You guys nailed a lot of them for me. I both buy and sell on eBay as well, to the point that it is self sustaining. All of my PayPal money comes from eBay sales and it remains there for my purchasing. I certainly do more transactions as a seller but it is 50/50 on sheer dollar value. I do a lot of $10-20 sales and then mostly $20-50 purchases.
Sadly the rewards program is 100% irrelevant to me these days. Ever since they changed it, what a year or two ago, I have received zero kickback. I have come close to that $5 a few times but haven't got there. That kind of irks me considering how much money they make off me. Seriously, every dollar I make in sales gets put right back into ebay. So they tax the crap out of me for selling and then tax the next person who I'm buying from. It is eerily similar to taxes.
First my paycheck gets taxed. Second, what remains, I use to purchase something which is then taxed. That item may eventually get donated to a thrift store and the person that buys it is then taxed (which they purchase with their previously taxed income). If they then later decide to donate said item, that next person buying it is then taxed. One specific item and the money used to purchase it may get taxed 4, 5, 6 times or more. I realize these are different forms of taxation but I just find it crazy how many times one item may get taxed. It's similar to a PayPal dollar. How many times does it get taxed? Damn, now I'm complaining about taxes.
I honestly think the absolute worst thing about eBay is how little sellers are protected from people and their lackadaisical purchasing habits which turns into fallacious claims and unjust feedback. People just don't read anymore. It doesn't matter what you do or how much you stress the importance of reading the description. I have put "PLEASE READ" in the title, in the first sentence, bold and/or italicized, it just isn't enough.
The shipping bugs the heck out of me now too. You use to be able to "save" 50-70 cents on 3-5 ounce packages but now you "save" 2-15 cents. Between eBay and PayPal they take roughly 12-15% so that means every 3 ounce package that costs $2.60 I'm losing/paying $0.40. Considering 95% of my sales are first class (13 ounces or less) and 60-70% are 3 ounces that $0.40 adds up quick. And that doesn't include the hit I take on the smaller ziplok bags I put the little items in, the extra bubble wrap, the bubble mailer, paper, tape, ink. Before the 50-70 cents "saved" at least helped pay for the ebay and PayPal fees and slightly offset the other expenditures, albeit certainly not cover them. So as was mentioned the only other alternative is to declare the package weighs 8 ounces in the listing.
Doing this has two potentially negative outcomes though. Either it turns a customer off altogether or they receive a clearly marked 3 ounce package they were charged 8 ounces for. The customer then wonders and complains why they were overcharged on shipping, and honestly, rightly so. I don't want to be overcharged on shipping so why should I overcharge my customers? At the end of the day I choose to take the hit a majority of the time.
What eBay needs to do is what they were doing before. THEY should be overcharging and setting the price of shipping higher on first class packages so they can give the seller a better "savings". These "savings" are really just a small portion of the ebay and Paypals fees they take from you anyway.
Edited by Screamer, 11 October 2016 - 05:47 AM.