Comment Re:Why would you buy a dead company... 2000's is g (Score 2) 50
Amazon works if you're looking to buy recently manufactured cheap stuff from China and pay a little more to get it faster than AliExpress/Temu/etc., or to not have to get multiple when you only want one. But what's the alternative to buy and sell things with other people or independent (not local to you) stores? Especially older stuff? Especially when you're looking for an auction format or to take/make offers? The Amazon selling platform is FAR more complicated than ebay, to the point many people are not willing (/able) to use it, and offers less features. And - even after all these years - it's awful for anything other than books. The search is horrible, they do nothing about sellers spamming keywords in titles, and they sometimes show you things the algorithm deems similar instead of the thing you actually want; so if you're looking for something specific, if it will be shown to you or not at any specific time is a crapshoot.
I've tried Facebook Marketplace and from both sides (seller and buyer) I got tons of scammers (that I didn't fall for), people that couldn't read, people only willing to do local pickup (making scams far more dangerous), and people who said they would buy/sell and then never showed up. So ebay is the only place I have found to buy/sell things like old sewing machines and parts, old knitting machines and parts, (for both of those, the recently manufactured replacements often don't actually work, or don't fit by just a slight amount - but enough to make them incompatible or to mess up the machine, sometimes don't work as well as the older ones when they do work, and nearly always aren't as durable) old computer parts, and old video games (I'd worry what GameStop would do to that category if they bought it...). And since Joann's shut down - and because Amazon bough fabric.com and then shut it down a few years ago - ebay has been a godsend for buying fabric, as many independent fabric stores (the ones that managed to not be killed by Joanns) won't go through the hassle of running their own website. Although some people sell fabric on Etsy, it tends to be considerably higher priced than on ebay. (And while vintage stuff is sold on Etsy, it tends to be only toys and clothing, none of the machine parts nor computer parts, very few video games, and obviously there's no auctions.) Thrift stores have become overpriced, and you're limited to what happens to be in your local thrift stores. Except for Goodwill (if you even consider that a thrift store) where you're limited to what they decide to put on their auction site - which has exorbitant shipping and they don't test anything (they might, at most, sometimes see if a sewing machine powers on, but that doesn't tell you if it actually works and is useless if you need a specific working part), don't bother to research if all the parts are included, aren't detailed in the pictures and description, and don't let you ask questions clarifying any of those things, making it useless for the majority of things I use ebay for.
I've been using ebay since it became ebay, and I've never even wanted to do a return. Everything has always been as described and pictured, unlike on Amazon. Maybe that's luck, or maybe it has something to do with Amazon's limits on item descriptions and photographs, how they group items together (what you call complicated, I would probably call detailed), and how they seem to do nothing about defective or inaccurately described products. From the selling side, I've had ONE person complain about something I sold on ebay, and they didn't even ask for a return - I don't know what their point was really, as they just listed every flaw that I described and photographed in the listing as if they were complaining, and I replied, "You're complaining that it's exactly as described?" and they said "No, I'm not complaining, I just expected it to be different." So I don't know, maybe they only looked at the first picture and didn't read. But, they left a positive review.
So one problem - that was not even a problem and was likely the result of the buyer not reading - in 29 years on ebay, vs on Amazon I have had to take advantage of those free and easy returns many times. Although actually the last few times I tried to do a "free and easy" return it ended up not being so easy because the places I had previously used were no longer drop off partners, so I had to find a new place. And the most recent time - a few weeks ago I had to return a bike tire that just barely didn't fit the size wheel it was supposed to be for, meaning that it looks like it's on there but at some random point the tube explodes (which is obviously dangerous) - there wasn't even actually a free option available, because there is no longer a drop off that is accessible to me, so I had to pay to have either Amazon or UPS pick it up. Free and easy returns are nice (when they're actually free and easy) but it's easier and free-er to not get a product that is defective, dangerous, or not as described in the first place.
Anyway all that to say, if you have actual alternatives to ebay I'd love to hear them, because no, Amazon and AliExpress are not replacements.
I've tried Facebook Marketplace and from both sides (seller and buyer) I got tons of scammers (that I didn't fall for), people that couldn't read, people only willing to do local pickup (making scams far more dangerous), and people who said they would buy/sell and then never showed up. So ebay is the only place I have found to buy/sell things like old sewing machines and parts, old knitting machines and parts, (for both of those, the recently manufactured replacements often don't actually work, or don't fit by just a slight amount - but enough to make them incompatible or to mess up the machine, sometimes don't work as well as the older ones when they do work, and nearly always aren't as durable) old computer parts, and old video games (I'd worry what GameStop would do to that category if they bought it...). And since Joann's shut down - and because Amazon bough fabric.com and then shut it down a few years ago - ebay has been a godsend for buying fabric, as many independent fabric stores (the ones that managed to not be killed by Joanns) won't go through the hassle of running their own website. Although some people sell fabric on Etsy, it tends to be considerably higher priced than on ebay. (And while vintage stuff is sold on Etsy, it tends to be only toys and clothing, none of the machine parts nor computer parts, very few video games, and obviously there's no auctions.) Thrift stores have become overpriced, and you're limited to what happens to be in your local thrift stores. Except for Goodwill (if you even consider that a thrift store) where you're limited to what they decide to put on their auction site - which has exorbitant shipping and they don't test anything (they might, at most, sometimes see if a sewing machine powers on, but that doesn't tell you if it actually works and is useless if you need a specific working part), don't bother to research if all the parts are included, aren't detailed in the pictures and description, and don't let you ask questions clarifying any of those things, making it useless for the majority of things I use ebay for.
I've been using ebay since it became ebay, and I've never even wanted to do a return. Everything has always been as described and pictured, unlike on Amazon. Maybe that's luck, or maybe it has something to do with Amazon's limits on item descriptions and photographs, how they group items together (what you call complicated, I would probably call detailed), and how they seem to do nothing about defective or inaccurately described products. From the selling side, I've had ONE person complain about something I sold on ebay, and they didn't even ask for a return - I don't know what their point was really, as they just listed every flaw that I described and photographed in the listing as if they were complaining, and I replied, "You're complaining that it's exactly as described?" and they said "No, I'm not complaining, I just expected it to be different." So I don't know, maybe they only looked at the first picture and didn't read. But, they left a positive review.
So one problem - that was not even a problem and was likely the result of the buyer not reading - in 29 years on ebay, vs on Amazon I have had to take advantage of those free and easy returns many times. Although actually the last few times I tried to do a "free and easy" return it ended up not being so easy because the places I had previously used were no longer drop off partners, so I had to find a new place. And the most recent time - a few weeks ago I had to return a bike tire that just barely didn't fit the size wheel it was supposed to be for, meaning that it looks like it's on there but at some random point the tube explodes (which is obviously dangerous) - there wasn't even actually a free option available, because there is no longer a drop off that is accessible to me, so I had to pay to have either Amazon or UPS pick it up. Free and easy returns are nice (when they're actually free and easy) but it's easier and free-er to not get a product that is defective, dangerous, or not as described in the first place.
Anyway all that to say, if you have actual alternatives to ebay I'd love to hear them, because no, Amazon and AliExpress are not replacements.
