Why I hate eBay

I've got a bunch of stuff up on eBay for sale at the moment, went mad on the weekend and decided the pile of leftovers from moving had to go.

 

Spent about three solid hours taking photos, writing HTML, researching, adding links to manufacturer's sites, adding details etc.  Blah.

 

Of course, I now get to enjoy the dubious enjoyment of assorted cretins sending me messages.  Apparently these people can't/won't read, think eBay is a democracy, and are somehow under the impression that they've got "rights" of some sort as a buyer.  Really.

 

"Can I get pickup?"  No, and that's why the auction says POST ONLY.  For starters, pickup is really code for "I want to fiddle it beforehand and make sure it all works 110% perfectly before I hand over the cash".  Sorry, but if you don't want to take my word for it then don't bid.  My feedback is >400, if you can't interpret that then I don't need you as a buyer.  Secondly, pickup means I have to either disclose my address, or spend my time meeting you somewhere.  Which you might turn up for.  No thanks.  Then you get the challenged people who want to avoid postage costs, like the moron who e-mailed me yesterday wanting to do it with a PDA/smartphone I am selling.  Sport, it's going to sell for about $300, $5 postage is neither here nor there; if you can't afford that you won't be winning the auction anyway.

 

Then you've got the bargain hunters.  So far I've had three people approach me directly with silly offers, all of which have been impolitely declined.  Why do you I think I put the start prices on there, cretins?  In at least some of the cases I'll pull the auction if it looks like the thing's only going to go for starting price anyway, why would you think I'm going to accept an underbid from you?

 

Finally, you've got the tyre kickers.  "Will it do <insert function here>?"  "Will it be compatible with <obscure piece of gear I've never heard of>?"  Now in a perfect world I'd be able to either outright ignore these fools or tell them to go away and google it like anyone else in the world.  If course, by doing so I risk offending a potential buyer.  Generally speaking I offend them, I figure the annoyance-to-potential-sale ratio is high.

 

Four days to go, *sigh*.