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It's Now Completely Impossible To Sell A Laptop On Ebay

consumerist.com — Timothy's email went on for about two weeks, so we've tried to edit it for length.

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  • quakerorts, on 05/09/2008, -7/+353ebay is broken.
    • jesuswuzanalien, on 05/09/2008, -34/+11Just like my penis?
      • mrsteveman1, on 05/09/2008, -0/+13You can't sell that on eBay either....
        • hipnerd, on 05/09/2008, -0/+20I'll buy it, but I'm vacationing in Nigeria right now...
        • bagboyrebel, on 05/09/2008, -1/+13That's what Craigslist is for.
    • Chompy, on 05/09/2008, -6/+56Agreed. I can only imagine that the people still using eBay haven't yet heard of Craigslist. It only took me 24 hours to sell a sailboat.. in the frigging *desert*.. using CL. And since PayPal wasn't involved, I didn't even have to get rape counceling after the fact.
      • RevJonathan, on 05/09/2008, -0/+12Yeah, the rape councilor is a pretty severe hidden charge. You'd think there'd be laws in place for preventing it.
      • Elliuotatar, on 05/09/2008, -1/+12I like craigslist because you deal locally when you use that. I can sell anything and not need to worry about having to ship it, and I can view the item to make sure its in good condition before I purchase it.
      • AngryAngryBrian, on 05/09/2008, -1/+6Craigslist is good and all for people who live in bigger cities, but people like me who live in rural BFE don't really have that many options outside of eBay.
        • Chompy, on 05/10/2008, -2/+4Then you need to move. Why the hell would anyone want to live out in the middle of nowhere? I've lived in both places, and the boonies suck. Come join us in the cities, you'll have more fun.
          • AngryAngryBrian, on 05/10/2008, -1/+2I don't expect you to understand, but this is my home. Sure we may not have a Starbucks on every corner (in fact we don't have a starbucks at all), but I have family, friends, and colleagues here. We all can't move away to the city, someone has to man the facilities here that make LEDs, solar equipment, engine pistons, other electronic components, and Milk.
          • solid12345, on 05/10/2008, -1/+3Who says you can't have fun? You ever been to a big party in the middle of nowhere with a bonfire, no neighbors bitching about the loudness of your music and being able to have 40 people over because there is plenty of parking?

            Plus don't forget being able to see the stars at night.
          • KingBabi, on 05/10/2008, -1/+1LEDs? That's so awesome. I always wonder where they make that kinda stuff.
          • Chompy, on 05/11/2008, -1/+1Starbucks? Who cares about that? I'm talking about museums, exposure to other cultures and art, etc. Small town life is dead, a small life for small people.
          • AngryAngryBrian, on 05/12/2008, -1/+1We have museums, libraries, parks, book stores. They may not be on the scale of the Smithsonian or the library of congress but along with the internet they serve our community well. We may be a small gear in the massive machine that is the US economy, but we turn as hard as we can to keep the machine going and preserve our way of life. That aside, I doubt I am getting through to you, and I wonder if you are sincere or just another internet troll. Seeing how we have gone off topic, I would like to provide one last comment towards my original point. Craigslist is a great tool from what I have seen, and if it was something we had here I would use it. Yet, it isn't here, and eBay is really the best option we have for this sort of thing. eBay is not as useful as it use to be and in my opinion and it could use a few changes to help bring it back to the useful state it once was.
          • Chompy, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1You're getting through to me, we simply disagree. I was born in a small town (pop 1200), so I'm not spouting off on a topic about which I know nothing. I spent 18 years in the boonies before I escaped, and now, looking back, I cannot understand why anyone would choose to live in a place like that. To me, the only possible reason is ignorance of how much better things are in a world city. That, or a dislike for exposure to different cultures, people, and events.
            As for eBay, we agree. Certainly if you're stuck with it, that's your only shot other than the bulletin board at the local grocery store.
      • GreenAlien, on 05/09/2008, -4/+2I would use Craiglist but the website has always made my eyes bleed. And judging by an interview with the creator it doesnt look like he'll ever change it either.
        • Gir53457, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Craigslist is a fine example of a site that has all it's information laid out neatly and easy to navigate without crashing my browser with an overload of CSS tables and rounded corners.
        • solid12345, on 05/10/2008, -0/+2Sorry Gir but Craigs list IS horrible, blue on white just doesn't work visually, it should be black.
      • Solis, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Craigslist is ass if you lve in an area where no one ***** uses it. It seems to only be good for major cities. Scranton, PA has a bunch of luddites who barely even know what the internet is, let alone use Craigslist.
        • Gir53457, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4You expect a bunch of coal miners to be computer literate?
        • Chompy, on 05/10/2008, -1/+1Yeah it sounds like your problem is living in *****, Pennsylvania. Do yourself a favor and move to civilization.
    • prisoner24601, on 05/09/2008, -1/+64The most broken part I've noticed is that PayPal is about the only safe/practical way to pay for a purchase, but eBay/PayPal corporate has become a complete privacy-invading control-freak that disables your account eventually unless you give them your bank checking account information (or sign up for a credit card you don't need, thereby also giving them tons of marketing information on you.)

      I've almost completely stopped using eBay now. My purchases were fine for awhile, but then my PayPal account hit the limit they imposed without "verification" and its useless now. Imagine the audacity of what they demand! It's like if you went to a restaurant over and over again for a few years, each time spending $50 or $100. Then after many visits, the maitre'd comes over and says you'll have to pay in cash tonight or give them your social security number so they can run a credit check! "But I've been here dozens of times!" "Well, we don't really know you are who you say you are" "But why do you even care?! Has ANY payment from my credit card EVER been declined?" "Well, actually no." "Is my credit card company declining this charge tonight?!?" "Well, no..." "Then what's the problem?!?" "Well, we just feel it's in our best interest to have more information about you than we do. We don't like having anonymous people walk in, pay with a credit card, and not give us any more information about themselves than just the card number" "Well, you know what? It's none of your business and I won't be returning to this establishment again."

      eBay's turned PayPal into nothing more than a way to get a treasure trove of personal information about users that they have no legitimate need for. There's no excuse for them demanding identifying information from people who are JUST BUYING something that no other retail establishment expects for a similar purchase. Just process the credit card payment and keep your nose out of my checking account PayPal!

      /end vent at privacy-invading corporation
      • KiraDnote, on 05/09/2008, -11/+4Paypal is essentially a bank. It is regulated by the feds. You don't have to leave money in your Paypal account, but you have to give them access to a checking account. If you try to play games with Paypal you will lose, so just treat them like any other bank and play nice.
        • rezonq3, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3I've played games and won...verified with a locked bank account. So every time they try to pull money from that account, it gives them a big '***** YOU!' so they have to default to my credit card. Money can go IN that account though. I also have a secondary account set up with an online only credit card for most purchases.

          I have never been screwed by paypal but not for their lack of trying. I just put on a bullet proof vest every time I have to do business with them.

          I'm with Chompy though, Craigslist is the place to do business.
        • robthom, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Paypal was the one playing the games last time few times I tried to use it. And paypals recent determination to pattern themselves after banks is the problem.
        • PolarBearCa, on 05/09/2008, -0/+6Spoken like a true neophyte.

          The problem is - they are NOT a bank, and in fact do not have to ACT like one at all.

          Banks can't just decide to keep your money if they feel like it by claiming they think you were up to something fishy - even if you weren't.

          If Paypal WERE a bank and had to follow those rules, most of the Paypal problems would disappear, as they'd be at serious risk of getting spanked by regulators.
        • bCabulon, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4My bank doesn't keep trying to cancel my account because there isn't enough activity. Paypal does. I use Ebay once or twice a year (it is the only thing I use my paypal account for). Two days ago I was notified yet again that papal was going to close my account because they think it is abandoned. This time I'm not going to stop them. Ebay/Paypal isn't worth the hassle.
        • prisoner24601, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1@KiraDnote
          I'm actually puzzled why anyone would defend PayPal on this, I find their policy utterly inexcusable. I thought for a moment that perhaps this is because I'm exclusively a buyer and a seller might be happier about this, but that didn't really explain it for me either. I mean as long as the seller gets the payment in their paypal account, why should they care in the least who I really am? And when would a seller EVER send an item before they got the payment? I can't imagine that they would do that.

          As far as playing games with PayPal goes, I'm not. That's the point. Because they can't treat me with respect I'm using craigslist now.
      • trickyt, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4I was one of the lucky ones to sign up for Paypal in 2001 before it had any such requirements. I've never been forced to give bank information or get verified. I also just recently deleted any associated credit cards. They have no way to get money out of me behind my back.
      • vagabond45, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2I keep getting spoofed emails from people who try to hijack my paypal account. And paypal is harder than ever to pay with. I don't like giving the same information over and over. So, I just buy and sell on amazon. Lots simpler listing and TONS easier paying. And no one has tried to hijack my account yet,
      • MaxPayne3476, on 05/10/2008, -1/+2I might just be the only one who has never had an issue with PayPal I guess? I've been with 'em since 2000 when I started using Ebay (since stopped that) and have found it the only real SAFE way to do online business. I have their business debit card, and it's linked to my bank account and credit card - and I've never had a problem with them accessing my account unauthorized. But I do work at a credit union and get horror stories all the time and the only thing you can tell them is, you gave them acess to your account, I can do a stop payment - but ultimately, the ball is in their court.

    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 05/09/2008, -1/+7I registered for eBay with my yahoo email.
      As soon as they got a hold of my university email, they refused to give it up. I can't change it back.

      As for the Nigerians, restrict your auction to USA or Britain, Canada, Etc. and restrict to paypal or allow money orders, and wait for them to clear before sending out the goods.

      And eBay+PayPal are privacy invaders that have a history of security breaches putting their customers financial information in the hands of scammers.
      • misterjangles, on 05/09/2008, -0/+10I tried to sell a laptop on ebay and the problem is that eBay spent so much time effort protecting buyers that the scammers figured out it is easier to pull of their scam as a buyer. It's actually a better scam because the seller has to receive money. It's an easier scam to buy and, as the seller, you have very little protection. Basically as the seller, you get the PayPal payment and you're obligated to ship the item. Problem is these guys, meanwhile, are phishing for PayPal account and so it's so easy for them to buy a laptop and pay for it with a stolen account. It's nuts. I wasted 3 auctions on a sony vaio until finally I had to just sell it to a friend of a friend for less money.

        I discovered that if you insist on a phone number and tell the person you want to talk to them first for both your protection - I was able to figure out they were scamming every time.
        • MaxPayne3476, on 05/10/2008, -1/+1Here's my tip - don't give access to any accounts that actually have any money in it. And DO NOT ship until you physically have that money in your hand. Don't ship to any nation other then your home one, or Canada if you live in the US.
    • bremstrong, on 05/09/2008, -0/+9It may be broken for sellers of expensive items, but why doesn't eBay make some obvious fixes. How hard can it be? Just allow sellers to *easily* select a low-scam auction if they wish: verified address paypal only, no outside US bidding, no bidders with IP address from Nigeria, etc.

      Does anyone know why ebay hasn't already done this? Is there any possible reason, outside simple bad management?
      • KiraDnote, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3They really should make it so only verified paypal customers can bid on your auction, if that's what you want. I always specify that in my terms of sale, and I haven't had a problem with it yet, but eBay should enforce it for you up front. I also specify shipping to continental USA only, cause otherwise you can get scammed too easily.
      • MaxPayne3476, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1Well IP is nothing new - all I'd have to do is proxy behind a US IP and get around that. Verified address is fine, but it's way to easy to set up fake accounts.
    • widman, on 05/09/2008, -9/+6Maatt Daaaamon
    • Teej, on 05/09/2008, -0/+7I had no idea that it had become this bad, what a shame. :(
    • fermcg, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5Here in Brazil we have a service called 'Mercado Livre' which was bought by eBay(we don't have eBay here). I guess this service started out in Paraguay and moved out to other countries in Latin America. The point is: you can't reach a human being through it. I guess eBay's police applies even to services they buy and start to run (or the guy who did this service just cloned eBay by that time).
      It's really annoying.
      • victordelprete, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3I'm in Sao Leopoldo and Mercado Livre bugs me beyond belief.. I had a guy make me an offer for an iPhone and I rejected it, but later wanted to accept it, but it's impossible to contact him now. Some scammer bought the phone and never sent the money and there is no way out for me. Want to buy an iPhone R$899? lol
    • MeatyVitamin, on 05/09/2008, -0/+12Nigeria is broken.
    • unionaire, on 05/09/2008, -0/+7I got scammed by someone in the U.S., paid with Paypal via credit card and never got the item, paypal only refunded $200 out of the $2450 I paid, and that was it.
      For all this time I have a false sense of security that "eBay and Paypal are secure" and since I paid by credit card I thought i could always file a chargeback, well, I did but I have wait two month, without knowing if I can get my money back or not.
      To many honest eBayers out there, if you must use eBay, good luck and be careful.
    • TheFinaleofSeem, on 05/09/2008, -5/+5Yes, there are problems, but first off, I'd like to say that this guy is an idiot. Waaahhh, my laptop shows up on the 20th page when there are THOUSANDS of the same category being sold! Waaahhh, nobody will see my item, even though there's a ***** SEARCH FIELD! Waaahhh! I sell items on eBay all the time. I never rely on category listings to sell them. I sell them with titles that will bring them up in relevant searches. Granted, I usually sell items that are fairly specific, but even so, I've never been contacted by a scammer for any item I've sold in my years of using eBay.

      However, on Craigslist, I've had tons of attempts by retards who think I'll ship to Nigeria.
      • yodaj007, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1The whole point of the article went over your head at Mach 5.
    • BobOki, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5it is worth saying that Ebay and Paypal are about to get their pants sued off and die.
      Ebay just announced that they are making policy changes, which will be put into effect RETROACTIVELY dating back 12 months.
      Starting May 19th they will start counting neutral feedback as negative feedback on your % score rating. Again, this is retroactive for 12 months. For the last 12 months people were told that neutral feedback does NOT affect you feedback score, and many people have left tons of neutral feedback for a variety of reasons from not a 100% perfect experience, to mispellings in the auction, to not next day shipping, etcetc. Well thats all changed, each one of those is now negative. This will put many powersellers (they must maintain a 98.1% or better FB rating) out of powerseller status. Ebay just lost probably HALF its powersellers.
      Next they are taking away sellers rights to post negative feedback against buyers. Yes, even if that buyer scammed the bejeesus out of them, there is now nothing a seller can do. Now a buyer can hold a seller ransom threatening negative feedback, not pay, charge back on received items, or any other asshattery they desire. There went another HALF of the sellers left.
      Paypal will hold payments for 21 days now. That's right, that money is NOT yours until paypal holds it for a month and earns interest on it. Oh yes, the seller still has the obligation to ship the item, out of his own pocket, to the buyer who can easily turn around and dispute it saying item was not received, or that it was damage upon receipt... and they buyer does NOT have to provide pictures of proof or anything. The buyer almost always wins a dispute, even ith proof of delivery etcetc. Paypal still has the money, they reverse the money and the seller is out of the money, the item which is not returned, the shipping, the ebay fees, and the paypal fees and has a negative feedback put on them.
      There went the last half of the half of the sellers left.
      Now all that you will have left on ebay is a few honest guys just randomly selling something, and scammers.

      Grats Ebay, you just killed yourself.
    • solid12345, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1PayPal is a bunch of *****. I got scammed out of 400 dollars on Craig's List buying what I thought was legitimate software, I even talked to the guy on the phone. All I got was a DVD-R and a PayPal statement that they do not offer refunds or try to resolve disputes on software.
  • mustafya, on 05/09/2008, -5/+134I'm so happy that I stopped using ebay years ago. I had heard horror stories but this one is just frightening. That the company can care that little about its users. I'm sure the poor guy never got any fees refunded either.
    • diizy, on 05/09/2008, -10/+5No, they did:
      "Yikes, I thought, some poor sap had his eBay password stolen/cracked/phished. Oh well , looks like they've graciously refunded my money. I'll just re-list it."
      • Teej, on 05/09/2008, -2/+6Not that guy, he's talking about the guy who made the listings and had to pay to put them up there.
        • diizy, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1That IS speaking about the guy who made the listings.

          "graciously refunded MY money"

          oh well.
    • cyrusaman, on 05/09/2008, -10/+4I'm a user of both eBay (nearly 10 yrs now) and Craigslist. EBay has its benefits for selling certain items quickly (e.g., videogames). However, even though I feel eBay has poor service (becoming increasingly anti-consumer), this guy's experience was due--in great part--to his naivete (He didn't realize featured items are listed first? That's been done since I can remember.). He could've been selective of where he offered the product to be sold. He spent way too much time going back-and-forth with eBay about the Nigerian scammer rather than figuring this out himself (he lost all smart points when he listed, in his listing, that he wouldn't sell to Nigeria).
      • Verdanic, on 05/09/2008, -1/+6I don't totally see why posting the Nigeria notice on the listing was such a stupid thing to do. I can see the controversy I suppose, but otherwise, is there some sort of rule against that kind of thing?
        • chouch, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Well its the elephant in the room for sure. Thats where all the ***** goes down.. they back tracked and mapped it on Dateline NBC.

          Either their or the Ivory Coast. God damn Ivory Coast has always got something nefarious underway. Why can't everyone just be like Benin and live in obscurity? Oh wait, its dark people we aren't supposed to care about their problems and turn a blind eye anyhow. I forgot I'm back in America now :D
        • rigorious, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1some sites actually have wordfiltering on "nigeria". I think tradera.se had it. i would'nt be surprised if that email and account lock was automatic.
    • JCougar, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3I've had luck and disaster on ebay. I got scammed on some tickets to Phish's last concert in Coventry (by a guy named Juan Castillo - now that I'm a somewhat wiser and reflect on my mistake; what is a guy named Juan Castillo doing with Phish tickets anyway? note: I now realize that is a fake name.) I've also tried to buy a higher end video camera and that ended up being one of the most painful processes I have encountered. They deceivingly sell you a camera then call you up to let you know you just purchased a camera body (this is a camera that does not have a detachable lens) and you have to spend an extra thousand dollars to get a lens and viewfinder. I spent the next twenty minutes cussing this guy out about his BS scam. I know it didn't really accomplish anything, but I felt better. At the same time, eBay is one of the best record stores around. I've had little problem in that department and have found some rare gems.
      • chouch, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2Hmmmm, how did feedback fail solve this issue? I go through someone's feedback with a finetooth comb and, even then, wait like 4 months before I buy something. My first purchase the guy was Naru'd or whatever the next day.. freaked me out, but I got my *****.. luckily.

        Did the guy buy just asstons of "recipes" on there for his feedback? I've done that just to get my 1st star.. it was funny.
    • DifferentAngle, on 05/09/2008, -0/+6The crazy part is how much money ebay gets too. He paid $20 just to have it be a "featured item", but he cant get access to a real person??
      • TheFinaleofSeem, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1And he wasted his money, most likely. I can't believe he was whining about being so far back in the listings when there's a SEARCH FUNCTION. Seriously, make sure you title will bring up your item in relevant searches and quit bitching.
    • chouch, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2There are too many douchebags that hang out and troll those Answer forums and sell their children's used clothing for a 5 cent loss and recipes for mojitos and BBQ wings and just misc b*llsh*t. I hate that site. Its an almost necessary evil though, however.

      where else can you get sim cards for like $2 via snail mail? they even come with $5 credit on them!! Its magic!
    • sporg, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1You can still safely buy things on ebay if you carefully spend an hour checking the sellers feedback and looking over their past auctions to check for shilling activity. Its becoming a cesspool really and ebay/payapl is making it ever easier for the scammers. On fraudulent foreign charge backs through paypal they rule in favor of the foreign party every time simply because getting their money back outside the US requires effort and its much easier to make you foot the bill.
  • ashfaqrasul, on 05/09/2008, -47/+9Spare a thought for Nigerian residents legitimately looking to buy a laptop on the internets..
    • ryan83189, on 05/09/2008, -1/+19they are getting so desperate they are willing to pay 1000 dollars extra through an escrow account :(
    • Chompy, on 05/09/2008, -5/+75Nigeria should be cut off from the Internet.
    • ImperialSoren, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5and spare 20,000,000 for the rest
  • mrshiney, on 05/09/2008, -7/+211Ebay was awesome at first. But then the people just trying to have "a business" ruined it. Unfortunately now they are stinking up Craigslist too. What's next, freecycle? Sheesh.
    • jayb1rd, on 05/09/2008, -10/+27Ah, the joys of capitalism.
      • robthom, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1!
      • afruff23, on 05/09/2008, -2/+5Actually, that is the joy of capitalism. When somebody provides a bad service, you can choose to not use them. Also, you can make recommendations and gather information about a company's reputation.
    • cdawzrd, on 05/09/2008, -2/+19There should be an auction site that doesn't allow businesses, period, and has a team to check if people are sneaking around the rules. Craigslist is good for finding stuff, but they don't have everything. eBay has its place, though, because it can be a useful tool for certain types of businesses (in its current state), but people who want to do real auctions are screwed.
    • drizzlelicious, on 05/09/2008, -0/+13Currently have a person asking me to ship my Zen to Nigeria on Craigslist. Fun.
      • da_bradler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5The worst is when a scammer posts something up that you have been looking for for a long time but they list it at a not great but reasonable price. So you figure "sweet this must be a real guy seeing as it's fair market value" then you get a 10 page e-mail back explaining how he is currently out of town and will need to ship the item and could you please by via western union...

        ***** we should all unite and just burn all western unions to the ground.
        • BoneheadFarker, on 05/09/2008, -2/+0Nah. Western Union can be handy at times. Scammers can be handy too, but only for target practice.
        • MaxPayne3476, on 05/10/2008, -0/+2As a credit union service rep - Western Union is NEVER handy. They can't track it for ***** and you're ***** - same with Money Orders
        • saisumimen, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1Western Union was good back in the early 1900's. Not so much anymore.
    • da_bradler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+13The thing that ***** me off is how ebay bends over backwards for these "power sellers" I hate searching for a camera and 99% of the listing are "camera + 3 useless lens and 67 FREE GIFTS". Ebay would be infinitely more usable if it were possible to easily remove all venders and people with ebay stores from my searches.(I know you can do custom searches but even then you can never get what you want)
      • groovechamp30, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Dont worry they ***** over the powersellers too....Arbitrarily remove listings, charge exorbitant fees, then increase them every 18 months etc
        • shodanx, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2search "canon 40d" then order by ascending price, problem solve
        • BoneheadFarker, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3@shodanx

          But then you have all the people selling things for 99 cents and a shipping fee of $150...
          • groovechamp30, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Thats because of ebays exorbitant final value fees, they dont charge final value fees on postage.
    • Myonosken, on 05/09/2008, -0/+7They've already started dicking up Freecycle. Some guy asked about taking my TV off me- fair enough I wanted to get rid of it- then I discovered he had asked for EVERY OTHER TV on the site and was flogging them on.
    • kelmaster1, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5Anything on the internet that becomes popular with the masses gets ruined...... wait, what?
    • victordelprete, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4Actually eBay was buggy as hell at first. For those that remember eBay in '97 it was annoying as hell. The search didn't work and the site constantly crashed. The database integrity was flawed completely... It got better around '99.
  • lhbaker, on 05/09/2008, -46/+12I hate to admit this, but I listed a brand new Wii with extra games and controllers, and it sold for $150 less than I paid retail... to a guy in Canada. We both agreed I was getting screwed and he let it go. Canadians are very polite, but eBay sucks.
    • FatLoser, on 05/09/2008, -4/+42I don't know how to feel about your situation. I commend the Canadian for releasing you from the contract, but I imagine you are the one who brought up the "unfairness" of the selling price. Anybody who buys something from a seller who thinks it was "too cheap" knows that those deals never go anywhere good. He probably was shrewd and realized you were going to make up some story about him just to get out of the deal, and figured it wasn't worth the negative rating and weeks of hassle. I'm getting angry just thinking about the situation. Please elaborate and assure me that you didn't try to pull that crap, and that you would have gone through with the deal if he wanted to.
      • lhbaker, on 05/09/2008, -6/+2I actually set the ad up at Auctiva to be scheduled for listing, and wasn't done designing it. I never scheduled it to list (not intentionally, anyway), and didn't know it did until there was something like 7 minutes on the auction. Truth. I never relisted the item.
    • PhoenixAvatar2, on 05/09/2008, -0/+34It's your fault you didn't put a half decent reserve bid. They're there for a reason.
    • greenlight2001, on 05/09/2008, -1/+35Next time, put a ***** starting bid higher than 99 cents. The fair thing to do would have been to send him the Wii and accept the bid.
      • TheFinaleofSeem, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Actually, starting at 99 cents (or 9.99, at least) is a good way to get a HIGHER bid. More people get interested and invested in the item early on, which means they're more likely to bid higher on it than if you list it at $199 starting and they look for one that has a currently cheaper bid. A reserve might have been a good idea, though.
    • yogiincork, on 05/09/2008, -2/+9isn't it the purpose of ebay that you can buy things with a lower price than the retail price?
      • rezonq3, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1I dugg you down not because you said or did anything offensive, or that what you feel about eBay is wrong the majority of the time, but fundamentally, eBay is a free market system where buyers and sellers get together and decide on prices of goods sold. Very different from our current 'Free Market' system where you go to a Best Buy and just bend over for whatever price they are going to shove up your ass. In most cases, things you buy are worth far less than what you normally pay for them. However, if you have heard any stories about the drastically high selling price of initial Wii postings and Xbox 360 postings, you will notice that not all purchases are going to be less. Wii's particularly are priced low considering their demand and supply. Does that mean everyone is going to buy them at 350$ a piece? No, but many will...Hence why people are still making a profit on them in nearly every sale. I'm with you though, I go to eBay only for the reasonable and rational selling price of many bs items people pay ten times more for in the stores. So really, you are using eBay for the only thing it's good for ;)
    • duo8675309, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5I put up an Amazing Spiderman issue #252 that I originally paid $24 for. I was hoping it would sell for at least close to that amount.

      I sold it for $2.50. Lesson learned. Next time I'm putting a starter bid on it.
    • spawnfree, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2work out what you want for the item, list it as buy it now only.
      also tick the box for 'immediate payment required through paypal.'
      this cuts out all the gimps who use a new account to place a huge bid on your item and then not pay, presumably to knobble your auction so their similar item gets more attention.
      eBay does suck, but its still the best place to sell/buy small items.
    • pir800, on 05/09/2008, -0/+8I remember when I won this cheap wii from an american dude, and he tried to back out. oh wait.. YOU'RE A DOUCHE.
  • Gforce20, on 05/09/2008, -5/+52Why are there still 419 scammers? Do they seriously still think people will fall for those lies? :|
    • RevJonathan, on 05/09/2008, -1/+82They wouldn't do it if it didn't work.
    • dvsbastard, on 05/09/2008, -0/+121Knowing why these 419 scammers exist is the key to making millions of dollars... I will tell you how, but first you will need to transfer some money to me (through western union) so I can send this valuable information to you...
      • da_bradler, on 05/09/2008, -1/+13! tell you what I will send you a check for 5000 dollars you can deposit it in your bank keep 4000 of it and western union me the other 1000(we are testing our account). Please if you could help us out you could make a lot of money and we would be very gratefull(I promise the check won't bounce a week later leaving you with negative 1000 dollars)
      • McHaleR, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2where doi sign up?
    • johnlandes, on 05/09/2008, -12/+37Those are the same people that make up W's 28% approval rating
      • RevJonathan, on 05/09/2008, -13/+4Woah woah woah.... there ARE limits dude.
        • samw1ns, on 05/09/2008, -3/+7there are no limits to George Bush's stupidity
        • Magnus150, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1Sounds like someone is a part of the 28%
      • LameTacomeat, on 05/09/2008, -5/+2I'm sorry, but that was rather inappropriate.
      • Dibou, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Quick, name a subject liberals can't politicize!
    • bxblox, on 05/09/2008, -0/+22There's a sucker born every minute. Some of them have money.
    • Kzoo, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2They'll exist until people actually do stop falling for them.
    • diulei, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5Sadly, I know someone who did. And I warned him at least 5 times. This guy is really broke too... the greed got him.
      • theshizzler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5Cease all contact immediately. That level of stupid could be contagious.
    • Rulsky, on 05/09/2008, -0/+9The Nigerians are still making a huge profit, it is estimated that in the UK alone people lost last year more than £150 million, that's more than $300 million US dollars. And get this, the majority of the people were elderly who really believed the emails they got about helping someone out to get their millions out of the country. This report is from Nov 2006, but it still continues.
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6163700.stm
    • barddzen, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Yeah and I turned off all my SPAM filters because nobody falls for them any more. Idiots, all of them.
    • mustafya, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Last year a friend of mine got caught. He actually accepted a money order and sent a diamond ring to nigeria. He's a dumbass but evidently there's enough of them to keep it going.
    • Vet4Peace, on 05/09/2008, -8/+8Preachers have been scamming people for millenium...and people are still falling for that. Scammers will always be with us because there will always be dumb asses with money.
      • rrasco, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Amen to that brother.
      • justice7, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3you didnt just seriously throw an anti religion spin on this did you? douche.
      • Dibou, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Quick, name a subject that liberals can't inject their anti-religion into!
    • gman0819, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2These Nigerian scammers are everywhere. There was a "nice 3bed/2bath house" that I wanted to rent but the "owner" tried to convince me to send the first month and deposit through Western Union to Nigeria, then he will mail me the keys... How convenient.
    • Arsinoe, on 05/09/2008, -1/+0 There is a saying, "You can't fool an honest man," which is much quoted by people who make a profitable living by fooling honest men. Moist never tried it, knowingly anyway. If you did fool an honest man, he tended to complain to the Watch, and these days they were harder to buy off. Fooling dishonest men was a lot safer and, somehow, more sporting. And, of course, there were so many more of them. You hardly had to aim.

      ---from Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
  • amdforever, on 05/09/2008, -62/+9Digg needs to stop linking to Consumerist.

    That blog is a place where people literally puke a bucket full of ***** out of their mouth. It's like 2girl1cup played in reverse.
    • Henman, on 05/09/2008, -0/+16They actually do that a few times in 2girls1cup so you wouldn't have to play it in reverse.
    • PhoenixAvatar2, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5Judging from the comments here, it looks like they got it right for once.
  • kratsnitram, on 05/09/2008, -33/+6Consumerist is broken.
  • thelastcivilian, on 05/09/2008, -4/+91I hate to say it as it blankets a whole nation, but blocking IP addresses from Nigeria might do some good for sites like eBay. (Yeah, they could get around it by using proxies, but it at least puts another roadblock in the way)
    • cdawzrd, on 05/09/2008, -10/+29That's a very slippery slope.
    • inverselogic, on 05/09/2008, -1/+20Good idea, no one cares about Nigeria ;)
    • farfegnugen, on 05/09/2008, -0/+43But what about all the Nigerian princes that have great fortunes they want to spend?
      • misterjangles, on 05/09/2008, -0/+17That is true, however the prince's funds are currently tied up and he desperately needs your help. If you would only agree to have the funds transferred to your US account, he would gladly offer you 5%
        • Rulsky, on 05/09/2008, -0/+8I have funds available in the UK right now, do you want me to send you my bank account information so we can make a deal? I'd like to help this poor Nigerian prince to get their money. Are you the same person signing this letter?

          My Dear,

          I am Mr.Douglas Amed the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department Bank Of Africa.

          In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$14.5M (fourteen million five hundred thousand US dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his family in the 2000 in a plane crash.

          Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guide lines and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died along side with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

          It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

          The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after eight years, the money will be transferred into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund.

          The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Ivoirien cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.

          I agree that 45% of this money will be for you as respect to the provision of a foreign account, 5% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 50% be for me.

          Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated. Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where the money will be transfer.

          Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.

          You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this mail, Trusting to hear from you immediately.

          Yours Faithfully,

          Mr. Douglas Amed,
          PLEASE EMAIL ME AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE THIS MAIL OK.
        • dynamited, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Hey Douglas, sure.... if you could just send me 20 quid to be able to get a taxi to visit my bank.... im sure to send you the money you need.
          heh
    • inverselogic, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Prince Akim?.....
    • pandorazboxx, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Maybe not just blocking IP addresses, but at least a little more verification that you're not a scammer. And they should be able to shut you out after 1 or 2 bad transactions like amazon does. (happened to me, but the post office lost 2 books so I got screwed)
    • Myonosken, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5I'd like to see how few legitimate Nigerian accounts there are- the country is poor as *****.
    • cipicip, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1They could also block proxies. Google ads style ;)
    • lilSears, on 05/09/2008, -1/+7throw an EMP bomb over nigeria. that'll fix it.

      they don't need electricity to eat right?
  • n8r0n, on 05/09/2008, -6/+32I have not used ebay in years. I think the last time I used it was in 2000 or 2001. It has become a cesspool of items listed by hoarders and people who read "how to make money on ebay" books. I find better deals in the classifieds and "thrifty nickel" and "penny saver" papers. Craigslist is getting overrun with hoarders as well.
    • bxblox, on 05/09/2008, -1/+6Whats a hoarder?
      /seriously asking
      • n8r0n, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5A hoarder is a person who buys large amounts of a single item that they thing will increase drastically in value and they will try to sell them on ebay for an inflated price.
      • captZEEbo, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1lol. If by hoarder you mean every business in the world, then yes.
  • RevJonathan, on 05/09/2008, -4/+510Dear Google,
    Please make an eBay competitor for ***** *****'s sake.
    Thanks,
    Me
    • slayernine, on 05/09/2008, -2/+90Google probably has this one in the works already, just trying to figure out the perfect anti-scam algorithm I bet.
      • JaredXM, on 05/09/2008, -1/+58If they just use the captcha with the cats and dogs I'm sure it'd work.
        • daverave999, on 05/09/2008, -0/+10Or a grammar test.
        • itspuddingtime, on 05/09/2008, -1/+6perhaps a "translate the lolcat phrase" captcha would work
        • ClawBlade, on 05/09/2008, -3/+2I can has moar gbay plz?
    • cdawzrd, on 05/09/2008, -1/+28And make it have protection against hoarders and other businesses who take advantage of supposedly personal auction sites.
      • logandurand, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1At what point does a "personal auction" become a business? It's a serious question; if I buy and sell often, am I a "business"?
        • aeoo, on 05/10/2008, -0/+2I'd just come up with an arbitrary limit and let it be that. There is no point in getting all philosophical about the exact point at which you become a business. Rather a limit is set. It is arbitrary. We know it's arbitrary and accept it for pragmatic reasons. Case closed.

          We already do this in so many places. Like go to a backup site and there is an arbitrary limit of 10mb max file length there, or some such. Why 10? Why not 12? Why not 12.67655? It doesn't matter.
    • jerrycurley, on 05/09/2008, -29/+3Uhhh...again...you DO realize that other than Search and Ad sense, Google has not even COME CLOSE to making a dent in any other web service. So your notion that they could, or would come in and take on Ebay is compeltely absurd.
      • jamesLankford, on 05/09/2008, -2/+20no its not you retard
        • jerrycurley, on 05/09/2008, -4/+0Uhhh.. yeqah it is.
          • spawnfree, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1hmm, google auctions linked right on my home page.
            and the home page of everyone i know, including some 200 clients.
      • kyouteki, on 05/09/2008, -0/+26What about email? Who doesn't have a gmail account nowadays?
        • jerrycurley, on 05/09/2008, -4/+0Consdiering their market share is under 10%...most people
          • Verdanic, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I think the market share accounts for what people use PRIMARILY. I have a few GMail accounts which I use actively but use my own servers as my primary email service.
          • jerrycurley, on 05/09/2008, -1/+0Bottopm line is that there are FAR fewer Gmail accounts active than Hotmail and Yahoo. It simply has NOT penetrated the market like Diggers seem to think. If you ask 100 people on the street what Google services they have used, very few will say anything but search.
      • omeomi, on 05/09/2008, -0/+23You've never heard of Google Maps or Gmail?
      • Murdats, on 05/09/2008, -1/+18google maps (earth, mars, space, moon included), gmail, google docs, google calendar, google reader, youtube etc
        I know people who use all of these on a daily basis (myself included) and all of those arent just search or adsense
        • jerrycurley, on 05/09/2008, -7/+1Yeah...agian, you ***** idiot...EVERY single thing you mentioned has SINGLE DIGIT market penetration. (Other than YouTube...which they did not created.they BOUGHT to make up for Google Video which was similarly a failure.) So, unless you consider the Sandisk a success in MP3, than Gmail is a failure. Sandisk has a higher market share. And the Zune would be a monumentous success based on your criteria.

          What I said is 100% accurate...Other than Search and Ad sense, every other Google service is nothing but a tiny blip on the radar of the market. And so far, not one single thing but ad sense has turned a single penny of profit for Google.
          • Murdats, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3so seeing as google uses all these services as a way to distribute more adsense, how are they a failure?
            if adsense is the only thing making them money, then these services which help increase the proliferation of adsense by extension make them money.
          • Verdanic, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2You want to find an address you've been given and have to go to in an hour. You either go to Google Maps or Mapquest, and myself and just about everybody I know, I think, use Google Maps.
      • greenlikematt, on 05/09/2008, -1/+9dugg down because google can do anything.
      • Vet4Peace, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5If Ebay is broken, and Google can figure out a way to avoid the same pitfalls....why couldn't they do it?
    • haikuFU, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1They could protect against the buyer being a scammer by requiring an escrow payment on your bid amounts through google Checkout, and the money is released to the seller on auction end, or back to you if you lost the auction.

      Protecting against shady sellers, that's a bit more difficult.

      Google kind of strikes me as a company that wants to code their solution for everything, but I don't think it would be possible to code a solution for the normal management and customer support that a large auction site with scammers or potential scammers needs.
      • misterjangles, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2i actually found you have more protection as a buyer than as a seller on ebay. if you scam somebody as a seller, you have to figure out how to get the money into your bank account. The buyer just needs a stolen PayPal account and a PO box and it's practically untraceable. that's why scammers have moved into the buying business! I had some very similar problems. I think an escrow is the only way i would ever sell a laptop on ebay. it's unfortunate that phony escrows were used so much that people often don't trust the legitimate ones.
    • digitallysick, on 05/09/2008, -0/+15They could put ebay out of business quick, i don't know what the hold up is , we really need it
    • Ikulus, on 05/09/2008, -2/+22They need to cap the number of items sold by one person over a given time period. That should cut down on the businesses and return eBay to the international yard sale it once was.
      • groovechamp30, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Yeah right, like theyd ever do that? That would be like saying "OK lets cut our profits by 50% this year!"
        • Ikulus, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4eBay wouldn't, but Google might.
          • groovechamp30, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Google won't make an Ebay alternative because it conflicts with their incredibly profitable adwords business.
      • Envark, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5What's wrong with businesses selling items in bulk on eBay?
        Seriously, I don't see why it is a bad thing.
        • captZEEbo, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3people seem to think that making money = evil
        • MaxPayne3476, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1the problem is that most people spam up Ebay with their "Gas savers, CD rippers, or Ebooks" and it really ruins the site
      • logandurand, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2What's so bad about eBay "businesses"? I've gotten some of my best deals from "power sellers" who buy in bulk.
    • chrissku, on 05/09/2008, -12/+1Anyone know a way we could start a site relatively cheap? Email me. Chrisku0613@yahoo.com
    • hundalz, on 05/09/2008, -0/+11Why Google ? Amazon already have something that allows normal folks to sell things, called the Marketplace. I have to admit that its not the easiest thing to setup, but it does work. The up side is that you get the whole of Amazon's diverse customer base, on the other hand, the down side is that it's not auction based (you loose out on the whole bidding experience, which might push up the value of your item). Just a thought that maybe Amazon should really be doing this rather than Google - they already have a huge loyal customer base and do have the weight to roll out something that might challenge ebay!
    • HoratioHellpop, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1... And 5-10 years from now, you'll be asking another entity to do the same thing.
    • Ganja420, on 05/09/2008, -5/+3froogle ?
    • imitokay, on 05/09/2008, -6/+1eBay would def. sue them though
      • TheLD, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2For adding competition? I doubt it.
        • imitokay, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2no because ebay is a bunch of assholes, im guessing you missed the article about them going after craigslist
    • ep53, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4I can see where you are coming from but for me ebay is the complete oposite. 1 Week ago i needed a new webcam, so i popped on to ebay found the webcam listings and BOOM! Pages and pages of webcams (albeit alot of duplicates) but i had alot of choice and ended up buying one for $20 which has semi-nightvision, and am very happy with my purchase. Just one mans experience.
    • themoose, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1They actually have one, it's not great though.
      http://base.google.com/
      I guess it's more like craigslist than eBay.
    • GreenAlien, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1There have been a couple of ebay-wannabees in the UK. One just got shut down and the other never took off. We all want an Ebay competitor but nobody will initially use it when Ebay already has such a rich selection of things to bid on. The first to figure it out will make a ton of money (assuming Ebay dont sue them, which they will).
    • fatherdaly, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Google: it takes everything that is ***** about the internet, and makes it good.
    • ElBeh, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Amazon is a nice alternative. Their bidding isn't as elaborate as eBay's, but it still works.
    • groovechamp30, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Ebay alternatives : qxl.com + ubid.com.
  • h4mx0r, on 05/09/2008, -3/+18Jesus, it's a dead world out there.
  • crapmatic, on 05/09/2008, -0/+38What will it take to get some competition against eBay and Paypal?
    • lovecss, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5Google Checkout is already out in the wild. I'd be surprised if Google weren't already working on an eBay competitor, too.
    • GreenAlien, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I'm not sure it's in their radar. They make a ton of cash from advertising, then waste half of it on freebies. I doubt they even know how to make money from anything other than advertising. It's just easy money for them.
  • gweedo767, on 05/09/2008, -0/+19I just sold a laptop on eBay. My first auction ended with a Nigerian scammer trying to get it, the second go was a legit customer thankfully.
    • lovecss, on 05/09/2008, -0/+10When it comes to selling laptops and other highly priced hardware, I'm more tempted to do a Buy It Now auction and set it so the buyer must pay before he/she is the confirmed auction winner.
    • cdbeshore, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1same here. except mine was somebody from poland who wanted me to ship somewhere in the states. it smelled funny, like tuna and cheese. the process to cancel the bid sucked.
      • silentpl, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1you mean some immigrant with a localized Polish ebay account ?
        Still dodgy though.
  • jesuswuzanalien, on 05/09/2008, -24/+6Looks like they've just been mast-eBaytin too much if ya know what I mean.
  • motogoat, on 05/09/2008, -14/+107This is retarded. All you have to do is enable certain conditions for which bidders can make bids on your item. Don't allow international bids on high-end electronics stuff. Simple as that.
    I can't believe I read that long diatribe about this dude whining about Nigerian bidders.
    • Hangly, on 05/09/2008, -3/+76So that's the reason legitimate customers outside the US like me can't get anything off Ebay.
      • bonds, on 05/09/2008, -1/+44Yeah pretty much
        • groovechamp30, on 05/09/2008, -6/+3Er...no? You just use Ebay.co.uk, ebay.de, ebay.nl, ebay.cn, ebay.jp or whatever country you are in.
        • DracoFlameus, on 05/09/2008, -4/+1Yeah that makes much sense when u live in a small country where the offer is quite limited.
      • pk7677, on 05/09/2008, -7/+1Yes but they still can't buy stuff from the US.
    • lijamez, on 05/09/2008, -6/+13Well clearly you didn't read the whole thing.

      "there's an option to restrict bidding to people in the U.S. only. While this won't prevent scammers who have hijacked U.S. accounts from bidding, it will at least cut down on the number of international bids."
    • SillyDigger, on 05/09/2008, -7/+14"I can't believe I read that long diatribe about this dude whining about Nigerian bidders."

      Welcome to the consumerist. I refuse to digg them because most of their articles are overblown and extra whiny.
      • MaxPayne3476, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1it's weird how much this is really becoming true!
    • SasquatchBill, on 05/09/2008, -2/+11Clearly you're wrong. The article quite obviously states it is "IMPOSSIBLE" to sell a laptop on ebay. The consumerist does not lie, nor does it ever... EVER... make overblown statements.
    • misterjangles, on 05/09/2008, -0/+7i tried that - scammers use US accounts to bid and then make up some phony baloney story after they win - and they bid ridiculously high so no legit bidders have a chance of winning the auction. What do they care? they're gonna use a stolen PayPal account anyway. After they win, they will send you some complicated story about how you have to ship in it some certain way, etc. They will claim they are in the military stationed in Israel, or business trip to Nigeria, etc. Nigeria is an obvious red flag, but there are some scammers who are much smarter. Try selling a laptop on ebay and you'll see what this guy is talking about.
    • cvrefugee, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5You can easily sell high-priced items on eBay and avoid the scammers. There's an option for the seller to approve a bid, that way you can filter out any bad accounts.
    • BabyWookie, on 05/09/2008, -0/+7Sorry, but you are wrong here. These people mostly use hacked US accounts in the first place. I never had my account locked out like this guy, but I did have to relist multiple times because of Nigerians before. My auctions are always "US-only".
    • da_bradler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4***** I'm from Canada and I refuse to do business with anybody outside my country. In country scammers are very easy to spot seeing as you are familiar with the way transaction and shipping should be handled. Once you start shipping out of country everything just gets way more complicated.
    • DavidtheDuke, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I screen my bidders: you can make it to where only bidders you approve of can enter a auction. I've done this twice with no hiccups, both times the bidder paid IMMEDIATELY after auction.
    • postalblowfish7, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2i think the bigger issue was ebay's auto-locking of his account, and the complete lack of real customer service outside of chatbots and form letters.

      welcome to the human-devoid robot world.
  • marksands07, on 05/09/2008, -10/+1craigslist?
    • GreenAlien, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Show me a website that doesnt look like my keyboard threw up over it and I'll be happy to use it.
  • slayernine, on 05/09/2008, -0/+13Same story with craigslist these days. I tired listing my laptop on several popular auction/listing websites and ran in into scam after scam.

    Its really a crappy situation for those of us trying to sell off our old/new higher end electronics. It would be great if they just blocked off internet access to Nigeria.
    • violentvinyl, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5Your using it wrong, it says right at the top of EVERY post "deal locally".
    • disher91, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3I've been trying to sell my laptop on craigslist too. 12 requests to ship to Nigeria. 1 to Germany too...
      • Myonosken, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3So why didn't you take the Germany one? They aren't ALL cannibals.
    • captZEEbo, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3personally, I'd prefer if we just nuke nigeria.
  • kennyg1055, on 05/09/2008, -2/+137eBay should just blacklist the whole country of Nigeria..that would fix it
    • musntSurfatWork, on 05/09/2008, -1/+21and Thialand please. oh, a-and any other country selling the same item 7564 times 87 pages in a row.
      • brad3378, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1I've never understood that practice.
        Doesn't it cost them money to place every single item?
        Why not list an item only once and pay only one fee?
    • Hangly, on 05/09/2008, -3/+4They'll just use a proxy.
      • CAPITALLETTERS, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3They should also block all open proxies then.
        • MacSuxWindozSux, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Not the computer type kind of proxy. An address in another country.
    • dn11, on 05/09/2008, -0/+36Paypal has blacklisted Nigeria, but you will get these hilarious stories from bidders "I must send money from friend in Canada, you send laptop express over nite, I will spend double price. we agree A OK?"
    • da_bradler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2There seems to be a big problem with Italy as well. Everybody refuses to do business with Italy it seems.
      • superstewy, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1It's because their postal system sucks. You want your item to get lost? Ship it to Italy.
    • Desolite, on 05/09/2008, -0/+13I think Nigeria is already on the black list...
    • robotderek42, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3Black list? Are you racist?

      /sarcasm
    • geoff1210, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I think we should take away Nigeria's internets, this is why they can't have nice things.
  • musntSurfatWork, on 05/09/2008, -9/+2I'll give you $50 for your laptop.
    ..+$300 for your lost ebay fees and time.
    Go to a church bazaar. You can sell anything to anyone there. Honestly. HONESTLY.
    • itsameericle, on 05/09/2008, -0/+6Who throws a shoe? Honestly!?
    • ross., on 05/09/2008, -4/+12But then you'd have to put up with bible bashers..possibly worse than a 419 scammer.
      • ross., on 05/09/2008, -0/+2LOL first I got dugg up, then back down. Wonder who did the down votes.
  • xbandaidx, on 05/09/2008, -1/+12My favorite one so far was some guy wanted to buy his wife a laptop on their anniversary, and that she just happened to be in Nigeria on a sabbatical, and wanted it shipped there.

    Another one was that my laptop was a RARE model that had very HIGH demand for in Nigeria.

    It goes on and on, so yeah word of advice don't bother with eBay on laptops.
    • jp12380, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4Sounds like it might be kind of fun to mess with them.
    • Rulsky, on 05/09/2008, -0/+10The best excuse I got is when supposedly the guy was living in London but his son has just started college in Nigeria.

      Who wants to start university in Nigeria when you are already living int the UK?
    • cadenine, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Mine was a grandfather buying an my wife's ipod for his grandson (in Nigeria). REALLY? A pink iPod mini for your grandson, i'm sure he is gonna love it!
    • GreenAlien, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Best thing is to send them replies saying how excited you are about their offer, get their hopes up and then just keep them waiting. Well actually the best thing is just to ignore them but that's not as satisfying.
  • ufia, on 05/09/2008, -2/+114NEGATIVE: Seller wouldn't give bank account number to transfer the monies. Won't deal with again!
    • jp12380, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4I will just need your sort code.
      • GreenAlien, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Unfortunately your sort code isnt a very secret bit of info. Along with your account number. They both appear on cheques (checks).
    • MalkyMalc, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5It's totally innocent sir...
  • liljay2k, on 05/09/2008, -14/+2dont let your wife read this article msaleem, she'll find out that YOU USED TO buy her gifts from egay
    • DforSpiD, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5Do words like 'egay' actually seem witty to you?
    • yayintertubes, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3"egay" ahahahaha! ahaha.. ahaehm. Now please die in a ***** carcrash.
    • GreenAlien, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Poor liljay2k.He probably made an innocent typo then people question his wit and tell him to have a fatal carcrash.
  • petrodollar, on 05/09/2008, -7/+22I've bought some pretty sweet bicycles on Ebay and turned around and sold them at a profit on craigslist. Occasionally some dumbass will put up a listing that's just titled "Pinarello" or something and include a fuzzy, *****-ass picture and no stats about the bike. Hardly anyone bids on them so I end up getting them for close to the starting amount. I got a kickass mid-80s Trek 720 for $75 last year and sold it for $400. Sometimes they'll come with nice components like Brooks saddles and egg beater pedals that are worth more than I paid for the bike. My current ride is a sweet early 90s stumpjumper with all XT and XTR components that I got for $150. The title of the listing was "mountain bike."
    • robalesi, on 05/09/2008, -1/+11Hmm... seems you've got a nice little story there.
    • MrLarryLarry, on 05/09/2008, -9/+3Jim. Dangle.

      I hope someone steals ur bike.
    • ColorBlind, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2Must be nice to have all that extra money to throw around on a whim.
      • petrodollar, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I've never paid above $300 with shipping. $150 + $50 shipping is pretty standard on there for a steel road bike. From there it's just a matter of either looking at the pics and trying to determine exactly what you're looking at.

        Look at the link I posted above. The third picture down on the left looks like it says "RB1." If the seller put RB1 anywhere in the title or description there would be a lot more activity on that auction.

        Read this comment thread where someone from SF says he's buying an RB1 for $750: http://www.serotta.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-2 ...
    • Barbarino, on 05/09/2008, -0/+13Did you take it off any sweet jumps?
    • GreenAlien, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Great story and thanks for sharing. Though when you have a luctrative money making scheme its not the best business sense to brag about it on a thread seen by thousands.
      • petrodollar, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I do this maybe twice a year tops. Others are welcome to do the same.
    • veriix, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2Thats cool man, I have a bike too. I think I bought it at K-mart or Target or something. It's got 2 wheels, pretty sweet ride.
  • RetlawST, on 05/09/2008, -0/+17I had this Quebecer tard try to scam me a couple of years ago. Multiple times the paypal transaction begin, I'd get an email from him telling me I could ship it, only to have the transaction canceled a day before it was going to be approved. This was for a pimped out G5 I no longer needed.

    Thankfully one of my friends spoke fluent french, and I ended up calling him. Turns out it was a 15 year old boy whose mother was getting suspicious of all of the ***** he was suddenly able to afford.
    • MutexLocked, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Or maybe there was no son, and the "mother" was the one scamming you all along!
    • Yareking, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Im a quebecer and i got almost scam with a guy from boston. My local police didnt give a ***** and the boston police didnt give a ***** too
  • musntSurfatWork, on 05/09/2008, -5/+0KIJIJI PEOPLE!
  • anchorman, on 05/09/2008, -0/+34I used to be a Power Seller on eBay. Now, I might list one thing a year just to see if it still sucks. It does.
  • dagamer34, on 05/09/2008, -2/+7Craigslist > eBay. And you can take that to the bank.

    Too bad eBay owns like 25% of Craigslist. I can see them playing around with their ownership to take down the company and the site.
    • serval, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Craigslist won't be messed with by ebay - CL is a privately held company with a right of first refusal over the sale of shares. If anyone tries to sell (currently employees, former employees, and ebay have shares) then CL can buy those shares or simply create MORE shares thus diluting any current shareholder's proportion to the point that they cannot influence or "mess with" CL.

      That being said, there is current litigation initiated by ebay. Oy.
  • Hangly, on 05/09/2008, -0/+38Someone famous once observed that a society simply ceases to function once a certain percentage of its members are dishonest.

    I think he put the figure at around 30%, but realistically I think 5% is all that's necessary for things to fall apart.
    • inverselogic, on 05/09/2008, -0/+12Who was that?(Not sarcastic *****, I actually want to know)
      • Hangly, on 05/09/2008, -0/+6I wish I knew. Someone quoted it to me :(
      • jawbreaker4fs, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5Well.... in Plato's Republic, he states that injustice destroys harmony of the city, ts ability to function well and act in concert. Maybe that's what is being referred to?
      • SuperWinner, on 05/09/2008, -0/+6His name was Sarcastic *****, no really...
    • WoollyMittens, on 05/09/2008, -1/+7I think anonymity decreases the % needed tio ruin things considerably. People are more honest when they know they'll be tar and feathered otherwise.
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 05/09/2008, -6/+3"Someone famous once observed that a society simply ceases to function once a certain percentage of its members are dishonest."

      Lol no *****. That doesn't tell us anything.
      Like the kind of thing a fortune teller would say.
      • inverselogic, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5Well its true, look at Communism.. it only works on Star Trek..or is Star Trek considered Utopian?
    • requiem3, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3Someone famous on the internet once told me that 70% of people on the internet make up statistics, but realistically I think the number is closer to 90%.
    • hinchb, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1Society isn't going to fall apart because people can't sell electronics on ebay.
  • chubbybubba, on 05/09/2008, -25/+5Stop whining. If you don't want to deal with the headache of selling your laptop just give your laptop away or donate it. With all the people who use eBay to sell junk, you're all upset because you're not treated special. Get a grip on reality man.
    • WoollyMittens, on 05/09/2008, -0/+8It is customary to actualy READ the article before posting your reply.
  • cowsgonemadd3, on 05/09/2008, -2/+10Preferences/select what countries can bid on your item and even what feedback rating. DONE...
    Now that was easy. This comes from a newly appointed power seller yay...
  • bobbydiamondz, on 05/09/2008, -1/+26I agree that eBay has changed for the worse. However, I've sold several laptops on eBay in the last year. No Nigerian scammers. I don't allow international bids, and I required PayPal payment immediately. Maybe I got lucky, but with those conditions, it wasn't difficult at all.
    • da_bradler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3that's exactly what I do, your best bet is only offering buy it now immediate payment via confirmed paypal no international. I don't even get very many scam questions.
    • MiamiRox, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Me too, I never do business with anyone outside of the US, too much of a hassle (& Im too lazy to fill out a customs form).
      I did however take a risk once and bought something from someone in Bangkok and was satisfied with the whole transaction, but I've blacklisted the entire continent of Africa.
  • Kerath, on 05/09/2008, -1/+17He should send them something "interesting" and give them the tracking number.
  • barnis, on 05/09/2008, -0/+14well as an ebay buyer who currently lives in japan I DO appreciate that I can still try and use ebay to buy items for shipment here. I hope that ebay doesnt start walling off the site to avoid a the scammers...

    anyway reminds me of this which was a nice (tho not so simply) solutiuon

    http://joi.ito.com/images2/thepowerbook.pdf
    • Trichomonas, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4I read all 28 pages. It was pretty well documented. Good read if you have nothing better to do.
      • Kyan, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Cliff's notes, please?
        • minigamer1896, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Scammer "buys" Apple G4 Notebook via a fake escrow.
          The seller and a forum sends over to the UK a white binder that has "P-P-Powerbook!" and the Apple logo on the top, a bunch of keys taped to the inside of it, and some hilarious faux "notebook" drawings. A "wireless laser" MS serial mouse, and a taped-up Excel 97 book, pencil shavings, and possibly gross pictures were also sent.
          And, oh yeah, the scammer had to pay duty ($$$) for it.
    • jstearns, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I need to know what happened!!!!
    • FecalHurler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Dude what a tease. What did the scammer write back??
    • Yareking, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1What is thw website they refer to?
  • LZeppelinJ0, on 05/09/2008, -0/+6Although Craigslist isn't as bad, there are plenty of people on Craigslist who will spam your mailbox asking to ship to Nigeria. At least you can ignore those and get to the emails that really matter.
  • diizy, on 05/09/2008, -1/+6They should just ban all Nigerian IP's. My work's payement processor does that... Handy!
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Doesn't work. It's too easy to use a proxy or the TOR network.
      The only way is to confirm payment up front. After that you ship the goods.

      And the special case of a laptop, make certain you wipe the hard drive, as it may contain personal information.
  • Neorio, on 05/09/2008, -0/+14Ebay lost me a long time ago when I tried to pay sellers fees by money order as I didn't have a credit card. Every time I sent mail asking for information on how to do this, I was sent a generic email telling me instructions on how to do this that didn't work - and every time I wrote a lengthy, polite, and detail ed message of my problem - I got the same incorrect generic email in response. Eventually eBay decided to boot me for not paying, once again ignoring any plea from me that I was unable to because their customer service failed me completely.

    I'm still bitter
    • bxblox, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Try pre-paid check cards
      • Kzoo, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Currently, that would be a good suggestion, but considering this happened "a long time ago," that may not have been a viable option at the time.
  • thewump, on 05/09/2008, -1/+52Glad I don't live in Nigeria and need a used laptop.
    • yayintertubes, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5***** em, they've brought it on themselves.
  • stogiesam88, on 05/09/2008, -3/+8ebay. sucks. balls.
  • gaoshan, on 05/09/2008, -4/+4Just to show that the corruption can be anywhere, my neighbor caught an Amish woman (this is in rural NE Ohio... the local Wal-Mart has official, modern horse and buggy parking) switching price tags at her garage sale. I mean, we're talking about losing your honor and integrity over 50 f'ing cents!
    • daizaru, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Amish people can shop at Wal-Mart? I didn't think that would be tolerated.
      • bxblox, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1When i drive cross country I always run into a few amish people at highway rest stops and such buying something in the convenience stores.
        • daizaru, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Neat, I learned something. I guess there really are limitations to staying old fashioned while the rest of the world is evolving around you. I'd just never really considered it before.
      • TheMidnight, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Amish can't. Mennonites, however, can. They are a closely related Anabaptist sect that has similar beliefs to the Amish but is more tolerant of the outside, modern world.
    • SeaOtter, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3It's okay, you can say *****.
  • Wootstapler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1That's just really sad to read.
  • fuzzynyanko, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Anyone have any info on ubid, amazon's marketplace, or any other auction site?
    • heir0fisildur, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1www.wikipedia.com
    • vagabond45, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I buy and sell on amazon and have done so for years. I haven't had a problem one there. Meanwhile, I have to constantly change my password for paypal. I've given up on eBay. Amazon works for me.
    • jeffinfremont, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1I've sold on Amazon.com for nearly a decade. It's easy to use and very productive, but you have very little margin for error, especially if you're a new seller. They'll monitor your activity like a hawk, and at the first sign that you're going to be trouble, they'll ban you from the site
  • jamueller, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2after reading this i removed my credit card from my account
  • Khast, on 05/09/2008, -0/+10eBay is definitely screwing it's source of income.

    >From jacking it's fees up above 10% for the final value fee.
    >"Lowering" listing fees doesn't mean paying more to list items...we aren't stupid.
    >Sellers not able to leave negative feedback? Yeah, I can see nipping the retaliatory feedback, but if your only way of solving the problem is to @$$R@Pe the sellers, by leaving them open to blackmail. Just because the seller can't leave a negative for no reason doesn't mean the buyer can't maliciously leave a negative because you weren't willing to bend over to their demands.
    >Making all your "live help" so hard to get answers from....oh wait, they are chat bots..how cheap can you get? (And if they aren't chat bots, why do they give keyword responses...rather than dealing with the actual complaint?)

    Me, for one, would like eBay to go back to the original online garage sale...and ditch the shopping mall with higher prices. Some of it's features are actually quite useful...and others are down right useless.
    • TiMMY8765, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1alot of places the live help sounds like chatbots because they have hotkeys for common responses programmed in. linksys and newegg both have this type of service. ebay uses chatbots though I'm pretty sure
    • da_bradler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1What I hate the most is when you spot a scam listing, reporting it is a huge pain in the ass. I mean you'll see a listing for a 10 000 dollar item going for 1500 and the person listing the same item 10 times using a picture from another persons auction. Then after spending 10 minutes digging threw ebays support you report the auction and 5 days later it's still there.

      I'm will to do the work and point out fraud auctions whenever I'm on there but if there just going to ignore people trying to help them that whole site can go ***** itself.
  • davidg11, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3Hey, what the hell? Have you ever thought that Nigerians just want a nice laptop to play with in the sand?
    • jp12380, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Yeah I mean come on give them a shot. I'm sure they wouldn't lie to you, I'm sure the payment would go through when you give them the tracking number.
    • yayintertubes, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5There are entire villages in Nigeria where 90% of residents make a full-time income in cyber cafes robbing westerners. ***** them. Kick them all off the internet.
  • daizaru, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3If I lived in the United States I would have long ago made a website that was both an auction and escrow service combined. Items would have to essentially be shipped twice and would cost more because staff would have to receive/verify/ship the items/payment out to people but it would be 100% secure and the would be scammers would just plain avoid it.

    I have considered this for years but living in Canada it is just not feasible. Rest assured the person who gets it going would have a lot of potential to make lots of money. The fact that Ebay is now broken just makes it all that much better.
    • bxblox, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2I wouldnt be surprised if a delivery service like fedex or ups started this up. It wouldnt take much.
    • leazarus, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4well, the point is to get rid of the middle man...
    • desertDenizen, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Or a local pickup option at authorized locations (Mailboxes, etc., etc.) with escrow service options.
  • cyrusaman, on 05/09/2008, -3/+3I'm a user of both eBay (nearly 10 yrs now) and Craigslist. EBay has its benefits for selling certain items quickly (e.g., videogames). However, even though I feel eBay has poor service (becoming increasingly anti-consumer), this guy's experience was due--in great part--to his naivete (He didn't realize featured items are listed first? That's been done since I can remember.). He could've been selective of where he offered the product to be sold. He spent way too much time going back-and-forth with eBay about the Nigerian scammer rather than figuring this out himself (he lost all smart points when he listed, in his listing, that he wouldn't sell to Nigeria).
    • CerMakAlot, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Shame on him for not knowing every detail of Ebay's broken system. It's not that he didn't realize that featured items are listed first, he just didn't realize that without paying extra no one even gets to see your item because there are so many featured items and even tiers of featured items.
  • leftfoot, on 05/09/2008, -0/+19p-p-p-powerbook!
    • jp12380, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1That was an awesome story! dugg
    • LargeTrout, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2I was thinking the same thing. The guy in the article should have scammed the Nigerian back.
  • Princeamor, on 05/09/2008, -3/+3Just use craigslist Man!
    • chokeaduck, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Craigslist is rapidly devolving too.
    • da_bradler, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Ya craigslist rules. Can I interest either of you in a 500 dollar best buy gift certificate, I'm only charging 450 dollars.
    • DeFex, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2I think i would rather be scammed for a laptop by nigerians than have my house broken in to and all my crap stolen.
      • tandy400, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2I would rather have my house broken in to and all my crap stolen than be burned alive while forced to watch someone stomp on a bunch of screaming babies.
        (I don't understand the relevance...)
  • GoKings, on 05/09/2008, -0/+11ebay has been ***** for a long time now. What used to be a place to get amazing deals is now just an online store, stocked full of buy it nows, mass listings, featured items, scammers, and those stupid 0.01 cent ads. I still use ebay, but only for small things that don't cost much, the risk is just too high now. I used to think the risk for the discount was a decent tradeoff, but not anymore. Not only are the prices not nearly as good because it's dominated by businesses, which means the prices aren't any better than any other online store, but the scamming has just gotten out of hand and ebay has done little to control it.
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