EBay is what you make it. If you're willing to take the risk of buying an item you cannot see in person from someone you don't know go right ahead. EBay has some nice features built in to make it much more safe. Also, there are many more honest people in the world over dishonest. I've purchased 2-3 items off EBay, all in the "middle" price range, and haven't been gipped or disappointed yet.

Regarding the XBox 360 .. heh, well whats the problem with making money? The world is, generally, capitalistic. If I'd been quick enough I can assure you that I'd have had 3 or 4 units for sale and an extra $2000 easy cash in my pocket. Me and my brother already have funds lined up for when PS3 comes out. I say if someones willing to pay my price, I'm willing to sell.

Overall EBay is an excellent idea that is carried out quite well. Sure, people probably get ripped off daily .. but in all honesty, the vast majority of "customers" are happy ones who got a good deal.

Hey cyborg, I reccomend a Tippman 98 custom. Me and two other people I work with bought a three pack of Gun, Mask, And tank and just split the buy it now cost between us. I love my new paint ball gun. Ebay gets more and more exciting every day.

I'm sure though one day i'll end up getting ripped off or a friend of mine will get ripped off, then my opinion of ebay will change rapidly. But as of now, I <3 ebay!

They have some crazy stuff selling on Ebay.
And its funny because a lot of it sells.
For example, someone was selling a 'holy' sock for $15.
No one did buy it but it was funny the way they worded it.

accually, i have no problem with ebay, its just ebays partner (paypal) that i have the biggest beef with

Being a basic Ebay NOOB I had wanted to respond to this. Even though sometimes you may get cheated alot of the time people make mistakes and correct them, being I had auctioned a product on Ebay that unbenounced to me was missing something inside the box. Being I had never opened it I was unaware of this. I sold it on Ebay and was elated that it had gone so quickly.

I got a note a few days later that it was faulty to a degree. So I sent the guy the added peice that had been missing for free. I mean not everyone is going to cheat you out there. I could have been like " It was whole when I mailed it " Not everyone in life is out to cheat you. Like what alot of the people on this thread have said. If you take the time to talk to the seller and take advantage of the FAQ's and information they give you using Ebay can be a great thing.

sorry but i have to say that you are the biggest moron i have ever come across.

Ebay does NOT suck. Ebay is fantastic for finding great deals or for finding really obscure items. Its also great for selling really obscure items or rare items and for sellers the reserve feature is very useful. I mean if your selling something valued at £100 the last thing you want is for the auction to only go up to £30 so allowing you to put a reserve on it gives you a brilliant reasurrance.

Hi,

If your looking for an alternative to ebay, ItchyPig limited run its own auction site www.itchypig.co.uk. Im a co-director, we have just been backed by Northampton university.

Theres no final value fees and no listing fees. we make all our money from selling advertising space on the site. And check out our charities page.

You will see that just by using the site you are helping charities. We actually pay our users, if you have a myspace,facebook,bebo or even your own website, we will actually pay you just to have our link on your site (�1 for every verified sign up that comes from your unique link)

If you want to know more then just check out the website www.itchypig.co.uk. Oh and to add to the ebay sux theme here, they also own www.shopping.com they pay other websites to promote affiliat's products then pay the promoters 1p-10p per sale when they receive �6-�500 per sale.

They are all about the money, they have changed sooo much since they started up. you should read their book "the perfect store". more like "a quick and easy way to make a load of money, with no customer care". Cheers for reading. Frank.

-Frank

I use ebay a lot to buy and sell

I dropship a lot of products from china and the good thing is that you get a lot of exposure but the fees are high although they are reviewing their fees soon.

I mainly sell phones and games consoles and my best sellers are Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold and Nintendo DS Lite.

Ebay does suck!
I used to buy a lot on Ebay but now I buy other places online.
When I go to a store to purchase something I look it over, read the packaging and if for some reason I don't like it I can bring it back (at least with walmart I can). With Ebay I have someone else describing the product. I don't get to look it over throughly and see if it worth my money.

Used to be I could talk to other buyers about products I am interested in to find out if they are really something worth spending my money on. This has helped save me money in the past, one example is I was looking for ear mites meds for my cats. I do rescue and had some kitten comes in with ear mites. I saw a product that was natural. I asked the seller about it and of course he said it was the best product around. I then talked to several buyers of the product and they all said it was a complete waste of money. Of course it took a month to realize it was a waste money as the directions on the product said to use it for a month to see full results. They had already left feedback for him stating fast shipping, great price ect... as Ebay encourages feedback on the seller not the products. That is only one example, I have many where the seller says one thing but the buyers say something else.
Now, Ebay has stopped me from talking to other buyers. I have no way of finding out about the product except talk to the seller of the product.

I now go to amazon.com where I can read reviews about the product and about the seller.
Ebay used to be a good place to buy from but now they are trying to take over everything. I don't know why they don't let the seller, sell and the buyer, buy.

The low prices and scams aren't eBay's fault, it's the sellers. If you look at the sellers feedback, then you can get a good idea if you can trust them or not. If they're new, and don't have any feedback yet, don't trust them. Only trust them if they have 95%+ positive feedback, froom alot of people. Also, read the negative feedback, just to make sure.

You have to be careful buying anything online, from anywhere. Especially thinks like dvds/cds/games. If they look too cheap, they may be pirated.

Also, things aren't necessarily as cheap as they may seem. Always make sure to look at the postage and handling. In alot of cases, it's more than the price for the item.