Using eBay is not pleasurable. For a start, BUYERS themselves screw the potential to purchase things at a reasonable price because of their sheer lack of patience. It's not just the "rare" hard to find items which go for extortionate prices, it's also the common stuff that gets over inflated because dumb ego-maniacs bid items beyond what they're actually worth. I've seen entire pages of the SAME item, all ending within hours of each other, being pushed beyond their true value and it's like the dumb bidders cannot see that there are the EXACT same item available to bid on in other auctions. They all scramble for the one that's ending soonest, thus unnecessarily inflating each item's price. It's pathetic.
Thankfully, most of these idiots are the types who'd never pickup a book, so I tend to find lots of great reading material on eBay and rarely get out-bid on those. Also, stuff like puzzles, classic movies are easy to pickup at good prices. Basically, anything that requires a brain is dirt-cheap on eBay.
eBay and PayPal have a monopoly ONLY because of the fact that we sheep refuse to use the alternatives, so they can do what the hell they like and charge what they like. Other services ARE available, such as Amazon and payment transfer services like MoneyBookers, etc, but the majority of people are either unaware of these alternatives or are simply too lazy/scared to want to migrate from eBay.
Although I do dislike eBay intensely, I find people who continue to use the service while at the same time moaning about it pretty ridiculous. If you truly don't like eBay then the solution is simple: do not use it! Maybe if we all began to use the alternatives, others would also follow and then eBay would be FORCED to play fair in all aspects of the service they provide (charges, customer support, payment methods, etc) :-o
I guess it's a matter of "put-up or shut-up" :-)
