Here's why I am
switching sales to Google Base and other places instead of eBay.
eBay is turning into a service-bloated manufacturer-based
store front; it's become hostile toward individual sellers.
Souped up, extra cost features that bury my ads if I don't
pay for
them.
I want a clean search engine that will expose my
items if someone searches for them.
Paypal was great until eBay bought them. Then
eBay forced
me use only Paypal BUSINESS or PREMIUM account. Do you know
what
that means? A mandatory percentage charge for every paypal
transaction
(not just eBay or auction sales, but everything). Plus a
legal issues (Privacy Act, Identity Theft) distinguishing between the value of a Paypal
account and the account itself. Paypal gets it very wrong - ask if
you're interested.
The eBay input interface has gotten fancy, java gooped up,
and pages
long.
Google Base lets me enter items in a spreadsheet in the
comfort of my own home, and then I just upload the spreadsheet.
Google
does the rest.
If you track your items with the spreadsheet and
upload the spreadsheet, then I get to make a web page sell page for
each item that says whatever I want. Once I get it right, I
use my own web page as a template and just make detail changes.
If you do manual inputs, Google makes
an attractive auto-web page.
There is no cost to listing on Google Base.
Years ago eBay inappropriately made me bid against myself
to raise the price I had to pay. After a YEAR of trying to
work them to return a
small amount of money, I joined a legal case against them and recovered
enough to buy a laptop computer. They are not responsive
to individuals.
This page is maintained by Brian Mork. It was last modified
April 2009.
Suggestions for changes and comments are always welcome. Contact me via
e-mail.
