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Comment by chris_wot | Hacker News Reader

Why does anyone use eBay? They clearly can’t be trusted and the chance of being scammed is high. Now we find they suspend accounts with no explanation… just doesn’t seem worth it.

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It has often been the best place to buy/sell computer parts. Mostly because facebook marketplace killed Craigslist for me locally and I refuse to get on facebook.

I need to join you in this. Unfortunately I like to buy certain things used--vehicles, appliances, outdoor equipment--that is larger and heavier than I care to ship.

So I have a Facebook account, unfollowed everyone, and just use marketplace sometimes.

I wish Craigslist was better here. It gets maybe .1% of the volume marketplace gets, just not even close. I used it extensively in previous areas.

There's no other option if you need access to a global market for niche goods.

For common stuff, your local Craigslist equivalent is usually a better option, but let's say you have some niche/specialized industrial electronics, video game collectibles or retro consoles, etc.

> For common stuff, your local Craigslist equivalent is usually a better option

Which, funnily enough, is eBay Kleinanzeigen (literally: eBay classifieds) here in Germany.

Fun fact: eBay Kleinanzeigen doesn't belong to eBay anymore. eBay Kleinanzeigen was bought some years ago by Adevinta (a Norwegian Company - eBay owns ~33% of Adevinta's stock). According to t-online.de [1] Adevinta only has the eBay name rights till 2024. After that date they either have to negotiate again, or use a different name than eBay Kleinanzeigen.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20220425083124/https://www.t-onl...

Huh, TIL. That's interesting.

As a buyer, Ebay is still the place to find specialty used items. I've also bought some uncommon tools that were brand new (at full retail price) because I would rather not buy from Amazon. But the real reason you would use Ebay is for the used items. I've only been disappointed a couple times and I've bought probably 30 used items in the last 2 years from Ebay. Never had a problem with new items.

same, I feel like if you're not gullible the experience is really smooth. I've bought everything from live coral to jackhammers on ebay no problem.

I buy all my used computers, phones, books, hard-to-find Lego from there for the past 10+ years. Only had a problem once, but was resolved quickly. I only buy from reputable sellers.

Everyone uses it because everyone else uses it.

The buyers use it because it has all the sellers; the sellers because it has all the buyers.

Because that's where the buyers are. Skipping eBay means 99% of potential customers will never see your listing.

Arguably because there's no parallel system where all complaints a company receives must go to a government-public system to get more eyeballs on it, to actually determine case counts, and if a company adequately and thoroughly responds in all cases.

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