Selling on Ebay is now a HELL

Hi all, I’m having a lot of unpaying buyers, people asking for price cuts even if I don’t accept offers, people menacing to hold without paying if I don’t cut my price and things like that.
I often sell on Ebay and I have to face scammers as anyone but I’ve never felt so overwhelmed like these days.
I suspect that this new wave of interest/hype in Pokemon has brought in a lot of new scammers…more than I would expected.
Does anyone experience the same situation?

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almost 0 of that, a few unpaid buyers but generally pretty easy to deal w/overall

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more expensive/popular the item the worse buyers become

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Just look at all the crap Scott has to put up with on eBay on the regular

I don’t experience almost any of that. Maybe that’s a thing with Charizard buyers?

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Im only running auctions as buy it now is too much hastle for me, just get too many questions, silly offers and people asking if i will sell for cheap if they buy in bulk etc.

when its an auction, its a free for all and the ball is in the bidders court.

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I’ve had the opposite experience this last quarter and really this whole year. I’ve usually had to accept offers close to my asking, but recently have noticed people buying more for my list price. Also, I’ve had returns and refunds from unhappy buyers that didn’t read or even look through the photos/description in the past, but I’ve had none of that in the last 6 months or so with over 300 items sold. Also, I’ve sold more in the last three months than I did all year. I still get the occasional unpaid buyer or people that throw lowball offers on cards and some that message about offers, but I really don’t mind them asking. If it’s too low I just ignore it and if it’s outrageously low, then I might ban them. Overall, I’m quite happy with my experience this year on eBay.

Yikes. I’m just looking into posting some 1st edition heavy team rocket packs on eBay and now I’m spooked.

Are they new eBay users who are doing the shenanigans? I would guess—and it’s a guess based on biased assumptions—that we are talking mostly immature young adults for whom the diseased nature of most mainstream social media is what they’ve grown up with and been accustomed to. So, acting a fool is not so unusual when then starting up a new eBay account so one can search up Chaharizord Stonkage in hopes of fame, glory, and easy money. It’s just standard youth imo to have little true awareness yet that the anonymity of internet strangers/sellers is a maturation hurdle one must clear before evolving into an actual adult, and treating others as such. Speaking for the US anyway, and myself, who didn’t respect or fear much of anything until well into my 20s.

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This.

The more popular the item is, the more people you will have interested in your item. Logically speaking, that also increases the odds of dealing with some schmuck.

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this has always been the case in my experience, there are many grown men in this hobby that still behave like their younger self from 1999

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I don’t accept offers any more because I feel like I’m perpetuating or somehow positively reinforcing a bad culture of poor-offer spam. Most of the time people are asking for something crazy like 50% off asking price. I don’t even bother checking if someone has a reasonable offer any more.

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He speaketh the truth. I certainly have auto decline in place, but you look and see your declined offers and lo! Behold! $10 offer on $100 cards. I have a zard up for sale now–it’s getting regular offers in at 10-30% of the asking price.

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The asymmetry to eBay is that the standards buyers must adhere to to use the platform are low, while the standards to establish yourself as reputable seller are high. And you, as seller, take on all the risk while eBay, the platform, minimises the risk to itself. Buyers can treat the platform as a casual marketplace where haggling and backing out of obligations can seem acceptable while you as a seller face major problems if you step out of line. Having said all this, the majority of my eBay transactions across 12 years have gone smoothly, and it is by far the best place to buy and sell cards and many other items - and honestly I’ve had more hassle with problem sellers than buyers, even if sellers face greater consequences for breaking rules than buyers do - they take the risk anyway.

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I wouldn’t even have offers up except there’s a filter for if you dont and you don’t have as much exposure.

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@chrisbalestra, way off topic–not gonna lie, I’m excited to see you with a volcano badge just because it will look so aesthetically pleasing with your ember-spewing Charmander. God, it’s gonna look good. Just a few away baby! Sorry everyone, just had to say this. Digression complete.

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up until they don’t pay … I had a few people bid up my zard … and not pay … :slightly_frowning_face:.

@alessio92it , Oof, I just assumed that ebay made it harder to sell because of a policy change, fortunately it’s just business as usual. The more successful Pokemon becomes, the more bad apples you will encounter. However, I believe that once a card crosses a certain price barrier, there will be less bad apples because only serious buyers will consider paying 10k for a card or more.

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Try Virbank if you think selling on Ebay is hell. Extremely toxic would be putting it lightly.

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I took all my listings off ebay 3 weeks ago, ive been loving it. I had 1800 transactions as a seller in 2020, majority were singles shipped pwe. I would have a buyer with an issue almost every other day, sure the money was nice, but the cards arent worth nothing just because i dont have them listed. I might add some listings in the new year but it will probably be only graded cards shipped with tracking. That way i have some more protection as a seller. I may have the occasional scammer still though lol i have heard some crazy stories.

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