Well, they\'re still raking in millions, so it isn\'t like they\'re going to be shutting done anytime soon. But I don\'t think it\'s that surprising given the state of the world economy right now.
In any case, I have quite a love/hate relationship with ebay myself. As far as minis go, there\'s not too many other places you can sell your old stuff and I think for the most part you get a fair return on your items so long as you don\'t set the selling price too terribly low (I never start an auction at less than half of what I hope to get for the item). However, I have been screwed a couple times myself. Stuff never came, wasn\'t as described, missing pieces, buyer was F-ing nuts, etc. I always reached a satisfactory resolution, and the only thing I lost overall was time, but what really worries me is being locked into Paypal. I know several people who have had their accounts cracked and pilfered, one person I work with just had it happen to her a couple days ago actually... I wish I could just link my account to a credit card like the old days, instead of having to have it linked directly to a bank account.
I also have to say that I agree totally with supervike about jame\'s post. As a buyer, and someone who used to work in retail, it really gets under my skin when I see people buying up all the limited edition stock of something and scalping it on eBay for upwards of triple the cost. I realize we live in a capitalist society, and there\'s nothing wrong with trying to turn a profit, but there\'s a line too.
When I worked in electronics at Target, and the Wii came out, I\'d see it all the time. We\'d get five or six in, and these older people who didn\'t work, or could get time off, would camp out an hour or two before the doors opened on Sundays when we had them on ad. So their friends and them buy up all six, and sell them on eBay, or try to hock them in the parking lot, while I have to tell all the kids and their parents that we\'re sold out.
It sucks, and it ruins everyone\'s day except the guy that could sell them, but even they only use the money to repeat the process again. So imo, you can rationalize it all you want, but complaining that ebay is cutting into your bottom line when you\'re trying to take advantage of people like that is really, really weak man.
