I’ve been using eBay for a lot of years – I think I signed up with them only a few months after they initially launched the site. Even from the very beginning, I found them to be a great place to find all sorts of stuff – both useful and not so useful – to buy. They always seemed not only have things that were hard to find but for items that were common, you could sometimes find a discount. There’s been a number of changes over the years at eBay and what I find to be the most obvious change is the decrease in intelligence of the users on eBay.

You know it’s the truth. It’s been proven many times over. You see, eBay is the world’s large flea market and I don’t mean that in a bad way. One person’s junk is another person’s treasure and all, so that’s a good thing. Also, there are some items that you can’t find any more from regular retailers – like a mint conditioned vehicle Voltron from 1984 – which is where eBay truly shines. Their merchants sell almost anything! eBay, and in most cases their selling members, are great. The biggest problem with eBay comes from the buyers.

I guess it’s eBay’s fault, actually. When eBay first started, it was strictly auctions – they didn’t introduce services like “Buy It Now” or eBay Stores until years after the original service started – and auctions can excite anyone. I’ve been in auctions with eBay where an item is worth $5, yet I’m bidding $10 if only because someone outbid me within the last five minutes of the auction. It’s true! It’s also happened at least once to everyone I know that’s used eBay. And I mean everyone I know. Of course this type of excitement leads to hype and hype leads to acceptance by the mass populous, and there’s the start of eBay’s problem: the stupidity of the mass populous.

I know you’ve all heard about the “stupid buyer”. It usually makes the news once or twice a quarter these days. Some guy that lost $40,000 because he tried to buy a BMW worth $110,000. Saw him on a “Dateline” type show, complaining that there’s scammers on eBay. Um, well, duh. There’s scammers everywhere, ya ass. Think about it: someone comes up to you on the street and says “Hey buddy… I’ll sell you this BMW for 40-G” and you say OK? There are scammers everywhere! He just didn’t think before buying. This falls under wisdom of “If you buy a diamond ring for a ten cents, you end up with diamond ring not worth a dime”.

Then there’s the kid selling his virginity, another guy selling his soul, and some Brit that’s selling a Star Trek apartment in London. There’s been a submarine, a helicopter and even a town sold via eBay Motors or Real Estate. This should be further evidence that you have to think when you’re on eBay – don’t bid two million on a sub that you can’t afford! And I’m not talking about higher thought processes here – just prove to the PC that you’re still breathing. A lot of buyers don’t. Actually, a few potential buyers of my own caused this particular Rant.

Over the last few months, I’ve sold an old Pocket PC, a cell phone, and an old Power Mac. I had to list the Pocket PC three times. Why? Well I posted in the listing that this was a US-only sale. Not only did I not want to find a DHL drop box, but I didn’t know if there were any export problems with overseas sales – after all Pocket IE has encryption in it and I was trying to save myself a headache. The first winner was a Russian. The second an Australian. Both of which whined when I pointed back to the listing and how it says “US Only” in three separate places. A fine example of “I bought this at WalMart but I never read the label” stupidity. I wouldn’t be surprised if either of these guys bought a box of tampons, just because the box looked neat and then complained that they couldn’t use them.

Then there was the cell phone auction. Because the phone was originally built for Canadian users, I offered shipping to US and Canada buyers. The phone – a GSM based Nokia 8390 – was able to get voice calls in the US or Canada, but the wireless browser only worked in Canada. I put this in the listing of course, and still got the “Can I use the wireless browser in the US” questions, but that’s not the most asinine thing. I got a couple of people that sent me email asking “can I buy the phone for $60?” OK, this is an auction. And once an auction starts on eBay, it can’t easily be ended. Besides, at this time, the highest bid on the phone was for $5. I told the dork to just bid for $60 – if that’s the highest big the phone got, then yes, he could buy it for $60.

The Power Mac was a winner of an experience too. I put in the listing that shipping would be about $60, depending on where the winner lived. The winner of this auction was in CA and the shipping from CT to CA was about $55. This guy argued with me through five emails that it was too much for shipping. According to the listing, I saved him $5, the idiot. Not only that, but he kept telling me that he could “find me a better deal out by him”. What that meant, given that I was not going to drive the Mac to CA just to ship it, was well beyond me.

Think, people, think! You would not walk into your local Target and mindlessly buy all sorts of things and then complain that you bought them, would you? eBay is a store, just like a brick and mortar building that you go to at the mall. It requires the same level of common sense that these types of stores demand. If someone is auctioning something that seems to be too good to be true, then it probably is. I even know some Apple users that were thinking about bidding on a 17″ PowerBook for $1500 (it currently retails for $3299) and the notebook wasn’t even released yet!

And are these some deals that seem legitimate but end up being a hoax? Yes, it does happen sometimes – almost as often as it does in the offline world. Over the years, I’ve only even been “taken” on one auction, and it was actually the second auction that I had one from the same user – the first auction was completely legitimate – so it was a bit of a shock. I still swear by eBay, though – it’s has been and continues to be a great service.

I just wish more people thought while they clicked but that goes beyond eBay these days!