Ebay and other online auction powerselling tips and information

Ebay is going insane. Not a fair deal.

eBay are clueless. The actual scammers, fraudsters, and criminals, and postage pirates are allowed free reign over the site, while honest, dedicated sellers are treated like rubbish.

Where's that level playing field they like to claim they provide?

Everyone who sells on eBay on anything like a serious basis really needs to investigate other options. Other venues, their own website, etc. (spending the money you normally pay to eBay for advertising will get you a great deal of exposure for you own website, just as one suggestion).

Being at the mercy of the clueless and the incompetent and the greedy, which, as far as I can tell, is exactly what eBay's management is.

I'm not one who leans toward government involvement in anything, but there needs to be a serious investigation into the business practices of Ebay and their management.
Their dictatorial decrees at the expense of the innocent are so serious in nature that oversight legislation must be enacted to protect the public from the abuse which Ebay spawns due to their incompetent yet highly touted customer support which amounts to less than nothing.
Without the active and visible protection of an independent organization to oversee the activities of Ebay, the public is at constant risk of fraud at all levels.
Example:
A seller who sells high dollar items at volume suddenly has his account terminated by Ebay. The seller isn't given a reason, only that somehow he has "possibly" violated Ebay rules. Now the buyers who have sent their payments to the seller, just as suddenly discover that the seller is no longer a "registered member". Uh Oh!! Their payments have arrived in the hands of a person who may or may not decide to abide by the rules of an organization he's just been kicked out of. The buyers are now starting to sweat. Panic sets in as the email's sent to the seller go unanswered.
Because the robots at Ebay decided to terminate the sellers account without even verifying whether any infractions were indeed committed with the seller directly, scores of honest people are now on the verge of coronary heart failure. As it turns out a buyer's spam blocker was misconfigured and he wasn't getting responses from the seller. The buyer cries to Ebay and without a whisper, Ebay closes the sellers account leading to the definite possibility nay, facilitating the possibility of fraud against honest people.
Example 2:
A buyer pays for an item with a money order. Weeks later as he waits patiently for his item nothing shows. So the buyer contacts the seller who claims never to have gotten payment. After weeks go by, if I as a seller hadn't been paid, I would have contacted the buyer and asked where payment was, but not this seller.
Now after weeks go by the seller suddenly decides to move against you and complains to Ebay that he was never paid. Ebay sends you a "strike" for non payment. A week later your account is terminated. That's it... No reason or response from Ebay except for a standard email stating that you've been canceled because of an Ebay policy violation. Your account is over.
Communicating with Ebay is somewhat perplexing. If you have a standard no issue topic or question, you can expect a generally pleasant response in a timely manner. But if you have a dreaded policy infraction or if someone has decided to maliciously attack you and use Ebay support as their weapon, you are in for a terrible waste of time attempting any resolution through Ebay's alleged shining example of customer support.
You will be fed email after email of standard response forms with virtually no beneficial information, advice or direction. If you are unlucky enough to have cash or property involved at the time of Ebay's decree then you are out of luck.
Let's not even get into the feedback extortion that Ebay hails as their own which supposedly protects their members from fraudulent individuals. How many people take it in the ass simply to avoid having a negative feedback put on them as retribution?
Or how about the Paypal scam? As we have all seen with Ebay support and their dictatorial judgements, Ebay cannot be trusted with making right or wrong decisions. They are completely inept, yet millions give Ebay access to their personal Paypal funds through credit card and direct bank accounts as a rite of passage to do business on Ebay even though the stories are rampant on the Internet as to how Ebay has lorded the same inept judgements against Paypal buyers and sellers and have garnished, nay, confiscated funds from personal accounts with the same disregard for truth or authority, and people continue to participate!
This is an outrage, yet this type activity goes on all day every day at Ebay and no protection for the consumer.

This is a dangerous organization to have involved in ANY transaction much less having direct access to your personal finance!
Know then that there is an inherent danger in every Ebay transaction you make and that if you participate you are at the mercy of an entity without logic or morality and expect nothing from Ebay except the absurd and irrational.

My best advice is to avoid Ebay like the plague.....