I read over on the Consumerist that the bloated Internet auction giant eBay will be switching over to a PayPal or credit card only auction site. What this means is that if you win an auction, you have to pay for the item with either PayPal or a credit card. A credit card can be used only if the seller is set up to take credit card payments.
You can’t use a money order, a check, or even cash.
A part of me doesn’t really care since I’ve pretty much stopped using eBay entirely. I used to use it a lot. I even named this very blog after an eBay auction that went south. I had bid on and “won” an Alfonso Soriano baseball card that was advertised as being in mint condition. When I got it in the mail, I discovered it wasn’t quite in mint condition. It had a bent corner. I tried getting the seller to agree to take it back and refund my money, but he wasn’t having any part of it. This was right around the time that I was thinking about getting into blogging. I decided that I would try to extract something positive out of an experience that at the time I perceived to be negative.
EBay has just become too much of a hassle. No matter how simple the item up for auction is, it usually includes a plethora of rules and conditions. Then there is the whole feedback thing. I’ve kind of moved past caring about leaving or receiving feedback. I cared about it in the late 90’s, but not so much anymore. I purchased something off eBay a few months ago and the seller has been sending me an email at least once a telling me to leave feedback and he will do the same. Who cares? I just looked and he has a feedback of 317. I have a feedback of 437. Why should it be important to either one of us? I sure know it’s not important to me.
As it stands now, the only reason I buy something off eBay is when I can’t get it anywhere else. I would happily pay more for something if it meant I didn’t have to deal with eBay. [eBay]
Pi
/ August 30, 2008At least one eBay subsidiary has gone to PayPal only. It won’t work all over the place, though, as there are still many countries where credit cards are not a way of life, even western ones!
But PayPal, like eBay, is well worth dumping; it simply isn’t worth the hassle any more.