Shrevvy 

I am with wrk101. We've run several eBay IDs for several businesses since the mid-1990s. eBay has its problems, but it still reaches a broad market at a reasonable cost. Their international reach is very attractive. People complain about eBay's Global Shipping program. I think it is great for a seller. We're shipping a bike to Europe through eBay today. No way I ship that bike on my own. Our responsibility is to get it to eBay in Kentucky. After that, it is out of our hands. That's easy. Shipped a group set to Canada through Global shipping. Buyer claimed he never received it. My responsibility ended with getting it to Kentucky. eBay dealt with it and we didn't have to fight for our money. eBay started offering their Standard International delivery for items up to 6 pounds. No import taxes and great shipping prices. Buyers love that program and we ship a fair amount of items through that program. Our responsibilty also is to get it to Kentucky.

eBay can be a good marketing tool to acquire customers. It is not as good as it once was, but is still pretty decent. eBay IDs used to be able to have .com in the ID. We had one for a business not related to bikes. It drove traffic to our website. You have to be a bit more creative now, but it can still work.

It is not all great though. I regularly keep several eBay IDs for various business initiatives. It also helps to have "seasoned" eBay IDs with solid positive feedback that can be used for a new initiative. A little while ago, I dusted off an eBay ID that I had not used for a couple years. Had a business reason to use it. Logged in and tried listing items, but was unable to. Called eBay who then informed me that the eBay ID had been used in "suspicious" activity in the previous 12 months. Keep in mind, this ID did buy or sell an item in about 3 years. I was told the decision was final, no details would be given of the activity and there was no recourse. Pretty crazy to be accused of something, but not told what you were accused of with no opportunity to defend yourself. If that happened to a main eBay ID, that would be very disruptive.

I do agree that eBay is pushing away small sellers. Some of that is eBay's doing. Some of that is regulatory. eBay, Paypal etc will begin sending 1099s to anyone with $600 or more in sales begining in 2023 for the 2022 year. Stupid and crazy, but not eBay's fault (part of a bill passed earlier this year). I started as a casual seller of comic books around 1995ish while in college. If I was college aged today, I doubt that I would start selling on eBay. I would probably be doing something on Instagram or elsewhere that does not have the formailty of eBay.

As a (somehwat) funny aside, we have a Shopify site that is linked to Facebook for selling. Added a Campy Super Record brakeset on Shopify. Facebook flagged it for violating its rules against selling firearms and weapons (maybe it is a weapon in the hands of Hinualt?). I assume the brake levers looked like a gun. I can't think of any other reason. Dumb. Not eBay, I know, but that sort of illustrates the robotic nature of dealing with selling platforms these days.