eBAY! Where have you gone? Or big business has taken away our trading post.

I used to love buying stuff on eBay. Some folks in Florida had some stuff I couldn't find around here just lying about the house and I was able to buy it for a song. It was great.
Need a Beta machine or a computer chip for an older PC? It was available there in someone's attic or drawer or garage and they were willing to sell and send it to you at a reasonable price.
If you had similar stuff and the inclination you could do the same thing. Clear your clutter and recoiup a few bucks toward what you originally paid for it. It was a win-win.

Just forward to today and you have to scroll til your fingers ache to find an individual selling anything on there. You can find Target, Best Buy, Adorama, Kohls and thousands of other businesses (brick and mortar and otherwise) gobbling up all the space on the site. They dominate what is being sold and have kicked the experience to another level. That level is low rent Amazon.com.

I am not hating eBay. I still search there and have bought a few things based on price or availability, but I am usually at a "store" and notice they have twenty more posts of varying ages for the same or similar items. I liked it when I was dealing with an individual who would hound you to give them a good rating if you didn't do it fast enough. 85%, 97% or 99% ratings could mean the difference between confidence in successful transactions or not taking a chance on being screwed.

They really know how to ruin a good thing! Don't they all have their own websites? Don't they hawk their own goods on that site? They most certainly do. So...BACK OFF YOU GREEDY B*STARDS! If I want to buy some old smelly Jordans why should a store horn in on the experience? Suddenly you have NEW Jordans being offered or Nike shows up in that group and you have to scroll until you develop carpal tunnel to find what you ASKED FOR and not what they are trying to sell you.

We sit through TV ads at the movies we pay too damn much to see, We go on Facebook and there are ads in your feed for goods or services the FB monster determined likely to interest you. You watch TV ads...listen to radio...you guessed it. Even with streaming giants like XM or Sirius, you have ads. You can't escape! eBay was an outlet with little in the way of gloss and lots in the techniques for winning bids and getting great stuff at a killer deal. Not anymore.

Shopping sites like Amazon (and there are certainly others) have prices that are close to what you see on eBay. You know why? BECAUSE THEY SELL STUFF ON EBAY TOO! It's depressing.

OK. I have released my pent-up anger at the change in eBay. I know things change and we must be willing to deal with change in our own lives. So, I have some items I will put on eBay. They won't be million sellers and I usually don't sell stuff on there but times have changed and I need to do a little culling of the herd.

Now don't misunderstand. I'm not saying my end is near so I am getting busy divesting myself of worldly possessions. I just need to make a little room. You never know when I might want to get some other stuff...and Buy It Now is an option with free shipping.