Whats up with Ebay lately ?

[LampHead]

  I have been out of the loop with Ebay sales and prices for a few years on lava lamps. Most of what I see are very high "buy it now" prices with "best offer" also available. I never remember this many auctions with those terms. Is it something to do with Ebay fees ?

   I remember a lot of sellers were leaning to very high shipping fees offset by very low priced items. I understood they were not paying the Ebay fees on the shipping money, just the sale price of the item so it saved them $$$ in fees.

  Is there some trick or has Ebay gotten that bad ? I know their fees are crazy once you add in the Paypal cut too. I just find it odd so many auctions are set up the same today. I also did not notice many quality US made lamps like I did back in the day.

[CRASHSUNDAYGUY]

For the most part, yes. I am selling them all off. If you see some lamps in my photo's you don't have, make me a solid offer and you can have 1st shot at it, where will you ever find that deal again? I had to check E-Bay and Craigslist EVERYDAY for several years along with tons of miles and thousands of dollars to get this collection.
 
Critter said:

Are you quitting Lava totally?  What is the next obsession?

CRASHSUNDAYGUY said:

By the way...Check out my photo's. I have a large collection of some very rare lamps as well as many really cool customs. All of which are going to be for sale. If you look at my wall of lava photos and you see something on there you like it will be on e-bay pretty soon, several of the lamps in the photos are on there now. Funny you mention the prices.... I have some of the ones I am fond of listed a bit high. I am testing the market. If they sell they were priced right, if they don't, just wait I will lower the price until they do. They are all going away. I have thousand of dollars invested in my collection. I am sure I wont ever get the money back on them, but I am not ready to dump it all. It's not a fire sale. I have time and patience to sell them off. But my ultimate goal is to sell. Time for my next obsession......

[LampHead]

 I remember all that and thats why I was asking about Ebay. Its not the same as it was before. I checked on the fees and it says 10% but its more realistically 25% until your transaction goes over $100. So its a rip job and hassle to deal with the people.

Dr. WHAT?! said:

yes I dealt with crazy buyer which in turn lead to a open case (which neither of us were found at fault so the case was closed by ebay) she left me negative feedback so I called ebay to try to have it removed and got transferred overseas to someone who barely spoke English and sounded like she was reading from a book in all her responses. Just to have them say sorry but the seller left you negative feedback about your disposition. I was like are you f-ing kidding me? 12 years of being a member not one neg feedback and they wont remove it. This seller was a nut job and lied throughout the entire ordeal so she could put anything in there she wanted. Whatever, ebay is a joke not to mention they take so much money from sellers. Its not even worth it anymore.

[Miss Chi V. Us (Kim S)]

I watch ebay all the time and am blown away by the people listing items for insane prices. On top of that, there are so many bad sellers now... many people lying, selling items you can buy at any lava store for such high prices, just completely dishonest...is just crazy!

I got the History of the 60's lamp (#1 of 4 in the 40 years of lava resin lamp series) and it arrived with a black plastic cap (the correct cap was shown on listing.) The seller said they must have shipped the correct top with another order (and all their other items were clothes.) I waited for a long while...even offered to pay them $20 extra for shipping when they found the cap. I finally had to get them to give me my $ back, but is likely I will never find the right cap.

I received a shattered plasma lamp several months ago. The seller insisted that I needed to pay $38+ to return it via expedited shipping to get a refund. I posted photos to him of the box that was marked "Received damaged" by the USPS and many shots of the shattered product inside. I had to get Ebay to refund me as the guy was such an ass that he really thought it was my responsibility to pay $38+ to ship the destroyed item back to get my $70ish bucks back. The man left the "required positive feedback" then went back in and commented on his feedback that I was "ignorant" for opening a case. 

Also, just recently got the Midnight Starship. Was listed as "no dents" has a huge dent in the cap. :(  This was from a seller with great ratings. I asked them why they would list it as "no dents" when the dent is SO OBVIOUS, they said I would need to talk to the USPS! It was perfectly packaged...not damaged in shipping. I did not open a case or anything...I will just live with the damage. However, I am finding it hard to leave feedback. I never leave bad feedback, but hate to say they are good when they are not honest.

It is sad that Ebay charges so much that it has become rare to find honest decent sellers there.  I think that the dishonest sellers have probably caused a lot of the problems. Ebay has had to cover so many BS sales that they do not trust the good sellers. Their policy on an item that is "damaged in shipping" or "not as described" is for the buyer to pay return shipping...which is so wrong. Yet, it also sounds like buyers can make up whatever they want and Ebay just blames the seller. The whole system is F-ed!!! Not to mention, the Ebay rules contradict themselves all over the place. I have been looking into selling some things there, but am afraid to do it.

Anyway...that was my rant...lol. I feel bad for good sellers and am tired of getting ripped off by bad sellers. I much prefer to buy from the nice people here.

[Miss Chi V. Us (Kim S)]

Oh, you listed some BAD A$$ lamps recently.  I have been sitting around with a broken wrist since dec 1, so I have spent a lot of time watching ebay...lol!