{"id":231,"date":"2005-07-13T19:15:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-13T19:15:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2005-07-13T19:15:00","modified_gmt":"2005-07-13T19:15:00","slug":"ebay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2005\/07\/13\/ebay\/","title":{"rendered":"eBay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes writers-block hits, and when it does, the results are not very pretty.  I was going to write about being a member of eBay since 1997 and a whole bunch of stuff about how I used (and currently use) eBay, but I think I will just say \u201cscrew it\u201d and move on to my main point.<\/p>\n<p>OK, enough of that.  I can never just get to the point; you guys know me too well.  Back in the day I found eBay really useful for collecting old video games, strange oddities, and RPGs ? pen and paper not the rocket variety.  These days, trying to use eBay to support a hobby can be a pricy proposition, so I just use eBay for selling stuff; rarely do I buy anything.<\/p>\n<p>I found a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/discussion\/2005\/06\/27\/DI2005062700825.html?referrer=email\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/discussion\/2005\/06\/27\/DI2005062700825.html?referrer=email', 'washingtonpost.com');\" target=\"new\">washingtonpost.com<\/a> article about eBay\u2019s \u201cE-Commerce Growing Pains\u201d rather interesting reading, especially for those of us who have been around eBay for a while.<\/p>\n<p>As an eBay buyer I have only been burned once, and that deal was more out of ignorance than anything else.  I thought I was buying an \u201coriginal\u201d VHS version of Disney\u2019s Song of the South, but it ended up being a bootleg copy from Japan (or some other Asian country).  At the time I did not know I could file fraud complaint at the Post Office; live and learn I guess.<\/p>\n<p>As an eBay seller I have had great luck \u2013 I always require Shipping Confirmation or Insurance since I can use those as \u201cproof\u201d that I shipped a package.  In 7+ years I have only had three people claim that I did not send the goods.  Two dropped the claim after I told them I would send them a copy of the insurance and confirmation receipts.  Unfortunately for the other one, my wife forgot to include a delivery confirmation number ? I was out $35 or so dollars.  I guess the bad news is that two of the three happened in the last few weeks, while the first one happened several years ago.  I hope that is not a sign of the times. <\/p>\n<p>Recently I have had a heck of a time getting folks to pay; I would say that 20% of my transactions over the last three or so months have ended with me having to file for a refund.  It seems like that is a growing trend, but all in all I have been fairly happy with eBay, and will probably continue to use them for selling items until another competitor makes it worth my while to stop using the giant garage sale known as eBay.<\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\nif(wpa2a)wpa2a.script_load();\n\/\/--><\/script>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes writers-block hits, and when it does, the results are not very pretty. I was going to write about being a member of eBay since 1997 and a whole bunch of stuff about how I used (and currently use) eBay, but I think I will just say \u201cscrew it\u201d and move on to my main &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2005\/07\/13\/ebay\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">eBay<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}