Craigslist Vs eBay - Get Ready To Rumble!
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Why is it that so many people are beginning to see Craigslist as an alternative to eBay? Considering just how very different each of them are, a more likely comparison would be Amazon vs eBay in my opinion. Regardless, the fact remains that many casual sellers and buyers are turning to Craigslist as it is simply less hassle to deal with and you are able to often times make a transaction on a local level. eBay by contrast, seems to best fit power sellers and those who are in the business of selling, therefore by and large leaving the buyer to the constraints of eBay’s “protection policies”, as big of a nightmare as they are.
These days, I put very little faith into anything eBay spits out. Remember, even using Paypal to make a purchase means plenty of hassles should that purchase go terribly wrong. On the flip side, using Craigslist often means picking up the item in person, which translates into the ability to see it before money ever changes hands. This may not be perfect for electronics, but for other valuables, it sure helps.
What do you think? Is eBay a sinking ship? Do the bulk of positive transactions and ethical power sellers make up for the other horror stories being tossed around these days? Perhaps just importantly, are you better off using a standard credit card vs Paypal for the best consumer protection should you opt to do business via eBay? You be the judge.
6 Comments
KennethThomson
January 1st, 2008
at 11:12am
Matt, You are so right. I live in San Francisco and was recently invited to participate in a customer forum hosted here and I told them that they are rapidly doing to themselves the same thing that US caf makers did to themselves and thus handed over their business to the Japanese.
I recently sold an item with the following in the descriptioin “I WILL NOT accept any payments coming through a credit or a debit card. I WILL accept PayPal eCheck payments from your bank account, a US Postal Service money order or I will accept your personal check but I won’t ship until three weeks after I deposit it.”.
In spite of this the buyer sent a credit card PayPal payment. When I went to my PayPal account whre it said “Accept or DENY”. Byt I couldn’t click on DENY since it was greyed out. EBay says that I MUST accept credit card payments even thpough their rules subject me to the following.
To whom it may concern::
Last month I accepted a PayPal credit card payment and without either my knowledge or consent PayPal upgraded me to a business account, and that not only meant that I was charged a 4% fee, but I would also be charged a 4% fee on all subsequent incoming funds even though it was not derived from a credit card.
PayPal allows only one downgrade back to a personal account and I have now done that. If this happens again I will have to close my PayPal account for good.
As you can see, I couldn’t even let you pay the 4% surcharge as it would commit me to it forever.
I can, however, accept a PayPal payment only if it is tied to your bank checking account , and I understand that you can have your PayPal account tied in both these ways.
I am very seriously considering neveragain being an EBay SELLER. I WILL continue ot be an EBay nuyer. And yes, I do thinkCraigsList is much better and more effective in selling and I have long had a policy of trying CraigsList longbefore trying EBay.
Ken
Dietmar Schafflik
January 1st, 2008
at 12:43pm
Funny you should mention that, Matt. Your comments caused me to take stock in how I’ve been dealing with this, and I must say that I’m looking on Craigslist at least a few times in a week, while eBay has totally fallen by the wayside - predominantly for all the reasons you mentioned.
Anil
February 22nd, 2008
at 9:18am
A highly recommended site is elfingo.com for online auctions. They are the new ebay. Many smaller sites like this offer buyers far better deals than ebay ever could. Buyer also save a ton because this site charges little or nothing depending on the day. One more reason I like elfingo.com is because they don’t take a part of the sale at all. No commissions or final value fees. A+++ http://www.elfingo.com
RainyDayInterns
May 17th, 2008
at 12:34pm
We had made the following observations after an odd little encounter this past week on Craigslist :-)
http://www.rainydaymagazine.com/RDM2008/Home/May/RDMHomeMay08W3.htm#EBayVsCraigslist
DRTanner
May 18th, 2008
at 1:48am
Paypal is a GREEDY JOKE that Ebay’s playing on ALL ebayers. It is neither safe for the buyer or the seller. An internet search of ebay’s Annual Report 10k Form will tell you all you need to know.
MANY HAVE JOINED THE GLOBAL EBAY BOYCOTT!
AJ Wright
June 4th, 2008
at 7:22am
Yes, it looks like Ebay will do themselves in with their greed..EVENTUALLLY. I’ve tried both CL and Ebay for mostly video games and DVD’s and I’ve had better luck with Ebay getting more $$ even with the fees. In a couple instances, I actually got more money for a used item than I paid for new. Of course, Ebay and CL are not true competitors since CL is localized to your metropolitan area. For large and expensive items, I use CL all the way. I’ve sold furniture and bought a used car this way. My guess is Ebay will probably be crushed by Amazon or Google down the road.