gaylord Express & Exhibition Belt Plates: Exposed!” which is a reprint of the bogus Percy Seibert book on the fake Tiffany & Co., E. Gaylord, Mills, et al brass belt buckles that have been available since the 1960’s. Let’s just say that a “little bird” told me that this version will contain a new preface and an index.

In looking around the ‘net for copies of the first (and complete fraudulent) version, many continue to claim that this book is genuine and charge outrageous prices for it. In the past five minutes, Google searches have turned up copies running as high as $112.50, and some clown is also selling a copy on eBay for the same amount. As usual, this book is falsely attributed to the illustrious “Percy Seibert” and used book sellers falsely claim that it was printed in 1950 by Tiffany & Co. – it was really published twenty years later – circa 1970. Oh well. Hopefully the new edition will be a big hit among collectors of bogus buckles and it will rise to the top of Amazon’s Best Seller Lists! 🙂 I’ll post a link to the book on Amazon when it is available!

eBay and Contrabassoon

I tend to monitor eBay for various items and I’ve also sold quite a few things as part of my ongoing online “garage sale.” eBay makes it rather simple to get rid of unused/old items so it’s been somewhat of a blessing to use. Today, just by chance, I found a new contrabassoon for sale – it sold for a mere $1,025.00 (it really did). However, the catch was that it comes from China and that the seller told another bid (I didn’t bid) that shipping was an astounding $3,800! I then did a Google search for Chinese contrabassoons and that only turned up one other reference which discussed another example, just a month ago, about a similar eBay sale. Who knows if the horn will play? Just the same, it’s interesting that the Chinese are now making one of the most obscure of all western orchestral instruments: the contrabassoon.  I wonder who the maker is and how long it will be before someone posts a review on this latest Asian import.