Ebay limits sellers and is kicking sellers off site

Here is the email I got today.

This message is to notify you that in order to assist you in building a strong foundation for future transactions on eBay, we have placed a selling limit for your listing activity. These limits are not in place as a consequence, rather as a preventative measure to help our seller's keep from becoming overwhelmed with large increases in account activity.

Many members already have limits placed on their account. Account limits allow us to learn about your selling activity and make sure you're adhering to our selling practices policy and performance standards. Limits vary by seller and can change over time.

During this time, we want to confirm you are continuing your positive history by ensuring you are keeping focused on creating great transactions for your customers. Doing so will greatly increase the chances of an ongoing successful eBay business and help to avoid any future account issues that may arise. These limits will allow you to continue selling while also allowing us to monitor your incoming Feedback, Detailed Seller Ratings, and any customer complaints. Please understand that the actions we have taken do not mean your account performance is not good, but we do this to help all eBay sellers further improve their selling history and account performance.

Because you are doing well at selling at these volumes, you should not hit your selling limit unless you dramatically increase your sales. However, if you do wish to grow your business, we will gradually increase your limit as you show that you are able to successfully handle the higher sales volume. The selling limit on your account is based on the number and dollar amount of open (active) items and successfully sold items per calendar month.

You can now sell up to 200 items monthly or up to $15,000.00 monthly.
(Keep in mind that this includes multiple quantity listings which can greatly influence this number.)

If you do reach one of these amounts during the course of a month you will be unable to list additional items or increase the price or quantity of your active items until some of your items end without a winning bidder or until the 1st of the next calendar month, (If you are still exceeding the selling limit at the first of the next calendar month your selling activity will continue to be blocked.)

We believe that your limit is flexible enough to allow you to sell any current items and is in accordance with the volume you may have listed in the past. If you do reach the selling limit on your account and want to increase your sales, please work within the amount for at least 30 days. Once that time frame has expired on 11/31/13, please reply to this message and we will conduct a review to see if adjustments are appropriate.

We hope that you will use this selling limit to your advantage and focus on succeeding with your current sales. We value you as a seller and hope to work with you in order to continue to establish a strong selling history and successful business relationship. It is in our best interest to help our sellers succeed so that we can have a positive trading environment and eliminate bad buying experiences on the site.

Thanks,
eBay


After doing some research I found that EBAY got rid of over 50000 sellers in august and it looks like they are ramping up to get rid of some more. Sad to say this may cause me to stop buying more than scrap items for a lot of stuff. Just thought you all would like to know whats about to happen again.

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After doing some research I found that EBAY got rid of over 50000 sellers in august and it looks like they are ramping up to get rid of some more.

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I wonder why their doing that as they make a percentage of every sale. Kind of like cutting your nose off to spite your face,,,

Or we're making too much money so we'll just get rid of 50,000 or so sellers.

Heres a link to the story.

Is eBay Purging Small And Medium Sellers? Why?

http://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog...381266831.html

Thanks, Ebay. (just about says it all ; )

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Originally Posted by Bear

Thanks, Ebay. (just about says it all ; )

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Here is my exp with these a**clowns.

The buyer is 100% right, no matter if they do fraudelent returns, have customer remorse and lye about it, etc. All Ebay cares about is the buyer and they expect you to kiss their diere 100% of the time and expect refunds at all time.


I just had my account blocked, can longer sell. Reason being is in one month, I had several fraudlent returns I refused refund. 2 were laptop motherboards that were verfied working by both me and the computer stores I deal with. They basically take what they want and sell the rest to me in case were they are not worth refurbishing. ie too much money invested for profit.

Well one was a supposed the board didnt post and it was burned around the wifi slot. BSSSS!! The people supposedly ran a repair place in Atlanta. Ya well they were frying boards. I had the board posted with a pic on the site with windows 7 installed on it etc. They sent it back and sure enough fried, so I refused delivery stating it wasnt in this condition when mailed. Well as soon as it got back to them, they opened a case and Ebay sided with them giving them money. So how does that work? They still got the product and the money....

Another case was tv power supply board. Tv had a cracked screen. Verified with no bad caps etc. Tv powered right up. Pictures taken proven the tv worked albeit with a creacked screen. Well refund came in, NOT MY BOARD. I had it marked with UV dye and Ebay authorized refund. So Im out my product and money.

I can go on and on with these clowns. Spoke to several reps and got various answers. Like their is a risk and a noticeable loss with online business etc. My argument was if I owned a brick and mortar store, I could refuse refunds and tell people to get lost. With Ebay I cant, etc.

So now my Ebay account is closed. I did over 500 transactions since Jan this year and about 40k, gone.

They were getting about a grand a month in fees and I was pushing 4-5 a month.

Gone, because all they care about is the buyer. They dont care about the "low volume" sellers. Only high volume sellers. If I had 15k feedback like companies like meditechny, I might have done something, etc.

So now Im stuck with all these laptops I bought for parts, resale, HDTVS, no outlets

And the bloody accoutn is closed for 45 days and THEY STILL ALLOWING RETURNS even after I refused them and called them business is closed.


Luckily I pulled all funds out of paypal before it hit the fan. Right now my PayPal is about 1500 in the hole, because I been refusing all returns and they are doing whatever they want.

Its absurd. The funniest thing is when I threatened LEGAL ACTION, the rep immediately hung up on me.

So in my humble opinion, I would not sell anything working period, whatsoever. I would sell as is for parts or not working. But even that dont always work. Still got returns on dead laptops I sold for parts under the categories. Like I had 2 laptop boards with bad video chipsets. Sold them under for parts or not working. They needed to reballed. Well Ebay allowed them to be returned saying it was not as described. WTF....I said they had no video output and sold as is for parts or repair.

Currently thinking of loading a store on to my quad core tv computer and just sell right from my own site with my own server. The best way. I have no problem with keeping customers happy and doing proper returns, I do have severe issue when as#hole company walks all over me after I pay them to run my store and steal whatever they want from me.

This is why I never put up my adds I would buy laptops off of smf forum for more than scrap.....knew this was gonna happen sooner or later.

Maybe this is time for your wife to go into competition with you. She could use her own ebay account and start selling.

Just a thought...

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Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

Sad to say this may cause me to stop buying more than scrap items for a lot of stuff. Just thought you all would like to know whats about to happen again.

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That would bite. I haven't shipped you a whole heckofalot of stuff, but it is nice to know that's an available option... would hate to see that go away.

Seems I'm hearing more & more backlash about fleebay these days. Not just from this forum. Perhaps it's time for a competitor to step up that actually listens to the sellers when a dispute arises. That would obviously take a huge amount of capital, but these does appear to be a market. Google could probably pull it off.

I am very new to ebay and am looking at all of this with a little wonder. I "believe" that if a buyer says the item is "not as described" then ebay will force you to refund. Under those criteria anything can be deemed as "not as described" so I tend to put a 14day return on most everything since its by default already "warren-tied" by ebay.

Ebay remains the big market for the small operator but since they have so many sellers they can squash as many as they want, we're like ants, there's always more. For me for now its the best place to sell what I have that is worth more than scrap. So I will play the games as best I can and hope not to be the next to get the axe.

To PTS I would keep going with what has worked but be very mindful of your inventory. Also something I have yet to do which is have my paypal associated with a separate bank account from my household account. I think I need to do this very soon. I can't have ebay dipping into my other funds. Mike.

Well that sucks PTS, hopefully you get something figured out or the law of averages keeps you from hitting that mark.

As for you Ozzy...no matter how you market your stuff, if they pay with a credit card they will still have the option to dispute. Credit card company may not be as liberal as Ebay but will certainly be a pita for you. You seem to get burned and become a victim in every project you take on...bad luck or??

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

I wonder why their doing that as they make a percentage of every sale. Kind of like cutting your nose off to spite your face,,,

Or we're making too much money so we'll just get rid of 50,000 or so sellers.

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I know those who work for ebay are NOT small business persons, NOT entrepreneurs, they are corporate types who went to business schools. They generally have not worked with small and micro sized business which is exactly what ebay was started for. In their minds it far easier to manage a few large businesses and that allows them to cut the number of employees. This management style really looks good to business school types.

As others have mentioned here and elsewhere it is time for a good competitor to jump in. Mike.

Unfortunately there's not much we can do about it. Fact is we're selling on a site that we don't own, and they basically have a monopoly. I've dealt with these limits for a long time now, and have had them upped a dozen times now. I've worked my way up to 2500 listings/125k, although that seems a bit lopsided, I WISH I had 125k in inventory with less than 2500 listings. I've tried other up and coming sites and none of them can provide the volume. There's one in particular that looked promising like they might just be able to compete, well, I've had hundreds of listings on that site for a year and a half now and ZERO sales, sometimes I even forget all about it, luckily the listings are free. I wish someone would be able to compete, but like auminer said earlier, the only company that MIGHT be able to pull it off would be Google, but honestly even for them it would be an uphill battle and would take tons of money (although their stock is above $1k/share now and they do have the capital).

Here's the other side of the equation though, it IS all about the buyers. Without them there would be no sales, that's where these other sites are falling short. Buyers know they're safe on ebay, they don't have that same confidence with other unproven sites. Does this mean some people take advantage of that? Absolutely! I've been upset and vocal over what's been going on with ebay for a while as well, but the more I think about the big picture I've learned that being so upset is only bad for my health. I've been in retail my entire life, in retail you have to write off a percentage of sales as shrink, losses from theft/shady returns and other variables. Being an online only store that same percentage just transfers to scammers/shady returns/damage in shipping.

I do agree that some of this "purging" and "limits" are NOT justified, and I don't agree with a lot of the decisions they're making, but at the same time I can see what they're trying to do, I just think they're going about it the wrong way.

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

I wonder why their doing that as they make a percentage of every sale. Kind of like cutting your nose off to spite your face,,,

Or we're making too much money so we'll just get rid of 50,000 or so sellers.

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While that would seem to be true, my knee jerk reaction to the message is that they are NOT getting rid of sellers because of they money they are making but because of the money they are LOSING.

In a world full of identity theft, how hard would it be for a criminal to open a bank account, open an ebay account, list 5000 items for 20.00, then just run off with 100,000.00?

Ebay would still be on the hook with the buyers, they would have to refund the money, but would not have any way to get the money back.

Because they only invoice every 30 days, there is more than enough time to sell thousands of dollars of stuff, withdraw the money, then be long gone.

It would seem to me, Ebay would NOT want to publicly say this was a growing problem, they would rather internally find a way to curb the problem by putting more scrutiny on sellers.

Just an idea.

I have two Ebay accounts Two bank accounts and Two paypal accounts that I use for nothing but ebay......Looking to get a third account if I can find someone's info I can use...LOL.....As far as the limits go yes I do have them but between scrapping, and ebay I have never come close....Perhaps PTS can get to those limits but not me........I will just keep selling on there until they tell me I can't as I am generating 3-4 thousand a month off ebay alone...........Oh well just my 2 cents worth and yes I do sell a lot of laptops for parts or repair and rarely have a problem

I also read a quote that navigating selling on ebay is like navigating a minefield.........I truly agree....on my main account 361 positive feedbacks 100%.......I HAD TO JUMP THROUGH HOOPS TO GET THIS DONE

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

I also read a quote that navigating selling on ebay is like navigating a minefield.........I truly agree....on my main account 361 positive feedbacks 100%.......I HAD TO JUMP THROUGH HOOPS TO GET THIS DONE

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I agree as well, I'm at 697 now with 100%, top-rated and it can get nerve-racking at times. I cringe everytime my phone goes off with an ebay message thinking it's somebody letting me know they have some kind of problem. Luckily my wife handles all the customer service. She worked for Nordstrom for many years which basically takes returns on just about anything (she told me one time a store even refunded a customer on some crazy non-related item (like a car battery or something like that) just because they took over the space of a store that went out of business), so she's pretty good with dealing with people and outrageous claims.

I am echoing the comments of others about it being set up for buyers

Feebay is what it is. They don't care about the small seller anymore. They are a monopoly but someday it will end. Someone will come along and take over the online auction place

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Originally Posted by KzScrapper

Well that sucks PTS, hopefully you get something figured out or the law of averages keeps you from hitting that mark.

As for you Ozzy...no matter how you market your stuff, if they pay with a credit card they will still have the option to dispute. Credit card company may not be as liberal as Ebay but will certainly be a pita for you. You seem to get burned and become a victim in every project you take on...bad luck or??

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If you referring to last year with the neighbors and some other things I may or may not posted, I say bad luck. I have a dark cloud following me and everything I touch turns to ****. My father will be dead 2 years in FEB and my son is turning 5 in jan, although havnt seen him since June,

So I dont know who the fing I pissed off, but the story of my life. Black clouds following em as usual. Oftent thought about making a contract selling my soul to Satan, but whats the point? All the crap in life I have been delt with, I should be goign to heaven when I die...LOL!

OOO_000 btw...the 14 day warranty you give means **** and Ebay will overide. Ebay allows all returns up to""""45" days. All they have to do is the magical words, NOT AS DESCRIBED! Whatever you put in your ad means ****, totally cfrap. That was another problem I had. 14 days on all. Then one example is a hard drive I sold crapped out at 29 days. Buyer placed a case, not as described...bla bla. Ebay sided and gave him the money. Thats like me buying a alternator at a junkyard, week later it blows up, and Im forcing them to0 do a returns. ITS A USED PART!!!!

I firmly believe with Ebay, your nothing more than a warehouse and shipper, drop shipping. They dont like what a buyer sayers regardless your right, you "HAVE TO TAKE A RETURN!!!

Thought I mentioned it since the one guy in this thread say he offers a 14 day warranty, which means nothing.

I'm the guy who stated he offers the 14 day return on most of my listings. As I stated then if the buyers declares that the item is "not as described" then their are most likely getting a refund with or without a declared "return" policy by you, the seller. So to tow the rope so to speak I include the warranty.

Most of my returns have been legit and most of my buyers who have had a problem have been very good about allowing me to correct it.

I did have a buyer threaten to give me bad feed back if I didn't pay for the return shipping of an item. He did give me a "neutral" feed back which I consider negative.

I put a case against him and won, ebay removed the "neutral" feedback. I have to say the ebay rep resisted doing anything about it until I pushed them to read the messages from the customer who threatened me with bad feedback. Ebay considers threats to give bad feedback as extortion. Mike.

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Originally Posted by miked

I'm the guy who stated he offers the 14 day return on most of my listings. As I stated then if the buyers declares that the item is "not as described" then their are most likely getting a refund with or without a declared "return" policy by you, the seller. So to tow the rope so to speak I include the warranty.

Most of my returns have been legit and most of my buyers who have had a problem have been very good about allowing me to correct it.

I did have a buyer threaten to give me bad feed back if I didn't pay for the return shipping of an item. He did give me a "neutral" feed back which I consider negative.

I put a case against him and won, ebay removed the "neutral" feedback. I have to say the ebay rep resisted doing anything about it until I pushed them to read the messages from the customer who threatened me with bad feedback. Ebay considers threats to give bad feedback as extortion. Mike.

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Agreed Ebay will revise feedback but you have to raise immortal HELL to get it done............Had one guy threaten me so I never even sent him the item, refunded his money and he still left a negative......Spent two hours on the phone with Ebay to get that one removed

Very interesting stuff going on here. I will be trying to find more info on this mess since I was getting ready to start ramping things up a bit.

I have had 4 cases opened in the last month oddly enough. The first was an item that shipped small flat rate box. For some reason it was stuck at one post office for 8 days. It took 2 weeks for the item to get to my buyer.
The next day it arrived and all was good.

2nd was an item that the buyer claims was an empty box. I figured for sure that this one I was going to eat. It too was a small flat rate box so was insured for $50. I filed a claim with the post office and low and behold 3 days later, they confirmed and sent me a check. I was flabbergasted and immediately refunded the buyers money. Incidentally, the item sold for $35 with free shipping. I filed the claim for $35 and my check was for $40.15 the cost of the item and the cost of the shipping.

3rd was a case that came through paypal. The buyer claimed that they never got the item. I looked up the item and it said that the buyer was no longer a registered ebayer. I went through all of the hoops to file with paypal and the next day I got a message that the case was closed and decided in my favor. The item had shown delivered and all of that good stuff in the tracking. Looking at that person's account, they bought over 600 items in a one month period and never left feedback at all. I am wondering why this could have gone this far to the point she was able to make a claim through paypal. They are the same company.

4th case just came tonight. Yet another small flat rate box item. I shipped it on October 4th. Today is November the 1st and the item is yet to be received. It is all in the tracking. The buyer is in the same state as I am for crying out loud. It has not been seen for 20 days or more. I have once again opened a claim with the post office. This time the item sold was $55 with free shipping, so I could only ask for $50. We will see if they send me a check for $55.15.

In these cases it is of the utmost importance to have a constant flow of communication with the buyer.

Why did I list out all of these problems? Seemed like the right place since others were sharing some of their experiences with E-bay. I have been having problems as well, but mine have all been from the post office. The post office is getting increasingly inefficient, and it is going to start costing me business or my reputation.

PTS. Sorry to hear that they singled you out for some reason. I have no idea what it may be. You aren't hitting those limits are you? Even if you aren't it just sucks that they hit you with them. And odd. I know you take your business on E-bay seriously.

I agree with what others have stated about it is time for some competition. Amazon and etsy can only do so much. They have niche markets at best.

just put 14 day returns on stuff ship out right and i think all will be fine.

Post office and Fed Ex are really your only options and they do not handle the packages well........This costs Ebay sellers millions of dollars each year........I try to test the items to the best of my ability and describe the item but when the PO or Fed Ex gets ahold of it you just pray that it gets there in one piece...........Oh well Good Luck to all

My PO usually does a good job, very quick shipping. However, I have had a couple of things, I had a smaller item I ship in a standard envelope that supposedly did not arrive. No tracking # so I gave the buyer the benefit of the doubt and shipped another. Nuther time I got back a box with a metal switchbox I had sold, It must have gotten caught in a conveyer belt cause when I got it, box and switch was smashed flatter than a fritter. Refunded that one.
Last one was a buyer that filed a claim without contacting me even once. Not as advertised, but I had to message the dufas 3 times to tell them to ship it back before I refund. That's right in the listing. I reported that buyer for not communicating with me before filing the claim. Ebay probably did not do anything but it made me feel better.

Like Hypoman would say, I should have punched them in the face, you older members know what I'm talking about.

I have a good friend who sells on Ebay and sells mainly antique Harley parts. He has over 4,500 feed backs at a 99.8% positive feedback. They hit him with the same thing because of two disputes. Both were bogus but as we all know, the buyer rules. He did about $150,000 last year with them but this didn't matter. After a month they lifted his restrictions. The problem was also caused because he listed about 100 auctions with some high dollar parts and that spooked Ebay thinking he was going to get money and bail. Most of these flags or restrictions are caught by a computer crunching numbers and past averages. When something comes to it's attention as being greatly different, it flags the account and some corporate puke does the rest. They have a monopoly since they own Paypal too. I always pay their fees when I sell an item and always suck the money out of Paypal so they cannot hit me with a chargeback and take my cash. What really sucks is paying a final value fee on the shipping. I don't make money on shipping so the final value fee puts me in the hole. Not right to charge that fee. Would love to see a class action suit about this. Already received one class action suit check from them, would love more!

I've been inactive on Ebay for a while but keep getting "come back to us" emails. Will keep these stories in mind.

The 14 Day Money Back is one of the requirements that Ebay has to be a Preferred and or Power Seller and since it is a decent discount on fee's it's worth it to me. Hundreds of transactions so far on a wide range of products with no disputes...knock on wood. As they say...It's not a matter of if but when.

I unfortunately was one of those booted for having 1.04% of my transactions involved in a claim so 3 out of 289 sales in august had an issue and according to Ebay thats below their standards. However on a positive note I have found Amazon to a formidable marketplace and since have sold many items on Amazon and for 3 times what I would have sold them for on Ebay.

Ya'll know my feelings on ebay, an now you know why I have a traveling cooler. lol.

Welcome to the world of eBay..their way or the highway.

Ahh for the good ol'days when one could buy and sell there with out all the "OMG the buyer is right 100%" Bull****. The buyer is far from correct 100% of the time. Anyone who has ever worked a day of retail knows this. Heh.

I hope it works out for you all, but I'll be on the side rooting for an up n comer to change the online auction game. Ebay's time is coming, an when they fall..man that assbone is going to hurt.

Sirscrapalot - I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. ~ Mark Twain

I just got my limits increased to 600 items and $15k. I have never hit the $15k limit but the month of october I sold 215 items. SO they put a limit on me that I had all ready blown past. The sad thing is the item limit is for sold and total items listed. So you all know I sell those blue dell hard drive trays on ebay. Well I have over 100 of them. So if I post a single auction with available quantity of 100 that would take half of my limit for the month at 200 limit. I should be able to operate normal now that my limit is 600 items. When they sent me the email about limiting me to 200 my current listing was 560 items. We will see how it goes.

Let us know how it works out. Mike

[QUOTE= Also something I have yet to do which is have my paypal associated with a separate bank account from my household account. I think I need to do this very soon. I can't have ebay dipping into my other funds. Mike.[/QUOTE]

Do it quickly Mike.

And HOW long have you guys heard me calling it Evilbay?

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Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

I just got my limits increased to 600 items and $15k. I have never hit the $15k limit but the month of october I sold 215 items. SO they put a limit on me that I had all ready blown past. The sad thing is the item limit is for sold and total items listed. So you all know I sell those blue dell hard drive trays on ebay. Well I have over 100 of them. So if I post a single auction with available quantity of 100 that would take half of my limit for the month at 200 limit. I should be able to operate normal now that my limit is 600 items. When they sent me the email about limiting me to 200 my current listing was 560 items. We will see how it goes.

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How many of those drive trays do you sell a month?

I can see people listing a ton of stuff and if they sell too much in one month having a hard time shipping it all in a reasonable amount of time. Some parts of the country have a bad post office so things get lost or mangled and your rating goes to hell.

From ebays point of view any major changes in sellers listings (quantity and value) can end up biting them in the rear (stolen accounts, scammers). So they have things their computers monitor and flag. If you just sell high volume commodity items ebay could care less about you closing your account, somebody else can now get your sales (bigger players). Not sure what they think of small niche sellers (probably not a major money maker), but they do love large store sellers.

I noticed a few sellers over the years disappear (item I won now removed, seller gone) and they tend to be sellers who sell new brand name items for cell phones or other easily counterfitted things. My transactions went well but I guess others didn't so they got the boot.

It varies hgow many i sell a month. I sold 5 this weekend.

We also have an eBay store and 100% positive feedback. We do not offer a return policy and clearly state in our listing that you are responsible for making sure it will work for you. We do offer a DOA warranty. We have dealt with the restriction on sales issue, but after a phone call , it got corrected after working our way up to someone who knew something besides how to read the script on the computer screen. They can be a pain in the posterior but there isn't an alternative right now. Hang in there and maybe something better will come along.

Listed my first item on eBay since 2012
We will see how it goes
Fees fees fees

i used to have a ebay store. not so much for scrap metal but selling remote control helicopter parts and such. then it got to the point the fees were getting too high for my liking,putting up with certain buyers,unfair rules for ebay sellers(buyers had more protection then sellers do). too me it just was not worth it anymore! so i closed my ebay store and now sell on facebook and rc helicopter forums instead. i still buy on ebay from time to time but only if its a decent deal now days.

ebay need to go back to the way it used to be! now days it really has gone down hill bad!!!