Xaxaxe wrote:No, you can ... assuming I'm reading everything correctly, of course. Which isn't a guarantee.

Auctions can still start at 1 cent ... it's fixed-price listings that have to start at $1. Which should help to limit the "we-buy-our-feedback-in-fake-listings" crowd at least a little bit. It means the "seller" in their little scam is going to have to be willing to eat some higher fees. I suppose that crowd will still try to list three-day "auctions" for 1 cent, but then they have to wait to get their fake feedback ... and, in some cases, these idiots are looking for a quicker fix than that.

It won't stop the madness...but it might but a very, very big dent in it. Just like when Ebay started charging to list items in Ebay stores to clear the slate of hordes of "Vapor Product" listers, this will cause a lot of the scammers to shrug their shoulders and move to greener (and easier) pastures.  If they have to wait three days for their fake feedback...that's 2 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes too long for most of them, and a buck is just a teeny bit more than they wanted to pay.  I think this sort of listing will drop off dramatically.  If nothing else, I can see Ebay policing it more carefully, and having more time to close down the auctions (since they will have to be three days if they want to continue with the 1 cent auctions).

Mike B.

Traveller wrote:Coming in on a tangent, did anybody notice that apparently Cougie's learned how to use a spell checker compared to his normal rants?  He puts his best paw forward and is still full of shit though.

I think a lot of that is just schtick.   He thinks it pisses us off, so he plays it up.  That, or he really is dyslexic and has someone else write the really "important" missives.

Mike B.

Awhile back I asked eBay if our friends refund policy was legal, but with out telling them who it was from. My question was bounce around to different departments  and it finally ended up in eBay's Trust and Safety Department.

Here is their reply:

Dear Patrick,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to your concern about a seller who
offers a refund that does not include the eBay and Pay Pal fees that the
he/she was charged for.

Patrick, we consider this type of activity to be a form of fee
avoidance. Fee avoidance harms the trust and legitimacy associated with
eBay's marketplace.  

We'll gladly investigate your report, but before we can take any action,
we need to have a complete copy of the email which indicates that the
member is avoiding fees. Please reply to this message, pasting the
complete text of the email, along with its complete header (see below)
into your response.

I sent a reply stating that an email wasn't involved and that it was just the policy that one of their Power Sellers has in all of his listing.

I did name our friend to them.

I'll let you all know what happens if I hear anything back from them.

WOW!! Daves new auctions have the postage on them!!

Cheers,
Malc

I've held off saying this for a while, but, with eBay's recent tidal wave of new-policy announcements, it seems like change is in the air.

Anyway, I've been waiting for a couple of years now for eBay to just flat-out declare that some form of postage/handling total must be included with every listing. In other words, no more of the "see item description" nonsense that appears when honest (or newbie) sellers forget to include a total ... or, as we all know, when unspeakable scumbags such as Cougar see it as a big loophole.

It's one of the last great loopholes, and I'm frankly surprised it hasn't been closed yet. Really, a few HTML changes and a system-wide announcement and eBay would be ready to say something to the effect of: "your listing will result in an error if you don't include a shipping/handling total."

I think that day is coming ... perhaps as soon as 2008 or 2009. For now, it's interesting to see that even rip-off artists such as Cougie are seeing some handwriting on the wall.  

sauromatian wrote:
If that happens, we will see an increased reluctance to combine shipping.

why will that happen? i quote my shipping on every item, but always combine it too, to a lower value as its "combined"

Al

thats fair enough. most good sellers quote that they will combine though and in any event, if they dont, a quick message should establish whether they will/won't.

i have been caught in that one buying before. i had a buyer get things for me, and i just combined the 4 or so items. a few weeks later i got a few traveller books off him. he just added the postage up and charged me. i asked why didnt he combine? his answer? because you didnt ask beforehand!

no he didnt combine and i mentioned to him that i would never buy from him again and neither should he ever bid on anything of mine.

sucks or what.

Al

If a seller refuses to combine shipping then I generally pay for each item seperately - them paypal fees can add up! ("Be nice to me and I'll be nice to you")

It seems that this new system has made the seller of rogered modules change his ways a bit, now he's a bit more open about the prices he wants for his items.
Tonight I've gone onto ebay to see if there is anything worth bidding on and more often than not I sail right past anything with a "VGC" on there to find the more reputable or better quality.
But I just spotted the fact that Dave is now putting a minimum price of £5.00 on the stuff with a postage that varies between £2.50 to £5.00.
Given the state of some of his shite, 50 pence would be more the mark and postage for modules to anywhere in the UK doesn't come to more than £1.25 (ok, I can forgive the odd £1.75 postage from other sellers) so he's trying to get you coming and going with his prices. Like he always had, but now you can see the profit he's aiming for, especially when he gets some of them "free" via M-Bag...
Watch me and scores of others sail right past his pages of "VGC" crap in future.