All EBAY/PayPal related posts here please too

[wakka]

It was me and everything you're posting above is only strengthening my resolve to not sell it to you.

(j/k)

[Sketcz]

It was me and everything you're posting above is only strengthening my resolve to not sell it to you.

(j/k)

God damn it Wakka, I want that pornography!!

(j/k)

[fuse]

Screeching aimlessly into the void here, but ever since I saw someone talk about sellers that create eBay listings for items they don't have on hand and are instead copied listings from Japanese stores / auctions, I'm now finding it to be a growing nuisance.

A lot of saved searches and notifications I have are getting a load more hits lately, but when you dig a little deeper they're always with stock photos, brazenly watermarked. Sellers will sometimes detail a lengthy "handling time" up front with convoluted reasons for this. Despite positive feedback on average, there are plenty of buyers leaving negatives too; complaints about long delays before shipping, order cancellations, items not as described, and so on.

I bought one game a while back and had a message almost immediately saying they didn't have the item but demanding that I be the one to cancel the order. Just yesterday I paid for FedEx shipping on a thing where I'm now told "I want 10 business days for me to select the product that is in the best condition out of many stocks". You need to buy the damned thing, you mean!

I know the real answer is to stop using eBay. Having to filter through so much noise and get back into the habit of rigorous feedback checking (which the apps love to bury in the UI, I'll note) is tiresome.

[Sketcz]

I've not experienced that specific example, but your story adds to the growing feeling that eBay today is not the eBay I discovered and loved in the late 1990s/early millennium.

Sellers unable to leave neg feedback; ever increasing fees; messed about payment systems; scalpers; foreign speculators; bootleg 16-bit cartridges; artifically inflated prices; a BiN economy instead of auctions; sellers advertising items they don't have.

We saw the golden age and now it's gone.

[speedlolita]

I've noticed dodgy practises amongst Japanese sellers too honestly. One is the vast inflation of what games are actually worth but when I was looking at both a CPS2 ST board and Pepsiman it was so difficult to gauge if the seller had stock and what the condition was because they're all using the same photos for some reason.

[fishbowlhead]

eBay is an absolute mess. Shops shouldn’t have feedback & reviews, one or the other, preferably item reviews. Much more staff on eBay side for dealing with scamming customers as well, Amazon is even worse for this.

[fuse]

I've noticed dodgy practises amongst Japanese sellers too honestly. One is the vast inflation of what games are actually worth but when I was looking at both a CPS2 ST board and Pepsiman it was so difficult to gauge if the seller had stock and what the condition was because they're all using the same photos for some reason.

Yeah, should have been clearer before, but sellers based out of Japan are absolutely included in my whinge; would love to know how many auctions are actually based on things sat on the shelves of the local Book-Off. Might start listing Only Fools & Horses DVD boxsets from my local Cash Converters with a 50% markup and see if I get any bites.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Yeah, should have been clearer before, but sellers based out of Japan are absolutely included in my whinge; would love to know how many auctions are actually based on things sat on the shelves of the local Book-Off. Might start listing Only Fools & Horses DVD boxsets from my local Cash Converters with a 50% markup and see if I get any bites.

You'll quite often find the same seller, selling the exact same item on YAJ for a fraction of the cost!

[fuse]

Just yesterday I paid for FedEx shipping on a thing where I'm now told "I want 10 business days for me to select the product that is in the best condition out of many stocks". You need to buy the damned thing, you mean!

They did eventually get it sent out, and lo and behold it's missing things that were listed in the description and pictures. It's almost as if they didn't have the item in hand when they created the listing! They offered to refund me $20 at first, now $50, but I'm requesting a refund on the whole thing. On the plus side it's the straw that has broken the camel's back, and has given me a kick up the arse to register with a new proxy.

You'll quite often find the same seller, selling the exact same item on YAJ for a fraction of the cost!

Yeah, it's a bit of a pain but it definitely feels like the right time for me to pull back the curtain and finding things there myself. The most egregious example I've seen so far was a bundle on Mercari that was also sat on eBay with a full 100% markup. The good news is that it's now on its way to a warehouse for me now, and the eBay listing's gone.

[importaku]

Oh there's a whole list of peeves from japanese sellers at the moment on ebay.

It's been getting crap for a while but the pandemic has amplified it, seems there's a lot of sellers in japan that think people in the west don't know how to google for stuff in japan. Stuff like DS/PS1 games that are selling for 4000 yen on amazon they are trying to sell for like £90 and having the cheek to try slapping that old ebay chestnut of omg "super R@RE" in the title of even common fodder like someone is just gonna buy the first one they see. I honestly think they think westerners are stupid.

I'm getting tired of the sellers all using stock images, even when you take time to find an auction with a non stock image pic it's not even of the game they are selling they choose a pic of a sealed game they found online & then you have to look in the auction very carefully to find out it's not new or even in decent condition and they have multiple available so you are gonna get scammed on condition as they are just gonna throw one off the crap pile. Was searching for a ps1 game and i found 2 auctions from 2 different sellers in japan both using the same pic of the game with the same carpet background amusingly both listing it as totally different conditions blatant that neither have it and it's just one that they are gonna buy from elsewhere then jack up the price. it means you have to spend ages now going through very carefully so you don't get shafted by their scummy tactic, there's still a few honest sellers out there but they are getting less and less as scum san is thinking they can just con roundeyes to make their income.

Don't even get me started on that myth that japanese look after their games, the amount of crap i have seen in appauling condition puts them right up there with everyone else in the ****ty game condition list. The whole "but even the stuff they list as junk is mint" lol yeah like bollocks it is. The scale of what they class as mint & very good is grossly out of whack.

[chopemon]

I was searching around for a copy of Vampire Chronicle on Dreamcast a couple of nights ago (if you have one, please do roll like Felicia into my inbox) and noticed that several listings from different sellers all used the same images for a complete copy which made me think of what fuse had been posting in here. I looked at a listing and it said it was a seller I'd previously bought from and it turns out I had been got by one of these sellers that go out and buy the game after you buy their listing late last year. So nothing much to add except that this suuuuuucks and they got me.

[chopemon]

Sold a Japanese Wii game. Seller wants to return it because he didn't realise it wouldn't work on a UK Wii. I don't want to accept the return because it isn't my fault but the buyer has listed it as defective so I assume eBay is going to force me to accept it. Anyone had any experience arguing this?

[speedlolita]

Sadly I don't think you have any grounds as a seller to not accept a return because of the eBay money back guarantee.

It is a real ****er. Had someone get me with it with a CPU I sold last year. Luckily they hadn't broken the pins or anything, I guess they either found a better deal on a newer chip or had the wrong motherboard. Of course I had to accept the return and rip out my current CPU to test the damn thing was still operational.

[fishbowlhead]

You need to complain to eBay about their catalogue system. Its set up so multiple sellers of the “same” item can use others photos or even jump on the listing. This obviously doesn’t work for second hand goods that should be photographed properly by the seller so the buyer can see exactly what their buying.

There was a big thing about this between sellers and eBay when they introduced it, basically ebay turned round and said EVERYONE is going in the catalogue system, all the sellers turned round and said f*** off we’ll just pull the products, they backed down quickly once someone got hold of the EU directors email and everyone bombarded him, the system ended up as optional in the end which is just open to abuse from dishonest sellers.

I’ve done my bit on this front, unless eBay remove the catalogue system this will only get worse.

[chopemon]

Well, turns out on this Japanese Wii game that ebay autofilled the product description with details for the US version. I put in NTSCJ in the item specifics but in the product details section that they don't surface for your approval during the listing, they filled it in as NTSC U/C. The buyer has realised this and now suddenly has a friend with an American Wii that can't run the game either. That isn't out of the realms of possibility (I have a US Wii) but I seriously doubt this friend exists and even if he did, he's not the one buying the game. Whatever, had to do the return and ebay forced me to use a returns label that costs double the amount than shipping it back via royal mail. What a load of rubbish. I've sold a lot of stuff on ebay recently and it has all been good but when something goes wrong, it really makes you realise what a POS company they are.