I’ve made my TL866 Programmer Adapter for 27C400/800/160/322 EPROMs available to enthusiasts via eBay, ever since I developed and perfected it a number of years ago (as documented in my earlier posts).
Since then, several hundred have been sold via eBay.
Later, via Tindie, I offered both a Kitset version (for those enthusiasts who preferred to build their own), and also the fully Assembled and Tested version. Just over 70 have since also been sold via Tindie.
Unfortunately, my more recent experience with eBay has been one of frustration.
Firstly: Late in 2020, eBay decided that Sellers must now use their Payoneer payment management system, if you wished to continue selling! This replaced the prior PayPal solution, which had been working just fine for me.
eBay promoted that Payoneer was an improvement, and that I would benefit from the simplification and the inferred overall reduction in fees.
However, the reality was that, although my eBay presence was on the AU eBay website and in AU$ currency, all sales would now be handled by Payoneer in US$. And, of course, eBay charge me a 3% currency conversion fee!
Therefore, on top of the existing selling fees, I now had a further 6% (plus tax) added onto the fees being charged, as there are now two currency conversions needed. One being the AU$ eBay sale being converted to US$ (as required by Payoneer), and the second being when I pay-out my Payoneer balance back into my own currency (as, unlike PayPal, there’s not much else I can do with a Payoneer balance!).
The result is that I’m now finding that around 25% of the eBay sale is deducted as fees (and taxes on those fees), by eBay.
When I now add up all of my costs, it really does just emphasise that I make these Adapters available, primarily, just for the pure love of helping out fellow enthusiasts (and apparently for the profit of eBay!).
But that’s not all of my frustration towards eBay!
Secondly: My original eBay listing had proudly displayed 230 sales to-date. An eBay listing that I regularly updated with additional stock, as I manually assembled and tested new batches of the Adapters, to make available to fellow enthusiats. However, all of a sudden this week, eBay would no longer allow me to update the available quantity, and the listing is now Sold Out!
On attempting to update the available quantity, or edit the listing, I get blocked by the weird message:
“We’ve noticed that you have been selling more on eBay. We want to ensure you continue to increase your sales successfully. Before listing any additional items on eBay, please contact us to discuss your selling plans and goals.
Please click here to acquire the phone number and PIN to directly contact eBay customer service and speak with a representative.”
Note the “click here” just takes me to the usual eBay Help home page (no phone number or PIN).
A Google search tells me that many others have reported the same issue, going back at least 12 months. And, as others have reported, my contact with eBay support did not provide a solution, only that they would escalate the problem. Most likely an eBay bug!
So, in order to continue to offer my Adapter on eBay, I have now had to create a new listing (which I was suprisingly able to do). However, unfortunately this looses the important history of 230 having been previously sold, and also breaks any published links to the existing listing.
But, that’s not all!
Thirdly: Just to make matters worse, I have today found that my “Out of Stock” listing has now been removed, displaying the message that (apparently): “You ended this listing by indicating this item is no longer available.” Which, I most certainly did not do! All that I had done, was to repeatedly try to update the available quantity, only to be repeatedly blocked by the same error message (that I mentioned above)!
So, I can only now assume that eBay support have taken it upon themselves to remove my original listing along with its visible sales history. A sad day. 🙁
But, having got that frustration off my chest, I will now end this eBay rant!
If you’d like an Adapter, you’ll find the Kitset (and a Fully Assembled & Tested option) on my Tindie store: https://www.tindie.com/stores/DigicoolThings/
The Fully Assembled & Tested Adapter is also available on the new eBay listing (but, as you’ll note from the above, Tindie is preferred!): https://www.ebay.com/itm/284550002479