Here’s something that makes me feel old: eBay informs me that I am a Member since: Feb-15-99 in United States. The girl who occasionally looks after my son in the evenings wasn’t yet born when I bid on my first online auction. I can’t remember what it was, but I’m reasonably certain it was a part for a BMX bike.
Three hundred and fifty-eight transactions later, including three serious disputes, a $42,000 car purchase that went perfectly, a $5,000 car purchase that went to Dispute Hell, a $51,000 car sale that originated on the site but completed elsewhere, and a considerable number of interactions with hugely unpleasant people later, I’m still here. I’ve seen the site go from fundamentally being the Wild West to being a seller’s paradise to being a buyer’s paradise to the current state of affairs, which completely and totally sucks.
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