Lamenting the passing of Ebay Past - (Or a wet Winter's night rant)

[wascally*wabbit]

Anyone else find it infuriating how when an auction ends these days ebay auto-diverts to a different listing altogether and then you have to click on a series of links just to get back on the item page you were looking at in the first place? Plus, why oh why have a link to take you back to the item page and then have to click on yet another link to 'View Original Listing'. It's just so convoluted and annoyingly clunky and dumb, dumb, dumb!!!

Today I was considering bidding on two items from the same seller about a minute apart in auction end times - when the first one ended I just wanted to click on the 'seller's other items' link - but at the auction end it jumped to another listing for an 'ebay pick' item (this time without even the banner up the top saying the previous item I was looking at ended). In short, by the time I managed to jump through a series of hoops just to find my way back to the seller's items the other listing had already ended. I don't know about anyone else, but I've never given one of those barely relevant ebay picks even a momentary glance (I'm quite capable of searching for items I'm interested in thanks ebay).

Those {insert expletive from drop down menu here} ebay web designers, they just have to keep adding inane, annoying, silly, infantile new features - like they're scrambling to justify that they're being paid 6 digit salaries to do something (anything is better than nothing apparently). If I could opt out of present day ebay's format and go back to 'Classic' (the way it was when I first started using the site 11 plus years ago) I'd do so without a blink or a moment to reflect on what I'd be missing out on. I guess ebay employing web designers to reinvent (or maybe more aptly "redecorate") the wheel with the next gimmicky annoying feature keeps them from living rough out of the back of their Jeeps and surviving off doggy bags and partially consumed opened bottles of red wine secreted out of upmarket restaurants by their Silicon Valley former co-workers.

Another thing I can't stand is the 'improved functionality' of pop ups which activate if you hover the cursor for a split second - and I really can't stand 'one click bidding' (when trying to manually drop a bid in the closing seconds - in Chrome it generally bids instantly, but is unreliable - today it gave me a 'confirm bid' step in the form of a pop up which I didn't realise until too late. Meaning I can't be sure if it's going to bid when I click, or take me to a confirm step before placing the bid. Have to admit I usually use an unsupported earlier version of Safari just to avoid the 'one click' feature - just because I know it will take me to a separate 'confirm bid' window.

Another thing I used to sort of like, was the Q & A bit at the bottom of listing pages, but I can't remember the last time I saw a 'questions from other members' section on a listing (guessing this was discontinued??) And I used to like the link on 'Best Offer' enabled listings where you could simply click on this and see how many offers had been made and the offer satus (pending / declined) - but that feature doesn't seem to exist anymore either.

Interested to hear anyone else's nostalgic laments and "remember whens"....  

[davewil1964]

If there are only 4 in the world, they could well be rare. I have a 1st edition copy of Peter Carey's first book of short stories; there are about 4 paperbacks available in the world. The cheapest is over $200. The hardcovers (about 5) are $1500 up.

There are places to check p&a pretty much world-wide

[gumleaf_goodies]

Use a sniping tool.

[go-tazz]

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@countessalmirena wrote:

that elusive first edition of Shakespeare's folios

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Years ago we stayed with a couple we knew who were hoarders and they told me they had a valuable book

somewhere and when I asked they said it was one of Shakespeare's early books and they had been offered

200 thousand dollars for.(so I asked if I could search for it).

While searching and tidying up their shed I came across a number of book but mice had got to a lot of them.

I came across the book in question and it fits the description of one of the early folios (unfortunately the mice

had destroyed the first 50 odd pages completely and the centre of the book was gone).

Even in that condition they wouldn't let me take it and they hid it back in one of their piles.

[countessalmirena]

go-tazz, do the words black latex suits, stealth, skeleton key, helicopter, and time-share Shakpespeare mean anything to you?

[brerrabbit585]

Ah, but they wouldn't be the only ones who think mice and rats deserve special, very expensive feed. 🙂

[countessalmirena]

Let them eat cake. Special rodent cake.

NOT SHAKESPEARE!!!!

[brerrabbit585]

They only get one sort of feed at my place, unless I use traps as well. I only saw two mice this autumn - they didn't get the pretty green stuff so I was able to give the chooks a protein treat. Waste not, want not.

[zanadoo_56]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

If there are only 4 in the world, they could well be rare. I have a 1st edition copy of Peter Carey's first book of short stories; there are about 4 paperbacks available in the world. The cheapest is over $200. The hardcovers (about 5) are $1500 up.

There are places to check p&a pretty much world-wide

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I have some very old Punch (defunct UK magazine) year books that may be rare - In any case I've never seen them available anywhere online so far.

The books I'm talking about (the 4 copies for example) are children's / teenage books published in many different forms and in multiple editions (eg 23rd reprint etc).  If I was looking for first editions they would be rare, but a popular book from the late 1800s or early 1900s and reprinted almost every year by the looks of it until the mid 1930s are not so rare. 

Some of them were printed again decades later and it is possible to get some of them now because they are outside copyright.  Some are free on Gutenberg too, but I am looking to replace the older books I had as they have got very battered and have reached the end of their reading life.  I like the older printed books, and particulary the ones with art nouveau style decorated covers.  Two books belong to a series and I already have the middle book in the set.  Having the two missing books in modern print and covers just wouldn't cut it for me.  I have the space for the older books so that's what I hope to get.....but not for a small fortune. 🙂

[countessalmirena]

My beautiful and very cheeky cat performs security guard duty when it comes to rodents attempting a sortie.

[go-tazz]

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@countessalmirena wrote:

go-tazz, do the words black latex suits, stealth, skeleton key, helicopter, and time-share Shakpespeare mean anything to you?

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They were paranoid about their "stuff" and the book wasn't where they put it (I "checked").

They ended up splitting up when we were living elsewhere and they got someone else to clean the shed who 

used a 6 x 4 trailer that had a cage on it that took 12 loads to the tip as they couldn't sell the house due to their

hoarding (inside the house it was similar and every cupboard was overflowing).

I presume the book was in with that lot as neither had seen it since (we lost contact as we weren't allowed to be 

be friends with both after they split so decided to part ways even though we lived in the same town).

It was quite weird at times if you wanted something in the kitchen like a grater,measuring cup,etc as you could

come across a dozen or more but you were only allowed to use the one they used (we never had any idea how

that worked so didn't stay there for long and moved to were we are currently),