10 Ways in wich eBay screws you, and how to screw then back

I just came back from my third trip to China. I was there sourcing products to be sold under one of my eBay accounts. The trip was a success; lots of products, cheap prices, and new commitments from eager factory managers.

Just as I was landing I was listening to some of the podcasts that I had downloaded right before boarding the plane and I got wind of all the scandal with the recalls from Mattel. The funny thing is that I know it is not going to end there. I know this because I have seen it.

I have seen the dirty factories, the polluted and dead rivers, the complete lack of any kind of environmental or health regulations, the absence of accountability that exists in a top-down government structure that does not allow for those down in the bottom to report those on top.

I have seen the air in Beijing, which... you are not supposed to see. Air should be colorless, but not in Beijing, in Beijing the air is brown.

I have seen the greed that has driven an allegedly communist country (which should stand for the abolition of private property and the government regulation of every industrial activity while providing all basic services to its citizens such as education and health care) become, without a doubt, the most capitalistic country in the planet: everybody does whatever the fuck they want to, where they want to do it and without any regulation, oversight, or governance.

There is no health care, no state-provided education, no regard for those without financial resources (70% of the country's population lives in rural areas, a significant number of them without water or electricity) and no discernible goal in sight other than growth for the sake of growth.

I had issues during this trip. It was hard for me to justify the moral dilemma of perpetuating a system that is corrupt in nature and unfair in its structure. I rationalized it the best I could: someone else would do it if it was not me; if I don't do it the competition will put me out of business; I have no choice if I don't want to live under a bridge. I was troubled, and then it hit me:

eBay is China.

I am a powerseller; a titanium one for that matter. I make a very good living out of eBay. I am hesitant to provide any specific details because the information I am about to post will piss the hell out of quite a few suits at eBay, but suffice to say my revenues are in the seven figures. I travel around the world in first class and have a lifestyle that most people will never be able to achieve. I have done well.

However, I have done well through an evil organization. Just like China, eBay is a juggernaut not to be fucked with. They can be your best friend, but look at them the wrong way and they will throw you under the bus without hesitation. Just like China, eBay has no goal other than growth for the sake of growth. There is no care or concern whether the fees or the sales come from counterfeit goods, stolen items, or downright fraudulent activity: a sale is a sale is a sale, and it generates fees, and fees are good, and we must continue to generate them faster and thicker today than we did yesterday. Corporate citizenship? What is that? Does it have something to do with watches?

It is, without a doubt, an evil organization, and yet, I have done so well...

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but disdain for all the whiners that I see in some forums. "eBay canceled my account for no reason", "they were rude to me", "they don't care about their sellers". Duh! Just like a good poker player says: if you cannot spot the sucker in the tablet five minutes after you sit down the sucker is you. Either get on with the program and play by the rules or go play someone else.

and yet... they are all right.

So, I decided that I would level the playing field a bit.

I have been selling in eBay since 1997. As a student I made $3,000/month selling.... mmmhh.. I was about to give a clue here. Let's just say that I bought something that cost me 70 cents and I sold it for $5. Customers were happy and I got nothing but good feedback. This was back in the pre-PayPal days (another evil twin, more on them later). Imagine walking into the bank as a junior in College and trying to deposit 87 $5 money orders. Good times, good times...

Since then, I have been doing so well, that I am afraid to share with people what I do for a living because I fear they will get ideas and start competing with me. I also fear resentment. Most people would not consider selling in eBay a "real job", even though this year I paid more taxes than their entire gross yearly income. During this time, I have learned every trick on the book, I have learned all the tricks that people tried to play on me (daily instances of fraud) to the ones that I get to play with eBay.

And this, is what I am going to tell you. I am going to share with you each way that I know in which eBay and PayPal screw you, and how to screw them back. I am going to share how you can get your fees back from eBay even after the sale successfully closed. I am going to tell you how you can get PayPal to pay you $1,000 for sending a Nigerian scammer a box full of rocks. I am going to show you how you can divert traffic from your eBay pages to your completely free ecommerce site thereby skipping their ridiculously overpriced fees. I am going to show you how to subvert the system while still making money and without anybody noticing it.

How is this a good thing? Why am I doing it? I don't know. Perhaps it is the revolutionary trace left in me after all this years. A need to stick it to the man, a way to show an exceedingly large and powerful organization that the most unexpected problems can be generated by the most insignificant people. If nothing else, it will give me something to do while I wait for my PayPal payments to clear.