As a former proponent of buying on Ebay, I must pronounce it now officially useless.

They've sold out to the world of commercialism.

I tried to buy a vehicle on Ebay this week, using the "make an offer" - which commits the buyer to a 48 hour binding offer to buy. The seller is then supposed to either counter, accept or reject the offer. Mine did none - he didn't even bother to respond at all. And there are no consequences - the offer expires like nothing ever happened. This option is 100% stacked in the seller's favor - in essence, Ebay has become a seller's agent.

I complained to Ebay, using their "chat with a representative" option, that I should have the ability to at least post feedback on the seller for not responding. He encouraged me to make another offer. Why in the world would I want to do that? I asked him - "sorry you feel that way" was his answer.

I'm no longer recommending Ebay...

I have not been back to ebay since I found craigslist.

eBay has gotten outrageous with their fees, in my opinion.

I buy and sell on ebay regularly, usually don't have a problem, when I do I move on. Lots of people out there, some are jerks, They are on craigs list too.

Or Indy, you have what happened to me, I sent a second chance offer to the high bidder and he didn't respond at all. Then I relisted the item (at nearly what it would cost to list it on boattrader.com, but not quite) and he sends me an e-mail asking me if I'd accept $1000 less than what the second chance offer is and what the opening bid is on the new listing. What a jerk. So I politely said no.
But I am thinking that EBay is going to be a little useless in regards to selling a car/boat as well.

AND!! Don't get me started on PayPal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I have many nasty words I can say about that circle jerk of a company!!

Craigslist and this one which is growing very fast! http://www.kijiji.com/
Those I will look at first before ebay.

I sell and buy boats on ebay all the time

I won't say I do it regularly, but I've bought probably 20 vehicles of various types on Ebay, and sold a few.

I've just noticed in the last year or so, that it's not as convenient as before.

CL and eBay are suing each other.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2007-07-06-ebay-classifieds_N.htm

Ah Kijiji is owned by E-bay...Won't be long and I am sure they will be charging!

I've used ebay quite a bit, and paypal even more. Never had a problem with either. Luck o' the Irish I guess.

Ebay used to be great for finding deals. Now it is only good for finding something that may not be in your area, but you are going to still pay for it.
I've never liked the whole "Reserve" auction format. If you have a minimum price, that should be the starting bid. Why keep it a secret what you really want for the item?

It is supposed to give you an idea of what others are willing to pay, many people relist with more realistic numbers. Would never know if the reserve was the start number.

Because people won't bid if the intial bid is too high. You ever been to a farm or other "real" auction? When the Ford 8N tractor that you are willing to pay $2500 comes up and the auctioneer trys to start the bid at $2000, noone bids, until he starts at $500, then the bids come and it bids all the way to $2750. It's all about not wanting to be the "fool" that started out bidding too high.

I can follow that reasoning, but I do not subscribe to the fact of using ebay as a tool to see what your item is worth. Besides, if you re-list for a realistic number, why would you think it would go higher the second round? If the people bidding didn't run it up to where you wanted the first time, why would they do it the second time?