This is so true. Ebay does nothing to protect the seller. Paypal makes it even worse. I sold a baseball card on there with a book value of 600.00 for almost 300.00. The guy said it was a fake and paypal refunded his money before I even got the card back. I had it certified to be legit by 3 different dealers in my area. I sold it to one of them. Thankfully I got the card back. However, paypal refunding their money before I even got the card back is crazy. I quit selling stuff on there and quit doing business with Paypal. They are both ripoffs

 

I gave up on eBay a while back. It's mostly a waste of time.

 

I agree, ebay has changed over the past few years, but you can dig your way past all that stuff and still find some decent things.
I was a seller myself, and have pretty much quit since they put the new rules in. On smaller stuff, you usually don't make any money by the time yer done with the item. It didn't used to be that way.

 

I’m a long time buyer and seller on EBay. I’ve bought an item that was over $4000 and bought items that cost $2.50. I have to say it has changed since its inception.

EBay is a wonderful tool however. It has made millionaires out of people. I can’t find brand name exhaust for less money than EBay sellers sell for, free shipping and no sales tax. I’ve sold all my old Harley parts on there and have several more I need to get listed. I’ve listed and sold things on there that if I had in a store or listed in a newspaper would never sell. I’ve had people view an item within the first hour of listing it. Anywhere else it would have been lucky if one guy looks at it in a month.

Here’s another thought. If you could come up with an item that you could buy at wholesale prices, list four or five on EBay with a profit after shipping say just 5 bucks and have them on there all the time at Buy it Now, how many do you think you could sell a month, week, day or even an hour if it were somewhat in demand. That’s a market place.

I have three Harley dealers within 125 miles. I start calling for a part and 10 to 1 they need to order it anyway. So I go to EBay if it’s an inexpensive item or to one of the several places that give a 20% discount like Chicago Harley. The 20% discount and not paying sales tax more than makes up for shipping. Like I bought a color match tour-pak. It was 1400 so a discount of 20% and no tax was a savings of 390 bucks.

Anyway I like EBay real well and usually look there first for most all my purchases.

 

Ebay use to be a way of life for me, I would buy items there dirt cheap because the seller did not know how to put an item in the correct category, I would then relist the item and sell it for a huge profit, mostly I would buy PS1, PS2, and Xbox games, test them to insure they worked and relist them, plus it was a way to get every game that I wanted at the same time. I was making on average of $600 a week profit (talk about second income) but it got to where it took up too much time finding the items, getting them in, testing, relisting, answering all of the stupid questions, waigting on payment, packaging each item, shipping them out, waiting on feedback, and anything else. Then Ebay changed their policy to where the seller could not leave negative feedback if the item had been paid for, and at the same time paypal increased their fees and started sending 1099 forms out to anyone who sold over X amount. it just got to time consuming for me to continue and work 60+ hours a week. IF we could go back to the way it was I would still be on there making money hand over fist.

 

The only thing I ever bought on e bay was a South Park Mr. Hankey plush doll, if you know who I'm talking about. So truthfully, I bought crap on e bay! LMAO
Swear to Buddha!



aka Bob

 

I usually find better deals here. I still can find good deals on ebay. You just have to know what is a good deal and what is not.

 

I still get lots of new or barely used parts at a fraction of MSRP on ebay. I just got a new primary chain tensioner $25 under the dealer price from a dealer in Cali. It was a but it now as well. You have to be a bit lucky and search with part numbers and also be patient.

 

I bought a '99 Softail off eBay this year and scored a great deal. Then a set of risers and handlebars. Also great deals. There is a lot of crap to wade through to get to the good deals, though.

 

You can find good deals here and there from private individual sellers but I agree..for HD parts I'll just go to the dealer and get my military discount and if it has to be ordered I will get it in 4 to 5 days with no shipping cost AND my discount..and no sales tax either