eBay still bites

I’m still trying to get rid of stuff on eBay. I didn’t mean to post again about it but apparently a few people feel pretty strongly about the whole thing.

The people have changed. They used to be helpful, it used to be a nice community of people. In the last couple weeks I have listed about 75 items. My descriptions are as detailed as I can get and I don’t think anyone has been mislead.

I had one item that was for sale and a potential buyer emailed a question about ten minutes before the auction was finished. I have not been attached to my PC for the last couple of weeks and missed the question. It was a stupid question, one answered in the description. The woman, I assume it was a woman based on the username, emailed me after the bidding was over and said she would have bid to $198.00 if I had answered her question. The item sold for $42. so I don’t know why she would have had to bid that high but whatever. I have received several emails from eBayers who have contacted me after the auction was closed to tell me that the item was worth considerably more than what the item sold for. Why do people do this?

I can only guess that these people are trying to psych our the sellers or something. And it works. According to these people sending me these helpful emails I have lost at least $700 in the last week. Keep in mind that I tried to sell this stuff at a garage sale for considerably less and no one wanted this junk.

I sold several chairs as well. Big chairs that I have been storing in my garage. I know what they are worth but no one is buying this kind of furniture, no one. I sold them for more than I asked at a garage sale so I feel pretty good about the whole thing and more importantly I get the stuff out of my garage so I can park my car. One guy called me this morning, as we had arranged, and told me he was in the neighborhood to pick up the chair. He was a little early so it was nice that he called. I asked him to meet me in the alley since the chair was in the garage. I got out to the alley and opened the garage door. I noticed a man walking up the alley but assumed that it was someone in the neighborhood and not the guy who was picking up the chair. I assumed this because when we arranged the time he mentioned that he would make it to town by about 9am. That to me meant he had been out of town and would be arriving, in a car, at the appointed time.

The guy walking down the alley, walked up to my garage, picked up the chair, the very large, it takes two people to carry the chair kind of chair, and turned around and walked back down the alley. He barely acknowledged me. I don’t think he was just some random stranger who walks down people alley picking up chairs. He was indeed the guy who bought and paid for the chair but how strange that he didn’t have a vehicle to put it in. I was tempted to follow him but thought that might be rude.

Another guy, an antique dealer in Canada, bought two other chairs I had for sale. He was one of those who swoops in at the last minute and pisses all the newbies off. He knows how eBay works. He didn’t pay right away and ignored my request to set up a time for pick up. I was hoping, and still am, that he backs out of the deal since I had talked to another buyer, whom he out bid, and wanted her to have the chairs.

He sent me an email this morning, as well as paid for the chairs, and said that he didn’t know when he would get down here but he would keep in touch. Now if I had room to store these damn chairs I wouldn’t care. If I had the room to store the chairs I would not have sold them on eBay. He got a nice deal on these chairs and will likely resell them in his shop for three times what he paid for them. I don’t care if he profits, I hope he does. But I want them out of my garage. NOW. I sent him a reply telling him that if he didn’t pick them up by Friday I would refund his money and sell them to this other woman, the one I wanted to win. Alternatively I told him if he wanted to pay a storage fee I would store them for him. I didn’t throw out a price but I really want my garage back and to me storing these stupid chairs, while I can’t use the garage, for an undetermined time is worth a lot more to me that it probably is to him.

In my daughter’s old daycare they had this policy that if you were late picking up your child they would charge you $5/min that you were late. This always worried me since I was always broke after paying the regular day care fees and wouldn’t be able to pay the ransom if I was late. I often wondered if they would keep my daughter until payment could be made. Many times I wanted to try to see how this worked, especially when I needed a little me time, but I never did. I was always on time, early usually.

I want to charge a storage fee like that. $5/min that he doesn’t pick up the items after the standard three days that it takes me to ship anything. I’d store the chairs for a fee like that.