Ever get tired of the OBVIOUS shaft ???

amazon. free shipping

When you buy it used, they limit how much you can be gouged on shipping.

When I see a book on ebay I always check amazon and ABEBooks plus shipping to see who has it cheapest. If eBay is the only one that has it, I consider if I *really* want the book.

 

I never even look on eBay for a book unless I can't find it on Amazon, and the only time I was unable to find a book I wanted on Amazon was the Spanish language version of a book written by a Sandinista and published in Cuba that had been out of print for well over a decade. In the end I got it from the Fargo Public Library through their inter-library loan service. They found it in some East-coast university library.

I much prefer libraries over bookstores because why do I want to take up 25% of my floor space with books I'll never read a second time, as happened when I lived in rural North Dakota?

The Spokane County Library is not nearly as good as the Fargo Library at finding books through inter-library loan, but they try.

 

I do reread books. I also lend them. And there are times when I need to refer to them.

I have a large collection of children's picture books. I use them for school. And they go out of print fast so when there is one I see a need for, I buy it. I try to get them used in as new condition but occasionally I will buy new.

My current highly recommended book is Shaun Tan's The Arrival. It's a graphic novel with no words. The entire book is told in pictures. Hundreds of pictures. It took him over three years to "write" it. It's difficult to describe. It's about immigration.

 

eBay the company are the real gougers, their seller fees are so high that it is hardly worth it. Not to mention they own paypal and paypal takes a pretty significant cut of the sum of both the shipping and the auction price from the seller. Basically the seller loses a good 20% off the overall selling price.
I have sold my old used videogames on there in the past,
I'll give you an example of one of my recent transactions
Old game sells for $31 + $4 = $35 total
After eBay and Paypal take their cut I am left with about $30 and then you ship it and it leaves you with $27

And it seems to get worse with the more expensive an item is with higher listing fee's and higher final value fee percentages.
IMHO eBay needs to go back to their roots otherwise they will become irrelevant as their better sellers migrate to better more seller and buyer friendly places like Craigs list, amazon, and others.

And don't even get me started on their policies if you get ripped off. eBay will turn their back on you if you have problems with a transaction or get burned whether you are a buyer or seller.

 

ebay is good if you're looking for multiple listings. I got 10 Dr. Suess's for my baby for 14 bucks, shipping and all. You ain't getting that on Amazon. Though I did use Amazon to read their reviews.

 

I like eBay. I have found things there I could not have found elsewhere. And I sold the worthless radio-CD-player from my Xebra there after I had a good one installed. (I listed it as worthless and sold it for a couple of bucks. My concern was that it not end up in the landfill. The seller was sure he could make use of it.)

If their fees are too high people will go elsewhere. But it gives you access to an enormous marketplace, unheard-of before the days of internet.

And I like PayPal because it lets me pay sellers without giving them access to my credit card information. And if occasionally I sell something, I don't need to mess with someone's personal check or the time it would take to arrive in the mail and clear.

Sure they charge fees. That's what free enterprise is all about. Monopoly capitalism is bad. But I'm a lot more concerned about what Big Business is putting in my food and my air than whether an on-line auction site is charging too much for what is a valuable service.

 

I bought a copy of the service manual on CD. There were 2 CDs in one of the slim hard cases and the vendor wrapped an envelope around the case using clear tape to hold it, attached $1.50 in stamps then charged me $6.50 postage!! Yes it's a shaft but if they are up front about it that's OK, but piss poor packaging should be banned.

My biggest eBay gripe is vendors who wont leave feedback until they get your feedback, that is straight out blackmail. If a vendor believes they didn't do the wrong thing they would have the confidence to leave feedback once the purchaser has sent payment and a delivery address. At this point the purchaser has met all obligations, feedback is optional. I always give feedback but if I get a bad deal I don't leave feedback until the last day so I don't give the vendor a chance to hurt my feedback. I should add I always pay as soon as I have a final price including delivery. The few things I have sold on eBay I left feedback on the day I posted or delivered the goods.

 

You are exactly right, I always give feedback the same day I mail it. I also hate the buyers that rather then contact you because somehow things were unsatisfactory decide to just give a negative feedback rather then send an email to attempt to fix things. My feedback score is at 191 half is from buying and half from selling and I've only received 4 negative marks and all 4 of them were retalitory towards me because I gave them honest feedback. Why do I get negative feedback because someone who bid on something decides to not pay for it, you leave them negative and they are allowed to burn you.
I prefer to use eBay only to buy things that are hard to find locally, and like Daniel said to get rid of things that I no longer have any use for. My point with my previous post was that people jack up their shipping prices to offset the high fee's.