It is extremely difficult from a sellers point of view because you can't really make money off of your items by selling them yourself. You end up spending more on shipping costs than you get from selling your items. then when you refund someone's money it takes forever for it to get back to them. I felt bad because I couldn't answer my customers questions. The customer service is great if you have to call them. they answer your questions quickly with no problem but there are easier ways to sell your products online. Amazon is so much easier to use

CassieMorrison

USA

eBay is my go to source for clothes at a good price as well as just about anything else I am in the market for. I always check eBay before making a purchase. Because I live in a small town with limited clothing store options and only two small thrift shops, eBay has filled the gap for me when I need work clothes at a good price. eBay has the widest variety of clothes I have ever found. I make my own style and live to get older clothes that I personally like, even if they are out of style. I have found many great bargains this way because sellers don't think older clothes are worth much. eBay has saved me tons of money on clothing and accessories. I would not have half the earrings I own if it weren't for ebays great selection of cheap jewelry. One thing to watch out for, and the only reason I can't give eBay a perfect score, is that some Chinese sellers are not honest or reliable. I have had a few bad experiences with low quality or wrong item sent. You can always post a bad review if this happens, but it is usually not worth the shipping to send back for an exchange. Stick with North American sellers and you should be fine.

MyBalletFund

USA

I usually use eBay to look for books or games that are still in good condition. One of the best purchases I have made was Lord of the Rings Risk, trilogy edition. I was having trouble finding this particular game in other stores, and when I did, it was quite expensive. But I was able to find a new game on eBay, still in the original packaging, for about $35. This ended up being the best price I could find, and I ended up getting it. This particular purchase used the "buy now" option instead of just having an auction for the highest bidder, and I enjoy the buy now option. If there is something that I definitely want and have a price in mind that I will pay for it (such as this game), then I like to be able to purchase it immediately instead of needing to bid on it, wait for the auction to end, and hope that someone does not outbid me. For some other things though, I do not mind bidding, especially if it is something uncommon that is hard to find, but people may not want. We recently added power to our garage, and I needed a special circuit breaker to put on the power pole outside our house. I was able to find the exact breaker (used) that I needed on eBay, even though it was not manufactured anymore.

utlegospam

USA

EBay can be a great site to find something that you can't find in stores. People sell things on Ebay either new or used, and you can find some pretty unique things on there! The reason Ebay only gets 7 stars from me is that it is very much "buyer beware." You are buying from a person, not a company, so you never know the condition the product may actually arrive in. Ebay does have a star rating system in place for people to rate sellers, which is helpful when deciding to buy something from someone. If they have a good rating you know they are most likely a trusted seller. Most sellers choose to be paid through Paypal, so having a Paypal account is quite useful when using this site. Overall, I would recommend Ebay.com to anybody looking for something at a cheaper price, or something rare/unique. Just make sure that you are checking the seller's rating prior to purchasing!

silli588

USA

I've read where many buyer's will slam sellers on their review and cannot stand it that they can give negative feedback. Well, I'm sure that those buyers are happy that sellers can no longer give negative feedback, and I find that unfair. I have found that eBay has declined rapidly in the last four years because of the fact, as one other reviewer stated, they cater to the buyer. As a seller on eBay for almost seven years, I am really sick and tired of this company. They could care less for sellers, which is really their bed and butter. They took negative feedback from us, so that buyers can walk all over buyers. They are making so many rules and raising up eBay fees so high, you cannot make much of a profit off eBay. I was doing well listing coupons, but they have tightened up on that as you can only sell 25 coupons a month now. That's ridiculous! This is only because 50% of the coupons people use are purchased through eBay, so manufacturers are getting upset. If the manufacturer doesn't want coupons used, they shouldn't provide them. They state that it's to crack down on fraudulant coupons, but the is just an excuse. It's pretty easy to do that by not limiting coupons so drastically, you should be allowed to sell at least 150 coupons. If a buyer doesn't like your shipping price, how long USPS takes to ship an item, or any other stupid excuse, they leave negative feedback. I heard another person on here gripe because sellers hold feedback until they get it, calling it feedback extortion. No, feedback extortion is when you get feedback because a seller doesn't like the fact that you accidentally left on a clearance price tag, which was me. They didn't think I should make a four dollar profit, which eBay took half of. There are so many ridiculous rules besides the coupon rule, that I have really begun to actually HATE eBay. Never have I hated anything this much. I finally got a new account over a year ago because about five buyers gave me undeserved negative feedback. A few of them I gave their money back to, but I was given negative before they even told me the problem. Meaning it wasn't the kind of problem that I could fix, just one little thing they didn't like, like a clearance price tag left on an item. Now I'm trying hard to find another place to sell on, one that appreciates their sellers. I'm pretty sure eBay is going down hill, and hoping soon that another more deserving company will drive them out of business. Perhaps to the point that they ease up on sellers and sellers fees. They've became the communists of the retail business.

jarschnell

USA

Although Ebay is one of the most popular sites online, I still feel it's a bit over rated. There are some really great sellers on the site who are very reputable and deliver as promised but there are also a lot of scammers as well. The scammers come jump on just about every newbie they think they can get over on. It used to be that the scammers seemed to be mostly coming from Africa or the UK. Now, The rampant rise of scammers are coming from just about everywhere. Ebay is a site where you need to be careful read feedback and question anything gives rise to concern. It is a good site with a lot of stuff for everyone. It is not like shopping in an online store. There are other outside aspects to be concerned with like, the individual seller's feedback or shipping time, what part of the world your item is coming from or what type of home your item is coming from. Overall I rate it as good.

Estella1

USA

I am a huge fan of eBay.com but I have found that it does not have everything I need as amazon.com usually does. Customer service at eBay.com is great and the customer service representatives answer your phone calls and respond to your emails sent via eBay messenger in a reasonable amount of time. I would say the customer service representatives respond within twenty-four hours. The search engine for eBay.com is very easy to use and making purchases is very easy for me. I would recommend eBay.com to friends but I will warn them that the e-retailer may not have what they are looking for. I have purchased many items from eBay and they come on the time they are scheduled to be delivered. It seems as though they do their research on on how to make customers happy so I will give them an eight. eBay.com isn't an amazing retailer but it is a good one. They also have buyer's protection to avoid sellers taking advantage of consumers so why not take the risk. I have had a good buying experience with them.

Quinton56

Undisclosed

I used to like and enjoy shopping on eBay.com until I began receiving items in the mail that I did not purchase. I received items that were completely different than the ones I paid for. Yes eBay.com is a place to shop at that has reasonable and cheap prices for thousands of items, but is it really worth taking the risk? Is it worth taking the risk of purchasing an item of very cheap quality? The only items I would purchase from eBay.com are those with a "Buy Now" option, because bidding for something was a total waste of my time. I never won an item I bid for, or if I was to win, I would end up paying more than the item is worth. If you decided to bid on an item, you would have to wait for up to 10 days to see if you have won that item. That's another reason I don't like the bidding option. I have purchase many items on eBay.com with no problems, but recently I have been having a problem with all the items I am buying. I would either receive an item different from the one I ordered, or I would not receive the item at all. For these reasons I stopped shopping on eBay.com. I also tried selling on eBay.com but found that it wasn't worth it. People want to buy a good quality item for a cheap price. I would have to sell the item much less than what I paid for it. Also the eBay.com fees were a little high for me to continue selling on. Not only that, but paypal.com has a fee too if the buyer was to pay you for the item that way. I just stopped using eBay.com for anything.

Birkawia

USA

Ebay is a great online store for buying or selling. I could buy items that are cheaper then buying it from Walmart or Amazon. Even though something's you can buy cheaper, others you can not. Some items from eBay are $20 or $30 more then what you can buy it off of Amazon or Walmart, but that's not eBay's fault that's the seller. The saying "another man's junk is another man's treasure" is very true. You won't believe what some people will pay for some things that I just have laying around my house not being used. Ebays site is very easy to use. When trying to find something on eBay, make sure you have an idea of what you're looking for or it could take you hours to find something. I usually do research before going to eBay. I go online at Amazon or Walmart to find what I would like to buy, then I go to ebay and decide if the item is worth trying to get it from ebay or amazon. Sometimes the auctions on ebay are difficult to win. There are a lot of last minute bidders, that put their bid at the last few seconds, so you will not have a chance to outbid them. Sometimes it's irritating when you're watching an item for days or hours and then you get outbid in the last few seconds of the auction. If you don't want to bid there are also an option for buy it now on some items. Ebay also has a buyers protection on items you buy from sellers off their site. If you don't receive your item you can file a claim with eBay and you get a full refund of the item cost and shipping fees. I have used eBay's buyers protection a few times before. EBay gave me a full refund for the item I purchased within a few days after I filed a claim.

sam429

USA

Ebay can be great if you are careful and/or lucky. It is tough to rate eBay as a whole because it really isn't an entity. It is a collection of many, many buyers and sellers. If you interact with good buyers and good sellers, you will have a great experience. But in every community, there are some bad participants. It is like a giant internet yard sale. And one man's junk is another man's treasure. There is an unbelievable variety of products there. I have been buying and selling on ebay since 1999! Wow! Most of my experiences have been very good. I get some good bargains and deals. And I have bought some things that I would not have been able to find anywhere else! As a seller, it is pretty safe. You don't have to ship the item until you have funds in hand, so I don't see you could get hurt. But as a buyer, you have to be careful. Know the value of the item you are buying. I often see people paying MORE than retail for items that can be found elsewhere. Why would anyone do that? And buyers also have to be careful about inaccurate seller listings (even sometimes fraud). If you see something worth $100 being sold for $5, you have to give it a lot of thought. Overall, it can be a great resource for deals and odd products. Just remember -- buyer beware!

SlimGeorge

USA