It’s been a couple of years since I’ve sold anything on Ebay and it seems that the old neighborhood has changed. With a feedback rating only in the mid sixties it’s not like I’ve mis-spent a lot of time there either, but I have had some experience in buying and selling and for the most part that experience in the past has been positive. That being said I haven’t really sold this many things all at once either. This current spate of clearing my drawers and shelves of old technology in an effort to garner cash is all about one thing – buying a netbook. I’m just in love with the thought of a sleek, fast, energizer bunny level of fortitude, shiny, new little netbook. Half of the things that I’m selling were all earlier attempts to get what I hope to get from a netbook – two NEC MobilePro Handheld PCs (a 790 and a 900) and an old Ultraportable IBM Thinkpad X20. But these things just didn’t quite get me what I wanted for various reasons and all were just more than a little old.
The problem is I’ve got a mortgage to pay and kids to feed and honestly a bit more credit card debt than I’d really like to admit. Should I be selling my stuff to finance the purchase of a netbook? Probably not, but this is MY STUFF. I wouldn’t think on spending my paycheck or even any money from a side computer job on a netbook for me, but this I think I can rationalize.
The problem is all the bottom feeding low feedback miscreants who keep bidding on my stuff. I’ve had to relist the X20 laptop and the MP790 three times now due to the curse of the NPB (Non-paying buyer.) I just don’t know what makes people bid on things that they don’t want and aren’t going to pay for. Has Ebay just made this too easy to do with their new buyer slanted feedback system? It doesn’t seem like there is any consequence to being an NPB. It takes too much time to wait out the whole resolution process when a buyer doesn’t pay too. You have to wait four days after sending the invoice to even open the case and then four more days to wait for the NPB to respond before the case is resolved. Am I missing something? Can I relist before the process is resolved?
Even though I’m refunded my Final Value Fees (FVF) the listing fees aren’t refunded and so far I’m out $4.70 due to other people being inconsiderate. Didn’t Ebay used to have an ad campaign based on the adage that, “People are good”?
I’m not saying that I’m now questioning the goodness of humanity based upon a few inconsiderate knuckleheads on Ebay, but dammit, these people are standing between me and a new Asus EEE PC.
