I think a good example of the great utility of the Internet is how eBay has become not just an auction web site, but simply a universal market place. Where to buy those plastic bags for making ice cubes? eBay. Where to buy strong sowing string? eBay. Where to buy a slide rule? eBay. Where to buy...? It's hard to think of anything which can't be bought on eBay, and with a known payment system, fraud guarantee, and quick comparison of prices and so on. And because of the Reputation system, most sellers bend over backwards to make sure you're happy, so you don't give them a low rating.
I have bought all kinds of stuff on eBay, and I've almost never been disappointed. One of the few times was a camera where the guy had shown a picture of a different sample in better shape than the one I got. I complained and got my money back from eBay.
I recall that several years ago you switched Domai from PayPal because of their 'policy' of arbitrarily disallowing web sites they disapproved of; and PayPal and E-bay seemed then to be inextricably entwined. So I stay away from PayPal as much as possible (except for my Skype payments) and I equally mistrust E-Bay (perhaps unjustified).
ReplyDeleteActually it was Paypal who fired me, along with all other "adult" sites.
ReplyDeleteI find that it's never clear whether you should trust or distrust somebody, even an individual, and certainly not a large company.
Even the most loathsome individual might give somebody a hand if they fall on the street, and even the most angelic person may do somebody wrong in the heat of daily activities.
I've conducted over 200 transactions on eBay, both as buyer and seller, and so far so good. But PayPal do tend to overprotect the buyer as a rule, which has many sellers pissed off. Now that PayPal belongs to eBay, there's little that eBay sellers can do, seeing as eBay has become a bit like Google Search in that it's almost impossible to topple.
ReplyDeleteI have been buying on ebay since '98 and never had a bad experience.
ReplyDeleteI've been buying and occasionally selling on ebay since 2001 and while I've had a couple of bad experiences as a seller I never have as a buyer. Ebay is great for collectors of various things, like comic books, as even near-mint copies can be found on ebay for a lot less than you'd get them at a comic book shop (if they had them). I don't collect those but I do have a nearly complete MAD collection, made possibly largely by ebay.
ReplyDeleteYep, comic books and other collectibles are good examples of things which used to be very hard or expensive to find, and now are easy. I don't buy as many as I used to, but a few years ago I bought like the thirty first issues of The New Mutants (the first X-Men spin-off). Given the artist was Bill Sienkiewicz, I would have thought them very hard to get, but I got them all for thirty pounds or something.
ReplyDeleteI wanted a 16" vibrating dildo, but couldn't find one anywhere. Answer? Ebay!
ReplyDelete16? Wow. I guess not many men satisfy you.
ReplyDeleteI have a huuuuge vagina.
ReplyDelete