Ebay issue workarounds or alternatives.

[CaseyJ955]

I've been on Ebay for about a decade and I've watched it degrade significantly.

To be quick the issues I've had/having are;

1.  Sponsored listings, hard to block effectively and intrusive as hell. My extensions keep the top of the list clear but the search results are still polluted with sponsored listings regardless of what I do. This with no better workaround will be a deal-breaker for me. I'm not sure how long this has been going on, but my extensions have just become less effective at blocking it, even with an added filter.

2.  Sellers selling Chinese items are allowed to be very elusive about it, no way to filter out sellers from China without them turning up again while scrolling down, and more importantly no way to filter out Chinese/Unbranded items, or quickly block sellers that engage in elusive practices while pedaling Chinese items. I know about using searches to exclude but I want them blocked all the time, regardless of what I'm doing on Ebay.  Just today I found unsolicited offers from sellers just because I had one of their items on my watchlist. Somehow sellers were able to contact me with offers just for that.  Obviously this is not okay and is also a deal-breaker for me.

3.  Banners and ads galore, it's a real cluster_f to look at and navigate. It looks like a Google sponsored dumpster fire of adverts, analytics and flash.  I've used uMatrix to individually block elements, lots and lots of them so it's pretty clean but sometimes acts up. When I pause matrix all the hot garbage comes rolling right back onto my screen causing intractable profanity. I can block out 99% of it, but not feeling like I should have to go to such lengths just to make it as clean as it should already be.  Not a deal-breaker because I can still counter it for the most part.

I've sent Ebay another inquiry about these issues in hopes that I may get a straight answer this time. Not holding my breath. Most likely I'll be saying goodbye to Ebay and Paypal for good, especially in the absence of a proper easy seller block list.  I'm not so sure I'm the first one to tire of Ebay, so wondering if I'm missing any workarounds for the issues.  More importantly, what other online sights do you all like, either for buying or selling.   I regularly use CL and sell stuff on wife's FB.   Recently I've been buying a few Raspberry Pis and learning Linux/creating infinitely helpful devices like KODI and Pi-Hole (pi-hole is an absolute must have item).  Ebay has plenty of used/new offerings but they come with the massive drawbacks listed above.  Good prices can still be had on Ebay but it's become far too much hassle to avoid dodgy sellers and Chinese items.

I've ruled out Alibaba for obvious reasons, and Amazon for many of the same reasons, besides Amazon prices on quality items seem no better than anywhere else on the net. Further, Amazon is like Google, you cant use the services without the heinous privacy violations,  tracking and adserving.  Amazon has joined Google on my network-wide blacklist.  It would be nice to find something like Ebay was back in the day.  I'm going to give Newegg another throw, maybe try some others if anyone has any suggestions. Internet searches are tough here, they return a lot of biased and incomplete info.  

I'm currently still on a neutered win10 machine but likely going to a Linux OS, so if a solution is only workable for Linux I would still like to know about it.

Thanks folks!

It's good to be back, who'd a thunk a couple days would feel like such a long time.

[cowpuc]

I was extremely active on Ebay back when running my shop, using thier services for business and for personal use.. I bought/sold a lot of stuff thru the years there-in.. My problem with Ebay began when they started showing their true selves in extreme censoring/control.. I had a huge, antique air gun collection that I began the process of dissolving.. At that time, I had done well over 250k of business thru Ebay.. After sticking one of my late 1800's air guns on their site, Ebay sent me a note that they were putting me on a 1 year suspention and locking up my Paypal account for the duration..  Their complaint was that I had violated their Firearms Sales policies.. I tried to contact them to discuss the matter but that ended up proving just how insensitive to their customers they truly are,, quite frankly,, they could have cared less about people who were their customers.  I ended up with over 20 grand in funds being locked down for 1 year PLUS the applicable opportunity costs in my business associated with their nonsense. When the smoke cleared I gutted my Paypal account, keeping it open but never keeping more than a few bucks in there. I remain an Ebayer to this day BUT I am strickly in it for what ever works in my favor and have zero respect for Ebay. I work steadfastly to protect myself when doing business thru Ebay and have come to expect nothing of them in my dealings whether it be buying or selling.. All they are to me is a place on the internet to come in contact with other human beings,,, no more - no less.. 

[bpate4home]

Hey @cowpuc, I've used eBay heavily for the first few years but sparsely the last 5 years or so. I did use them to 'attempt' a purchase of a $10K CAN AM Spyder for my wife. Everything seemed legit including the payment method and the transaction was insured by eBay so I pulled the trigger. It was around Easter and while trying to arrange pickup/delivery the seller stopped responding. Figured it was because of the Holiday - nope.  I got in touch with eBay and filled out their forms for insurance, filed reports with local authorities here in Katy TX and in Boston MA where the seller was located. Then I went one step further by getting the FBI involved for interstate fraud. I stayed on top of Boston folks and the FBI and they caught the guy about 6 months later. I told them to tell me when the trial was and I would come and testify. Since we had talked on the phone I would recognize the voice and besides I wanted to look the SOB in the eye. I travel a lot for the company I work for so I would have very little out of pocket expenses. They were surprised by this and told the guy I was coming up to testify and be disposed. The detective said he freaked out because it would be 20 years in a federal pen and not 2 - 5 in a local. He flipped and they ended up busting 10 - 15 other people involved in a large eBay fraud ring. It took about 6 months but eBay sent me a check for the full amount.  Quick side note - there was only 1 tell in the add for the Spyder that gave it away. The year of the Spyder in the ad. That year they did not produce a yellow Spyder, it was the year before that had the yellow one.  

[CaseyJ955]

Man, you guys have had trouble with them too. At least ya got one of them put where thieves belong.

So I sent them a note, after a few tries someone came right out and said to block sponsored listings, use the "easylist" filter on any of the more common adblockers. I've been using easylist (among others) for years and it only just stopped working. After he said it then it suddenly started working again, I see no sponsored listings at all now. Odd, because I made no changes, just verified that I had that filter list as I have for years, those lists are auto-updated. But so far the end result is no sponsored junk showing up anywhere in any searches at the moment.  Win. 

On the sellers suddenly being able to spam buyers out of the blue, I followed all that I could find on the net and nothing worked, so I got ebay cust svc to walk me through it on the phone. A couple obscure settings later that should be sorted out too. It is difficult to find by design I'm quite sure. Untested as of yet but I think the silence means it's working.  Preventing spam should be quite a bit more intuitive than this, but if it works then it still counts as a solution.

I bought something from Ebay this morning and went to pay with Paypal, and it stopped working, just showing a screen full of promotions but no way to pay the seller. I shut off all my extensions and even paused the pi-hole for a moment, still no go. I ended up just paying the seller with my VISA cc, I probably am done with Paypal, it's just not worth the hassle every time I want to use it.  If Ebay stays in check for now on the burning issues I'll leave my account open and use it when I must. I do have to give them credit for having workarounds, flaming hoops, but still the end result should be the solved issue. Next time there is an issue I'll probably just walk away from it, but for now I think the issues are corrected.

I'm still keen on alternatives to be sure!