eBay Wants to Take Garage Sales Online

by: Basset

Feedback & dsr's on our garage sale stuff?


Half the time people can't even be bothered to put a price tag on their stuff - just pile it in the driveway.

Not sure I see a lot of people making extra effort like scanning stuff they will likely donate if it does not sell.

Color me skeptical.

by: Puck

Probably setting up the Devil's Island Containment Klub venue designed for used clothing, cracked teacup and various & sundry other embarrassing krapola sellers.

eBay loves anagrams like the one for Above Standard Seller - Imaginative stuff like that cracks everyone up in the executive washroom.

by: Philip Cohen

Incomprehensible!

And there I was with the distinct impression that eBay’s Johnny Ho wanted to be rid of the "flea market" image; that such an image was “below him”; the “Westfield Mall” of the online world was more to his liking …

And now we have eBay being granted a patent for “On-Line Garage Sale”.

Just too silly for words—or things are starting to get really desperate over in the SleazeBay executive suite, where all the headless turkeys appear to be still firmly in control.

eBay Inc: where the incompetent mingle with the malevolent.—“Ming”

Well, Mr Icahn, you have a lot of work to do before you get any return from this investment.

eBay / PayPal / Donahoe: Dead Men Walking ... http://bit.ly/11F2eas

by: WOODJUNGLE! ON EBAY

Ebay's new catch phrase:  

"The comic relief solution for all your e-commerce needs."

by: iheartjacksparrow

I agree with Philip Cohen. I thought eBay was moving away from the "noise" and its "garbage" cluttering up the site. Now eBay wants to welcome garage sales? Is it possible for a web site to be bipolar?  

by: Tiffee Jasso

Bipolar! Good one Iheart.  

by: SparklyEyes7

This makes no sense.  People who hold garage sales typically have a bunch of random stuff.  They don't want to take photos and list items.  They certainly don't want to ship.  There is already craigslist to advertise to for free.

Why would you want to give a cut to a 3rd party?

by: comet

Ebay is deathly afraid that you will have a sale of ANYTHING ANYTIME ANYWHERE and they won't get a CUT of the "profits".

Pretty soon if you have an ad up in a local paper or stapled to your neighborhoods telephone poles there will be ebay drones flying around to scan your address and see if you have an ebay or Paypal account.  If they find that you DO and you dared to sell anything and did NOT report to your Lord and Master The Great and Terrible Ho your account WILL be debited for the (estimated) amount of said sales and your funds WILL be placed on HOLD until you agree to the NEW TOS which state:::

Any sale of any item you have ever owned becomes a bona fide "FOR SALE ON EBAY ITEM" no matter what venue you use to sell it FROM.  

No need to sign; just thinking the word "ebay"  automatically enrolls you into this new CONTRACT.

Thank you and have a pleasant tomorrow.  

by: bitbybit

I can't seem to find the barcode on any of my antiques and used household items. They are even more out of touch than I ever thought. What's a garage sale? I am sure none of these execs have even gone to one. How many current ebay sellers want anyone locally to know they are associated with ebay, especially having them come to your home? Oh, that's right, ebay wants the virgin new sellers who haven't experienced how cutthroat ebay really is to hold these garage sales.

By the way, the only reason I would hold a garage sale is to get rid of all the stuff I purchased and accumulated over the years to SELL on ebay and did not. All of the lack of sales was caused by ebay in the first place with their hidden searches, best match, Cassini, DSRs, rolling blackouts and now the upcoming defects.

Ebay is desperately looking under every unturned stone for any loose penny they can add to their greedy coffers.  

by: dasw

Barcodes for garage sale items? You've got to be kidding. Next they will be offering to sell you barcodes for $10 a pop just so you can list.

by: unknown

>Is it possible for a web site to be bipolar?  

Why else would they have gone with Lithium for the boards?  

by: Ming the Merciless

"Ebay is desperately looking under every unturned stone..."

When ebay or anyone else for that matter looks under unturned stones they find slimy parasites scattering in the light.

by: Ming the Merciless

It must like that ad on TV when the lone dissenter to Grand Plan in the conference says,

"No, that's a stupid plan."

He's immediately dispatched to spend more time with his family.

This must be what happens at ebay as no one there rejects stupid plans before some even more stupid person applies for a patent.

by: wonderswhy

Its ridiculous, nonsense, right who mentioned "I doubt if any of these exec's have went to a garage sale" if they did they would realize how asinine they are. Everyone can clearly see that ebay wants a profit from garage sales! garage sales! What an outfit, they get cheezier as time goes by

by: baconsdozen

Ebay have lost the plot totally. Garage sales are friendly,cheap,fun ,unregulated and with the chance of a bargain,everything that ebay is not.

by: Leesantiques

Wow!  Good going, Ebay!!  :-)  I can't wait to start taking pictures, bar code readings, & writing accurate and detailed descriptions for that pile of paperbacks that I'm looking to sell for 50¢ each!!

Not to mention all of the used clothes in various states of disrepair, the games and puzzles which may or may not all be there, the odd kitchen implements, tools (where is the barcode on that banged-up screwdriver?  Help!!!!), etc.

All the stuff I'm looking to sell for $5 or less, maybe even just 50¢ or less - yes!  I want to spend hours and hours listing it all.  :-)

Thank you, Ebay!

Especially since I'll now have to offer 14 day returns (90 day returns in November....).  

I can't wait for this!!  :-)

Lee
Off to the doctor's to have tongue surgically removed from cheek....

by: KathleenJohnson

Taking on the task of micro managing the chaotic, unpredictable garage sale inventory in total, with the idea of cherry picking the inventory,  and expecting this model to fly within the current fixed "single" selling paradigm with all the feedback parameters geared to "not as described" and a public that has been entitled to be right no matter if they are "wrong".

Then, you want the Seller to stop everything they are doing to organize the garage sale and "describe" the said item (they really know very little about), dicker on the price, pack, weigh, run to the post office to get postage figured out and then run home to dicker again on price cos the postage is so high. Settle on price, wait for payment, then run to the Post office again to get it on its way to fields afar.

Let me get a great seat, a bucket of popcorn and a drink - this is going to be fun entertainment for all concerned. *G*

by: ewegolf

With ebay,it is not like any of us have ever been swept away in a tsunami of practicality.

by: Rexford

iheartjacksparrow says " Is it possible for a web site to be bipolar?"

I think we have all seen ample evidence of that.

by: Damariscotta

As much fun as it may be to bash eBay for this latest scheme, 99% percent of this should be directed to the patent office for not doing anything to stop frivolous patents. Fortunately, eBay doesn't care about bad publicity at this point, because this may become the poster child for patent abuse.